Method and System for Evaluating Consumer Demand for Multiple Products and Services at Remotely Located Equipment
First Claim
1. A method for estimating consumer demand for a product based on sales data for the product at remotely located equipment comprising:
- recording at least one of;
the occurrence of one or more events at the remotely located equipment;
product inventory levels at multiple time intervals at the remotely located equipment; and
equipment operating status at multiple time intervals at the remotely located equipment; and
calculating a consumer demand estimate for the product based on a hierarchy of reliability, quality and quantity of at least one of the recorded inventory levels, recorded equipment operating status, and recorded occurrences of one or more events.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system are provided for estimating consumer demand at remotely located equipment and establishing dispatch schedules for servicing the remotely located equipment. Data from the remotely located equipment may be classified into a hierarchy or various levels of reliability for use in calculating a consumer demand estimate for each product and/or each service available at the remotely located equipment. A full set of sales data for each product or service over multiple time intervals with no equipment problems, no out of stock conditions and no other operating problems may be classified as the highest level of reliability and predictability possible for calculating a consumer demand estimate. The lowest level of data used to calculate a consumer demand estimate may be a historical average of daily sales for all products or services sold over a long period of time at the remotely located equipment.
62 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method for estimating consumer demand for a product based on sales data for the product at remotely located equipment comprising:
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recording at least one of; the occurrence of one or more events at the remotely located equipment; product inventory levels at multiple time intervals at the remotely located equipment; and equipment operating status at multiple time intervals at the remotely located equipment; and calculating a consumer demand estimate for the product based on a hierarchy of reliability, quality and quantity of at least one of the recorded inventory levels, recorded equipment operating status, and recorded occurrences of one or more events. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for estimating consumer demand for a service based on sales data for the service at remotely located equipment comprising:
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recording at least one of; the occurrence of one or more events at the remotely located equipment; service inventory levels at multiple time intervals at the remotely located equipment; and equipment operating status at multiple time intervals at the remotely located equipment; and calculating a consumer demand estimate for the service based on a hierarchy of reliability, quality and quantity of at least one of the recorded inventory levels, recorded equipment operating status, and recorded occurrences of one or more events. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A system for acquiring product sales data at remotely located equipment and calculating a consumer demand estimate for at least one product sold at the remotely located equipment comprising:
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the remotely located equipment operable to receive a request for information from a network operations center; an external network for communicating information between the network operations center and the remotely located equipment; a data block stored at the remotely located equipment and having at least one of;
a set of product sales records, a set of equipment operating status records and a set of event occurrence records;the remotely located equipment operable to communicate the data block to the network operations center using the external network; the network operations center operable to store the data block; the network operations center operable to analyze the data block; and a predictive algorithm at the network operations center operable to calculate a consumer demand estimate for each product sold at the remotely located equipment based on a hierarchy of reliability, quality and quantity of at least one of the product sales records, the equipment operating status records, and the event occurrence records. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A system for acquiring service sales data at remotely located equipment and calculating a consumer demand estimate for at least one service provided at the remotely located equipment comprising:
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the remotely located equipment operable to receive a request for information from a network operations center; an external network for communicating information between the network operations center and the remotely located equipment; a data block stored at the remotely located equipment and having at least one of;
a set of service sales records, a set of equipment operating status records and a set of event occurrence records;the remotely located equipment operable to communicate the data block to the network operations center using the external network; the network operations center operable to store the data block; the network operations center operable to analyze the data block; and a predictive algorithm at the network operations center operable to calculate a consumer demand estimate for each service sold at the remotely located equipment based on a hierarchy of reliability, quality and quantity of at least one of the service sales records, the equipment operating status records, and the event occurrence records. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification