Polytechnic University of The Philippines Electronics and Communications Engineering Automated Laboratory (Autolab) System For Transaction and Equipment Monitoring

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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES ELECTRONICS


AND COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING AUTOMATED
LABORATORY (AUTOLAB) SYSTEM FOR TRANSACTION AND
EQUIPMENT MONITORING
Geoffrey T. Salvador, PECE, MSE, FRIEEE1
1

Laboratory Head, Department of Electronics Engineering, College of Engineering, Polytechnic University of the
Philippines, Sta. Mesa, Manila, Philippines

Abstract
The aim of the study is to implement bar coding system as mechanism for the PUP ECE Laboratory Transaction recording and
monitoring. The study was concerned on proper documenting and managing the daily transaction of the ECE Laboratory
particularly to automate the existing manual mechanism procedure with the proposed AutoLab System. The study used QuasiExperimental method as it included both experimental and descriptive method to gather data for the study. Experimental in a way
that the system was subjected to series of experiments to test its accuracy, efficiency, effectiveness and reliability using the singlegroup design. Two main experiments have been conducted - the test for accuracy of the system in transaction recording and the
equipment inventory monitoring. Test for accuracy was divided into four parts namely (1) Borrowing of Key; (2) Borrowing of
Equipment; (3) Returning of Keys; and, (4) Returning of Equipment. On the other hand, the equipment inventory monitoring
incorporates the analysis of the equipment utilization; from such as what equipments are usually borrowed, in what subjects a
certain equipment is being used and the history of usage for a given equipment. The descriptive part was used to evaluate the
system in three variables - the Graphical User Interface, the Accuracy of Information displayed and the Transaction Recording duly rated from scales 1 to 5; 5 being the highest through survey among the ECE students and faculty members. The ECE Room
Utilization Log Book, ECE Transaction Log Book and the Borrowers Slips have been analyzed to assess the existing transaction
recording and inventory monitoring. Results showed that the AutoLab System effectively automated the recording of transactions
merging the existing manual method into one recording mechanism. Manual transaction recording cannot provide a 100%
effectivity since there were percentages of 9.39% of the 2300 ECE Room Utilization Log Book transactions, 41.38% of the 742
Borrowers Slip transactions and 45.94% of the 603 ECE Transactions Log Book entries that were analyzed. A 100% complete
data being filled-out on the ECE Borrowers Slip and the ECE Transactions Log Book permits a more comprehensive study of
equipment inventory monitoring which gives a detailed room utilization for the ECE Room Utilization Log Book. The Automated
Laboratory coined as AutoLab merged the ECE Room Utilization Log Book, ECE Borrowers Slip and the ECE Transaction Log
Book into one complete package in terms of transaction recording and equipment inventory monitoring incorporating four
databases the class list, the room utilization, the class schedule and the equipments. As PUP Student Identification Cards have
bar codes that embed the student number, the system utilized the information to extract details regarding the identity of the
student necessary for transaction and equipment inventory monitoring. Two hundred sixty seven (267) ECE students from the
1142 ECE student population and 19 ECE Faculty Members served as respondents for the study. The respondents assessed the
system in three areas the Graphical User Interface (GUI), the Accuracy of Information Displayed and the Transaction
Recording. Respondents rated the GUI in terms of design, user friendliness, minimal amount of time to perform its function and
reliability. Overall rating of the system in terms of design was 4.22 (Effective); user friendliness was 4.50 (Effective); minimal
amount of time to perform function was 4.51 (Highly Effective) and reliability to be 4.50(Effective). In terms of the Accuracy of
Information Displayed, the overall assessment for accuracy of reading of student Identification card was 4.72 (Highly Effective),
accuracy of information being displayed was 4.71 (Highly Effective), accuracy of reading for room key to be 4.74 (Highly
Effective) and equipment with 4.75 (Highly Effective). Overall rating of the system in terms of recording of borrowers
information as 4.72 (Highly Effective), recording of key 4.71(Highly Effective), recording of equipment 4.68(Highly Effective) and
updating of record to be 4.70 (Highly Effective). The result from the faculty and student respondents were subjected to T-test
analysis to determine whether there is a significant difference between their assessments. Result have shown that there was no
significant difference between student and faculty assessment.

