Inventory systems are only useful if they present the employees with enough information to allow them to be more efficient in assisting the customers. We wanted to discover how the inventory gets on the shelf, how long the turnover is for a regular in stock item, and what process a store must take in order to ask for and receive new products. By understanding the business processes involved, we hoped to gain a better understanding of what was necessary in creating a useful and practical database, as well as to try and identify any improvements that could be made to the existing system. In addition, we were interested in learning the types of technology used to support the database system. In a rapidly expanding company, what kind of hardware was being used to for their operations, and what types of software had they invested in to integrate older, legacy systems while allowing scalability for future growth.
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Hardware/Software.
Lowe's uses a legacy system called Genesis for virtually all its store-level functions, including inventory, time-clock, report generation, etc. Although in the past year Lowe's completed a company-wide initiative that converted all dummy terminals into a Thin Client/Server system; these Linux-based workstations currently recreate the original interface with the legacy mainframe. The change in hardware was made to facilitate the use of computer-aided design programs to aid in custom designs and orders, and allowing the company intranet to be available to floor-level associates for information dissemination. There are two servers located in the computer room at each Lowe's location. One server is dedicated to providing the Genesis system, the other server provides access to the company intranet and the nationwide database of computer aided design files. (Thus, a customer can design a deck at a Lowe's store in Ohio, yet still have access to the plans when buying the components at a West Virginia location).