Inventory control system and method in recycle-oriented society

• US 20040254841A1
• Filed: 01/30/2004
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Hiroshige, Yuzo, Sakuma, Toshiyuki, Enomoto, Mitsuhiro, Sasaki, Hideyuki, Uozaki, Masayasu, Kumamoto, Kunio
• Granted Patent: US 7,624,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49815 Disassembling

Abstract

In a physical distribution model of the circulation type, synchronization is established between a reuse plan and a delivery/fabrication plan to thereby reasonably reduce the excess and deficiency of inventory articles at a confluence point of regenerated reusable articles and newly delivered component parts. With regard to newly delivered lower-level items, predict a variation or fluctuation of stock quantity based on at least a delivery schedule of them and a present stock amount along with usage plans in manufacturing processes. As for lower-level items of regenerated articles, predict a delivery due date and an expected number of such regenerated lower-level items based on at least a stock quantity of recovered items collected for reuse purposes and a lead time for taking regenerated lower-level items out of the collected items, thereby controlling, based on the both prediction results, the stock quantity of the lower-level items in manufacturing processes.

Claims

1. An inventory control system for controlling a stock quantity of lower-level items used for production of items (products) in production processes thereof, the system comprising:

new lower-level item stock prediction means for predicting, regarding lower-level items to be newly procured, a variation in stock quantity of the new lower-level items at least based on a delivery schedule of the new lower-level items and a present stock quantity along with a usage schedule in a production process; and

regenerated lower-level item delivery prediction means for predicting, regarding lower-level items of regenerated articles obtained from use-completed items collected for recovery, an expected delivery date and an expected number of the regenerated lower-level items based on at least a stock quantity of recovered items and a lead time for taking a regenerated lower-level item out of said items thus recovered,

wherein the system controls an inventory of lower-level items in production processes based on a stock prediction result of said new lower-level items and a delivery prediction result of the regenerated lower-level items.

2. An inventory control system for controlling a stock quantity of lower-level items used for production of items (products) in production processes thereof, the system comprising:

new lower-level item stock prediction means for predicting, regarding lower-level items to be newly procured, a variation in stock quantity of the new lower-level items at least based on a delivery schedule of the new lower-level items and a present stock quantity along with a usage schedule in a production process;

regenerated lower-level item deliverablility determination means for determining, concerning usage-completed items collected for recovery, whether it is possible to deliver lower-level items of recovered articles to be obtained from the recovered items based on a predefined delivery determination constraint;

recovered item deployment means for deploying, when the delivery is possible, said recovered items to lower-level items while taking account of a predefined regenerated lower-level item deployment constraint;

regenerated lower-level item delivery prediction means for calculating a delivery schedule of the regenerated lower-level items based on a result of deployment to the lower-level items and a predefined delivery schedule calculation constraint;

lower-level item stock prediction means for predicting an inventory of a lower-level item with a combination of a new article and a regenerated article from a stock prediction result of said new lower-level items and a delivery prediction result of said regenerated lower-level items; and

regenerated lower-level item acceptance determination means for determining whether acceptance of said regenerated lower-level items is possible or not based on a stock prediction result of the lower-level items with the new article and the regenerated article combined together and a predefined stock capacity constraint,

wherein the system updates the stock prediction of the lower-level items based on an acceptance determination result to thereby control the inventory of lower-level items.

3. The inventory control system according to claim 2, wherein said regenerated lower-level item deliverablity determination means, recovered item deployment means and regenerated lower-level item delivery prediction means are present at a collection base point for management of recovered articles whereas said regenerated lower-level item acceptance determination means is at a regeneration base point for disassembly and reuse of recovered items, and wherein

when acceptance is permitted as a result of the determination by said regenerated lower-level item acceptance means, stock information of said collection base point is transferred to stock information of said regeneration base point.

4. The inventory control system according to claim 2, further comprising:

display means for displaying stock prediction information of lower-level items updated based on said acceptance determination result.

5. The inventory control system according to claim 4, further comprising:

stock excess/deficiency calculation means for calculating stock excess and deficiency of the lower-level items from stock prediction information updated based on the acceptance determination result of said regenerated lower-level items and said predefined stock capacity constraint, wherein stock excess/deficiency information thus calculated is displayed at said display means.

6. An inventory control method for controlling a stock quantity of lower-level items used for production of items (products) in production processes thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

predicting, regarding lower-level items to be newly procured, a variation in stock quantity of the new lower-level items at least based on a delivery schedule of the new lower-level items and a present stock quantity along with a usage schedule in a production process;

predicting, regarding lower-level items of regenerated articles obtained from use-completed items collected for recovery, an expected delivery date and an expected number of the regenerated lower-level items based on at least a stock quantity of recovered items and a lead time for taking a regenerated lower-level item out of said items thus recovered; and

controlling the stock quantity of lower-level items in production processes based on a stock prediction result of said new lower-level items and a delivery prediction result of the regenerated lower-level items.

11. A computer-readable storage medium recording a program for causing a computer to execute a procedure of the inventory control method as recited in claim 6.

7. An inventory control method for controlling a stock quantity of lower-level items used for production of items (products) in production processes thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

predicting, regarding lower-level items to be newly procured, a variation in stock quantity of the new lower-level items at least based on a delivery schedule of the new lower-level items and a present stock quantity along with a usage schedule in a production process;

determining, concerning usage-completed items collected for recovery, whether it is possible to deliver lower-level items of recovered articles to be obtained from the recovered items based on a predefined delivery determination constraint;

deploying, when the delivery is possible, said recovered items to lower-level items while taking account of a predefined regenerated lower-level item deployment constraint;

calculating a delivery schedule of the regenerated lower-level items based on a result of deployment to the lower-level items and a predefined delivery schedule calculation constraint;

predicting an inventory of a lower-level item with a combination of a new article and a regenerated article from a stock prediction result of said new lower-level items and a delivery prediction result of said regenerated lower-level items;

determining whether acceptance of said regenerated lower-level items is possible or not based on a stock prediction result of the lower-level items with the new article and the regenerated article combined together and a predefined stock capacity constraint; and

updating the stock prediction of the lower-level items based on an acceptance determination result to thereby control the inventory of lower-level items.

8. The inventory control method according to claim 7, wherein the processing for said regenerated lower-level item deliverablity determination, the processing for deploying the recovered items to lower-level items and the processing for the regenerated lower-level item delivery prediction are executed at a collection base point for management of recovered articles whereas the processing for said regenerated lower-level item acceptance determination is at a regeneration base point for disassembly and reuse of recovered items, and wherein

when acceptance is permitted as a result of said regenerated lower-level item acceptance determination, stock information of said collection base point is transferred to stock information of said regeneration base point.

9. The inventory control method according to claim 7, further comprising:

displaying stock prediction information of lower-level items updated based on said acceptance determination result.

10. The inventory control method according to claim 9, further comprising:

calculating stock excess and deficiency of the lower-level items from stock prediction information updated based on the acceptance determination result of said regenerated lower-level items and said predefined stock capacity constraint, and then displaying stock excess/deficiency information thus calculated at a display means.

12. A computer-readable storage medium recording a program for causing a computer to execute a procedure of the inventory control method as recited in claim 7.