Collaboration bill of material
First Claim
1. A method for managing a bill of material (BOM) for a product comprising parts contributed by a plurality of parties in a distributed system comprising a brand-owner, at least one first-tier supplier and at least one first-tier distributor, wherein said BOM contains information regarding said parts and suppliers of said parts;
- the method comprising;
monitoring the distributed system for an arrival of an input entered by a first party in said distributed system, automatically determining whether said input represents an out-of-tolerance case, communicating said input to a second party when said input represents said out-of-tolerance case;
determining whether an alternative plan is available when said input represents said out-of-tolerance case; and
optimizing a resolution in response to said input when said input does not represent said out-of-tolerance case, whereby an automated collaboration between said first and second parties is enabled so that when said first party is unable to respond to said input, said input is communicated to said second party in order to allow said second party to process said input.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a software engine, a CBOM (collaboration bill of materials), to automate the collaboration process on a BOM that is distributed over the supply chain network and the demand chain network. In one embodiment of the invention, the CBOM comprises a rules engine, an optimization engine, an applications server and a database server. The rules engine implements rule-based decision making functions. The optimization engine of the CBOM allows the distributed system to resolve routine problems that may reoccur on a regular basis and provide a preferred, well-tested and unambiguous resolution to the routine problems. In one embodiment of the invention, the CBOM monitors for an arrival of an input or an event entered by a business party in the distributed production system. When an input is received by the CBOM, the CBOM performs an intelligent decision making by determining whether the input represents an out-of-tolerance case. If the input represents an out-of-tolerance case, the CBOM notifies a user or other business parties across the distributed system of difficulties and delays in production. If the input does not represent an out-of-tolerance case, the optimization engine of the CBOM crafts a corrective action in response to the input.
-
Citations
58 Claims
-
1. A method for managing a bill of material (BOM) for a product comprising parts contributed by a plurality of parties in a distributed system comprising a brand-owner, at least one first-tier supplier and at least one first-tier distributor, wherein said BOM contains information regarding said parts and suppliers of said parts;
- the method comprising;
monitoring the distributed system for an arrival of an input entered by a first party in said distributed system, automatically determining whether said input represents an out-of-tolerance case, communicating said input to a second party when said input represents said out-of-tolerance case;
determining whether an alternative plan is available when said input represents said out-of-tolerance case; and
optimizing a resolution in response to said input when said input does not represent said out-of-tolerance case, whereby an automated collaboration between said first and second parties is enabled so that when said first party is unable to respond to said input, said input is communicated to said second party in order to allow said second party to process said input. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- the method comprising;
-
11. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a bill of material (BOM) for a product comprising parts contributed by a plurality of parties in a distributed system comprising a brand-owner, at least one first-tier supplier and at least one first-tier distributor, wherein said BOM contains information regarding said parts and suppliers of said parts;
- the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising;
instructions for monitoring for an arrival of an input entered by a first party in said distributed system;
instructions for determining whether said input represents an out-of-tolerance case;
instructions for communicating said input to a second party when said input represents said out-of-tolerance case;
instructions for determining whether an alternative plan is available when said input represents said out-of-tolerance case; and
instructions for optimizing a resolution in response to said input when said input does not represent said out-of-tolerance case. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
- the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising;
-
21. A method for managing a bill of material (BOM) for a product comprising parts contributed by a plurality of parties in a distributed system comprising a brand-owner, at least one first-tier supplier, one second-tier supplier, and one first-tier distributor, wherein said BOM contains information regarding said parts and suppliers of said parts;
- the method comprising;
monitoring the distributed system for an input entered by a first party in said distributed system;
automatically determining whether said input represents an out-of-tolerance case;
optimizing a resolution in response to said input when said input does not represent an out-of-tolerance case, and communicating said input to a second party in said distributed system when said input represents an out-of-tolerance case;
whereby an automated collaboration between said first and second parties is enabled so that when said first party is unable to respond to said input, said input is communicated to said second party to allow said second party to process said input. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58)
- the method comprising;
-
38. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a bill of material (BOM) for a product comprising parts contributed by a plurality of parties in a distributed system comprising a brand-owner, at least one first-tier supplier, one second-tier supplier, and one first-tier distributor, wherein said BOM contains information regarding said parts and suppliers of said parts, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising:
-
instructions for monitoring for an input entered by a first party in said distributed system;
instructions for determining whether said input represents an out-of-tolerance case;
instructions for communicating said input to a second party in said distributed system when said input represents an out-of-tolerance case; and
instructions for optimizing a resolution in response to said input when said input does not represent an out-of-tolerance case.
-
-
57. A computer system for a bill of material (BOM) for a product comprising parts contributed by a plurality of parties in a distributed system, the computer system comprising:
-
a rules engine comprising a set of rules applicable to an input;
an optimization engine comprising a database of alternative sources of said parts for determining an alternative plan in response to said input; and
a server layer comprising instructions for servicing application programs and maintaining a BOM database.
-
Specification