Posted: November 29th, 2022

The Feasibility Study For Implementing

Assignment Specification
Course/Programme BSc (Hons) Computing
Module Code SWE5206
Module Name Systems Analysis and Design
Assessment Number 1
Assessment Type and weighting Case Study (20%)
Assessment Name Information Systems Analysis Design Project
Issue Date 09/02/2022
Assessment Submission Date 04/03/2022, 23:59
Learning Outcomes Assessed
LO2: Investigate, document and understand an information system
Scenario
Case Study: Auto Repair Garages
Auto Repair Garages is a family run business of four brothers – Alan, Mario, Paul and Ian. The business
repairs cars, carries out services, offer MOT certificates and specific parts can be purchased from some
of the garages by customers, not necessarily customers who have booked their car in for a job. There
are four garages:
• Auto Repair Leeds
• Auto Repair London
• Auto Repair Bolton
• Auto Repair Edinburgh
Customer loyalty is important to Auto Repairs and the company work very hard to retain their existing
customers by offering competitive stock prices, labour costs as well as providing a good customer
satisfaction level, and are hopeful by word of mouth, this will help to attract new customers. It is a
competitive business as some of the garage locations do have rival garages which are located relatively
close by.
Each garage has a PC and printer and is responsible for their own bookings. Customers can ring or call
by in person to make a booking. Each garage has their own preferred way of recording the bookings
and keeping records relating to the bookings, such as customer details, description of what the car is
booked in for and printing out invoices. There is no automated system for recording bookings as these
are done manually and recorded in a works diary/book kept by each garage
A shared stock system is being used by all garages, however, after completing jobs and a physical
audit, it is clear the stock numbers being held by the system do not match to the actual stock on site
for all garages. The recent stock take (6 months ago) revealed stock levels were 30% lower than what
was stored within the stock system, all garages have felt the impact of this at some point, where a car
has been booked in for a repair and the part is out of stock on the shelf but showing in the system.
The current system is slow and occasionally crashes when more than one person accesses the system
at the same time. A job card is completed manually by the Technician for each booking, this is then
passed to the Admin Helpant once the job is complete. The job card will show details of the work
carried and will show the parts that have been used. The Admin Helpant is responsible for updating
the stock records for parts which have been used and prints out an invoice for the customer, the job
card is then filed in a cabinet.
Each garage employs: four-six Technicians, one Admin Helpant and occasionally an Apprentice. Each
garage is managed by one brother. Although the Technicians report they are happy within the
business and are treated like family, staff turnover can be an issue, as the Technicians can get a better
rate of salary moving to a larger business and/or well-known established groups i.e. BMW, VW and
KIA.
Bateman Financial services keep ledgers and prepare accounts using a standard but outdated
accountancy package. They are also in charge of calculating the wages. All employees are paid weekly
using a handwritten cheque. Each garage Admin Helpant must confirm the hours worked by each
employee by email each week, this is sent to Batemans. Sometimes there is an issue, where some
Technicians may have worked overtime, and this is sometimes not included in the email sent that
week by the Administrator and is then paid in the next week’s wage slip. The Admin Helpant at each
garage total’s the business takings each day per week using the job cards, this is sent by email to
Batemans, weekly.
Auto Repair Bolton was the first garage established by Harold (father of the brothers) founder of the
business and is also the Group Director, Harold retired from the day to day running of the garage and
this branch has been managed by the eldest brother Alan for over 10 years. The Bolton branch has a
well-established list of customers and has six ramps meaning that six cars can be booked in at one
given time. It is reported that customer satisfaction has decreased over the last couple of years and
staff retention has been quite high. Alan has reported that he has the capacity to employ six
Technicians, however, due to a new VW group opening only down the road, two of the technicians
have already left to work at the new company and is blaming the drop in customer satisfaction due to
low staff levels and not being able to meet targets in relation to the booking of cars. It was also
reported that there has been double bookings or incidents where customers had phoned to book their
car in for a job, but this was not recorded in the diary, some customers were angry at the fact they
turned up to be turned away.
Auto Repair Leeds is one of the newest established garages and is managed by brother Mario. This
branch has benefited from the local competitor going out of business over the last year and has had a
40% increase in customer bookings. This garage has four ramps and four Technicians; however, due
to the increased number of new customers, four ramps is proving not enough therefore the
Technicians are working overtime most weeks and the garage is having to operate for longer hours
than previously before. The customer satisfaction has been reported to a good level, however, some
of the staff are feeling very tired and Mario reported at the last board meeting, he has concerns as to
whether staff can carry on working these long hours. This garage is the second largest out of all
garages and has quite a bit of land.
Auto Repair London is managed by the youngest brother Ian. The garage has four ramps but find that
mostly two ramps are mainly being used at one given time. There are three Technicians and one
apprentice employed. Business is just ticking over, Ian has found that bookings have declined over
the last couple of years, and this is blamed on the fact that London is an expensive area to drive in and
out of due congestion charges and therefore thinks customers are most likely ditching their cars and
using public transport. The rates and overheads are a lot higher for this garage in comparison to the
other three, over the last three years, the rates have increased dramatically, mainly due to its location
as it is situated on the border of the city centre. Ibrahim who acts on behalf of the group’s solicitor
has suggested selling this property and re-locating, however, there would be a loss on how much the
property is worth now compared to how much it was purchased for as the area has become run down
and lots of other business have either moved or gone into liquidation.
Auto Repair Edinburgh is managed by Paul located quite a few miles away from the city centre. This
garage is unique as it sells parts to customers as well as doing repairs, services and MOTs. At the last
board meeting it was reported that over the last 6 months, this garage has made a good profit, but
this relates more to parts being sold rather than bookings. There has also been reports that stock
replenish is sometimes an issue when bookings are high as the Technicians often find that parts are
not on the shelf, although the computerised stock system states they are. This can then have a knockon effect on a job taking longer as they are waiting for parts to be delivered, this also frustrates the
customers. This garage is the smallest and only has three ramps, but all ramps are mainly used at any
one given time and bookings are steady. This garage is in a remote leafy suburb, there are no other
garages for at least 20 miles and customers heavily rely on a car due to lack of public transport.
Although all garages will book a customer’s car in for an MOT, none of the garages or staff are certified
in this area. Auto Repairs must rely on prepping the car and then taking this to their local MOT
provider. This can be costly and time consuming as the MOT centre in some areas such as Edinburgh
and Leeds are a good 20-30 minutes’ drive away and the price of the MOT does differ per centre, this
is a cost the company cannot pass on to the customer as they must be consistent with the price of an
MOT at all garages. The other issue is that one of the mechanics must take the car to the MOT
provider, meaning they are away from the garage, sometimes for a period of 60-80 minutes.
Auto Repairs board of Directors is chaired by:
Group Director:
Harold Higginbottom
The directors are:
Alan Higginbottom for Bolton Auto Repairs
Mario Higginbottom for Leeds Auto Repairs
Ian Higginbottom for London Auto Repairs
Paul Higginbottom for Edinburgh Auto Repairs
Two Professional advisors:
Lucas Bateman (Accountant)
Ibrahim Patel (representing the group’s solicitor)
The board meet up fortnightly via Zoom to discuss:
Bookings
Customer satisfaction
Competitors
Profit and Loss for all garages
Stock and Suppliers
The board meetings can sometimes get a little heated, the professional advisors are sometime
outnumbered by family members. Ian can be outspoken at the meetings and feels that he has the
short straw as he is the youngest brother and was the last brother to inherit his garage. Alan who has
been a company director and Manager longer than any of his brothers is set in his ways and does not
adapt well to changes or new suggestions.
It is sometimes difficult to get a true picture of the discussion points as none of the brothers are
computer literature, they may jot a few figures down a sheet of paper to present at the meeting.
Task
You have been tasked with undertaking a Systems Analysis with the aim of providing the board with
more accurate management information which allow them to accurately assess the profitability of the
group.
Be aware that there may be other information which may inform your decision that you may need to
obtain. You will have the opportunity to put forward further questions to the board members for
further clarification.
Deliverables
Task 1: LO2 (20% weighting)
You are to analyse the Case Study and produce a feasibility study for the proposed system which
should include a justified conclusion.
This should be presented as a word document and submitted to the relevant submission link in the
Moodle page.
Sources/Referencing
At HE5, it is expected that the Reference List will contain between ten and fifteen sources. As a MINIMUM
the Reference List should include two refereed academic journals and four academic books.
Avoid cutting and pasting phrases/paragraphs, you are to paraphrase throughout your work, and this
should be fully cited and referenced using Harvard.
Guidelines for the Preparation and Submission of Written Assessments
1. Written assessments should be word-processed in Arial or Calibri Light font size 12. There
should be double-spacing and each page should be numbered.
2. There should be a title page identifying the programme name, module title, assessment title,
your student number, your marking tutor and the date of submission.
3. You should include a word-count at the end of the assessment (excluding references, figures,
tables and appendices).
Where a word limit is specified, the following penalty systems applies:
• Up to 10% over the specified word length = no penalty
• 10 – 20% over the specified indicative word length = 5 marks subtracted (but if the
assessment would normally gain a pass mark, then the final mark to be no lower than the
pass mark for the assessment).
• More than 20% over the indicative word length = if the assessment would normally gain
a pass mark or more, then the final mark will capped at the pass mark for the assessment.
4. All written work should be referenced using the standard University of Bolton referencing
style– see: https://libguides.bolton.ac.uk/resources/referencing/
5. Unless otherwise notified by your Module Tutor, electronic copies of assignments should be
saved as word documents and uploaded into Turnitin via the Moodle class area. If you
experience problems in uploading your work, then you must send an electronic copy of your
assessment to your Module Tutor via email BEFORE the due date/time.
6. Please note that when you submit your work to Moodle, it will automatically be checked for
matches against other electronic information. The individual percentage text matches may be
used as evidence in an academic misconduct investigation (see Section 13).
7. Late work will be subject to the penalties:
• Up to 7 calendar days late = 10 marks subtracted but if the assignment would normally
gain a pass mark, then the final mark to be no lower than the pass mark for the
assignment.
• More than 7 calendar days late = This will be counted as non-submission and no marks
will be recorded.
Late submission of assessments on refer and those which are graded Pass/Fail only, is not
permitted. Students may request an extension to the original published deadline date as
described below.
8. In the case of exceptional and unforeseen circumstances, an extension of up to 14 days after
the assessment deadline may be granted. This must be agreed by your Programme Leader,
following a discussion the Module Tutor. You should complete an Extension Request Form
available from your Tutor and attach documentary evidence of your circumstances, prior to
the published submission deadline.
Extensions over 14 calendar days should be requested using the Mitigating Circumstances
procedure, with the exception of extensions for individual projects and artefacts which, at the
discretion of the Programme Leader, may be longer than 14 days.
Requests for extensions which take a submission date past the end of the module (normally week
15) must be made using the Mitigating Circumstances procedures.
Some students with registered disabilities will be eligible for revised submission deadlines. Revised
submission deadlines do not require the completion extension request paperwork.
Please note that the failure of data storage systems is not considered to be a valid reason for an
extension. It is therefore important that you keep multiple copies of your work on different
storage devices before submitting it.
Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct may be defined as any attempt by a student to gain an unfair advantage in any
assessment. This includes plagiarism, collusion, commissioning (contract cheating) amongst other
offences. In order to avoid these types of academic misconduct, you should ensure that all your work
is your own and that sources are attributed using the correct referencing techniques. You can also
check originality through Turnitin.
Please note that penalties apply if academic misconduct is proven. See the following link for further
details: https://www.bolton.ac.uk/student-policy-zone/student-policy-zone-2021-2022
Mark Scheme
0-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+
Feasibility Study Inadequate/not
present/no arguments
present
Some Evidence of
analysis
Analysis against
relevant domains
Analysis clearly
references all domains
Analysis clearly
references all domains
and decision is based
on analysis
Referencing Incorrect or not
present when
required
Referencing
correct where
required, some
unsupported
assertions
Referencing correct
where required most
assertions supported
Referencing correct
where required all
assertions supported
All required
referencing
is correct.
Presentation Spelling
errors/grammar
errors/ lack of
page numbers/ not
in appropriate
format
Basic level of
presentation/
some errors
Acceptable
presentation/includes
page numbers/
headings
Good Standard of
presentation/
appendices/table of
figs
Professional Standard
of
presentation
—
Sample Answer:
The Feasibility Study For Implementing An Information System At Auto Repair Garages

Introduction
In the automotive industry, there are immense pressures on organizations to implement information management systems due to the demons of the modern world (Molneryd, 2007, 12). Therefore, as these organizations look to implement the systems, the process will entail a System Development Life Cycle. One important part of this process is conducting a system analysis after collecting and analysing the requirements (Tilley and Rosenblatt, 2016). This system analysis phase would have different kinds of analysis conducted, with one of the major ones being a feasibility analysis.
The feasibility analysis is focused on measuring how beneficial or practical the information system will be in an organization. In this case, the feasibility study will look into the viability of having an integrated information system at Auto Repair Garages with the emphasis on identifying the potential challenges and the attempts to obtain answers to one primary question. Notably, the organization is focused on attaining customer loyalty and retaining their existing customers due to competitive garages found within their proximity. Apart from quality services, it aims at providing competitive stock prices, labour costs and a good customer satisfaction level. They hope that through word of mouth, they can be in a position to attract new customers. The question is whether this project idea will work and whether the organisation should proceed with its implementation.
