DATA MODELING - Fundamentals of Database Management Systems - page 21

2-A T HE W ALT D ISNEY C OMPANY

CONCEPTS

IN ACTION

T he Walt Disney Company is world-
famous for its many entertainment ventures but it is
especially identified with its theme parks. First there
was Disneyland in Los Angeles, then the mammoth Walt
Disney World in Orlando. These were followed by parks
in Paris and Tokyo, and one now under development in
Hong Kong. The Disney theme parks are so well run that
they create a wonderful feeling of natural harmony with
everyone and everything being in the right place at the
right time. When you're there, it's too much fun to stop
to think about how all this is organized and carried off
with such precision. But, is it any wonder to learn that
databases play a major part?
One of the Disney theme parks' interesting
database applications keeps track of all of the costumes

worn by the workers or ''cast members'' in the parks. The
system is called the Garment Utilization System or GUS
(which was also the name of one of the mice that helped
Cinderella sew her dress!). Managing these costumes is
no small task. Virtually all of the cast members, from the
actors and dancers to the ride operators, wear some
kind of costume. Disneyland in Los Angeles has 684,000
costume parts (each costume is typically made up of
several garments), each of which is uniquely bar-coded,
for its 46,000 cast members. The numbers in Orlando
are three million garments and 90,000 cast members.
Using bar-code scanning, GUS tracks the life cycle of
every garment. This includes the points in time when a
garment is in the storage facility, is checked out to a cast
member, is in the laundry, or is being repaired (in house

''Photo Courtesy of the Walt Disney Company''