COMM 335 – Review Exercise on Database Design

Case Facts:

Good Boating Company produces quality custom wood, fiberglass and aluminum boats by contract. The
company operates several departments in various locations, each one of which builds a particular type of
boats, such as fishing boats, lobster boats, sport boats and cruisers, personal watercraft, sailboats, etc.

When a new boat is built, the department places a purchase request with the Purchasing Department to
order specific components. Each purchase request is assigned to a “purchasing agent” within the
Purchasing Department. This purchasing agent follows the purchase request through the entire
purchasing process and acts as the sole contact person with the departments. The Purchasing Department
refers to these departments buying the components as “customers”. The purchase requests can be made
by different persons within the same department.

The purchase request received by the Purchasing Department can contain several different items of
different quantities. An inventory is maintained so that the most frequently ordered items are delivered
almost immediately. Each item is uniquely identified by an item number and is also characterized by a
description, average price, and open-ended comments.

For simplicity, assume that the components will not be used to make other components. When a
purchase request comes in, it is checked to determine whether the ordered item is in inventory. Any item
reaching the re-stocking level will be ordered immediately from one of the designated suppliers at an
agreed price. The quantities to be ordered will be determined by the Purchasing Manager. To ensure
prompt supply, the Purchasing Department has a number of designated suppliers for each of the items it
requires. Each supplier supplies one or more items to Good Boating Company. It also assigns a contact
person to coordinate with the Good Boating’s Purchasing Department.

Good Boating's Purchasing Department is interested in creating a database to keep track of the purchase
requests and to accelerate the process of delivering materials. With the new database, the Purchasing
Manager would like to be kept informed immediately of any purchase requests that cannot be fully
satisfied within 10 days from the date the request was made.

You are required to design this database and include all the necessary data in your design in order to
achieve the business goals stated above.

Required

Construct a relational database design for the purchasing system, making sure you have the following:

1. All required entities/tables

2. Primary keys for each entity/table
3. Attributes/fields for each entity/table (including foreign keys)
4. Relationships between the entities/tables

State your assumptions, if any.

You don’t need to hand in your solution. The solution will be discussed in class.