Executive Summary
Business Problem
I work at
the Missionary Training Center (MTC) as a supervisor. In our area we specialize
in language tutoring of senior missionaries and mission presidents. Our
missionaries come to the MTC for at most two weeks. During their stay, we
arrange language lessons were we would have at most two senior missionaries per
class. Their schedules are created on excel by our department secretaries. They
create the schedules one by one (this includes formatting), entering the data
for each individual missionary. They then print four copies of each schedule.
These four copies go to the following people: the missionaries, the tutors, the service
desk, and the general scheduling office at the MTC. The following is the way in
which the schedules are created:
·
The
secretaries get a list of the incoming missionaries which usually ranges
between 20 to 35
·
They
then open an excel sheet that has the format that they want an copy paste it
onto another workbook in excel
·
Then
they enter the following data for each missionary:
o
Name
o
Classroom
number
o
Dates
they will be at the MTC for their first and second weeks respectively
§
Every
missionary couple receives at least one week of tutoring. This first week only
includes classes from Wednesday to Friday of their first week of their stay. If
they will also be staying for a second week, then the missionaries will specify
which days they want to receive tutoring. For second week, tutoring
missionaries can receive tutoring on all days, but on Tuesdays since there is a
devotional on those days.
o
Accounting
for the dates in which the missionaries would like to have lessons (before they
arrive, missionaries will specify how many days they would like to have lessons
while they are at the MTC)
o
the
secretary will print four copies of each schedule, and re-use the newly created
template for the remainder schedules
o
Finally,
since they were just re-using their newly created template they would just
dispose of it after they are done with the last schedule
Issues
The
secretaries have to create each schedule individually each time. Even though
they have a template (which they re-create each week) they don’t save it and
since they write over it; if they make a mistake on a previews schedule, they
will have to re-create the entire schedule.
The
secretaries cannot save each schedule; thus, if a missionary loses it, they
just write the schedule information on a post-it note. In addition, this task
takes them 4 ½ hours to complete.
In summary,
we are not only losing money by wasting so many hours a week, but we are also
being very inefficient with our procedure. This procedure forces the
secretaries to not have saved schedules; thus, if a missionary ever loses their
schedule they would have to re-create it.
Overview of the system
The solution
that satisfied the business need, was to create a user interface using excel
that will allow user input. Through programing logic, the program would
automatically create the desire schedules. The following is a summary of the
way the system works:
Missionary couple attends MTC for
only one week (First week tutoring)
The user will enter or select the
following information: Missionary’s Name, date of first Monday of the incoming
week of the missionary, and classroom number for 1st week. The user
will then click the create schedule button to finalize the procedure.
Missionary
couple attends MTC for two weeks
User
will repeat the all the steps of the first week tutoring, but will not click
the create schedule button until they have included the following steps:
The user will check
mark the days of the second week when the missionary will want classes; at this
point, the program will calculate the dates for each week respectively. Once
the user finishes adding the information, they will click the create schedule
button. The program will open a new excel workbook, and it will create the
desire schedule with the user’s input on the first sheet of the newly opened
workbook.
At this point if the user is finished
they can click on the “Exit” button to end the program. If they need to
continue creating schedules; the user can click on the “Clear” button to clear
all the previously entered values, and allow the user to input new values to
create another schedule.
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