System and method for allocating suppliers using geographical information system and supplier capability

• US 9,129,318 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2009
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ding, Hong W., Dong, Jin, Lee, Young M., Qiu, Minmin, Ren, Changrui, Wang, Wei CRL
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US12/509,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20110022440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,237 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A system and method for allocating suppliers to customers locate a plurality of suppliers in a geographical information system. Relative capability associated with each of the plurality of suppliers is determined. For each supplier in the plurality of suppliers, the system and method generate lines by linking said each supplier to neighboring suppliers in the plurality of suppliers, establish relative capability points on the lines between said each supplier and the neighboring suppliers, and define boundaries of a coverage region associated with said each supplier based on the relative capability points. A customer located in the coverage region is allocated to the associated supplier of the coverage region.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for allocating suppliers to customers, comprising:

locating a plurality of suppliers in a geographical information system, the geographical information system comprising at least location information that represent a physical geographical map;

determining relative capability associated with each of the plurality of suppliers;

for each supplier in the plurality of suppliers,

generating by one or more processors, lines connecting said supplier to neighboring suppliers in the plurality of suppliers, the lines being geometric lines between said each supplier and each of the neighboring suppliers, the lines generated in the geographical information system via an application programming interface to the geographical information system;

establishing by the one or more processors, relative capability points on the lines between said supplier and the neighboring suppliers;

for each of said lines having an associated relative capability point on said line, generating a perpendicular line that passes through the associated relative capability point and perpendicular to said line, wherein a plurality of perpendicular lines are formed respectively associated with the lines;

selecting intersection points of said perpendicular lines that if a secondary line is drawn between the supplier and a respective intersection point, the secondary line does not cross the plurality of perpendicular lines, wherein the selected intersection points represent boundary points;

forming a coverage region that is defined by the perpendicular lines intersecting at the boundary points;

allocating by one or more processors, a customer located in the coverage region to the associated supplier of the coverage region; and

presenting on a display device at least a portion of the physical geographical map represented in the geographical information system, said portion of the physical geographical map at least showing the coverage region, a representation of the customer located in the coverage region and a representation of the asociated supplier of the coverage region via the application programming interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative capability of suppliers is determined by factors comprising one or more of storage space of warehouse, number of transportation trucks, or average inventory on-hand or average operation cost or combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

establishing by the one or more processors, one or more critical regions that are outside the boundaries of coverage regions for all suppliers.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more critical regions are defined by lines established on the relative capability points perpendicular to the lines generated between suppliers, the established lines forming one or more polygons without a supplier in the one or more polygons.

5. The method of claim 3, further including:

allocating by the one or more processors, a customer located in the critical region to a selected supplier using one or more rules.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more rules include:

considering relative capability in the adjacent suppliers.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more rules include:

considering distance to the adjacent suppliers.

8. The method of claim 1, further including exporting supplier allocation information from the graphical information system into an electronic document.

9. The method of claim 1, further including presenting supplier allocation information on a graphical user interface.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating lines connecting said each supplier to neighboring suppliers includes deriving linear equations connecting a point representing a location of said each supplier with one or more points representing locations of the neighboring suppliers.

10. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for allocating suppliers to customers, comprising:

locating a plurality of suppliers in a geographical information system, the geographical information system comprising at least location information that represent a physical geographical map;

determining relative capability associated with each of the plurality of suppliers;

for each supplier in the plurality of suppliers,

generating by a processor lines by linking said each supplier to neighboring suppliers in the plurality of suppliers, the lines being geometric lines between said supplier and each of the neighboring suppliers, the lines generated in the geographical information system via an application programming interface to the geographical information system;

establishing by a processor relative capability points on the lines between said

supplier and the neighboring suppliers;

for each of said lines having an associated relative capability point on said line, generating a perpendicular line that passes through the associated relative capability point and perpendicular to said line, wherein a plurality of perpendicular lines are formed respectively associated with the lines;

selecting intersection points of said perpendicular lines that if a secondary line is drawn between the supplier and a respective intersection point, the secondary line does not cross the plurality of perpendicular lines, wherein the selected intersection points represent boundary points;

forming a coverage region that is defined by the perpendicular lines intersecting at the boundary points;

allocating by a processor a customer located in the coverage region to the associated supplier of the coverage region; and

presenting on a display device at least a portion of the physical geographical map represented in the geographical information system, said portion of the physical geographical map at least showing the coverage region, a representation of the customer located in the coverage region and a representation of the associated supplier of the coverage region via the application programming interface.

11. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein the relative capability of suppliers is determined by factors comprising one or more of storage space of warehouse, number of transportation trucks, or average inventory on-hand or average operation cost or combinations thereof.

12. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, further including:

establishing by a processor one or more critical regions that are outside the boundaries of coverage regions for all suppliers.

13. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 12, wherein the one or more critical regions are defined by lines established on the relative capability points perpendicular to the lines generated between suppliers, the established lines forming one or more polygons without a supplier in the one or more polygons.

14. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 12, further including:

allocating by a processor a customer located in the critical region to a selected supplier using one or more rules.

15. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 14, wherein the one or more rules include:

considering relative capability in the adjacent suppliers and distance to the adjacent suppliers.

21. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein the generating lines by linking said each supplier to neighboring suppliers in the plurality of suppliers includes deriving linear equations connecting a point representing a location of said each supplier with one or more points representing locations of the neighboring suppliers.

16. A system for allocating suppliers to customers, comprising:

a hardware processor;

a locator module operable to locate a plurality of suppliers in a geographical information system, the geographical information system comprising at least location information that represent a physical geographical map;

a processing module executing on the hardware processor and to determine relative capability associated with each of the plurality of suppliers, for each supplier in the plurality of suppliers, the processing module further operable to generate lines by linking said each supplier to neighboring suppliers in the plurality of suppliers, the lines being geometric lines between said supplier and each of the neighboring suppliers, the lines generated in the geographical information system via an application programming interface to the geographical information system, the processing module further operable to establish relative capability points on the lines between said supplier and the neighboring suppliers,

for each of said lines having an associated relative capability point on said line, the processing module further operable to generate a perpendicular line that passes through the associated relative capability point and perpendicular to said line, wherein a plurality of perpendicular lines are formed respectively associated with the lines, select intersection points of said perpendicular lines that if a secondary line is drawn between the supplier and a respective intersection point, the secondary line does not cross the plurality of perpendicular lines, wherein the selected intersection points represent boundary points, and form a coverage region that is defined by the perpendicular lines intersecting at the boundary points; and

a user interface module operable to present on a display device at least a portion of the physical geographical map represented in the geographical information system, said portion of the physical geographical map at least showing the coverage region, a representation of a customer located in the coverage region and a representation of associated supplier of the coverage region via the application programming interface.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processing module is operable to establish one or more critical regions that are outside the boundaries of coverage regions for all suppliers.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the coverage regions are defined by lines established on the relative capability points perpendicular to the lines generated between suppliers, the established lines forming one or more polygons with a supplier in the one or more polygons, and wherein the one or more critical regions are defined by lines established on the relative capability points perpendicular to the lines generated between suppliers, the established lines forming one or more polygons without a supplier in the one or more polygons.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing module generates the lines linking said each supplier to neighboring suppliers by deriving a linear equation connecting a point representing a location of a supplier to another.