Redistribution of Parts in a Distribution Network

• US 20090177516A1
• Filed: 03/18/2009
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: i2 Technologies US Incorporated (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Birjandi, Rosa H., Shapiro, Joel A., Bakkalbasi, Omer, Veerappanaicker, Dharmaraj
• Granted Patent: US 7,886,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• 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

Abstract

Redistributing parts includes defining locations. An actual inventory of parts is established among the locations, and a desired allocation of the parts is established among the locations. A demand for the parts at each location is determined using the actual inventory and the desired allocation. Paths are determined, where a path transfers an excess part from one location to another location. A transfer function describing a cost of transferring the excess part along the paths is generated. The transfer function is optimized to achieve the desired allocation of the excess parts at a minimum cost.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for redistributing a plurality of parts, comprising:

defining, by a server, a plurality of locations including at least one dummy location;

establishing, by the server, an actual inventory of a plurality of parts among the plurality of locations;

establishing, by the server, a desired allocation of the plurality of parts among the plurality of locations;

determining, by the server, a demand for the plurality of parts at each of the plurality of locations using the actual inventory and the desired allocation;

determining, by the server, a plurality of paths, each path operable to transfer at least one of the plurality of parts from one of the plurality of locations location to another one of the plurality of locations;

generating, by the server, a transfer function describing a cost of transferring a plurality of excess parts along the plurality of paths; and

optimizing, by the server, the transfer function to achieve the desired allocation of the plurality of excess parts at a minimum cost.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transfer function describes a cost associated with transferring the plurality of excess parts along a plurality of alternative paths.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising optimizing the transfer function by minimizing the transfer function.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the plurality of paths by sending a notification if there is no path between one location and another location.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing the desired allocation by calculating an optimized allocation of the plurality of excess parts among the plurality of locations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the dummy location comprises a positive demand for attracting the plurality of excess parts.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of paths includes at least one path to the dummy location that is associated with an infinite transfer cost.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the dummy location comprises a positive demand, the positive demand is the difference between a total excess and a total demand.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising satisfying a constraint requiring that the parts transferred to one of the plurality of locations and the parts transferred from the one of the plurality of locations satisfy the demand for the parts at the one of the plurality of locations.