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Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.1. Background
In the era of technology development, there are many aspects that have been
influenced by technology, and the time needed to finish the tasks could be reduced into
lowest point. In business aspects, most big companies these days have already
implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system towards their business process,
so that they could save time in calculating the monthly report within less error that might
be occurred by human-errors.
The ERP system that is available currently is majorly expensive, which could
hardly be afforded by small to medium enterprise (SME). The definition of SME is
varying within each country. The definition of SME in Indonesia, according to Undang-
Undang Tahun 1995, is the business that has a maximum net worth (excluding land and
building) IDR 200 million or maximum sales of IDR 1 billion, are owned by Indonesian
citizens and are independent i.e. not a subsidiary of, or owned by, or affiliated directly or
indirectly with, medium size or big enterprises [1].
On restaurant business, franchised restaurants in Indonesia majorly have already
implemented the ERP system towards their business process; meanwhile, most of the
small and medium restaurants in Indonesia are still using paper-based orders and
generating manual report based on daily sales. The reason why SME does not implement
such system is because of the price of product purchase is hardly affordable.
We could find any kinds of Point-Of-Sales (POS) system software available in the
market. Current available system is designed with nice graphical interface towards the
user, yet the customization of the system cannot be designed directly by the users. The
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customization should be made through discussion between the user and programmer of
the system in order to acquire the best solution towards the users needs, and the process
of system alignment will consume several days or weeks in development.
One of the system provider, Ventrasys, agrees that one of the problems in
designing the restaurant POS software is to provide the customization towards the needs
of users [2]. Different restaurant may have different needs towards ERP functions
available. Majorly, the provider will design the system according to the needs of users
towards the modules that they have already designed earlier.
As the self-customization function has not yet been implemented on any existing
POS software, this thesis will design a GUI on COMPIERE ERP, an open source ERP
system. The reason why Compiere ERP is chosen as the ERP system that will be utilized
as the base design of the system is that it is the most common-used by any instances that
willing to learn ERP system; and it also provides many customization possibilities from
one study about comparison of existing open source ERP system [3].
The goal of the project is to design a graphical interface towards Compiere ERP
system. Existing interface of Compiere ERP system is quite complicated in the
navigation, and the form filling menu is too crowded within one page. And some of the
modules are not suit to restaurant POS system needs. Through each module provided, it
will be generated on a well-designed graphical interface, but only through several basic
modules will be developed.
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1.2. Scope
1.2.1. Constraints
There will be several constraints that will limit the scope of this thesis. First, this
project will conduct small survey towards the interface of existing POS software.
Through this survey, this project would determine on designing a more effective and
flexible interface that could fulfill the needs of the clients.
Another constraint is regarding the module of the POS system. This thesis will
design the interface only on the ordering module and sales report module. The GUI
will allow the user to conduct self customization in adding or removing their menu list
from the interface. Existing ERP system provides a lot of modules to support the
needs of the users; hence, in this project will focus on the ordering and sales report
only. The interface will be designed to suit common style of restaurant business
process.
1.2.2. Aims and Benefit
The aim of this thesis is to come up with a solution design towards customizable
and user friendly interface issue on existing ERP system. Commonly, an ERP system
has quite complicated navigation system. Therefore, this project will create a user
friendly GUI to help the use of the ERP system.
The benefit of this project is to provide cost effective ERP software that is
affordable by small medium enterprise to change their business process from
traditional to automatic system. It would also provide with customizable interface, so
that the user could apply the system towards their needs.
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1.3. Structure
The structure of the thesis will be in seven chapters, as following:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter describes the background of the thesis, and explanation about
the scope and goal to be achieved through the thesis.
Chapter 2: Theoretical Foundations
This chapter explains the theories applied in the development, including the
GUI theories and business process theories.
Chapter 3: Analysis of Known Available System
This chapter overviews on the graphical interface of existing available POS
system. The graphical interface issue will be discussed towards the users through
interview and survey constructed by the author.
Chapter 4: Solution Design
This chapter describes the solution design of the thesis towards the
customizable GUI framework implemented upon this thesis.
Chapter 5: System Implementation
This chapter specifies a testing method on the implementation towards
specific users to test on its functionality towards the goal of this thesis.
Chapter 6: Evaluation
This chapter analyzes the result of the implementation and will be evaluated
against the aim of the thesis that is stated in the first chapter.
Chapter 7: Conclusion
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This chapter summarizes the whole process and draws a conclusion towards
the overall result of the thesis. Suggestions for further research on the area will also
be stated in this chapter.