Extreme Capacity Management in an Electronic Marketplace Environment

• US 20070214067A1
• Filed: 05/21/2007
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: JDA Technologies US, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Chaturvedi, Vinatha, Notani, Ranjit, Chaturvedi, Harsha, Ghaisas, Vinayak
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• 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 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A system (10) for managing a capacity extreme at a first entity (12) in a supply chain includes a planning application (36) that receives status data for at least the first entity (12) reflecting the capacity extreme at the first entity (12) and generates a plan (34) according to the status data. A manager application (44) receives the plan (34) and, according to the plan (34), automatically initiates at least one service in an attempt to resolve at least a portion of the capacity extreme through interaction with one or more other entities (12). The manager application (44) selects the service from among a plurality of available services based on a monetary value to the first entity (12) of a resolution expected to be available using the selected service relative to other services.

Claims

1. An electronic marketplace for managing excess or under capacity at one or more enterprises in a supply chain, comprising:

a planning application operable to receive status data for a plurality of enterprises in the supply chain, the status data reflecting excess or under capacity at a first enterprise in the supply chain, the planning application operable to generate a plan according to the status data for the plurality of enterprises in the supply chain and further according to a model incorporating the plurality of enterprises in the supply chain; and

a manager application operable to receive the plan and, according to the plan, to automatically initiate at least one service in an attempt to resolve at least a portion of the excess or under capacity through interaction with one or more other enterprises, the manager application operable to select the service from among a plurality of available services based on a monetary value to the first enterprise of a resolution expected to be available using the selected service, the manager application further operable to manage transfer of items from or to the first enterprise from one or more other enterprises to resolve the excess or under capacity, respectively.

2. The marketplace of claim 1, wherein the status data comprises data selected from the group consisting of:

demand data;

supply data;

inventory data; and

capacity data.

3. The marketplace of claim 1, wherein the manager application is operable to, in response to initiating the service, perform an action to resolve at least a portion of the excess or under capacity, the action selected from the group consisting of:

sell items to another entity according to a previously existing contract between the first entity and the other entity;

purchase items from another entity according to a previously existing contract between the first entity and the other entity;

sell items to another entity in an auction;

purchase items from another entity in a reverse auction;

post items in a catalog of the first entity for sale to another entity;

purchase items posted in a catalog of another entity;

post items in an inventory listing service for sale to another entity; and

purchase items posted in an inventory listing service by another entity.

4. The marketplace of claim 1, wherein the manager application is operable to initiate multiple services to attempt to resolve the excess or under capacity, a first service being initiated to attempt to resolve a first portion of the excess or under capacity and a second service being initiated to attempt to resolve a second portion of the excess or under capacity.

5. A method of managing a capacity extreme at a first entity in a supply chain, comprising:

receiving status data for at least the first entity reflecting the capacity extreme at the first entity;

automatically generating a plan according to the status data; and

according to the plan, automatically initiating at least one service in an attempt to resolve at least a portion of the capacity extreme through interaction with one or more other entities, the service being selected from among a plurality of available services based on a monetary value to the first entity of a resolution expected to be available using the selected service relative to other services.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first entity is a first enterprise and the plan is a supply chain plan for at least a portion of the supply chain containing the first enterprise.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the status data comprises data selected from the group consisting of:

demand data;

supply data;

inventory data; and

capacity data.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the capacity extreme is selected from the group consisting of excess capacity and under capacity.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving status data from one or more other entities in the supply chain, the plan being generated according to all of the status data for the supply chain.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the plan is generated further according to a model incorporating at least the first entity.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising, in response to initiating the service, performing an action to resolve at least a portion of the capacity extreme, the action selected from the group consisting of:

sell items to another entity according to a previously existing contract between the first entity and the other entity;

purchase items from another entity according to a previously existing contract between the first entity and the other entity;

sell items to another entity in an auction;

purchase items from another entity in a reverse auction;

post items in a catalog of the first entity for sale to another entity;

purchase items posted in a catalog of another entity;

post items in an inventory listing service for sale to another entity; and

purchase items posted in an inventory listing service by another entity.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising initiating multiple services to attempt to resolve the capacity extreme, a first service being initiated in an attempt to resolve a first portion of the capacity extreme and a second service being initiated in an attempt to resolve a second portion of the capacity extreme.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising interacting with the other entities automatically to resolve the capacity extreme according to the plan.

14. A computer-readable medium having encoded theron software for managing a capacity extreme at a first entity in a supply chain, the software comprising instructions for:

receiving status data for at least the first entity reflecting the capacity extreme at the first entity;

automatically generating a plan according to the status data; and

according to the plan, automatically initiating at least one service in an attempt to resolve at least a portion of the capacity extreme through interaction with one or more other entities, the service being selected from among a plurality of available services based on a monetary value to the first entity of a resolution expected to be available using the selected service relative to other services.