Methods and systems for collaborative demand planning and replenishment

• US 8,266,020 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2010
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Jean Young, Richard Young
• Original Assignee: Webconcepts, Inc.
• Inventors: Young, Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): Thein, M.
• Application Number:
  US12/956,419
• Publication Number:
  US 20110071928A1
• Time in Patent Office: 651 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/28
• 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 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for generating replenishment orders for products sold to a multi-store retailer. Store trait data is mapped with planogram information and the mapped data is used to generate a fixture level safety stock for a particular product in a particular store. The fixture level safety stock triggers fixture level replenishment orders.

Claims

1. A method for generating replenishment orders for first and second products at a retail store, comprising:

a vendor managed inventory system storing retail-level planogram information having fixture identifiers;

the vendor managed inventory system receiving store-level capacity information at a fixture level regarding first and second fixtures where the fixtures are referenced by fixture identifiers;

the vendor managed inventory system electronically receiving-store-level sales performance information regarding sales of the first and second products from the first fixture referenced by the fixture identifiers;

the vendor manager inventory system generating store-level mapped data by matching fixture identifiers in the capacity information and sales performance with the planogram information;

the vendor managed inventory system determining fixture-level relative replenishment levels for the first and second products as a function of the store-level mapped data;

triggering a fixture-level replenishment order when a fixture-level perpetual quantity of the first and second products fall below a determined fixture-level safety stock for the first fixture relative to the to second fixture; and

enabling a vendor to provide the replenishment levels of the first and second products to the store.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising vendor managed inventory system determining the safety stocks for the first and second products with respect to the fixture level.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the vendor managed inventory system receiving additional sales performance information regarding sales of the first product from the second fixture, and using the vendor managed inventory system to determine relative replenishment levels for the first product with respect to the first and second fixtures.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory system additionally determines the relative replenishment levels at least in part using demographic data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory system additionally determines the relative replenishment levels with respect to a week at least in part as a function of a day of the week.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the vendor managed inventory system additionally determines the relative replenishment levels at least in part as a function of a specific future date.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory system additionally determines the relative replenishment levels at least in part as a function of an historic trend in product demand.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory system additionally determines the relative replenishment levels at least in part as a function of an expected trend in product demand.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of the vendor managed inventory system determining relative replenishment levels comprises analyzing fixture level point of sale data.