Keywords: Laboratory Management, Automation, Equipment Inventory Monitoring, Bar Coding


--------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------1. INTRODUCTION
Engineering is a vital field for economic and technological
modernization in a country nowadays. It encompasses the
application of scientific and practical knowledge to invent,

design, build, maintain and improve structures, systems and


processes scattered through the different area of
specializations where the Electronics and Communications
belong.

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In the Philippines, Electronics and Communications is duly


empowered through RA 9292 mandate The Electronics
Engineering Law of 2004. The practices of such profession
embrace and consist of any work or activity relating to the
application of engineering sciences and/or principles to the
investigation, analysis, synthesis, planning, design,
specification, research and development of equipment,
systems, networks, operations and processes in the fields of
electronics,
including
communications
and/or
telecommunications, information and communications
technology (ICT), computers and their networking and
hardware/firmware/software development and applications
(Section 5, paragraph a).
With vast fields for Electronics Engineering, the ECE
practice relates to the development and application of the
electronics engineering science and technology in the field
of consultation, design, construction and installation,
inspection, appraisal and acceptance, operations,
maintenance, research and development, education and
manufacturing (Manual of Professional Practice for
Electronics Engineers Section II paragraph 1.1); hence
automation through software development in a certain
operation form part for the scope and practice.

1.1 Background of the Study


The Polytechnic University of the Philippines College of
Engineering is one of the flagship courses of the countrys
first Polytechnic University. It is continuously producing
numerous number of top performing graduates in various
licensure examinations and maintained globally competitive
graduates in various industries. Hence, the university
officials, the faculty and staff and all benefactors
continuously plan and implement programs beneficial
towards quality education. Dr. Emanuel C. De Guzman, the
current university president, envisions the university to be
an epistemic community. He laid down 8 strategic point
agenda as which include Strategic Agenda 4 - Modernizing
and Upgrading of Physical Facilities, Equipment, Library
and Campus Development.
Parallel to the implementation of programs to attain the
aforementioned
objectives,
the
Electronics
and
Communications Engineering (ECE) Department through its
Laboratory Office made its counterpart in terms of its aim to
automate the daily transaction recording and equipment
inventory monitoring aligned with the PUP Strategic
Objective 4.
The Level 3 Phase 1 Accreditation visit for the Bachelor of
Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering
Program conducted by the Accrediting Agency of Chartered
Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (AACCUP)
conducted on November, 2008 presented and recommended
for Area IX (Laboratory) that laboratory operations and
management may be enhanced by putting in place a wellmonitored supervisory program of the laboratory
technician/head/aids and to conduct periodic inventory of
equipment and instruments and systematic recording of
supplies and materials.

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In compliance to the above recommendations, the ECE


Laboratory implemented Policies and Guidelines for the
operation of the laboratory which includes the recording of
transactions through a log book system for room keys under
the ECE Laboratory jurisdiction and the borrowers slip for
equipments. These had been compiled for analysis and
archiving of transaction.
At present, the ECE Laboratory manages its operation with
guidelines duly approved and effective since June 2, 2014.
The guidelines stated that any class officer is allowed to
secure the key for the rooms under the ECE Laboratory
jurisdiction within 15 minutes before their class schedule.
The student must log in the time the key is borrowed and
returned after their utilization. In terms of equipment usage,
equipments were borrowed from the ECE Laboratory with a
duly filled-up borrowers slips attached to the borrowers
ID. In cases that the student intends to do make-up
laboratory experiments, the ECE Transaction Log Book
would be used to record the transaction.
With the above foregoing guidelines, monitoring is an
important aspect to proper laboratory operation management
and supervision. As AACCUP recommends well
documented transactions and inventory monitoring the daily
transaction recording and the equipment inventory
monitoring seen viability towards automation and
modernization; hence, this study has been conducted.

