Redistribution of parts in a distribution network

• US 7,580,825 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2007
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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 Joseph
• Application Number:
  US11/875,115
• Publication Number:
  US 20080040185A1
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28, 703/1, 703/2, 703/21, 709/203, 709/223
• US Class Current: 703/21
• 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-readable storage medium embodied with software for redistributing a plurality of parts, the software when executed using one or more computers is configured to:

define a plurality of locations including at least one dummy location;

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

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

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

determine a plurality of paths, each path operable to transfer at least one of the plurality of parts from one of the plurality of locations location to another one of the plurality of locations;

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

optimize the transfer function to achieve the desired allocation of the plurality of excess parts at a minimum cost.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the transfer function describes a cost associated with transferring the plurality of excess parts along a plurality of alternative paths.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to optimize the transfer function by minimizing the transfer function.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to determine the plurality of paths by sending a notification if there is no path between one location and another location.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to establish the desired allocation by calculating an optimized allocation of the plurality of excess parts among the plurality of locations.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the dummy location comprises a positive demand for attracting the plurality of excess parts.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of paths includes at least one path to the dummy location that is associated with an infinite transfer cost.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the dummy location comprises a positive demand, the positive demand is the difference between a total excess and a total demand.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to satisfy a constraint requiring that the parts transferred to one of the plurality of locations and the parts transferred from the one of the plurality of locations satisfy the demand for the parts at the one of the plurality of locations.