Page 4 College Station, Texas Wednesday, January 13, 1971 THE BATTALION Stores department has Texas computer first Chalk up a first for Texas A&M’s computer facilities. The University Supply Store now is operating its purchasing, billing and accounting with an on-line, remote terminal data processing system. Purchasing and Stores Direc tor Wesley E. Donaldson reports the on-line system is the first in Texas and one of a small num ber in the country. He said A&M first placed its interdepartmental billing, per petual inventory and re-order re port functions on the computer in 1963. Inventory was one of the first computer applications for business and institutions. But instant computer informa tion is possible only with on-line, remote terminals. Donaldson said the new system provides three major advantages over the previous batch control system: A priced sales slip at the time of transaction, more ac curate billing and inventory rec ords and more timely procure ment reports. The Texas State Board of Con trol is interested in A&M’s sys tem for possible applications to their operations, Donaldson said. Prior to 1963 all billing was manually produced and there was neither a perpetual inventory nor a re-order system. Donaldson said the inventory investment exceeded annual sales. With the introduction of the off-line, batch processing system inventory turnover jumped to two and one-half times a year. The system worked fairly well, Donaldson said, during a period when the sales volume tripled in seven years. On-line facilities began opera tion Sept. 1. Fiscal Office personnel wrote a detailed set of accounting in structions, IBM aided with a pro gram outline and the Data Proc essing Center wrote the program, Donaldson explained. Computer science graduate stu dents aided in the program devel opment. Donaldson said the stores pro gram can be integrated with a university-wide on-line account ing system in the future. Although several departments have on-line capabilities, stores is the first department using the on-line system for accounting. All others are for permanent rec ords or reference information. Stores uses the IBM 1033 printer, IBM 2740 teleprocessing console and IBM 1031 transmit ter in its operations to the IBM 360/65 computer at the Data Processing Center. All terminal equipment is located next to the store counter. A pre-punched data card for each inventory item is located in the bin where the item is stored. Each department has a pre punched plastic badge with at count and order numbers. Store clerks manually print th quantity on the data card, tt* only writing required. /I In a typical transaction, tl badge and a punched data ci for each supply item is placed the transmitter for each tram action. When transactions completed the sales slit is to automatically and removed from the console by the operator. E«di customer gets a sales copy. ||®l All divisions of the campusi® | the store for supplies. Donald, son said approximately 40 ptt cent of the sales volume coma from physical plant purchases.' m pi n ■i W’m f rtfe? .fi! m m pi ||||P FREE FREE FREE FREE ^ff \00 fpee 6cu> EiONPSTAMf* WITH IflDRNWe, 6X TORftCCC> EXPIRES: Jan 16. 1971 LWIT ONE COUPON fCt f AN! LY ^ FREE FREE FREE FREE& Grapefruit BANANAS 10 10 l/^l MEXICO V'AtEbld'A 0BN6BL? 49 4 CALIFORNIA WHITE POTATOES * 10 WAXEP RUTABAGAS ftOPIPA FAhkV cow 9- H2>. Vx 49 f FLORIDA NEW U. S. NO. 1 YELLOW POTATOES , 10‘ ONIONS 10 SNO'GIUP miOWNE ■*ihe5£ pros Age JANUAfZV (4 ; I?, Ifc, l<97l ! Kraft’s Creamy Russian DRESSING 8-Oz. <■ ... Btl. 39c \ &GAI.. C/V27DNS PRINKS Sew BEANS n n Woody’s Bar-Be-Cue SAUCE 13-Oz. TROPICANA ORANGE VAN CAMP DRINK TUNA SEW) PINNERS CAKE MIX 32-OZ. BTL. 99 1/2 SIZE CAN lop. WElc&fFF Ji| - % WAIWER6 4 &AWL>er HOZ. i 1 FROZEN P^T. , BONNIE BAKEP-1407. I LAYER pox $ 1 25 V PUREX BLEACH 'A&U BOTTLE' (4-4- off) RME5BWS EVERY HJESBW WiW 9.^0 WRWWoeMOPt POMINO SUGAR. LIMIT i. pLEA6e WITH pUPO+A&e:. a/6Rf , DAY tow PR10ES aren’t NEW AT TOMATO JUICE PO&CHOW UQUIP LUX KAK) SYRUP MP6V6 A(o OT-C4\]4 PURINA 5 U3*. BA6- BoTTUe 32-Oz. Light Corn. tissue: 2 FD^r TOASTIES A I fCf^/l6EAgU2 'HoCTZ.&cX AAAZOLAOIt SPINACH 2 ^ r- BcrnvE^ \S ctl. CAN lacTZ. can PICNICS F’ECFEjfe C?UAtMY‘2UC£P C^CARMAVeg e-ucep> BACON «79 HAM HOCKS ^39 (0 is. CHEESE CUT-UP FRYERS #VMIlVPA£l4' /If 1 * 'l-‘ft2&&TpopnoH$ 'Z-\AJlN6r$ ^ 01 Pr2:THN'P££-!Sr CRACKERS^ P&&ONAl l VO&(34-CXT-) (hf\ cD/virj i5- A-L-1 VC SCAP south TEXAS MOST VtODLRN il)PEKAAAPt£T SERv/iCE AWh SATiCFACTiON GUAftANffED located at BWUNSTOL $rATlOM *»UU/AMTlT/ P.IG14T9 R.£^ERx/FP PI 6Q3UNT PRICES ON HEALTH ANDB&NJlV' 6iwfTiEia»frwAPi> LIST 1.56 HO<5 not. pit. 1 • |2|<5e9HAVeC(2EAM list 1.16 rl(\ , Hoz-caN 17^ VOEKA^niZIN L|5T Z64 IQ . lootr Bit. ivt A^ANCTHAIRWV U5T40F . rsozcAM 4 LiKnisL Thursi Inog adela Pla m ■sSSf left ar streak Unive: I Chart. The A,