1.2 Statement of the Problem


The study focused on the development of AutoLab system
that would automate log recording and generate inventory
monitoring report. Specifically, it sought to answer the
following questions:
1. What is the existing system being used by the ECE
Laboratory :
1.1. transaction recording; and,
1.2. equipment inventory reports?
2. What are the drawbacks of the existing system being
used by the ECE Laboratory:
2.1. transaction recording; and,
2.2. equipment inventory reports?
3. What system could be proposed to the ECE Laboratory
for the automated:
3.1. transaction recording; and,
3.2. equipment inventory reports?
4. How effective is the proposed system of the ECE
Laboratory for the automated:
4.1. transaction recording; and,
4.2. equipment inventory reports?
5. What is the level of effectiveness of the proposed
system of the ECE Laboratory as assessed by the
student and faculty users in terms of :
5.1. Graphical user interface design;
5.2. Accuracy of User Information Displayed; and,
5.3. Transaction Recording?

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1.3 Significance of the Study


This study would lessen the use of papers as the logging
system and transaction recording could be through the
implementation of the bar coding system.
For the ECE Laboratory Office, the development of the
system would upgrade the logging and borrowing
procedures and served as a method of responding to the
strategic objective # 4 of Dr. Emanuel C. De Guzman that
is, Modernizing and Upgrading of Physical Facilities,
Equipment, Library and Campus Development.
There would also be a systematic equipment inventory
monitoring. A day to day inventory report could be
generated or depending on the option of the laboratory to
print a weekly, monthly or annual report of equipment
record of transaction pertaining to who have borrowed the
equipment, what subject had been used, how often have been
used and when it was borrowed. Moreover, this would also
include the compliance to AACCUP requirement that all
equipments are coded, listed and inventoried in a periodic
manner.
CMO # 24 s. 2008 (Policies and Standards for the Degree of
Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering) laboratory
requirements could be revisited to compare the generated
summative report of the equipments commonly utilized for
each course subject offering and will be compared to the
CHED requirements. The result could give an assessment of
what equipment is commonly being used and needed, to
purchase additional units or to know what equipment would
be lacking.

2. METHODOLOGY

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mentioned transaction recordings. This included the review


and analysis of the entry logs of room utilizations and
laboratory equipment transactions from June 9, 2014 to
October 11, 2014 with regards to the degree of completeness
and incompleteness of data being filled-up.
Having found that the experiments and questionnaires to be
valid, the researcher had test the AutoLab system from
November 3, 2014 where PUP classes for Second Semester
Academic Year 2014- 2015 started until January 14, 2015.
Survey questionnaires were also used to gather information
regarding the assessment of the ECE community particularly
the ECE students and ECE Faculty members who made
transactions to the ECE Laboratory Office.
There were two hundred sixty seven (267) total respondents
from the one thousand one hundred forty two (1142) ECE
students who had evaluated the system. The minimum
requirement from Calmorin (2012) sampling formula was
approximately two hundred twenty five (225). Table 4
presents the distribution of respondents per year level. On
the faculty respondent counterpart, there were nineteen (19)
ECE faculty members who have evaluated the system on
November 17, 2014 to January 14, 2015.

3. RESULTS
3.1 Existing System Used by the ECE Laboratory
3.1.1

Transaction Recording

The existing ECE Laboratory Guidelines and Policies duly


approved and effective since June 2, 2014 set the transaction
flow for borrowing key or equipment to the ECE Laboratory
Office as follows:

The method of research used was a Quasi-Experimental


method as it utilized both experimental and descriptive
method. Experimental because the system will be subjected
to series of experiments to test its accuracy, efficiency,
effectiveness and reliability.
The researcher used experimentations to test the proposed
system automation through the actual test implementations.
Two main experiments have been conducted - the test for
accuracy of the system in transaction recording and the
equipment inventory monitoring. Test for accuracy was
divided into four parts namely (1) Borrowing of Key; (2)
Borrowing of Equipments; (3) Returning of Keys; and, (4)
Returning of Equipments. On the other hand, the equipment
inventory monitoring incorporates the analysis of the
equipment utilization in terms of what equipments were
usually borrowed, in what subjects a certain equipment was
being used and the history of usage for a given equipment.
Aside from the experimentation, intense analysis was used
to the existing system being used by the ECE Laboratory
through the ECE Room Utilization Log Book, ECE
Transactions Log Book and the ECE Borrowers Slip was
made. The objective for the analysis was to determine the
extent of effectiveness with regards to usage of the

Figure 1. Manual Transaction Flow for Borrowing Room


Key
The ECE Laboratory requires necessary informations for
daily basis transaction recording. The Name, Year and
Section set out information of the Users identity. The Room
to be Borrowed, Time In and Time Out sets information for
room being borrowed at a given time.
In the process of key borrowing, supplementing the
information needed from the User take place before
surrendering the Identification Card to Laboratory Personnel
and the latter provide the key to be borrowed. The
Laboratory Personnel presumed the completeness of log in
data except for the Time Out column which would be done
when the key is returned.

