Keying Inventory Tags into MASDocument Audit for Fontaine Trailer

Helping you to find your element since 2014

Qualifications

Kevin Keegan Finance Major at UA Intern at Cardinal Bank 7 Years work experience Security Manager at Gallettes Theta Chi fraternity house manager

McKenzie Messer Accounting Major at UA Held leadership positions in various campus organizations Accounting and general business experience with internship 3 years of experience working as a secretary/scheduling assistant

Cole Parkey Marketing Major at UA Solidified Sounds Ent. Head of Ticket Sales & Promotions Texas Real Estate License Social Committee & Rush Committee of Phi Delta Theta fraternity

Nicholas Starnes Finance and French Major, Minoring in Computer Science at UA Honors College and International Honors program Interned at La Maison de l’Internationale in Grenoble, France 4 years of experience in sales from various automotive companies

Jihuan Ye General Business Major with Specialization in Investment at UA Intern at GF Securities in Shenzhen, China

Table of Contents2

Executive Summary……………………………………....……………...…………3

Revised Document..…...……………………...…………………………………….4

Original Document…...……..………………...……………………………………5

Introduction……….………………………………………………………………..6

Methodology………….……………………………………………………………7

Findings……….…………………………..………………………………...……...8

Recommendations…………………………………..……………………………...9

Post-Test………………………………………………………………...……..10-11

Conclusion………………………………………………..…………………….…12

Appendices:

Transcript of Writer Interviews (on disk) Transcripts of Reader Interviews (on disk) Final Document (on disk) Final Report (on disk)

Executive Summary

3

Introduction

Fontaine Trailer is a Marmon Highway Technologies/Berkshire Hathaway company which specializes in the production of transportation technology and flatbed trailers. After every sale or production period, the procedure to record inventory is highly critical in maintaining and creating profits while offering fast and efficient business to clients. The mission with this project was to improve data entry and inventory procedures by revising an important document that describes the entry of inventory process for their MAS inventory software system. Recommendations have been given to improve the efficiency of the instructions on the document and a revision of the general format, length, wording, and conciseness of said document was executed.

Recommendations

The length should be shortened to maintain reader interest Use Fewer Fonts Presentation and slide format is difficult to read Be brief but comprehensive Only use relevant information

Methodology

Interview with writer: Director of Technology, Gregory M. Powell Pre-Test and Post-Test: Feedback was collected from employees and business students

Findings

Pre-Test: Four main issues were discovered with the original document Categories were then tested in: Word Choice, Length, Helpfulness, and Format

Post-Test

Graph showed an improvement in all categories tested Average positive feedback increased and average negative feedback decreased Average reading time was shown to drastically decrease

Overall, the problems listed above were revised in the new document to create an effective and efficient solution. All data to support this can be seen in this report.

Revised Document

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Keying Inventory Tags into MAS

1) Navigate to:

Modules Inventory Management Physical Count Count Card Entry

2) Enter first tag number and click OK

3) Enter the tag number in the Count Card Number Box and press ENTER

4) Type Part Number from tag into Item Code Box

5) Enter the quantity from tag into Quantity Counted Box

6) Enter location from tag into Count Card Comment Box

7) Press ACCEPT

8) Repeat Process from Step 4 for new tag number entries

Original Document

5

Introduction

6

Fontaine Trailer has grown to be the largest flatbed trailer manufacturer in the world. Fontaine offers the best quality, highest resale value and the most reliable performance in the industry. Their services are offered through nine different companies to meet any of your possible trailer needs. Their headquarters is located in Jasper, Alabama, is a Marmon Highway Technologies/Berkshire Hathaway company.

While analyzing the instructional tutorial on how to place an order, 5th Element Consulting has provided research and recommendations as to how Fontaine can better communicate to potential buyers.Having completed a series of surveys and interviews, participants identified dislikes found in the document which needed to be addressed and clarified.

The main problems identified:

Word Choice Length Helpfulness Format

As a result of these problems, the company has potentially harmed its current sales as well as gaining new perspective buyers by not using their most sufficient resources. With the auditing of this letter, 5th Element Consulting hopes to better improve overall sales throughout the country by providing a more updated and efficient way of purchasing items from Fontaine Trailers.

