Business demand projection system and method
First Claim
1. A computer implemented production scheduling system for projecting future business demand in a plurality of time intervals in at least one business day, for at least one business item, accounting for recurring variations in actual business demand for the business item, and for scheduling production of the business item, the system comprising:
- a memory divided into separate files including a database of day models, each day model defining any recurring business event affecting a volume or distribution of actual business demand data for at least one business item over a plurality of time intervals during the business day, and including a past business demand curve for each business item, each past business demand curve containing in each of the plurality of time intervals during a business day a percentage of total actual business demand for a business item, and including a sales day file for storing for each business day at least one day model, each day model including at least one past product demand curve;
a data input means for receiving and entering actual business demand data, and for storing the actual business demand data in the memory;
a target projection means coupled to the memory for projecting for a business item a target total demand for at least one business day according to the past business demand curve for the business item in at least one day model, the target means storing the target total demand in the memory;
an interval projection means coupled to the memory for projecting for the business item an interval business demand curve for the plurality of future time intervals by distributing the projected target total demand for the business item over the future time intervals according to the past business demand curve for the business item, for projecting for each future time interval, business demand for the business item, the interval projection means storing the interval business demand curve in the memory;
monitoring means coupled to the memory, for monitoring actual business demand data for the business item in selected past time intervals, and storing the actual business demand data in the memory;
revision means coupled to the memory, for retrieving from the memory the interval business demand curve, and the actual business demand data for the business item in the selected past time intervals, and revising the interval business demand curve for a current and selected future time intervals in response to variations in the business demand data for the business item in the selected past time intervals relative to the projected interval business demand curve for the selected past time intervals for the business item to provide a revised projected interval business demand in the selected future time intervals for the business item; and
production schedule means coupled to the memory for producing a production schedule for the business item according to the projected target total demand, and the interval business demand curve.
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Abstract
A business demand based control system and method stores past business demand data during past time intervals for use with other data to compute business demands in such manner that the past business demand data is used to project the business demands in current and near-future time intervals. The system measures and stores the business demand data for a plurality of time intervals and a plurality of products or tasks, and projects the business demand for a plurality of products or tasks for near-future time intervals using percentage based demand curves. The system allows the creation of a number of demand curves for the items to determine near future demand, using defined functions and variables. Business demand projections for current and near-future time intervals are revised for a plurality of business items in response to variances in actual business demand data in time intervals just prior to the current time interval.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A computer implemented production scheduling system for projecting future business demand in a plurality of time intervals in at least one business day, for at least one business item, accounting for recurring variations in actual business demand for the business item, and for scheduling production of the business item, the system comprising:
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a memory divided into separate files including a database of day models, each day model defining any recurring business event affecting a volume or distribution of actual business demand data for at least one business item over a plurality of time intervals during the business day, and including a past business demand curve for each business item, each past business demand curve containing in each of the plurality of time intervals during a business day a percentage of total actual business demand for a business item, and including a sales day file for storing for each business day at least one day model, each day model including at least one past product demand curve; a data input means for receiving and entering actual business demand data, and for storing the actual business demand data in the memory; a target projection means coupled to the memory for projecting for a business item a target total demand for at least one business day according to the past business demand curve for the business item in at least one day model, the target means storing the target total demand in the memory; an interval projection means coupled to the memory for projecting for the business item an interval business demand curve for the plurality of future time intervals by distributing the projected target total demand for the business item over the future time intervals according to the past business demand curve for the business item, for projecting for each future time interval, business demand for the business item, the interval projection means storing the interval business demand curve in the memory; monitoring means coupled to the memory, for monitoring actual business demand data for the business item in selected past time intervals, and storing the actual business demand data in the memory; revision means coupled to the memory, for retrieving from the memory the interval business demand curve, and the actual business demand data for the business item in the selected past time intervals, and revising the interval business demand curve for a current and selected future time intervals in response to variations in the business demand data for the business item in the selected past time intervals relative to the projected interval business demand curve for the selected past time intervals for the business item to provide a revised projected interval business demand in the selected future time intervals for the business item; and production schedule means coupled to the memory for producing a production schedule for the business item according to the projected target total demand, and the interval business demand curve. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer implemented method for projecting future business demand data in a plurality of time intervals during at least one business day for a plurality of business items, for producing selected business items during the business day, accounting for recurring variations in actual business demand data, the method operable in a computer system including a memory for storing a plurality of files and procedures, the method comprising the steps of:
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authoring a demand curve master file, including a master demand curve definition for each business item and a weighting factor, each master demand curve definition associated with at least one day model, and storing the demand curve master file in the memory; storing in the memory a past business demand curve file comprising a plurality of past business demand curves, each past business demand curve comprising actual business demand data for a business item in a plurality of time intervals as percentages of total actual business demand data for the business item over the plurality of time intervals, wherein there is one past business demand curve for each master demand curve definition associated with each day model; storing in the memory an actual business demand file including actual business demand data for each business item in each of a plurality of time intervals; storing in the memory a sales day file including actual business demand data for each business item on each business day, and associating with each business day at least one day model; periodically updating the plurality of past business demand curves in the past business demand curve file for recent past time intervals by applying the actual business demand data for each business item in each recent past time interval from the actual business demand file to the past business demand curve for the business item according to the weighting factor of the master demand curve definition in the demand curve master file, and storing the updated past demand demand curves in the memory; projecting a target total demand for each business item over a plurality of time intervals, and storing each target total demand in the memory; projecting an interval business demand for each business item in each of a plurality of future time intervals and storing each interval business demand in the memory; displaying the target total demand, and interval business demand for selected business items; producing selected business items in the plurality of time intervals according to the projected interval business demand for the selected business items; monitoring actual business demand data for the selected business items in selected past time intervals; revising the interval business demand for the selected business items for a current and selected future time intervals in response to the variations in actual business demand data in the selected past time intervals relative to the projected interval business demand for the selected past time intervals to revise the projected interval business demand for plurality of business items in the selected future time intervals; and
,producing the selected business items in the selected future time intervals according to the revised projected interval business demand. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification