Carbon management for sourcing and logistics

• US 8,346,595 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boucher, Chad, Centonze, Paolina, Helander, Mary E., Katircloglu, Kaan K., Sourirajan, Karthik, Ben-Hamida, Mondhar
• Primary Examiner(s): BORISSOV, IGOR N
• Application Number:
  US12/323,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20100131316A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,497 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.37, 705/7.36, 705/7.11, 705/7.23, 705/7.24, 705/1.1, 705/330, 705/334, 705/335, 705/337, 705/338, 705/400
• US Class Current: 705/7.35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/84 Greenhouse gas [GHG] management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/845 Inventory and reporting systems for greenhouse gases [GHG]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/90 Financial instruments for climate change mitigation, e.g. environmental taxes, subsidies or financing

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and computer program product for carbon management for sourcing and logistics. In one embodiment, the method comprises using a computer for quantifying both a cost and a carbon impact of one or more logistics policies relating to a manufacturing process; and minimizing the cost and carbon impact using a defined equation including a first component representing a transportation cost, and a second component representing a carbon cost. In an embodiment of the invention, the quantifying includes using an analytics engine to quantify the cost and carbon impact. The analytics engine may include a shipment analysis module to calculate an optimal transportation policy, a sourcing analysis module for testing alternate sourcing options, a scenario analysis module to find an optimal order frequency, and a sensitivity analysis module to test the impact of various changes.

Claims

1. A method of carbon management for sourcing and logistics, comprising:

quantifying, by a computer, a cost, a service and a carbon impact of one or more logistics policies relating to a manufacturing process; and

minimizing, by a computer, said cost and carbon impact using a defined equation including a first component representing a transportation cost, a second component representing an inventory cost and a third component representing a carbon cost;

wherein;

said first component is the transportation cost and is modeled as the sum of a fixed cost component, which depends on the fixed cost per shipment and the order frequency (a.n), and a variable cost component that depends on the variable cost per mile-ton transported and the total mile tons transported (b.w.m.D);

said second component is the inventory carrying charge, the average inventory level at the plant is the sum of the work-in-process inventory and the safety stock inventor;

the work-in-process inventory, given by

2. A system for carbon management for sourcing and logistics, the system comprising one or more processor units configured for:

quantifying both a cost and a carbon impact of one or more logistics policies relating to a manufacturing process in which specified product components are shipped from suppliers to an assembly plant; and

minimizing said cost, and carbon impact using a defined optimization equation to determine a combination of a multitude of components relating to the shipment of the product components from the suppliers to the assembly plant, said multitude of components including a first component representing a transportation cost for shipping the product components from the suppliers to the assembly plant, a second component representing an inventory cost and a third component representing a carbon cost for carbon emissions from inbound transportation activities of the shipping the product components from the suppliers to the assembly plant;

wherein;

said first component is the transportation cost is modeled as the sum of a fixed cost component, which depends on the fixed cost per shipment and the order frequency (a.n), and a variable cost component that depends on the variable cost per mile-ton transported and the total mile tons transported (b.w.m.D);

said second component is the inventory carrying charge, the average inventory level at the plant is the sum of the work-in-process inventory and the safety stock inventory. The work-in-process inventory, given by

3. A computer readable storage medium comprising:

computer readable program code logic tangibly embodied therein to execute a machine instruction in a processing unit for carbon management for sourcing and logistics, said computer readable program code logic, when executing, performing the following steps;

quantifying both a cost and a carbon impact of one or more logistics policies relating to a manufacturing process in which specified product components are shipped from suppliers to an assembly plant; and

minimizing said cost and carbon impact using a defined optimization equation to determine a combination of a multitude of components relating to the shipment of the product components from the suppliers to the assembly plant, said multitude of components including a first component representing a transportation cost for shipping product components from suppliers to an assembly plant, a second component representing an inventory cost and a third component representing a carbon cost for carbon emissions from inbound transportation activities of the shipping the product components from the suppliers to the assembly plant; and

using a computer system, executing a carbon management program, to implement the quantifying a cost, a service and a carbon impact, and the minimizing said cost and carbon impact;

wherein;

said first component is the transportation cost is modeled as the sum of a fixed cost component, which depends on the fixed cost per shipment and the order frequency (a.n), and a variable cost component that depends on the variable cost per mile-ton transported and the total mile tons transported (b.w.m.D);

said second component is the inventory carrying charge, the average inventory level at the plant is the sum of the work-in-process inventory and the safety stock inventory, the work-in-process inventory, given by