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.'
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