Fast planning heuristic for batch and interactive planning

• US 10,255,581 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2009
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: JDA Software Group Incorporated (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Singh, Ripu Daman, Iyer, Anand
• Primary Examiner(s): Gurski, Amanda
• Application Number:
  US12/607,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,451 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for incremental planning using a list based heuristic. The system includes a database storing supply chain entity data and a server system coupled with the database. The server system receives demand for one or more end items from one or more of the supply chain entities within a supply chain network and collapses the supply chain network into one or more flowpaths for each of the one or more end items. The server system also sorts the one or more flowpaths based on one or more rules or parameters stored in the database and reduces the one or more flowpaths using constraints stored in the database. The server system further generates a supply chain plan by solving the received demand using a list based heuristic stored in the database and communicates the generated supply chain plan to the one or more supply chain entities.

Claims

1. A system to reduce computational time of a computer and increase a speed of the computer processing operations, the system comprising:

a supply chain network comprising one or more supply chain entities;

a supplier of the one or more supply chain entities comprising one or more components, the supplier provides the one or more components to a manufacturer of the one or more supply chain entities;

a computer coupled with a database and comprising a processor and a memory to execute instructions to;

collapse the supply chain network into one or more flowpaths for at least one of the one or more end items, the one or more flowpaths comprising all end nodes from which consumption occurs;

store the generated one or more flowpaths in the database;

receive demand for one or more end items for one or more time buckets over a computer network from at least one of the one or more supply chain entities;

load the one or more flowpaths in the memory of the computer for the received demand;

sort an order of the one or more flowpaths based on one or more rules or parameters;

generate a fact table based on the one or more flowpaths and the received demand, the fact table comprising the one of more flowpaths and one or more cells for each of the one or more flowpaths corresponding to the one or more time buckets;

reduce the one or more flowpaths in the memory of the computer using one or more pruning techniques and constraints by removing one or more cells in the fact table when a supply or a capacity is not available, thereby reducing the computational time of the computer and increasing the speed of the computer processing operations;

store the fact table in the database;

in response to a detected change in the fact table in supply, capacity, or demand, generate a supply chain plan by solving the received demand using a list based heuristic; and

communicate the generated supply chain plan over the computer network to at least one of the one or more supply chain entities; and

the manufacturer comprising one or more routings, the routings comprising one or more apparatuses configured to receive the one or more components and perform at least one operation to transform the one or more components into the one or more end items, based, at least in part, on the generated supply chain plan.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more flowpaths are sorted based on a predetermined priority.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more supply chain entities are entities selected from the group consisting of the manufacturer, the supplier, a second manufacturer, a second supplier, a distribution center, a retailer, and a customer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more supply chain entities are associated with data reflecting supply chain plans.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the data associated with the one or more supply chain entities comprises data associated with rules, parameters, constraints, policies, supply chain planning data, flowpath data, and flowpath lists.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer further executes instructions to:

generate a supply picture of when supply is received.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer further executes instructions to:

generate a demand picture of when demand is forecasted.

8. A method to reduce computational time of a computer and increase a speed of the computer processing operations, the method comprising:

collapsing, by a planning engine stored on a computer comprising a database and a memory, a supply chain network into one or more flowpaths for at least one of the one or more end items, the one or more flowpaths comprising all end nodes from which consumption occurs, the supply chain network comprising one or more supply chain entities, the one or more supply chain entities comprising a supplier comprising one or more components, wherein the supplier provides the one or more components to a manufacturer, the manufacturer comprising one or more routings, the routings comprising one or more apparatuses configured to receive the one or more components and perform at least one operation to transform the one or more components into the one or more end items;

storing, by the planning engine, the generated one or more flowpaths in the database;

receiving, by the planning engine, demand for one or more end items for one or more time buckets over a computer network from at least one of the one or more supply chain entities;

loading, by the planning engine, the one or more flowpaths in the memory of the computer only in context of the received demand;

sorting, by the planning engine, an order of the one or more flowpaths based on one or more rules or parameters;

generating, by the planning engine, a fact table based on the one or more flowpaths and the received demand, the fact table comprising the one of more flowpaths and one or more cells for each of the one or more flowpaths corresponding to the one or more time buckets;

reducing, by the planning engine, the one or more flowpaths in the memory of the computer using one or more pruning techniques and constraints by removing one or more cells in the fact table when a supply or a capacity is not available, thereby reducing the computational time of the computer and increasing the speed of the computer processing operations;

generating, by the planning engine, in response to a detected change in supply, capacity, or demand in the fact table, a supply chain plan by solving the received demand using a list based heuristic;

communicating, by the planning engine, the generated supply chain plan over the computer network to at least one of the one or more supply chain entities; and

performing, by the routings, at least one operation to transform the one or more components into the one or more end items based, at least in part, on the generated supply chain plan.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more flowpaths are sorted based on a predetermined priority.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more supply chain entities are entities selected from the group consisting of the manufacturer, the supplier, a second manufacturer, a second supplier, a distribution center, a retailer, and a customer.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more supply chain entities are associated with data reflecting supply chain plans.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data associated with the one or more supply chain entities comprises data associated with rules, parameters, constraints, policies, supply chain planning data, flowpath data, and flowpath lists.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

generating a supply picture of when supply is received.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

generating a demand picture of when demand is forecasted.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodied with software to reduce computational time of a computer and increase a speed of the computer processing operations, the software when executed configured to:

collapse a supply chain network into one or more flowpaths for at least one of the one or more end items, the one or more flowpaths comprising all end nodes from which consumption occurs, the supply chain network comprising one or more supply chain entities, the one or more supply chain entities comprising a supplier comprising one or more components, wherein the supplier provides the one or more components to a manufacturer, the manufacturer comprising one or more routings, the routings comprising one or more apparatuses configured to receive the one or more components and perform at least one operation to transform the one or more components into the one or more end items;

store the generated one or more flowpaths in the database;

receive demand for one or more end items for one or more time buckets over a computer network from at least one of the one or more supply chain entities;

load the one or more flowpaths in the memory of the computer only in context of the received demand;

sort an order of the one or more flowpaths based on one or more rules or parameters;

generate a fact table based on the one or more flowpaths and the received demand, the fact table comprising the one of more flowpaths and one or more cells for each of the one or more flowpaths corresponding to the one or more time buckets;

reduce the one or more flowpaths in the memory of the computer using one or more pruning techniques and constraints by removing one or more cells in the fact table when a supply or a capacity is not available, thereby reducing the computational time of the computer and increasing the speed of the computer processing operations;

store the fact table in the database;

generate in response to a detected change in supply, capacity, or demand in the fact table, a supply chain plan by solving the received demand using a list based heuristic;

communicate the generated supply chain plan over the computer network to at least one of the one or more supply chain entities; and

perform at least one operation to transform the one or more components into the one or more end items based, at least in part, on the generated supply chain plan.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more flowpaths are sorted based on a predetermined priority.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more supply chain entities are entities selected from the group consisting of the manufacturer, the supplier, a second manufacturer, a second supplier, a distribution center, a retailer, and a customer.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more supply chain entities are associated with data reflecting supply chain plans.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the data associated with the one or more supply chain entities comprises data associated with rules, parameters, constraints, policies, supply chain planning data, flowpath data, and flowpath lists.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the software when executed further configured to:

generate a supply picture of when supply is received.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the software when executed further configured to:

generate a demand picture of when demand is forecasted.