Methods and systems for collaborative demand planning and replenishment

• US 8,725,599 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jean Young, Richard Young
• Original Assignee: Webconcepts, Inc.
• Inventors: Young, Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yesildag, Mehmet
• Application Number:
  US13/651,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20130041785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 578 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 vendor managed inventory system that manages inventory across stores of a retailer, the system comprising:

a retailer network interface configured to communicate with the retailer over a network; and

a vendor management inventory server communicatively coupled with the retailer via the network interface and configured to;

receive store-level trait information comprising at least one store identifier, each of the at least one store identifier corresponding to a store and a set of fixture identifiers associated with each of the at least one store identifier, wherein each fixture identifier within the set of fixture identifiers corresponds to a fixture within the store;

receive retailer planogram information comprising a product identifier corresponding to a product, at least one fixture identifier corresponding to a respective fixture associated with the product, and a product capacity associated with each of the at least one fixture identifier, corresponding to the capacity of product for the respective fixture;

generate store-level mapped data by matching at least one fixture identifier from the retailer planogram information with a corresponding at least one fixture identifier from the set of fixture identifiers;

determine a replenishment level for a product based on the store-level mapped data; and

trigger a replenishment order when a safety stock level of the product falls below the replenishment level.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information lacks store identifier information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information includes a product vendor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the store trait information further comprises a plurality of store identifiers corresponding to a respective plurality of stores of a multi-store retailer.

5. The system of claim 4, the replenishment levels for the product at one of the stores is different from that of another one of the stores.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the store trait information further includes demographic information and where the replenishment levels depend at least in part on the demographic information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the store trait information further includes psychographic information where the replenishment levels depend at least in part on the psychographic information.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels with respect to a week at least in part as a function of a day of the week.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels at least in part as a function of a specific future date.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels at least in part as a function of a historic trend in product demand.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine the replenishment levels at least in part as a function of an expected trend in product demand.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to determine replenishment levels based on analyzing fixture level point of sale data from the store.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the store-level trait information and the planogram information further comprises an effective date.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the store-level mapped data is generated based on the effective date.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the store-level mapped data is updated when the effective date equals a current date.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the planogram information comprises a plurality of effective dates.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the vendor managed inventory server is further configured to transmit the historic trend to the retailer.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the retailer planogram information further includes a second fixture identifier, and wherein the store-level mapped data is generated by also matching the second fixture identifier with a part of the set of fixture identifiers.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the retailer planogram information associates the same product identifier with the first fixture identifier and the second fixture identifier.