APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSPORTATION AND UPSELLING OF PRODUCT

• US 20080154659A1
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: SANDERFUR, Bret R., BETTES, Richard B., JAFFE, Stephen E., TREVATHAN, Matthew B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,865 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0838 Historical data

Abstract

A system and method for using product profiling to maximize load capacity of a vehicle. The method comprises defining product profiles and retrieving product information associated with the product profiles. The method further includes performing cubing operations for products associated with the product information. The system includes components to perform the method steps.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

defining product profiles;

retrieving product information associated with the product profiles; and

performing cubing operations for products associated with the product information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the product profiles include at least one of seasonal product adjustments, customer profiling, historical profiles of product inventories, profitability of products, top selling products and ordering profiles.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining product profiles are based on rules.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the rules are descriptors or criteria used for the retrieval of the product information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the product information is retrieved as percentages or other statistical information.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising summing the percentages of the products.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the summing is calculated by:

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising correcting a proportionality of the products.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the correcting of the proportionality of the products is calculated by:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the cubing method is performed after the correcting of the proportionality of the products.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a summary of the products which match the product profiles, the summary includes statistical information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are implemented in web based transactions or other real time transactions.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving product information includes sorting the product information by a ranking.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a break point to eliminate a skewed proportion of the products.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the cubing operations include a determination as to whether at least one of a weight limit and volume limit has been exceeded.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein when the weight limit is exceed certain product is removed until the weight limit is not exceeded.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the certain product is removed based on its ranking.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving product information from past shipments.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determination of whether retrieved products are in inventory or currently being manufactured, wherein when the products are in inventory or currently being manufactured, the product remains on the list for future shipment.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

when the product is not in inventory or currently being manufactured, a determination is made as to whether there is a replacement product or another product,

when there is a replacement product, the replacement product is placed on the list;

when there is no replacement product, the another product is placed on the list.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising, as products are purchased, storing a list of the products to be shipped in a profiling system with statistical information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the statistical information includes at least one of a vehicle type ID identifying the vehicle in which the products are to be shipped, a date the products were ordered, the products in the vehicle, a maximum volume and weight for the vehicle, a number of times the vehicle with the products has been purchased, and a customer that purchased the products to be shipped in the vehicle.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider under a subscription and/or fee agreement and/or based on advertising content to one or more third parties.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains and supports a computer infrastructure that performs the steps of claim 1.

25. A method comprising:

retrieving rules for defining products;

providing a summary of the products which match the rules;

correcting a proportionality of the products; and

performing cubing operations for the products based on a calculated correct proportionality.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising summing of percentages associated with the products and using the summed percentages for calculating the correcting of the proportionality.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the correcting of the proportionality is calculated by:

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the cubing operations are performed after the correcting of the proportionality.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising retrieving product information associated with the rules from historical product information.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the summary includes statistical information of the products.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising sorting the products by a ranking.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising providing a break point to eliminate a skewed proportion of products from being shipped.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein the cubing operations include at least one of a weight cubing estimation and a volume cubing estimation.

34. The method of claim 25, wherein the product information is retrieved as percentages.

35. The method of claim 25, wherein the steps of claim 25 are implemented in web based transactions or other real time transactions.

36. The method of claim 25, further comprising retrieving product information from past shipments.

37. The method of claim 25, further comprising, as products are purchased, storing a list of the products to be shipped in a profiling system with statistical information.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising determining whether retrieved products are in inventory or currently being manufactured, wherein when the products are in inventory or currently being manufactured, the product remains on the list for future shipment.

39. The method of claim 25, wherein the steps of claim 25 are provided by a service provider under a subscription and/or fee agreement and/or based on advertising content to one or more third parties.

40. The method of claim 25, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains and supports a computer infrastructure that performs the steps of claim 25.

41. A method comprising:

performing a past time period shipment inventory;

retrieving information for products associated with the past time period shipment inventory;

determining whether the retrieved information is for products still in existence; and

cubing the products associated with the retrieved information for future shipment, when the products were not previously subject to cubing operations.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein:

when the products are still in existence, the products remain on a list for the future shipping; and

when the products are not in existence, replacement products are placed on the list for the future shipping.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

preparing a list of product to be loaded for future shipment;

storing the list in a profiling system with a vehicle type ID identifying the vehicle, a date the products were ordered, each product in the vehicle, a maximum volume and weight for the vehicle, a number of times a vehicle type has been purchased, and a customer that purchased the products to be loaded into the vehicle.

44. A method for deploying an application using product profiling to maximize load capacity of a vehicle, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

retrieve product profiles;

retrieve product information associated with the product profiles; and

performing cubing operations for products associated with the product information.

45. A system comprising at least one of a hardware and software component for maximizing load capacity of a vehicle using product profiling, the at least one hardware and software component configured to:

retrieve product profiles;

retrieve product information associated with the product profiles; and

perform cubing operations for products associated with the product information.

46. The system of claim 45, further comprising at least one of a hardware and software component to correct a proportionality of the products associated with the product information.

47. The system of claim 45, wherein the at least one of a hardware and software component resides on a server provided by a service provider.

48. The system of claim 45, further comprising at least one of a hardware and software component which creates a break point to eliminate skewing of the products.

49. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

retrieve product profiles;

retrieve product information associated with the product profiles; and

perform cubing operations for products associated with the product information.