Systems and methods of managing perpetual inventory

• US 10,360,548 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2018
• Issued: 07/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Brooks, Cristy C., Enssle, Benjamin D., Brightwell, David B., Shields, Daniel R., Bryan, Greg A., Jones, Matthew A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mitchell, Nathan A
• Application Number:
  US15/862,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20180189760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

In some embodiments, systems and methods are provided to monitor and adjust perpetual inventory (PI). Some embodiments comprise multiple point of sale (POS) systems; an inventory system and a perpetual inventory (PI) engine control circuit that receives inventory information and is configured identify the occurrence of a plurality of different events each associated with a different product at a shopping facility and corresponding to a potential inconsistency in a determined inventory count; and for each of the events: identify a first set of inventory evaluation rules; apply the first set of inventory evaluation rules to determine a type of inventory count error; determine an inventory adjustment action to be implemented based on the first product and the determined error type; and cause the inventory adjustment action to be implemented in substantially real-time to adjust the determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility.

Claims

1. A perpetual inventory (PI) control system, comprising:

multiple point of sale (POS) systems;

at least one inventory system communicatively coupled with at least a set of the multiple POS systems at a first shopping facility of multiple shopping facilities;

a perpetual inventory (PI) engine control circuit communicatively coupled with the inventory system, and further receives inventory information from the inventory system and sales data recorded by the multiple POS systems;

wherein the PI engine control circuit is configured identify the occurrence of a plurality of different events each associated with a different product of thousands of different products at one of the multiple different shopping facilities, and each event corresponds to a potential inconsistency in a determined inventory count of the corresponding product, wherein at least a first set of the different events correspond to inconsistencies that are not entered into the system by a user; and

for each of the events;

identify, dependent on the event and a corresponding first product, a first set of inventory evaluation rules from multiple sets of inventory evaluation rules;

apply the first set of inventory evaluation rules to determine a type of inventory count error relative to the determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility;

identify a second set of at least one inventory evaluation rules based on the type of inventory count error, and applying the second set of at least one inventory evaluation rules to determine an inventory adjustment action to be implemented based on the first product and the determined error type; and

cause the inventory adjustment action to be implemented in substantially real-time to adjust the determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility, wherein the adjustment to the inventory count is applied to maintain the inventory count within boundaries of threshold margins of inventory errors for the first product while not attempting to determine an actual inventory count of the first product; and

wherein the PI engine control circuit is further configured to push perpetual inventory adjustment information to multiple different inventory storage devices without a request from the inventory storage devices and without receiving a confirmation of transmission from the multiple inventory storage devices wherein each of the inventory storage devices is accessible by at least one of multiple remote processing systems providing the multiple remote processing systems with substantially real time access to the perpetual inventory adjustment information.

2. The PI control system of claim 1, wherein the PI engine control circuit in applying the first set of inventory evaluation rules identifies a priority of each of the inventory evaluation rules of the first set of inventory evaluation rules as a function of the first event, and applies at least one of the first set of inventory evaluation rules in accordance with the priorities of the first set of inventory evaluation rules.

3. The PI control system of claim 1, wherein the PI engine control circuit in determining the inventory adjustment action selects the inventory adjustment action based on a previous inventory adjustment action implemented relative to a previously determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility.

4. The PI control system of claim 1, wherein the PI engine control circuit in causing the inventory adjustment action to be implemented maintains over time, during which multiple different ordered shipments of the first product are received at the first shopping facility, the actual inventory counts of the first product at the first shopping facility within the threshold margins of inventory errors defined by a difference between the actual inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility and the determined inventory counts.

5. The PI control system of claim 1, wherein the PI engine control circuit is further configured to modify one or more inventory evaluation rules of a second third set of inventory evaluation rules that were previously applied in evaluating the inventory count of the first product based on results from the PI engine control circuit applying the first set of inventory evaluation rules.

6. The PI control system of claim 1, wherein the PI engine control circuit is further configured to identify a second event, of the plurality of events, corresponding to a second product, apply a third set of inventory evaluation rules and determine the second product has inventory inaccuracies consistent with the first product, select the second set of inventory evaluation rules, and apply the second set of inventory evaluation rules while applying at least one different parameter based on the second set of inventory evaluation rules being applied relative to the second product to identify a second inventory adjustment action to be implemented based on the second product relative to a second shopping facility.

7. The PI control system of claim 1, wherein the PI engine control circuit is configured to identify a set of products that each have a predefined relationship with at least of one of a set of filter parameters, and prevent the PI engine control circuit from causing another inventory adjustment action to be implemented relative to each of the products of the set of products.

8. A method of monitoring and adjusting perpetual inventory (PI), comprising:

identifying the occurrence of a plurality of different events each associated with a different product of thousands of different products at one of multiple different shopping facilities, wherein each event corresponds to a potential inconsistency in a determined inventory count of the corresponding product, wherein at least a first set of the different events correspond to inconsistencies that are not entered into the system by user; and

for each of the events;

identifying, dependent on the event and a corresponding first product, a first set of inventory evaluation rules from multiple sets of inventory evaluation rules;

applying the first set of inventory evaluation rules to determine a type of inventory count error relative to the determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility;

identifying a second set of at least one inventory evaluation rules based on the type of inventory count error;

applying the second set of at least one inventory evaluation rules and determining an inventory adjustment action to be implemented based on the first product and the determined error type; and

causing the inventory adjustment action to be implemented in substantially real-time to adjust the determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility, wherein the adjustment to the inventory count is applied to maintain the inventory count within boundaries of margins of inventory errors for the first product while not attempting to determine an actual inventory count of the first product; and

pushing perpetual inventory adjustment information to multiple different inventory storage devices without a request from the inventory storage devices and without receiving a confirmation of transmission from the multiple inventory storage devices wherein each of the inventory storage devices is accessible by at least one of multiple remote processing systems providing the multiple remote processing systems with substantially real time access to the perpetual inventory adjustment information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the applying the first set of inventory evaluation rules comprises:

identifying a priority of each of the inventory evaluation rules of the first set of inventory evaluation rules as a function of the first event; and

applying at least one of the first set of inventory evaluation rules in accordance with the priorities of the first set of inventory evaluation rules.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining the inventory adjustment action comprises selecting the inventory adjustment action based on a previous inventory adjustment action implemented relative to a previously determined inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the causing the inventory adjustment action to be implemented comprises:

maintaining over time, during which multiple different ordered shipments of the first product are received at the first shopping facility, actual inventory counts of the first product at the first shopping facility within threshold margins of inventory errors defined by a difference between the actual inventory count of the first product at the first shopping facility and the determined inventory counts.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

modifying one or more inventory evaluation rules of a second set of inventory evaluation rules that were previously applied in evaluating the inventory count of the first product based on results from applying the first set of inventory evaluation rules.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a second event, of the plurality of events, corresponding to a second product;

determining the second product has inventory inaccuracies consistent with the first product;

selecting the first set of inventory evaluation rules;

applying the first set of inventory evaluation rules while applying at least one different parameter based on the first set of inventory evaluation rules being applied relative to the second product; and

identifying a second inventory adjustment action to be implemented based on the second product relative to a second shopping facility.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a set of products that each have a predefined relationship with at least of one of a set of filter parameters; and

preventing another inventory adjustment action to be implemented relative to each of the products of the set of products.