Inventory managing method for automatic inventory retrieval and apparatus thereof

• US 6,338,053 B2
• Filed: 07/14/1998
• Issued: 01/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Rieko, Uehara, Tadahiro, Yoshida, Hiroyuki, Sakurai, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Choules, Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Application Number:
  US09/114,517
• Publication Number:
  US 20010042059A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28, 705/22, 705/29, 707/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• 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 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Individual attributes are designated to individual hierarchical levels of an inventory information tree stored in an inventory information tree structure storing unit. Each node that structures the inventory information tree defines at least the type of an attribute of a commodity, the value thereof, the inventory quantity of the commodity that satisfies a classification condition corresponding to the position on the tree, and the relation with another node. While an inventory retrieving unit is searching each node on the inventory information tree corresponding to a retrieving condition designated with a combination of the attribute of the commodity and the value thereof, the unit executes an inventory retrieving process for updating the inventory quantity of each node. The unit searches nodes with priority corresponding to their positions in hierarchical levels with attributes that are not included in a retrieving condition.

Claims

1. An inventory managing method for automatically performing an inventory managing process for a management object, comprising:

creating a tree of nodes formed in a plurality of levels, each level corresponding to a different attribute, and each node storing an attribute value and an inventory quantity corresponding to a number of items with the respective attribute value;

designating attributes and attribute values of an object as a retrieving condition; and

executing an inventory retrieving process updating the inventory quantity of each node while searching each node corresponding to the retrieving condition,

wherein each node with priority corresponding to a horizontal position of each node in levels corresponding to attributes that are not included in the retrieving condition is searched during searching each node on the binary tree data,

wherein a tree structure is traced to a level corresponding to an attribute that is not included in the retrieving condition, and a retrieving process for supplying a deficiency is performed at a node of the second highest priority in the level when the inventory quantity of a terminal node is insufficient to supply a required quantity,

wherein the inventory retrieving process is automatically performed according to a predetermined rule even in the case where the retrieving condition of the inventory retrieving process is not part of a query, by determining the attribute value of the management object.

2. An inventory managing apparatus comprising:

a database table generator generating nodes in a tree structure, wherein each of the nodes includes an attribute, an attribute value, an inventory quantity of the attribute value, and a relation of the link to another node; and

an inventory retrieving unit searching each node on the tree structure corresponding to a retrieving condition defined with a combination of the attribute and the attribute value wherein each node with a priority corresponding to a position of each node in each level corresponding to attributes that are not included in the retrieving condition is searched,

wherein the inventory retrieving process is automatically performed according to a predetermined rule even in the case where the retrieving condition of the inventory retrieving process is not part of a query, by determining the attribute value of the management object.

3. The apparatus as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

an inventory stocking unit executing an inventory stocking process updating the inventory quantity of each node while searching each node on the tree structure corresponding to a stocking condition defined with a combination of the attribute and an attribute value.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2, further comprising:

a tree structure creating unit creating tree structure data from a database table,

wherein said inventory retrieving unit executes the inventory retrieving process for the tree structure data.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 4,

wherein each record further comprises:

an identification information field for storing identification information having a value corresponding to a position of the node on the tree structure,

wherein said tree structure data on creating unit develops the tree structure data from said database table to a memory unit corresponding to contents of an identification information field.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein each record further comprises:

a management object type field storing a type of an object,

wherein said tree structure data creating unit develops the tree structure data for each object from said database table to the memory unit corresponding to content of the management object type field.

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein each node of the tree structure has node update information that represents whether or not the inventory quantity corresponding to each node has been updated by said inventory retrieving unit, and further comprising a database updating unit affecting an update state of the tree structure data corresponding to the node update information.

8. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein causing a computer to perform an inventory managing process comprising:

creating a tree of nodes formed in a plurality of levels, each level corresponding to a different attribute, and each node storing an attribute value and an inventory quantity corresponding to a number of items with the respective attribute value;

designating attributes and attribute values of an object as a retrieving condition; and

executing an inventory retrieving process updating the inventory quantity of each node while searching each node corresponding to the retrieving condition,

wherein each node with priority corresponding to a horizontal position of each node in levels corresponding to attributes that are not included in the retrieving condition is searched during searching each node on the binary tree data,

wherein the inventory retrieving process is automatically performed according to a predetermined rule even in the case where the retrieving condition of the inventory retrieving process is not part of a query, by determining the attribute value of the management object.

9. An inventory management method comprising:

forming a tree of nodes formed in a plurality of levels, each level corresponding to a different attribute, and each node storing an attribute value and an inventory quantity of a management object;

receiving a query for an item, the query including a quantity, at least one attribute, and a value for each respective attribute; and

searching the nodes for the item starting with a top node in the tree, wherein,

when searching a node with a lower level corresponding to an attribute received in the query, searching a node in said lower level containing a received value for the respective attribute, and,

when searching a node with a lower level corresponding to an attribute not received in the query, searching a node in said lower level from left to right,

wherein the inventory retrieving process is automatically performed according to a predetermined rule even in the case where the retrieving condition of the inventory retrieving process is not part of the query, by determining the attribute value of the management object.

10. The method recited in claim 9, further comprising updating the inventory quantity stored in an updated node when a change in an actual inventory quantity occurs, using said searching the nodes process to locate the updated node.

11. The method recited in claim 9, wherein said searching the nodes is performed using distributed processes.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein causing a computer to perform an inventory management method comprising:

forming a tree of nodes formed in a plurality of levels, each level corresponding to a different attribute, and each node storing an attribute value and an inventory quantity of a management object;

receiving a query for an item, the query including a quantity, at least one attribute, and a value for each respective attribute; and

searching the nodes for the item starting with a top node in the tree, wherein,

when searching a node with a lower level corresponding to an attribute received in the query, searching a node in said lower level containing a received value for the respective attribute, and,

when searching a node with a lower level corresponding to an attribute not received in the query, searching nodes in said lower level from left to right,

wherein the inventory retrieving process is automatically performed according to a predetermined rule even in the case where the retrieving condition of the inventory retrieving process is not part of the query, by determining the attribute value of the management object.

13. The computer program product recited in claim 12, further comprising updating the inventory quantity stored in an updated node when a change in an actual inventory quantity occurs, using said searching the nodes process to locate the updated node.

14. The computer program product recited in claim 12, wherein said searching the nodes is performed using distributed processes.

15. An inventory management apparatus comprising:

a tree forming device forming a tree of nodes in a plurality of levels, each level corresponding to a different attribute, and each node storing an attribute value and an inventory quantity of a management object;

a query receiving device, receiving a query for an item, the query including a quantity, one or more attributes, and a value for each respective attribute;

a tree searching device searching the nodes for the item starting with a top node;

said tree searching device, when visiting a node with a lower level corresponding to a received attribute in the query, searches a node in said lower level containing a received value for a respective attribute; and

said tree searching device, when visiting a node with a lower level corresponding to an attribute not received in the query, searches nodes in said lower level from left to right,

wherein the inventory retrieving process is automatically performed according to a predetermined rule even in the case where the retrieving condition of the inventory retrieving process is not part of the query, by determining the attribute value of the management object.

16. The inventory management apparatus recited in claim 15, further comprising and updating device updating the inventory quantity stored in an updated node when a change in an actual inventory quantity occurs, using said tree searching device to locate the updated node.

17. The inventory management apparatus recited in claim 15, wherein said tree searching device searches the tree using distributed processes.