METHOD FOR FACILITATING AND MAINTAINING AN ACTIVE PARTS DATA REPOSITORY

• US 20080154681A1
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zulpa, Paul A., Donovan, Thomas E., Clarke, Charles Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 7,742,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• 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 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code for facilitating database management processes for an enterprise is provided. The storage medium includes instructions for causing a computer to implement a method. The method includes extracting part data relating to a part from a data storage device, retrieving activity data related to the part, which includes demand data, purchase data, and creation data. The method further includes evaluating the part data and the activity data, associating a status code with the part data based upon results of the evaluation, and storing the part data and the status code in the data storage device. The database management processes are accomplished by a parts database management software application.

Claims

1. A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code for facilitating database management processes for an enterprise via a communications network, the storage medium including instructions for causing a computer to implement a method, comprising:

extracting part data relating to a part from a data storage device;

retrieving activity data related to the part, the activity data including;

demand data;

purchase data; and

creation data including a date a part number for the part is added to the data storage device;

evaluating the part data and the activity data;

associating a status code with the part data based upon results of the evaluating, the status code assigned being one of an active status and an inactive status; and

storing the part data and the status code in the data storage device, wherein facilitating the database management processes is accomplished by a parts database management software application;

wherein evaluating the activity data includes;

determining an occurrence of a demand for the part;

assessing currency of the demand; and

quantifying the demand;

wherein results of the determining the occurrence, the assessing the currency, and the quantifying the demand causes the parts database management software application to;

associate the status code with the part data when a first condition is met, the first condition relating to at least one of an absence or presence of the demand, the currency of the demand, and the quantity of the demand; and

perform additional evaluations of the activity data when the first condition is not met.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the part data includes:

the part number;

a part name; and

a part description.

3. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes forecast data related to the part number.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes orders received related to the part number.

5. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein evaluating the activity data includes determining whether the part number is owned by a group of the enterprise, wherein the results of the determining causes the parts database management software application to associate the status code with the part data.

6. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the results of the evaluating are reviewed by a council for the part numbers having the status code.