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Figure 2. Manual Transaction Flow for Returning Room


Key
After utilization of the room, the user should return the
borrowed key to the ECE Laboratory Office by presenting
the key borrowed. The User is assumed to have recorded
the time of return of the key. The Laboratory Personnel
would then release the Identification Card.
In terms of borrowing equipment, Figure 3 presents the
transaction flow for borrowing equipments. During regular
laboratory classes, a user is required to fill-up a borrowers
slip.

Figure 3. Manual Transaction Flow for Borrowing


Equipments
Upon supplying the necessary information in the Borrowers
Slip, the user should list down the equipments intended to be
borrowed and signing the slip together with the instructors
signature. The borrowers slip should be presented to the
Laboratory Personnel together with his/her identification
card. The Laboratory Personnel then release the equipments
borrowed.
In times, that there is a need to add additional equipment,
the borrower would notify the Laboratory Personnel for the
additional equipment where manual updating of borrowers
slip is to be made.

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When equipment is to be returned to the ECE Laboratory,


the user presents the equipment to the Laboratory Personnel
wherein the latter would check the borrowers slip. The
Laboratory Personnel check one at a time the physical
presence of the equipment to be returned. After checking the
completeness of the equipment being returned, the
Laboratory Personnel release the Identification Card and
stamp the Borrowers slip with RETURNED. If the record
is in the ECE Transaction Log Book, a log of the time the
equipment is returned must be filled-up.

3.1.2 Equipment Inventory Report


Analysis of the equipment utilization is done through
manual checking of the ECE Transactions Log Book and the
Borrowers Slip during April to May each year. Since it is a
manual process, the borrowers slip and ECE transactions
Log Book must be checked one at a time to come up with a
report of what equipment has been usually borrowed, in
what subject it was usually utilized, who frequently utilizes
and what is the individual record of utilization for the
equipment.
To date, reports on equipment usage and equipments duly
used for each subject is still on manual process of analysis.
It takes time to jot down and merge transactions in two
different records the ECE Borrowers Slip and the ECE
transactions log book.

3.2 Drawbacks of the existing system used by the


ECE Laboratory
3.2.1 Transaction Recording
Examining the Log Book, the log of time borrowed and time
returned did not identify whether the entry was in the
morning or in the afternoon. No uniform writing pen was
used; hence users had tended to use pencils, board marker
pens and regular pens with different colors. Moreover, cases
such as wrong date entry were identified.

In cases that the borrower has no classes and intend to


borrow equipment, the ECE Transaction log book would be
used. The information needed to be supplied is as follows:
(1) Date (2) Name (3) Year and Section (4) Equipment
Intended to be borrowed (5) Time Borrowed and (6) Time
Returned
After filling up the ECE Transaction Log Book, the user
would then surrender his/her Identification card while the
Laboratory Personnel would release the equipment intended
to be borrowed.

Figure 5. Assessment of Percentage Completeness of Data


Record for Key Transaction Based on Room Utilization Log
Book
Figure 4. Manual Transaction Flow for Returning of
Equipments

Figure 5 presents the assessment of completeness and


incompleteness of data record for key transaction as based

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on the Room Utilization Log Book from June to October


and the Overall assessment thereof. With 9.39% of
incompleteness as compared to 90.61% of completeness, the
transaction record showed to have a minimal amount of
ineffectiveness.

3.2.2 Equipment Inventory Report


The generation of an equipment inventory report takes a
long span of time; hence, it is only conducted on an annual
basis or on as needed basis. The daily equipment
inventory report is being done to compile transactions using
the Borrowers Slip for future reference and analysis. The
equipment inventory report is analyzed based on the
supplemented information from the ECE Transaction Log
Book and the ECE Borrowers Slip.