The Current Systems Operations At Auto Repair Garage
Auto Repair Garages are currently operating through a manual system being operated differently in the four business branches that make this entire entity. Generally, each garage will record its client’s booking manually in a works diary or book kept in the garage. Each garage prefers following their preferred way of recording customer bookings and maintaining respective records such as client details, car descriptions, and printed invoices.
The company has a shared stock system used by all garages. However, there are mismatches between the large stock numbers and the actual stock on-site, with the last stock audit indicating a 30% lower amount stored than what it input in the stock system. These mismatches affect the garage’s operations, especially when a car is booked to be repaired. Still, the needed items youtube of stock is discovered yet not reflected on the system. The stock system is slow and crashes regularly, especially when two users use it simultaneously. Also, not all operations are automated, including the manual completion of a job card by a Technician for every booking before it is passed to the Admin Helpant after completing a job. The latter will update the stock records fr parts users and print the invoice to the customer before the job card is stored in the cabinet.
Another system issue arises from the staff turnover rates, which arise from the better remuneration offered by the company’s competition. The technicians have no problem being satisfied with the job as they receive family-like treatment. Its ledgers and accounts managed by Batman Financial Services are still following a standard but outdated accountancy package. Sometimes, the organization misses out on recording the working hours for the technicians properly such that overtime hours fail to be captured in the email sent by the Admin Helpant.
The garages have no certified staff, nor are they certified, forcing them to take cars to the moval MOT providers, which is very costly and time-consuming. The customer’s cost cannot be added since its prices need to be consistent in all garages. Another issue is that the board meetings rarely have amicable conclusions as the family members normally outnumber the professionals. The Brothers running the garages are computer illiterate, which normally hampers the discussions.
Regarding the challenges faced by each business branch, Auto repair Bolton has seen a decline in customer satisfaction level and a decrease in its staff retention. Its booking processes are not streamlined such that double bookings are on the rise, and some bookings fail to be recorded when the clients call the garage for booking purposes. Auto Repair London is experiencing a decline in bookings, higher rates, and higher overheads than the three units. Auto repair Leeds is dealing with insufficient capital resources, specifically its ramps. The garage has seen an increase in customer numbers. Still, the limited number of ramps is inadequate to serve the clients. Workers are forced to work overtime, and the garage has to operate longer hours which affects the productivity and efficiency levels of the workers and the garage as a whole. Auto Repair Edinburgh is dealing with stock replenishing issues such that technicians will find that they have no parts for cars already booked for repair, which can be frustrating for the clients and technicians.
Feasibility Analysis for an Information system At Auto Repair Garage
Implementing an effective information system at the organization requires a feasibility analysis to determine how viable this solution will be in handling the challenges the organization and its units are currently facing. This analysis considers its operational feasibility, technical feasibility, economic feasibility and schedule feasibility (Oh and Ha, 2006, 305).
Operational Feasibility
According to Hardcastle (2008), for an information system to be operationally feasible, the system needs to be in a position to perform in the required speeds, volume, usability and reliability parameters (29). This would also mean running as part of the work patterns in the organization. Implementing an information system at the Garage will bring instant automation to the normal daily routines to give the company a competitive edge due to the efficiency levels that it can obtain (Molneryd, 2007, 35). The information systems will automate customer bookings, stock keeping, employee attendance and working hours, and accounting services with the contracted financial consultant. An information system will automatically manage the stock inventory such that any stock that comes in and out of the inventory is pointed out. Thus the process keeps tabs on the parts available in their storage units such that it ensures they can purchase anything that is needed. The technicians could check whether particular parts are available and call for their replenishment before clients arrive to repair their cars. Ultimately, the technicians will promptly repair the cars, which is beneficial to customers who do not waste time repairing their cars.
The end-users, the company’s management, specifically the admin Helpant, the technicians, the financial consultant, and even the clients who could book garage services online will most likely like the move to automating the services. Avoiding conflict towards the change to an automated system will be done by carrying out awareness programs (Karimi et al., 2007, 225). Carrying out training sessions for the company’s management and employees will be necessary for each of them to understand why this system is necessary. The awareness is especially necessary for family leaders who are not tech-savvy. They will be equipped with the basic skills and knowledge needed to interact with the information systems and see how they are run (Tiwana et al., 2003, 248). Ultimately, the information system is an operationally feasible option as it will handle the operational challenges currently faced with manual operations.
