Intelligent fulfillment agents
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A distributed inventory management system, comprising:
- one or more computers coupled with a plurality of participant computers in one or more tiers of a value chain, the one or more computers configured to;
evaluate inventory data received from one or more of the plurality of participant computers according to one or more business rules;
execute a business process using one or more software agents, based on the evaluation of the received inventory data;
communicate output of the business process to one or more of the plurality of participant computers;
generate an alert when at least one of the plurality of participant computers uses a first replenishment policy in a first tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain that is different than a second replenishment policy used by at least one of the plurality of participant computers in at least a second tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain; and
communicate the generated alert to one or more of the plurality of participant computers.
17 Assignments
Litigations
1 Petition
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for distributed inventory management includes receiving information regarding a number of participants in a value chain and information regarding one or more items relevant in the value chain. The method also includes modeling relationships between two or more of the participants based on the received information and modeling the one or more items based on the received information. The method further includes receiving inventory data from the participants relating to the one or more items, evaluating the received inventory data according to one or more business rules associated with an agent, executing a business process associated with the agent based on the evaluation of the inventory data and the models of the relationships and the items, and communicating output of the business process to one or more of the participants.
65 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A distributed inventory management system, comprising:
- one or more computers coupled with a plurality of participant computers in one or more tiers of a value chain, the one or more computers configured to;
evaluate inventory data received from one or more of the plurality of participant computers according to one or more business rules; execute a business process using one or more software agents, based on the evaluation of the received inventory data; communicate output of the business process to one or more of the plurality of participant computers; generate an alert when at least one of the plurality of participant computers uses a first replenishment policy in a first tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain that is different than a second replenishment policy used by at least one of the plurality of participant computers in at least a second tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain; and communicate the generated alert to one or more of the plurality of participant computers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
- one or more computers coupled with a plurality of participant computers in one or more tiers of a value chain, the one or more computers configured to;
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14. A computer-implemented method for distributed inventory management, comprising:
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evaluating, by a computer, inventory data received from one or more of the plurality of participant computers according to one or more business rules; executing, by the computer, a business process using one or more software agents, based on the evaluation of the received inventory data; communicating, by the computer, output of the business process to one or more of the plurality of the participant computers; generating, by the computer, an alert when at least one of the plurality of participant computers uses a first replenishment policy in a first tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain that is different than a second replenishment policy used by at least one of the plurality of participant computers in at least a second tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain; and communicating, by the computer, the generated alert to one or more of the plurality of participant computers. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. Software for distributed inventory management, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and when executed using one or more computers is configured to:
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evaluate inventory data received from one or more of the plurality of participant computers according to one or more business rules; execute a business process using one or more software agents, based on the evaluation of the received inventory data; communicate output of the business process of one or more of the plurality of participant computers; generate an alert when at least one of the plurality of participant computers uses a first replenishment policy in a first tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain that is different than a second replenishment policy used by at least one of the plurality of participant computers in at least a second tier of the one or more tiers of the value chain; and communicate the generated alert to one or more of the plurality of participant computers.
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Specification