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From the given figures of equipment inventory reports, the


generation of inventory reports for the existing system does
not guarantee a 100% effectivity in terms of checking of
records.
A 100% complete data being filled-out on either the
Borrowers Slip or the ECE Transaction Log Book permits a
more comprehensive study of equipment inventory
monitoring. Therefore, the 45.94% and 41.38%
incompleteness of the ECE Transaction Log Book and the
Borrowers Slip respectively contributes to the problem
arising in the equipment inventory monitoring aside from
the manual process.

3.3 The AutoLab System for ECE Laboratory


3.3.1Transaction Recording

As the ECE transaction log book served as a record for


transaction in borrowing equipment beyond class schedule,
out of the six hundred three (603) transactions, there were
two hundred seventy seven (277) incomplete information
pertaining to the time the equipment was returned to the
ECE Laboratory which comprises 45.94% of the total
transaction (Figure 6).

Figure 8. AutoLab System Transaction Flow

Figure 6. Assessment of Percentage Completeness of Data


Record for Equipment Transaction Based on ECE
Transaction Log Book
Figure 7 presents the evaluation of the ECE Borrowers
Slip. Out of the 742, three hundred seven (307) or 41.37%
of the totality did not have a complete supplement of the
needed information.

AutoLab is a coined term for Automated Laboratory. The


system aimed to develop the transactions recordings and
inventory reports under the ECE Laboratory automated
utilizing the existing PUP Student Identification Card to
supplement information regarding a student borrower.
Figure 8 illustrates the process on how the system would
work all throughout. The Bar Code in a PUP student
identification card is scanned and read through a bar code
reader. It sends the scanned code for verification wherein it
would automatically presents the student number, student
name, year and section. With automatic time updating, the
time that the room key bar code is scanned, automatically
logs the time borrowed and returned to the transactions
recording.
The borrowing of equipment undergoes the same process.
The equipment bar code would be scanned and
automatically register the equipment borrowed under the
name of the borrower. The time of release would be log to
the system.
Bar Code for equipments was generated and coded in
relation to the PUP Property Number in a Code 128 Format.

Figure 7. Assessment of Percentage Completeness of the


ECE Borrowers Slip

As the Identification Card of the student is scanned, the


system retrieves the information of the user and displays
such information to the Graphical User Interface.

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When a key bar code is scanned, the system filters and


presents the room utilization schedule. The system is
synchronized with the time embedded in the computer unit
used - signifying that when transaction is being saved, it
automatically log in the time of a key being borrowed and
automatically log out when returned.
During the equipment transaction, when an equipment is
being borrowed and scanned, the subject box in the GUI
must be filled out through the generated subject bar codes.
This is to monitor the subject where the equipment would be
utilized. When the save button is clicked, the information is
automatically sent to the system for entry log of the time
borrowed or returned.
In the experimentation made in returning keys and
equipments, record was seen to be complete and accurate in
terms of time log during the returning process. The record
was seen to be complete and automatically log the time the
key or an equipment had been returned as shown in Figures
9 and 10.

Figure 9. Sample Transaction Recording for the Key


Transaction Using the AutoLab System

be exported to Excel Format. The basis for importing the


records is to generate and analyze the equipment inventory
report in more convenient way than in the Microsoft Access
Data Base. As all inputs from the Access, ranging from the
Borrowers name, Student Number, Year and Section,
Equipment Borrowed, What subject it will be utilized can be
sorted out for analysis.

3.4 Effectiveness of Proposed AutoLab System for


ECE Laboratory
3.4.1 Transaction Recording
An experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of the
system in terms of transaction recording. It was divided into
four parts namely Borrowing of Key, Borrowing of
Equipment, Returning of Key and Returning of Equipment.
From the experimentation done using AutoLab in
Borrowing of Keys, record was seen to be complete and
accurate in terms of time log during the borrowing process
for key while the system records the borrowing of
equipment one at a time in a certain user. From the result,
the record was seen to be complete and accurate in terms of
time log entries.
In the experimentation made in returning keys and
equipments, record was seen to be complete and accurate in
terms of time log during the returning process. The record
was seen to be complete and automatically log the time the
key or an equipment had been returned.

