Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080215410 | LARGE INVENTORY-SERVICE OPTIMIZATION IN CONFIGURE-TO-ORDER SYSTEMS - A manufacturing process is migrated from an existing operation to a configure-to-order (CTO) system. As the CTO operation will eliminate the “machine-type model” (MTM) inventory of the existing operation, the emphasis is shifted to the components, or “building blocks”, which will still follow the build-to-stock scheme, due to their long leadtimes, and hence still require inventory. The solution involves an inventory-service trade-off of the new CTO system, resulting in performance gains, in terms of reduced inventory cost and increased service level. Other benefits include better forecast accuracy through parts commonality and risk-pooling, and increased customer demand, as orders will no longer be confined within a restricted set of pre-configured MTMs. | 09-04-2008 |
20090083107 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STRATEGIC GLOBAL RESOURCE SOURCING - Method and system for strategic global resource sourcing in one aspect incorporates concurrently a plurality of qualitative and quantitative attributes that influence performance of sourcing strategy with respect to one or more quantitative measures, quantifies an impact of said qualitative attributes using said one or more quantitative measures, and optimizes the sourcing strategy with respect to said one or more quantitative measures subject to one or more constraints. | 03-26-2009 |
20090164262 | METHOD AND STRUCTURE FOR RISK-BASED RESOURCE PLANNING FOR CONFIGURABLE PRODUCTS - A method for planning under uncertainty is disclosed. The method includes steps of processing a stochastic programming formulation based on forecast values of at least one of product and service configurations, and determining a resource requirements plan for one or more planning periods in a non-deterministic bill of resources of at least two levels. | 06-25-2009 |
20090240545 | ADAPTIVE PRODUCT CONFIGURATION MODEL - The adaptive product conditioning is a computer-implemented method for identifying product configurations that can be provided to customers in reaction to supply imbalances. The methodology uses data mining techniques to collect and analyze business level meta data to coordinate supply and sales goals in terms of optimizing profits or managing product and technology transitions. | 09-24-2009 |
20090299779 | METHOD FOR MANAGING INVENTORY UNDER PRICE PROTECTION - A method and system for managing inventory under price protection plan determine an inventory replenishment plan for one or more goods considering a price protection agreement including at least length of price protection between at least two supply chain partners in a supply chain having decentralized control over a predetermined time period. | 12-03-2009 |
20100023340 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING PRODUCT SUBSTITUTIONS ALONG MULTIPLE CRITERIA IN RESPONSE TO A SALES OPPORTUNITY - A system and method evaluate product substitutions along multiple criteria in response to a sales opportunity, for instance, providing sales recommendations of configurable products in response to a customer request based on propensity functions. A customer propensity is determined to estimate attractiveness of a substitute product to a customer based on one or more attributes. A seller propensity is determined to estimate attractiveness to a seller of selling the substitute product based on one or more attributes. The customer propensity and the seller propensity are combined to find a plurality of substitute products. | 01-28-2010 |
20100121677 | BUSINESS PARTNER COLLABORATION AND BUY ANALYSIS - The present invention provides a method, system and computer program product for implementing an automated inventory replenishment process between a manufacturer and a business partner. In one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided comprising the business partner purchasing and maintaining an inventory of goods from the manufacturer, and the manufacturer providing price protection to the business partner for the purchasing of the goods. This embodiment further comprises managing said inventory by using an automated process that takes into account said price protection for the purchasing of the goods. | 05-13-2010 |
20110071877 | HEURISTIC CROSS SHIPPING OF DISASTER RELIEF SUPPLIES AT POINTS OF DISTRIBUTION - Distributing disaster relief supplies, in one aspect, may include determining cross shipping of disaster relief supplies between points of distribution using one or more combinations of information. The information may include one or more of on-hand inventory of each point of distribution, in-transit inventory to each point of distribution, demand queue of disaster victims at each point of distribution, traveling time between supply staging area and points of distribution, traveling time between points of distribution, number of transportation vehicles available for cross shipping, minimum batch size for cross shipping, frequency of cross shipping, and point of distribution activation status, or combinations thereof. | 03-24-2011 |
20110087514 | MODELING DISTRIBUTION OF EMERGENCY RELIEF SUPPLIES FOR DISASTER RESPONSE OPERATIONS - A method and system to supply multiple items through a network of inventory staging areas and distribution points by determining inventory stocking levels for a staging area and distribution points, and inventory shipments from said staging area to distribution points and between the distribution points, using an optimization formulation whose objective is to cover maximum overall demand at the distribution points in a given period of time, and to minimize total cost of meeting demand. | 04-14-2011 |
