Method and system for determining a demand on a product variant using bill of material

• US 8,024,059 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2008
• Issued: 09/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Kienzle, Stefan
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett; Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US12/212,655
• Publication Number:
  US 20090204248A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 700/106, 700/107
• US Class Current: 700/107
• 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

Disclosed is a method and system for receiving a product parts list containing parts for creating a product variant of a product and updating a bill of material with the parts and a selection condition to identify a part of the product variant. The method includes determining a characteristic and a characteristic value of the parts of the product variant and generating a variant demand object for the product variant.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a product parts list containing parts for creating a product variant of a product;

updating a bill of material with the parts and a selection condition to identify a part of the product variant;

determining a characteristic and a characteristic value of the parts of the product variant; and

generating a variant demand object for the product variant containing the characteristic and the characteristic value.

2. The computer implemented method in claim 1 further comprising determining a demand for the product variant by using the variant demand object and the bill of material.

3. The computer implemented method in claim 2, wherein determining the demand comprises selecting the parts and a quantity of the parts from the bill of material based on the selection condition.

4. The computer implemented method in claim 1, wherein the bill of material further comprises a complete list of the parts for product variants of the product.

5. The computer implemented method in claim 1, wherein determining the characteristic and the characteristic value comprises assigning a part name to the characteristic and a quantity of the part to the characteristic value.

6. The computer implemented method in claim 1 further comprising determining the selection condition by equating the characteristic to the characteristic value.

7. The computer implemented method in claim 1 further comprising determining a production planning and detailed scheduling of the product variant based on the variant demand object.

8. The computer implemented method in claim 1 further comprising receiving the product parts list in a file format that includes an extensible markup language.

9. A system, comprising:

a receiving unit to receive a product parts list containing parts for creating a product variant of a product;

a bill of material unit electronically coupled to the receiving unit to update a bill of material with the parts and a selection condition;

a variant demand object generating unit electronically coupled to the receiving unit to generate a variant demand object for the product variant containing a characteristic and a characteristic value; and

a storage unit to persist the bill of material and the variant demand object.

10. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine readable medium having instructions which when executed by a machine cause the machine to;

receive a product parts list containing parts for creating a product variant of a product;

update a bill of material with the parts and a selection condition to identify a part of the product variant;

determine a characteristic and a characteristic value of the parts of the product variant; and

generate a variant demand object for the product variant containing the characteristic and the characteristic value.

11. The article of manufacture in claim 10, wherein the machine readable medium provides instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to determine a demand for the product variant by using the variant demand object and the bill of material.

12. The article of manufacture in claim 11, wherein the machine readable medium provides instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to select the parts and a quantity of the parts from the bill of material based on the selection condition.

13. The article of manufacture in claim 10, wherein the machine readable medium provides instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to determine a production planning and detailed scheduling of the product variant based on the variant demand object.

14. The article of manufacture in claim 10, wherein the machine readable medium provides instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to assign a part name to the characteristic and a quantity of the part to the characteristic value.