3.4.2

Figure 10. Sample Transaction Recording for the


Equipment Transaction Using the AutoLab System
The AutoLab is equipped with four (4) significant databases
needed for the system to work out.
The first one is the class list which presents the record of
ECE students from first years to fifth years section one to
five.
The second database is the Class Schedule where each
section of each year level can be checked with regards to
each whereabouts during the current semester.
The third database is the Room Schedules; which present the
utilization of each ECE room from Mondays through
Saturdays, 7:30 am to 9:00 pm.
The last database incorporated the equipments under the
ECE Laboratory which include the property number and the
status of the equipment.

3.3.2

Equipment Inventory Report

The transactions from the AutoLab system is automatically


recorded on the Access Database wherein the records could

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Equipment Inventory Report

A second experiment tests the equipment inventory


monitoring of the system. Inventory is a complete listing of
equipments or materials under the ECE Laboratory Office
not limited to its physical count but includes how it is being
utilized and in what subject it is being used.
Tracing the log of equipments transaction permits the
tracing of equipments still borrowed or have been returned.
From the record of transactions, equipments still not being
returned can be traced out and therefore considered that the
equipment is not within the ECE Laboratory Office. This
was seen to be one strength of the AutoLab system. Other
capability of the system is to generate report of what
equipments are usually borrowed, the subjects the
equipments usually being used and the history of usage for a
given equipment can be generated. Since the equipment
transaction record can be imported to Excel Format, it
permits other reports such as who (individually borrowed)
and what equipments are usually borrowed during a certain
day.
The breakdown of equipments used by each subject could be
generated to address the analysis of equipments needed
while the utilization of every equipment can be generated,
thus providing necessary information of who borrowed,
when it was borrowed and returned and the subject where it
was used. This report is necessary for the ECE Laboratory in
tracing out who will be liable when the equipment is
damaged.

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3.5 Level of Effectiveness of the Proposed AutoLab


System as Assessed by Students and Faculty
3.5.1

Graphical User Interface

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Table 1 presents the respondents evaluation for the system


Graphical User Interface (GUI) in three areas of evaluation.
The overall mean result presents an effective GUI in terms
of design, user-friendliness and reliability assessed to be
effective while the performance in minimal amount of time
was highly effective.

Table 1. Respondents Evaluation for Graphical User Interface


Areas of Evaluation

Students

The GUI provides a good design or format in terms of images and colors
The GUI provides a user friendly design
The GUI performs its function in minimal amount of time
The GUI is reliable

4.07
4.32
4.28
4.37

3.5.2

Accuracy of Information Displayed

Table 2 presents the respondents evaluation for accuracy of


information being displayed. This is a crucial evaluative
area as this would affect the transaction recordings of the
system. It is necessary that the system reads the students

Faculty
4.37
4.68
4.74
4.63

Overall
4.22
4.50
4.51
4.50

Verbal
Interpretation
Effective
Effective
Highly Effective
Effective

identification card, presents the user information and


accurately reads the room key and equipment. From the
four areas of evaluations, respondents have assessed the
system to be highly effective in all areas concerning
accuracy of information.

Table 2. Respondents Evaluation for Accuracy of Information Displayed


Areas of Evaluation
Students Faculty Overall Verbal Interpretation
The System accurately reads student Identification Card
4.64
4.79
4.71
Highly Effective
The System displays accurate information of the user
4.63
4.79
4.71
Highly Effective
The System reads accurately
a. the room key being borrowed
4.63
4.84
4.74
Highly Effective
b. the equipment being borrowed
4.65
4.84
4.75
Highly Effective

3.5.3

Transaction Recording

Table 3 presents the respondents evaluation for the


transaction recording. As the aim of the system is to
automate the transaction, the four areas of evaluation is

necessary to assess the level of effectiveness for the system.


The four areas being evaluated showed highly effective
recording.

