Methods, systems, and computer integrated program products for supply chain management

• US 20070124009A1
• Filed: 01/30/2006
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Thompson, Jenny, Sinha, Vikas, King, Stephen, Bradley, Randolph, Wilson, Chandler, Safavi, Alex
• Granted Patent: US 8,229,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/99
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G06G 1/14 in which a straight or curved line has to be drawn from given points on one or more input scales to one or more points on a result scale
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

A computer program product for managing a supply chain process to maintain equipment is described. The computer program product includes a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in the medium. The computer-readable program code includes a first executable portion for identifying and capturing data relevant to one or more sets of equipment maintenance requirements, a second executable portion for providing access to the capabilities of a plurality of inventory management, supply chain management, and equipment maintenance applications for preprocessing of the identified and captured data, a third executable portion for receiving the preprocessed data from the plurality of applications, and a fourth executable portion for integrating the preprocessed data into a solution to the one or more sets of equipment maintenance requirements.

Claims

29. A computer implemented method for managing a supply chain process to maintain equipment, said method comprising:

providing a business rule configuration (BRC) module that provides access to the capabilities of a plurality of inventory management, supply chain management, and equipment maintenance applications;

utilizing the BRC module to identify and capture data that is relevant to a set of equipment maintenance requirements;

applying the identified and captured data to the plurality of applications; and

receiving, from the BRC, a solution to the equipment maintenance requirements, based on an integration of the capabilities of the plurality of applications.

30-1. The method of claim 30 further comprising integrating at least two of:

a database application;

a data cleaning application;

a graphical user interface (GUI) application;

a distribution network optimization application;

a statistical demand forecasting application;

a strategic, global, or long term inventory optimization application;

a supply chain simulation;

an estimating or accounting application;

a sourcing optimization application;

a transportation optimization application;

a tactical, part-at-a-time, or day-to-day asset management application;

a web portal;

a warehouse inventory management application;

a procurement application;

a database reporting application;

a workflow manager application;

or a data set relevant to equipment maintenance requirements of the customer.

42. A method for maintaining operability of equipment, said method comprising the steps of:

determining that a component of the equipment requires replacement; and

replacing the component, the component being obtained from an inventory, the inventory being generated based on;

a demand forecast;

an optimization, based on the demand forecast, to determine which components are to be stored in the inventory; and

a risk assessment based on the optimization, the risk assessment including varying operation conditions for the equipment.