Technical Feasibility
This measures the practicality of implementing an information system in auto repair garages and the availability of technical resources and expertise (Jeddi et al., 2016). The successful implementation of their information system will depend on how familiar the users are with the technology. Currently, each garage does have a PC and a printer for their bookings. The users do understand the possibility of automating some activities. This makes the project less risky since the development team uses a standard development tool and hardware environments. The development process will need to incorporate the users, specifically the technicians, to be more familiar with the process, which increases their involvement levels.
In this case, the technicians understand how burdensome manual operations can be, especially in their line of work. Providing them with a solution that will not require them to manually record the bookings, repairs working hours, and even the requirements will concentrate on their core functions at the garage. The streamlined services will increase customer satisfaction, bringing in their loyalty and a competitive edge over their competition (Peppard and Ward, 2004). Regarding resources, the company will need to invest in a better software system for their business that can be integrated even into personal devices before purchasing more digital devices. The investment in secure software systems that technicians could also use in their devices will help make it practical to have it in the organization.
The Economic Feasibility
This analysis considers how cost-effective this project will be for the company. The focus is whether it will pay for itself and the profits to be obtained from the project. As indicated earlier, this company has been seeing an increase in its overheads while its profits have been declining as clients in many of the garages to their competitors. Nevertheless, it would be economically feasible to implement an effective information system for running its operations (Richardson and Johnson, 2015). This is because the benefits will violently outweigh the costs incurred. In this case, implementing the information system will incur the purchasing costs and its maintenance. Its initial cost is normally costly, especially when looking for a quality system. Its maintenance can be expensive, considering that the company needs to keep running seamlessly.
The cost-saving benefits that the garage will obtain from the system will come from the less-paper work done, proper stock management of their inventories, streamlined communication between the clients and the garages and also with the financial consultant and the administrative running costs will reduce remarkably, through the system, the organization will avoid purchasing any inventories that are no longer required in the company, and avoid telephone calls with clients as bookings are made online with an Helpant able to guide them. The information system will provide improved service-level benefits through streamlined operation, especially with the customers being satisfied with how fast and efficient the operations have become. The organization will also have improved information benefits since the system provides information needed to make better-informed decisions (Tarafdar and Qrunfleh, 2017, 7). This information will guide the garage to understand where the repair services are profitable and where the parts sales are profitable such as at the Edinburgh unit. Subsequently, the company will invest accordingly, which entails ensuring a garage that excels in repair service has all the capital resources such as ramps and spare parts required. The garage excelling in sales should have a stock inventory that satisfies the demands of its clients. These benefits will outweigh the costs incurred during implementation, making this solution a feasible approach for their challenges.
The Schedule Feasibility
The information system needs to be measured to align with the work patterns of the garage. Considering that the organization already has simple hardware systems, it only needs to purchase the software systems and train its users. The seamless integration may take 60 days to be fully installed and users well versed with the system’s operations. Notably, this cannot impede the garage since the implementation process could be done in real-time. The development must include all staff from the top management to the junior technicians to ensure everyone understands the system’s running and can learn how it is used.

Reference List
Hardcastle, E., 2011. Business information systems. Bookboon.
Jeddi, F.R., Hajbaghery, M.A., Akbari, H. and Esmaili, S., 2016. Technological feasibility of a nursing clinical information system. Electronic Physician, 8(9), p.2942.
Karimi, J., Somers, T.M. and Bhattacherjee, A., 2007. The role of information systems resources in ERP capability building and business process outcomes. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(2), pp.221-260.
Molneryd, S., 2007. A Feasibility Study for Implementing an Information Management System in Electrical & Electronics Systems Engineering at Volvo Car Corporation. KTH Industrial Engineering and Management.
Oh, S.Y. and Ha, D.Y., 2006. A case study on feasibility analysis of business information systems investment using AHP. Journal of information technology applications and management, 13(4), pp.303-319.
Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2004. Beyond strategic information systems: towards an IS capability. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 13(2), pp.167-194.
Richardson, J.W. and Johnson, M.D., 2015. Financial feasibility analysis of NAABB developed technologies. Algal research, 10, pp.16-24.
Tarafdar, M. and Qrunfleh, S., 2017. Agile supply chain strategy and supply chain performance: complementary roles of supply chain practices and information systems capability for agility. International Journal of Production Research, 55(4), pp.925-938.
Tilley, S. and Rosenblatt, H.J., 2016. Systems analysis and design. Cengage Learning.
Tiwana, A., Bharadwaj, A. and Sambamurthy, V., 2003. The antecedents of information systems development capability in firms: a knowledge integration perspective. ICIS 2003 Proceedings, p.21.

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