Huffman Database Design 1 HUFFMAN TRUCKING COMPANY, DATABASE DESIGN Huffman Trucking Company, Explanation of the A Team Database Design DBM/380 Database Concepts University of Phoenix Prof H. Heifets July 7, 2009 Huffman Database Design 2 Huffman Trucking Company Background The concept of a database design gives a thriving company a means of efficiency in organizing their vision to function in the most productive manner for the company to function.
Huffman trucking has grown from the start of a single tractor trailer into a successful company that now has 800 road tractors, 2100 forty-five foot trailers, and 260 inch roll on and roll off units. The success of the initial growth of the company is attributed to World War II and the high demands for services between Midwestern factories to the East Coast ports. Today the U. S Government is still one of Huffman’s primary customers.
Amongst the government, other customers include: Auto parts suppliers to major manufacturers, Raw materials for manufacturers of plastic products and servicing those consumers that needs specific accommodations such as transporting wines, munitions, computers, and such. Huffman has facilities in four states: Ohio, which is the originating base of the organization, California, Missouri and New Jersey. This is a company that has been recognized as the first major freight carrier to outsource 100% of its information systems support. Explanation of Database Tables
Team A has created 13 tables to bring order to the functions of the thriving Huffman trucking company’s database. The database tables consist of primary keys, which are defined as fields or combinations of fields that uniquely identify a record so that it can be located without any confusion. (www. databasedev. co. uk/primary_foreign… ) Also incorporated are foreign keys, which are keys used to link 2 tables together; Typically you take the primary key field from one table and insert it into the other table, where it becomes a foreign key, but it is still the primary key in the original table. (www. databasedev. o. uk/primary_foreign… ). Huffman Database Design 3 Team A has included in the tables: Parts vendors, Parts vendor order contact, Parts vendor billing information, and Tire maintenance. The tables have the vendor ID as the primary key. The other tables are Purchase history, Parts catalogue, Maintenance type, Parts inventory purchase, Maintenance work order, Vehicles, Vehicle maintenance, and vehicle types. Within the Purchase History the Transaction ID, Maintenance type ID, Part ID and Vendor ID all function as a primary key, the Maintenance type ID and Part ID also function as foreign keys in this table.
This table is set to guide the end user to keep track of the history of costs, quantities ordered, tax, and shipping costs. The Parts Catalogue has the Part ID as its primary key. The functions here include the part type, manufacturer and description. The Maintenance type allow the user to visualize the hours required on the job, description of what needs to be done and assessment as to how many days would be missed until the completion of the maintenance. The Parts and Inventory Purchase lists issue date, the ost and the purchase issue dates. Conclusion The database tables created by this team give a visual order, ease of use and a more effective functionality for the operations at the Huffman Trucking Company. The tables are clear and concise with the information contained within them. The information that is stored and retrieved will benefit the customers as well as Huffman. Such order will present a more confident company and in turn will produce loyal customers. Loyal customers are ones that will be retained and will bring referrals.
