Methods and Systems for Collaborative Demand Planning and Replenishment

• US 20130041785A1
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jean Young, Richard Young
• Original Assignee: Webconcepts, Inc.
• Inventors: Young, Raymond
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,599 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• 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

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for generating replenishment orders for products sold to a multi-store retailer. Store trait data is mapped with planogram information and the mapped data is used to generate a fixture level safety stock for a particular product in a particular store. The fixture level safety stock triggers fixture level replenishment orders.

Claims

1. A vendor managed inventory system that manages inventory across stores of a retailer, the system comprising:

a retailer network interface configured to communicate with the retailer over a network; and

a vendor management inventory server capable of communicating with the retailer via the network interface and configured to;

receive store-level trait and store-level product information at a fixture level regarding first and second fixtures where the fixtures are referenced by fixture identifiers;

receive retailer planogram information of at least one store of the retailer;

generate store-level mapped data by matching fixture identifiers in the trait and product information with the planogram information;

determine fixture-level replenishment levels for products on the first and second fixtures as a function of the store-level mapped data and the trait information;

trigger a fixture-level replenishment order, by fixture identifier, when a fixture-level the products fall below a determined fixture-level safety stock for the first fixture relative to the to second fixture; and

enable a vendor to provide the replenishment levels of the products to the store.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information lacks store identifier information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information includes fixture identifiers.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information includes product identifiers associated with at least the first and the second fixtures.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information includes a product vendor.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is configured to receive store trait information for multiple stores of the retailer.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the store trait information includes at least store numbers and the fixture identifiers.

8. The system of claim 6, the fixture-level replenishment levels for one of the stores is different from that of another one of the stores.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the store trait information includes demographic information and where the fixture-level replenishment levels depend at least in part on the demographic information.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the store trait information includes psychographic information where the fixture-level replenishment levels depend at least in part on the psychographic information.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels with respect to a week at least in part as a function of a day of the week.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured determine the replenishment levels at least in part as a function of a specific future date.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels at least in part as a function of an historic trend in product demand.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels at least in part as a function of an expected trend in product demand.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of the vendor managed inventory server is further configure to determine replenishment levels based on analyzing fixture level point of sale data from the store.