[AccessD] Staging/Queueing Ideas

Dan Waters dwaters at usinternet.com
Fri Nov 4 09:52:58 CST 2005


Hi Rich,

Well - you're taking my job away from me!  Take a look at the site
www.promationsystems.com when you get a chance.

For each process like this I define logical breaks, and it sounds like
you've already done this.  You are definitely on the right track.  Give a
simple name to each stage and create a field to store that name.  

Have people check a checkbox at the end of each stage so that your code
knows where the process is.  When they check the checkbox, automatically
record their name, the date, and maybe the time; and change the stage name
to what is next.  But before they check this, be sure that the names of the
next person(s) who need to take action are entered.  You may want to run a
current event to lock the fields in any stages that have been completed.

So now you know the stage each record is at, and you can get the name of the
person(s) who have the action to take in that stage.  This gives you the
information you need for a status report, that everyone can pull up to see
who needs to do what.

For an advanced exercise, create code that can go through each record in
this process and identify the name(s) of each person(s) who has an open
item.  Now you can send each of those people a single email which tells them
they need to open the database.  This email should be triggered by the first
person who opens the database each day.

And the next exercise would be to create a form that shows, for each person,
what all their open items are.  And from this form they can push a button to
move straight to the screen and the record where they need to do their work.

This is a lot of work, but it pays off handsomely in increased productivity
- especially yours when you can quit chasing people down so they get their
work down!

Hope this Helps,
Dan Waters

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Lavsa, Rich
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 9:15 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Staging/Queueing Ideas

 Hello all,

I have been throwing around the notion of building some sort of queuing
ability into an application I built.

It is an RGA (Return Goods Application).  This application tracks items
returned to the manufacturing plant, for whatever reason.  Through this
process, the RGA can be initiated by Customer service or Shipping.
Shipping will only initiate an RGA if material shows up on the dock
without any prior notification.  

Anyway, the Flow is as follows.. 
First Customer Service gets a call from customer to return material.
They enter this request into the system, and generate a number.  This
information is then Faxed or emailed to the customer.
Second they send this material to our Warehouse (Shipping).  Shipping
then verifies what was sent back, how much was good, scrapped, and
re-inventoried.
Third Manager of Shipping reviews the returns to validate any wrong
doings by our customers (tries to avoid larger customers getting free
material) and gives their approval.
Fourth, goes back to Customer Service who then requests a credit to
customer.
Fifth, goes to accounting where another quick review takes place, and
the actual credit is applied.

So I have 5 Stages/queues.  Currently there is no way in the application
for Shipping to know what to expect, or for Customer Service to know
what shipping has passed on to Manager of Shipping for approval, etc.. 
I did attempt to put a RoutingStatus field in there, but this gets
filled in the first time because it's required, then after that it is
over looked.. 

So what I am looking for is an idea or 2 that might be effective in
producing some sort of staging or queuing ability within this
application.  I do not believe a single field with "who's next" is
adequate.  I have thought about having a date at each stage to be filled
in at the time they completed their part, but does that seem overkill?
Am I making this part way too complicated?

Thanks in advance for any ideas,

Rich
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