Method for consolidating orders

• US 7,412,408 B1
• Filed: 07/07/2004
• Issued: 08/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amway Corporation (Alticor Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Alticor Investments Inc.
• Inventors: Palazzo, Craig M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen; William J.
• Application Number:
  US10/886,410
• Time in Patent Office: 1,497 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/10, 705 26- 29, 707/9
• US Class Current: 705/26.2
• 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 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation

Abstract

A method of submitting orders for products includes a customer preparing an order for submission to a supplier server. When the order is submitted to the supplier server, the supplier server determines whether the customer submitting the order is authorized to submit the order to the supplier. If not, the supplier server forwards the order to another customer who is authorized to submit the order. After forwarding the order, the order may be consolidated with other orders for resubmission to the supplier server.

Claims

1. A method for consolidating a first order from a first buyer for a first quantity of a product with other orders from other buyers of the product, the method comprising:

receiving the first order by a supplier for the first quantity;

determining that the first buyer is not authorized by the supplier to purchase the product from the supplier in the first quantity and, in response to the determining that the first buyer is not authorized by the supplier, forwarding the first order to a direct purchaser authorized by the supplier;

receiving at least one other order from at least one other buyer of the product for at least one other quantity, wherein the at least one other buyer of the product may include at least one other buyer not authorized by the supplier or the direct purchaser;

consolidating the first order received by the direct purchaser with the at least one other order from the at least one other buyer of the product into a consolidated order;

placing the consolidated order by the direct purchaser;

determining an items per case for the product; and

determining that the sum of the first quantity and the at least one other quantity equals or exceeds the items per case.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to the determining the sum equals or exceeds the items per case, determining a case quantity indicative of the number of cases required to fulfill both the first order and the at least one other order; and

placing an order for the case quantity.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

placing an order for single units of the product where the sum exceeds the case quantity.