Collaborative fulfillment in a distributed supply chain environment
First Claim
1. A fulfillment system associated with a distributed supply chain, comprising:
- a database operable to store;
at least one rule identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a customer; and
at least one contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer; and
one or more processors collectively operable to;
receive an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product;
generate one or more component ATP requests using at least one rule in the database and based on the request line-items;
communicate the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product, the supplier determined according to at least one rule identifying the sourcing constraint;
receive a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products; and
generate a quotation for communication using the product availability information and the contract value in the database.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer-implemented method for fulfillment in a distributed supply chain environment includes receiving an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product, and generating one or more component ATP requests using at least one rule and based on the request line-items. At least one of the rules identifies a sourcing constraint associated with a customer. The method also includes communicating the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product. The supplier is determined according to at least one rule identifying the sourcing constraint. The method further includes receiving a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products, and generating a quotation for communication using the product availability information and at least one contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer.
258 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A fulfillment system associated with a distributed supply chain, comprising:
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a database operable to store;
at least one rule identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a customer; and
at least one contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer; and
one or more processors collectively operable to;
receive an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product;
generate one or more component ATP requests using at least one rule in the database and based on the request line-items;
communicate the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product, the supplier determined according to at least one rule identifying the sourcing constraint;
receive a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products; and
generate a quotation for communication using the product availability information and the contract value in the database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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14. A computer-implemented method for fulfillment in a distributed supply chain environment, comprising:
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receiving an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product;
generating one or more component ATP requests using at least one rule and based on the request line-items, at least one of the rules identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a customer;
communicating the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product, the supplier determined according to at least one rule identifying the sourcing constraint;
receiving a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products; and
generating a quotation for communication using the product availability information and at least one contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer.
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27. Software for fulfillment in a distributed supply chain environment, the software embodied in at least one computer-readable medium and when executed by one or more processors operable to:
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receive an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product;
generate one or more component ATP requests using at least one rule and based on the request line-items, at least one of the rules identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a customer;
communicate the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product, the supplier determined according to at least one rule identifying the sourcing constraint;
receive a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products; and
generate a quotation for communication using the product availability information and at least one contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer.
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28. A fulfillment system associated with a distributed supply chain, comprising:
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means for storing at least one rule identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a customer and at least one contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer;
means for receiving an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product;
means for generating one or more component ATP requests using at least one rule and based on the request line-items;
means for communicating the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product, the supplier determined according to at least one rule identifying the sourcing constraint;
means for receiving a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products; and
means for generating a quotation for communication using the product availability information and the contract value.
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29. A fulfillment system associated with a distributed supply chain, comprising:
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a database operable to store;
at least one first rule identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a customer, at least one of the first rules identifying one or more preferred suppliers associated with the customer; and
at least one second rule identifying a sourcing constraint associated with a supplier; and
one or more processors collectively operable to;
generate a contract value associated with a current status of a contract involving the customer;
receive an available-to-promise (ATP) request comprising a plurality of request line-items each corresponding to a desired product;
select one or more of the rules based on contents of the ATP request;
generate one or more component ATP requests using at least one of the selected rules and based on the request line-items;
communicate the component ATP requests to at least one supplier associated with the desired product, the supplier determined according to at least one rule identifying one of the sourcing constraints;
receive a plurality of component quotations from at least one supplier, each component quotation corresponding to a component ATP request and comprising product availability information for one or more corresponding desired products;
generate a first sourcing plan using at least the product availability information and the contract value, the first sourcing plan identifying one or more suppliers and a quantity of the desired product reserved from each identified supplier;
determine if the first sourcing plan satisfies the corresponding rules in the database; and
iteratively generate at least one additional sourcing plan if the first sourcing plan fails to satisfy the corresponding rules in the database.
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Specification