Procurement workbench

• US 20050216325A1
• Filed: 03/07/2005
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: CHANTAL, ULLRICH, ZIAD, ABO-HASNA
• Granted Patent: US 8,050,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource

Abstract

The successful monitoring of procurement processes requires that dates in the supply chain be calculated exactly and tracked accordingly. The central calculation of dates ensures that different applications arrive at the same results, optimizing their accuracy. Monitoring the dates will allow a user to quickly gain an overview of the current procurement situation and react on time to potential delays. Dates from a purchase order are transferred to the event management system and used to calculate base dates. A schedule bar is provided in the event management system, and includes dates received or calculated by the event management system. An activity is triggered based upon the occurrence or nonoccurrence of an event by a purchaser order date or a calculated date.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring procurement dates of an article via an event management system in a computerized business system, comprising the steps of:

generating a purchase order having dates;

transferring the purchase order dates to the event management system;

calculating base dates from at least the purchase order dates;

providing a schedule bar in the event management system, the schedule bar including dates received or calculated by the event management system;

triggering an activity based upon the occurrence or nonoccurrence of an event by a purchaser order date or a calculated date; and

displaying the received or calculated dates in a procurement monitoring dialog display.

2. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 1, wherein the base dates are calculated using at least one schedule and the purchase order dates.

3. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 2, wherein the at least one schedule provides transit time for the article.

4. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 1, further comprising the calculation of non-base dates.

5. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 4, wherein the non-base dates are calculated based upon one or more base dates.

6. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 5, wherein, if a base date is manually changed, the non-changed base and non-base dates are recalculated.

7. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 1, further comprising the step of reactively or actively performing a task.

8. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 7, wherein the step of reactively or actively performing a task comprises the step of reactively performing a task in response to a triggered activity.

9. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 7, wherein the step of reactively performing a task comprises a task selected from the group consisting of a reminder, a date shift, a cancellation, a correspondence, or combinations thereof.

10. The method for procurement monitoring of claim 1, wherein the step of reactively or actively performing a task comprises the step of actively performing a task prior to the triggering of an activity.

11. A computerized event management system for monitoring and managing procurement dates within a business enterprise, comprising:

purchase order dates and purchase order information received from a purchase order;

base dates calculated from at least the purchase order dates and transit times calculated from purchase order information applied to a transportation time schedule;

non-base dates calculated from at least base dates or purchase order dates;

a schedule bar including dates received or calculated by the event management system; and

a triggered activity based upon the occurrence or nonoccurrence of an event by a purchaser order date or a calculated date;

wherein the reminder includes a cancellation threat which indicates to the event management system that no further are to be generated.

12. The computerized event management system of claim 11, wherein the transit times reflect a transportation chain which includes a main transportation time, lead transportation time, and post transportation time.

13. The computerized event management system of claim 11, further comprising a maintenance dialog having a mechanism to input information regarding the main transportation time, lead transportation time, and post transportation time of the transportation chain.

14. The computerized event management system of claim 11, further comprising additional calendars having temporal information used to calculated base dates and non-base dates.

15. The computerized event management system of claim 11, further comprising a forecasting mechanism adapted to calculated the impact of a first date change on the other dates.

16. A program product for monitoring and managing procurement dates within a business enterprise, the program product comprising machine-readable program code for causing, when executed, one or more machines to perform the following method steps:

generating at least one purchase order having dates;

transferring the purchase order dates to the event management system;

calculating base dates from at least the purchase order dates;

providing a schedule bar in the event management system, the schedule bar including dates received or calculated by the event management system;

triggering an activity based upon the occurrence or nonoccurrence of an event by a purchaser order date or a calculated date;

assigning an identification number to each respective purchase order date, base date, and non-base date; and

storing the identification number in the business system.

17. The program product for monitoring and managing procurement dates of claim 16 further comprising changing a date.

18. The program product for monitoring and managing procurement dates of claim 16 further comprising merging dates generated at the item level prior to purchase order generation with the purchase order dates if the individual purchase order items correspond and creating a data record in the schedule bar for individual purchase order items which do not correspond.

19. The program product for monitoring and managing procurement dates of claim 16 further comprising providing a schedule bar for each respective purchase order generated.

20. The program product for monitoring and managing procurement dates of claim 16 further comprising the step of setting a reminder for at least one date.