Table 3. Respondents Evaluation for Transaction Recording


Areas of Evaluation
Students Faculty Overall Verbal Interpretation
The System correctly records borrowers information
4.65
4.79
4.72
Highly Effective
The System correctly records the
a. the room key being borrowed
4.67
4.74
4.71
Highly Effective
b. the equipment being borrowed
4.67
4.68
4.68
Highly Effective
The system updates record of equipment being borrowed
4.61
4.79
4.70
Highly Effective

3. CONCLUSIONS
From the given results, this study conclude that:
The existing manual transaction recording and equipment
inventory monitoring system is being practiced at the ECE
Laboratory Office;
1. There is a percentage of ineffectiveness of the current
system that results to incomplete filing of transaction
record while equipment inventory report does not assure
a good monitoring of equipment for the ECE Laboratory
in terms of analysis of equipment utilization;
2. AutoLab system as a mechanism for automated
transaction recording and equipment inventory

monitoring is being proposed for the ECE Laboratory


Office;
3. AutoLab system shows high potential and effective
method for transaction recording and equipment
inventory monitoring as it has seen to be a 100%
efficient and could provide a convenient way of analysis
for equipment utilization and room transactions as well;
and,
4. Users duly transacting for the ECE Laboratory had
assessed the system to be acceptable and effective
evident by the overall rating from the evaluation survey
conducted.

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4. RECOMMENDATIONS

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For further improvement of the study, the following are


hereby recommended:
1. Enhancement of the Graphical User Interface; such as
adding a profile picture of the borrower for security
purposes in terms of room keys and equipments;
2. Access code for faculty members may be integrated in
order to record the permission of the faculty, for the
student users to use equipment or room key; and,
3. Further studies regarding the total efficiency of the new
system may be conducted.

This study had achieved one complete master piece with the
contributions of each and every one who shared their
pieces to form into one.

5. REFERENCES
[1] American Heritage Dictionary of English Language.
2011 (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin). 5th Edition
[2] Calmorin, Laurentina and Calmorin, Melchor. 2012.
Research Method and Thesis Writing, (Manila: Rex
Bookstore).
[3] Mano, M. Morris and Cilleti, Michael. 2013. Digital
Design: With an Introduction to Verilog HDL, (New
Jersey: Prentice Hall). 5th Edition
[4] Kirkwood, Bonni; Robinson, Paul; David, Sanjith and
Bennett, Laurie. HER-IIS 2D Bar Code Functional
Capabilities Report Version 1. Delloitte Consulting
LLP. October 2014.
[5] Lucson, Adrian U., Torres, Andrew F., Quilang, Jonas
P., Ong, Perry S. and Fontanilla,, Ian Kendrich C..
DNA Barcoding of Birds in the University of the
Philippines Diliman Campus, with Emphasis on
Striated GrassbirdsMegaluruspalustris Philippine
Journal of Science Volume 142, Issue # 1.
[6] Barcode Accuracy and Misreads, (11 October 2014)
Retrieved from http://www.barcodefaq.com/efficientbarcode.html
[7] Barcode Comparison Chart (13 October 2014)
Retrieved
from
http://www.makebarcode.com/specs/barcodechart.html
[8] Comparison between 1D and 2D Barcode. (29
September
2014)
Retrieved
from
http://www.syscantech.com/en/syscancode/syscan_2dco
de.asp
[9] 1D Linear Barcode Standards (12 October 2014)
Retrieved
from
http://www.webscaninc.com/resources/ansi-iso-printquality-parameters-for-linear-bar-codes/

First, the shower of blessings and guidance from the


ALMIGHTY LORD.
Second, the grant from the
Polytechnic University of the Philippines administration
aids in the financial expenses incurred during the conduct of
the study.Third, the untiring assistance and guidance of Dr.
Ben B. Andres and the Panel of Examiners. Fourth, the
support of the family from moral to spiritual serves as an
inspiration to exert more efforts to the fullest. Lastly, to all
his friends, relatives and benefactors who believed that he
can made it. And to all persons he had forgotten to mention
but who in one way or another played a vital role in the
completion of this work.

6. AUTHORS NOTE
Engr. Geoffrey T. Salvador is a Faculty of the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines College of Engineering
particularly at the Electronics and Communications
Engineering Department. A Fellow of the Royal Institute of
Electronics Engineers Singapore and a Career Service
Professional of the Civil Service Commission. He is a
licensed Electronics Engineering and Electronics Technician
and a NTC Class B Radio Amateur Operator. He teaches
Electronics, Communications and allied subjects including
Research Writings and Thesis. Currently, he is the PUP
ECE Laboratory Head.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 05 Issue: 05 | May-2016, Available @ http://ijret.esatjournals.org

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