Methodology

Document Selection

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5th Element Consulting selected a document from Fontaine Trailer that dealt with their inventory system and data entry process. This document serves the purpose to instruct employees on how to enter data into the MAS inventory software system.

This document was chosen in order to better improve:

Communication Efficiency The data entry process of inventory

With these changes, the company can hope to increase efficiency with data entry of inventory, and better utilize the employees’ time with learning or using the procedure.

Writer Interview

Interviewed the author of the document, Gregory M. Powell. He stated that the original purpose was to be just an instructional power point presentation during new employee orientation. Now his concerns are that:

Images on original do not correspond to the updated software The length of the document wastes paper and ink

The author’s original intentions of the document were to insure that:

Audience is the group of employees who aid in all aspects of inventory Purpose is to inform employees of how to record inventory numbers

Reader Interview

The groups selected to be interviewed were:

8 current employees of Fontaine Trailer who would use this document in their actual jobs 8 business students UA who would work in similar positions as the Fontaine employees

Survey was composed of four questions that required feedback of either positive, negative, or indifference. During the surveys, readers were timed in order to gauge the average time to read the documents. First, they were shown the original document and then a revised one. Categories included:

Word Choice ● Helpfulness Length ● Format

FindingsWriter Interview

Based on the interview with the writer, the following findings emerged:

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Intended Audience: any and all employee that dealt with the inventory process (salespeople, accountants, managers, and buyers)

Purpose: is to inform employees of how to record inventory numbers into MAS software Intent: the document was firstly meant to be a presentation during new employee

orientation, however when the need arise to use the information in power point outside of this setting, it had to be printed in a 4 slide per page format.

Pre-Test

Fifteen reader interviews were conducted and percentages were recorded for the responses. Based on these initial interviews with the readers, the following findings emerged:

Word Choice Length Helpfulness Format 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

25

0

50 50

75

87.5

37.5

25

0

12.5 12.5

25

Pre-Test Findings

Num

ber o

f Res

pons

es (%

)

RecommendationsBased on the Pre-Test findings, the following recommendations were proposed about the document:

9

The length should be shortened to maintain reader interest

Use fewer fonts

Document should be changed from a presentation and slide format

Be brief but comprehensive

Only use relevant information

Post-TestThe following results are the findings of a survey which tested the same group of individuals as before in the Pre-Test results, but with the revised document under scrutiny.

10

Word Choice Length Helpfulness Format 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

62.5

87.5

75

87.5

12.5

0 0 0

25

12.5

25

12.5

Post-Test FindingsN

umbe

r of R

espo

nses

(%)

As seen here in a further summary of the graph above, increases in positive feedback and decreases in negative feedback were in every category.

Categories Increases in Positive Feedback (%) Decreases in Negative Feedback (%)

Word Choice 37.5 -62.5

Length 87.5 -87.5

Helpfulness 25 -37.5

Format 37.5 -25

Findings Continued…The graph below calculates the average total change of positive and negative feedback expressed as a percent.

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Average Increase in Positive Feedback (%) Average Decrease in Negative Feedback (%)

Average Increase and Decrease of Feedback

0 %

46.9%

-53.1%

Below, the graph shows the decrease in average reading time of the document post revision. This improvement is proof that the revision saved time and effort and better conveyed its objective.

42 seconds

10 seconds

Comparison of Average Time to Read Document

Original DocumentRevised Document

Conclusion The original document from Fontaine Trailer had the following problems in these areas:

Word Choice Length

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Helpfulness Format

With the original document, Fontaine Trailer would suffered from:

Employees not understanding the document or task A higher margin of error Loss of time and money

In order to solve these issues, 5th Element Consulting considered the feedback that was given by current employees and UA students regarding the original document. These recommendations were then made:

The length should be shortened to maintain reader interest Use fewer fonts Document should be changed from a presentation and slide format Be brief but comprehensive Only use relevant information

5th Element Consulting then was able to draft a new, one page document. This revised document had no images that did not match then new software and the readers stated that the new document was now:

More concise Better formatted Quicker to read More helpful

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