Redistribution of parts in a distribution network

• US 7,210,624 B1
• Filed: 10/25/2001
• Issued: 05/01/2007
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US10/033,103
• Time in Patent Office: 2,014 Days
• Field of Search: 705/22, 705/28, 705/29, 705/7, 235/385
• US Class Current: 235/385
• 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 system comprising one or more processing units operable to execute one or more software components to:

define a plurality of locations for redistributing a plurality of parts;

establish an actual inventory of the plurality of parts among the plurality of locations;

establish a desired distribution of the plurality of parts among the plurality of locations;

determine a demand for each of the plurality of parts at each of the plurality of locations using the actual inventory and the desired distribution;

add one or more dummy locations, each of the one or more dummy locations comprising a positive demand for attracting a plurality of excess parts;

determine a plurality of paths, each path being operable to transfer at least one of the plurality of parts from one location to another location, wherein the plurality of paths include at least one path to the one or more dummy locations that is associated with an infinite transfer cost;

generate a transfer function describing a cost of transferring the plurality of excess parts along the plurality of paths; and

optimize the transfer function to achieve the desired distribution of the plurality of parts at minimum cost.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the transfer function further describes the cost being associated with transferring at least one of the plurality of parts along a plurality of alternative paths; and

the one or more processing units are further operable to execute the one or more software components to optimize the transfer function by minimizing the transfer function.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing units are further operable to execute the one or more software components to determine the plurality of paths by sending a notification if there is no path between one location and another location.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing units are further operable to execute the one or more software components to establish the desired distribution by calculating an optimized distribution of the plurality of excess parts among the plurality of locations.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing units are further operable to execute the one or more software components to add the one or more dummy locations with an associated demand and the infinite transfer cost.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing units are further operable to execute the one or more software components to satisfy a constraint requiring that at least one of the plurality of parts transferred to at least one of the plurality of locations and at least one of the plurality of parts transferred from at least one of the plurality of locations satisfy the demand for each of the plurality of parts at each of the plurality of locations.