Introduction
Management information systems have become a central theme in local and international business processes. While every business may have unique product lines, the firm’s management and control require an effective information system to facilitate resource acquisition, allocation, and sales tracking (Akpan et al., 2020). A local sandwich shop engages in several business functions, including purchasing raw materials, making sandwiches, paying workers, and selling sandwiches to consumers who could be on-premises or online buyers. Understanding each of these processes and their dependence on information systems is key to the shop’s growth since all these processes can significantly be improved through the effective deployment of management information systems.
Purchasing Raw Materials
Every business involved in the production process requires inputs that could be obtained from one or multiple sources. A sandwich shop needs to purchase meat, bread, cheese, vegetables and preparation equipment such as a tomato slicer, preparation tables, and a measuring scale. According to Hussein et al. (2021), the quality and quantity of ingredients used in sandwich making are shown to affect consumption habits significantly. An information management system helps to track suppliers’ response time, quality of products and costs incurred. Therefore, the local sandwich shop’s performance can be improved through inventory and process controls for managing the procurement process.
Employees’ Payment
Labor is among the essential factors of production without which a business cannot survive. Although a local sandwich shop may not require a large workforce, the business owner may need to hire several individuals to manage each department for effective operations. This process benefits significantly from a management information system that allows the manager to have a record of all the workers, their pay rates, and a payment schedule. This ensures timely salary payment and high employee motivation, which translates to better performance. Akpan et al. (2020) argue that small businesses can thrive in competitive environments if they apply state-of-the-art information technologies. The business environment is dynamic, requiring that firm owners adapt to changes fast and effectively, including moving from a manual payment register to a more effective salary payment scheme available through management information systems. A management information system, such as the payroll processing technology, would significantly improve operations at the sandwich business by ensuring the workers are well remunerated for optimum productivity.
Selling and Marketing Sandwiches
Since every business’s primary goal revolves around meeting its customers’ needs through product and service deliveries, entrepreneurs must develop effective sales and marketing techniques. According to Steininger (2018), information systems facilitate entrepreneurship by enabling business owners to track sales and expenses resulting from the marketing processes. With such crucial data, a sandwich shop’s owner can minimize costs since they can quickly identify the less profitable business operations and capitalize on the essential procedures for business growth. For instance, if the shop serves online customers who require home deliveries, the owner would have to design a marketing campaign. Management information systems would improve this process by enabling the entrepreneur to have timely updates on the cost of advertisement and the number of online customers served within a given period. Therefore, the local sandwich shop needs to implement order processing and decision-support systems for efficient marketing procedures.
Information is an organization’s most valuable resource, obtained from data and stored in a database following a systematic process. The hierarchy of data denotes the sequential organization of data in a system, from one bit of data to a database from which valuable information can be obtained for decision-making (Mahanti, 2019). In the case of a local sandwich shop, the information contained in the database may include details such as the types of sandwiches made and the consumption rates, which are shown to influence the industry in multiple dimensions.
Each level of the data hierarchy derives its attributes from ranks below it and processes it to generate values that are used by higher levels. Essentially, the efficiency of a management information system relies on the quality of data in each layer. The lowest level in a data hierarchy comprises bits, which computer systems understand in terms of zeros and ones. A bit is essentially a binary digit whose value carries valuable information (Mahanti, 2019). A collection of bits form the second level of the hierarchy comprised of characters. The system uses a set of characters for programs that can be used to manipulate data and check outputs.
The third level is made up of fields that are same-type characters conveying a particular idea or valuable information to the parties concerned. Records and files are made from characters to form the fourth layer of the hierarchy (Rocha et al., 2021). Every record contains related fields which are stored in a file. The retrieval of a record from a file follows a unique record key. Records organized in sequential files are much easier to access, making them the most commonly used in information systems (Rocha et al., 2021). Lastly, the highest level in the data hierarchy is comprised of the database, which is a collection of all files.
References
Akpan, I., Udoh, E., & Adebisi, B. (2020). Small business awareness and adoption of state-of-the-art technologies in emerging and developing markets, and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 34(2), 123-140. Web.
Hussein, M., H. Mohamed, S., E. Tharwat, A., E. Hafez, A., & Gomaa, R. (2021). Effect of ingredients on the bacteriological profile of ready to eat meat sandwiches. Journal of Animal Health and Production, 9(s1). Web.
Mahanti, R. (2019). Data quality: Dimensions, measurement, strategy, management, and governance. Quality Press.
Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Dzemyda, G., Moreira, F., & Correia, A. M. (2021). Trends and applications in information systems and technologies. Springer.
Steininger, D. (2018). Linking information systems and entrepreneurship: A review and agenda for IT-associated and digital entrepreneurship research. Information Systems Journal, 29(2), 363-407. Web.