Method for forecasting consumption and generating optimal delivery schedules for vehicles involved in delivering propane and other consumables to end consumers
First Claim
1. A scheduling and routing system implemented on a processor, said system including an application program that is implemented on said processor for use in calculating delivery routes for delivering a consumable to customers via commercial delivery vehicles, comprising:
- a delivery forecasting system implemented on said processor that consumption matches certain customers to other customers with similar attributes and that forecasts from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical profiles of deliveries to said certain customers, when each said certain customer is anticipated to run out of inventory of the consumable;
an integrated inventory replenishment, scheduling and routing system implemented on said processor that generates a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said consumable based on risk of inventory depletion before delivery of more inventory of the consumable, said delivery route being generated based on (a) said forecasts and (b) variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before replenishment of the commercial delivery vehicle; and
a cost trade-off function implemented on said processor that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used by said integrated inventory replenishment, scheduling and routing system as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery, said processor further calculating within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
This invention concerns an improved forecasting and routing system for scheduling propane and other consumable deliveries as well as service deliveries to end consumers by one or more trucks in a multi-stop environment. The invention utilizes information regarding weather history and the consumption history of individual consumers to calculate their future expected demand, and the variability on that demand when sufficient delivery history is available. Customers lacking sufficient delivery history use the consumption of similar customers as a surrogate. This information serves to determine the near optimal set of successive days within which to replenish or service each customer. Knowing this demand the system assembles deliveries into daily truck delivery routes that maximize the consumables delivered per hour. The system is designed for use in cooperation with a computer having memory and incorporates item, customer, weather, and routing information databases.
36 Citations
32 Claims
-
1. A scheduling and routing system implemented on a processor, said system including an application program that is implemented on said processor for use in calculating delivery routes for delivering a consumable to customers via commercial delivery vehicles, comprising:
-
a delivery forecasting system implemented on said processor that consumption matches certain customers to other customers with similar attributes and that forecasts from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical profiles of deliveries to said certain customers, when each said certain customer is anticipated to run out of inventory of the consumable; an integrated inventory replenishment, scheduling and routing system implemented on said processor that generates a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said consumable based on risk of inventory depletion before delivery of more inventory of the consumable, said delivery route being generated based on (a) said forecasts and (b) variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before replenishment of the commercial delivery vehicle; and a cost trade-off function implemented on said processor that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used by said integrated inventory replenishment, scheduling and routing system as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery, said processor further calculating within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A computer-implemented method of forecasting consumption and generating optimal delivery schedules for delivery of consumables to customers by commercial delivery vehicles, comprising the steps of:
-
a computer processing instructions for consumption matching a customer to other customers with similar attributes and forecasting the customer'"'"'s consumption of the consumable from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical delivery profiles for deliveries to said customer and, from the customer'"'"'s forecasted consumption, forecasting when said customer is anticipated to run out of inventory of the consumable; the computer processing instructions for generating a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said consumable based on risk of inventory depletion before delivery of more inventory of the consumable, said delivery route being generated based on (a) forecasts in said forecasting step and (b) variable parameters for minimizing cost for inventory replenishment of the consumable for individual deliveries by the commercial delivery vehicle, said variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before replenishment of the commercial delivery vehicle; and the computer processing instructions for implementing a cost trade-off function that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery, said computer further calculating within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A program storage device readable by a processor and storing thereon a program of instructions executable by said processor for forecasting consumption and generating optimal delivery schedules for delivery of consumables to customers by commercial delivery vehicles, said program of instruction causing said processor to:
-
consumption match a customer to other customers with similar attributes and to forecast the customer'"'"'s consumption of the consumable from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical delivery profiles for deliveries to said customer and, from the customer'"'"'s forecasted consumption, forecasting when said customer is anticipated to run out of inventory of the consumable, generate a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said consumable based on risk of inventory depletion before delivery of more inventory of the consumable based on (a) forecasts in said forecasting step and (b) variable parameters for minimizing cost for inventory replenishment of the consumable for individual deliveries by the commercial delivery vehicle, said variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before replenishment of the commercial delivery vehicle; implement a cost trade-off function that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery; and calculate within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A scheduling and routing system implemented on a processor, said system including an application program that is implemented on said processor for use in calculating delivery routes for providing periodically scheduled services to customers via commercial delivery vehicles, comprising:
-
a delivery forecasting system implemented on said processor that consumption matches certain customers to other customers with similar attributes and that forecasts from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical profiles of deliveries of the periodically scheduled services to said certain customers when each said certain customer is anticipated to need the periodically scheduled services; an integrated scheduling and routing system implemented on said processor that generates a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said services based on risk of needing the services before delivery of the periodically scheduled services, said delivery route being generated based on (a) said forecasts and (b) variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before rerouting of the commercial delivery vehicle; and a cost trade-off function implemented on said processor that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used by said integrated inventory replenishment, scheduling and routing system as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery, said processor further calculating within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value. - View Dependent Claims (28)
-
-
29. A computer-implemented method of providing periodically scheduled services to customers by commercial delivery vehicles, comprising the steps of:
-
a computer processing instructions for consumption matching a customer to other customers with similar attributes and forecasting the customer'"'"'s need for the services from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical delivery profiles for deliveries of the periodically scheduled services to said customer and, from the customer'"'"'s forecasted need, forecasting when said customer is anticipated to need the periodically scheduled services; and the computer processing instructions for generating a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said services based on risk of needing the services before delivery of the periodically scheduled services, said delivery route being generated based on (a) said forecasts and (b) variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before rerouting of the commercial delivery vehicle; and the computer processing instructions for implementing a cost trade-off function that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery, said computer further calculating within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value. - View Dependent Claims (30)
-
-
31. A program storage device readable by a processor and storing thereon a program of instructions executable by said processor for forecasting need for periodically scheduled services and generating optimal delivery schedules for delivery of the services to customers by commercial delivery vehicles, said program of instruction causing said processor to:
-
consumption match a customer to other customers with similar attributes and to forecast the customer'"'"'s need for the services from the delivery profiles of the other customers with similar attributes and/or historical delivery profiles for deliveries of the periodically scheduled services to said customer and, from the customer'"'"'s forecasted need, forecasting when said customer is anticipated to need provision of the periodically scheduled services, generate a delivery route for a commercial delivery vehicle that prioritizes customers for delivery of said services based on risk of needing the services before delivery of the periodically scheduled services, said delivery route being generated based on (a) said forecasts and (b) variable parameters for minimizing cost for individual deliveries by the commercial delivery vehicle, said variable parameters including road routing economics of making several deliveries in sequence to a plurality of said customers before rerouting of the commercial delivery vehicle; implement a cost trade-off function that reflects the trade-off between the cost of delivery of the consumable and the cost associated with the risk of running out of the consumable on any given day, whereby a minimum of said cost trade-off function is used as a criterion for selecting a day for customer delivery; and calculate within a routing horizon for each customer a range of allowable days for delivery of the consumable, said range of allowable days being defined as a set of contiguous days within which the cost trade-off function values fall within a given tolerance of an optimal value. - View Dependent Claims (32)
-
Specification