20110178948 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS PROCESS ORIENTED RISK IDENTIFICATION AND QUALIFICATION - A method and system for identifying and quantifying a risk is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises forming a two-dimensional risk matrix, wherein a first dimension of the matrix comprises risk variable categories and a second dimension comprises standard business processes, placing a risk variable onto the two-dimensional risk matrix, wherein the risk variable is categorized by one of the risk variable categories and one of the standard business processes, connecting the variable node with another risk variable in the two-dimensional risk matrix, and applying a learning method to the two-dimensional risk matrix to compose a risk model to use for quantifying the risk. The system comprises a processor operable to perform the steps embodied by the method. | 07-21-2011 |
20110218890 | ADAPTIVE PRODUCT CONFIGURATION MODEL - The adaptive product conditioning is a computer-implemented method for identifying product configurations that can be provided to customers in reaction to supply imbalances. The methodology uses data mining techniques to collect and analyze business level meta data to coordinate supply and sales goals in terms of optimizing profits or managing product and technology transitions. | 09-08-2011 |
20120271740 | MANAGING FRESH-PRODUCT INVENTORY - Freshness inventory control problem may be formulated as a stochastic dynamic program. In one aspect, a stochastic dynamic programming formulation takes as input inventory status, stochastic demand forecast and cost information associated with on-hand inventory. The stochastic dynamic programming formulation is maximized to determine order quantity and depletion quantity of the product per period. | 10-25-2012 |
20120290500 | CONFIGURATION PRICING STRATEGIES FOR MULTI-COMMODITY REQUEST-FOR-QUOTES - Win probability estimation model that statistically computes the probability of winning a bid at a given price, and profit optimization models that compute the optimal price for a bid balancing the probability of winning a bid at a price with the profitability of the bid at the given price. In one stage, an expected profit margin of a product may be formulated as a function of its profit margin and win probability to compute its optimal profit margin. In another stage, an expected profit for one or more product accessories may be formulated as a function of the profit margin and their conditional win probability given the server win to compute their optimal profit margins. The conditional win probabilities for the product accessories may be modeled as a function of the utilities of the various purchase options that contain the product and that accessory. | 11-15-2012 |
20130132147 | MANAGING FRESH-PRODUCT INVENTORY - Freshness inventory control problem may be formulated as a stochastic dynamic program. In one aspect, a stochastic dynamic programming formulation takes as input inventory status, stochastic demand forecast and cost information associated with on-hand inventory. The stochastic dynamic programming formulation is maximized to determine order quantity and depletion quantity of the product per period. | 05-23-2013 |
20140025422 | BUSINESS PARTNER COLLABORATION AND BUY ANALYSIS - The present invention provides a method, system and computer program product for implementing an automated inventory replenishment process between a manufacturer and a business partner. In one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided comprising the business partner purchasing and maintaining an inventory of goods from the manufacturer, and the manufacturer providing price protection to the business partner for the purchasing of the goods. This embodiment further comprises managing said inventory by using an automated process that takes into account said price protection for the purchasing of the goods. | 01-23-2014 |
20140031966 | Large Inventory-Service Optimization in Configure-To-Order Systems - A manufacturing process is migrated from an existing operation to a configure-to-order (CTO) system. As the CTO operation will eliminate the “machine-type model” (MTM) inventory of the existing operation, the emphasis is shifted to the components, or “building blocks”, which will still follow the build-to-stock scheme, due to their long leadtimes, and hence still require inventory. The solution involves an inventory-service trade-off of the new CTO system, resulting in performance gains, in terms of reduced inventory cost and increased service level. Other benefits include better forecast accuracy through parts commonality and risk-pooling, and increased customer demand, as orders will no longer be confined within a restricted set of pre-configured MTMs. | 01-30-2014 |
20150066566 | BALANCING SUPPLY AND DEMAND USING DEMAND-SHAPING ACTIONS - A method for balancing supply and demand for a product using demand-shaping action includes identifying an imbalance between supply and demand for a given product. A customer choice model is generated based on collected historical sales data pertaining to the given product and at least one product similar to the given product. The customer choice model is configured to estimate, for a given customer or group of customers, a likelihood of effecting a substitution between each product pair of the given product and the at least one product similar to the given product, for each of one or more available demand shaping actions. One or more of the available demand shaping actions are automatically selected to minimize an estimate of revenue shortfall or inventory holding costs resulting from the identified imbalance between supply and demand. | 03-05-2015 |
20150066569 | BALANCING SUPPLY AND DEMAND USING DEMAND-SHAPING ACTIONS - A method for balancing supply and demand for a product using demand-shaping action includes identifying an imbalance between supply and demand for a given product. A customer choice model is generated based on collected historical sales data pertaining to the given product and at least one product similar to the given product. The customer choice model is configured to estimate, for a given customer or group of customers, a likelihood of effecting a substitution between each product pair of the given product and the at least one product similar to the given product, for each of one or more available demand shaping actions. One or more of the available demand shaping actions are automatically selected to minimize an estimate of revenue shortfall or inventory holding costs resulting from the identified imbalance between supply and demand. | 03-05-2015 |