Resource allocation based on retail incident information

• US 9,324,048 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2014
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Inventors: Ptak, Jennifer, Caven, Matthew, Sinha, Atasi, RShetty, Swathi, Mjumdar, Prithwijit, Khanolkar, Nikhil, Suthar, Nikesh, Peratla, Indraneel, Chaudhuri, Dhrubajyoti, Roy, Bhaskar
• Primary Examiner(s): DIXON, THOMAS A
• Application Number:
  US14/328,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324500A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group

Abstract

Security personnel time is assigned to a store property by generating an incident score based on a probability of an incident occurring on a store property. A set of ranges of incident scores, each range being associated with a number of hours of security personnel time, are retrieved from computer memory. A range of incident scores in the set of ranges of incident scores that the generated incident score falls within is identified and an associated number of hours of security personnel time is retrieved. Security personnel time is assigned to the store property using a processor based on the number of hours of security personnel time retrieved for the identified range of incident scores.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

at least one computer having a processor and a shortage score generator determining a shortage score for each store in a set of stores;

the at least one computer further including a grouping unit grouping the stores into a first group if the store has an assets protection tool and a second group if the store does not have the assets protection tool;

the at least one computer further including a resource allocator configured to perform each of the following;

(i) identifying those stores in the first group that have a shortage score that is less than a first threshold and removing the assets protection tool from the identified stores of the first group; and

(ii) identifying those stores in the second group that have a shortage score that is greater than a second threshold and adding the assets protection tool to the identified stores of the second group; and

,

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform steps comprising;

generating a shortage score for a store for a first type of shortage, the shortage score representative of a dollar amount of shortage due to the first type of shortage,

retrieving from a computer memory, a set of ranges of shortage scores for the first type of shortage, each range being associated with a respective different number of hours of security personnel time;

identifying a range of shortage scores in the set of ranges of shortage scores that the generated shortage score falls within and retrieving an associated number of hours of security personnel time; and

assigning security personnel to the store property based on the retrieved number of hours of security personnel time.

2. The computer system of claim 1 wherein generating a shortage score for a first type of shortage comprises:

for each department in a store;

determining a percentage of thefts due to a first type of shortage;

multiplying the percentage of thefts due to the first type of shortage by a dollar amount that reflects theft losses over multiple years to produce a dollar amount due to the first type of shortage;

scaling the dollar amount due to the first type of shortage to form a department shortage score for the first type of shortage; and

summing the department shortage scores for the first type of shortage across all departments in a store to obtain the shortage score for the store for the first type of shortage.

3. The computer system of claim 1 having computer-executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that when executed by a processor cause the processor to determine a separate shortage score for the store for each of a plurality of different types of shortage.

4. The computer system of claim 1 having computer-executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform further steps comprising:

generating an apprehension score based on a dollar amount of apprehensions;

retrieving from a computer memory, a set of ranges of apprehension scores, each range being associated with a respective different number of hours of security personnel time;

identifying a range of apprehension scores in the set of ranges of apprehension scores that the generated apprehension score falls within and retrieving an associated second number of hours of security personnel time; and

assigning security personnel time to the store property based on the retrieved number of hours of security personnel time and the retrieved second number of hours of security personnel time.

5. The computer system of claim 4 wherein assigning security personnel time to the store property based on the retrieved number of hours of security personnel time and the retrieved second number of hours of security personnel time comprises adding the retrieved number of hours of security personnel time and the retrieved second number of hours of security personnel time to form a sum, comparing the sum to at least one threshold and assigning security personnel time in response to the comparison.

6. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing at least one computer having a shortage score generator, a grouping unit and a resource allocator, said shortage score generator being configured to determine a shortage score for each store in a set of stores, said grouping unit being configured to group stores into a first group if the store has an assets protection tool and a second group if the store does not have an assets protection tool, said resource allocator being configured to identify those stores in the first group that have a shortage score that is less than a first threshold and removing the assets protection tool from the identified stores of the first group and identify those stores in the second group that have a shortage score that is greater than a second threshold and adding the assets protection tool to the identified stores in the second group;

generating an incident score based on a probability of an incident occurring at a store;

generating a shortage score representative of a dollar amount of shortage at the store that is attributed to a first type of shortage;

applying the incident score to a first table in computer memory to identify a first level of leadership;

applying the shortage score to a second table in computer memory to identify a second level of leadership;

examining the first level of leadership and the second level of leadership to assign a level of leadership to the store; and

,

assigning personnel to the store based on the examining of the first level of leadership and the second level of leadership.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 wherein examining the first level of leadership and the second level of leadership to assign a level of leadership to the store comprises determining which of the first level of leadership and the second level of leadership is higher in a hierarchical organization chart and selecting the higher of the first level of leadership and the second level of leadership to assign to the store.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

creating a plurality of buckets of assets protection risk index values.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a state crime rate based on location of the store;

performing a factor analysis on demographic data for the store to identify demographic variables relating to the incident; and

constructing a logistics model from the identified demographic variables, the plurality of buckets of assets protection risk index values, the selected state crime rate and one or more store attributes.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

determining probability of the incident occurring at the store by applying variables for the store to the logistics model.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the first type of shortage is one of the following theft shortages:

internal opportunist, internal organized retail crime, external opportunist and external organized retail crime.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further including the following steps performed prior to generating the shortage score:

collecting theft data comprising a dollar value of items stolen and number of items stolen from each department in the store;

determining percentage of theft shortage for each department in the store;

determining a dollar amount of loss due to the first type of shortage over multiple years for each department of the store; and

,

applying a scaling value to the dollar amount of loss due to the first type of shortage for each department of the store.

8. A system comprising:

at least one computer having a processor and a shortage score generator determining a shortage score for each store in a set of stores;

the at least one computer further including a grouping unit grouping the stores into a first group if the store has an assets protection tool and a second group if the store does not have the assets protection tool; and

the at least one computer further including a resource allocator configured to perform the following;

identifying those stores in the first group that have a shortage score that is less than a first threshold and removing the assets protection tool from the identified stores of the first group;

identifying those stores in the second group that have a shortage score that is greater than a second threshold and adding the assets protection tool to the identified stores of the second group; and

,

assigning personnel time to one or more stores based at least in part on the shortage score.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are the same.

15. The system of claim 8, further including a resource adjuster configured to use budget constraints, overlapping roles and role prioritization to adjust resource allocations.

16. The system of claim 8, further including an incident score generator determining an incident score for each store in a set of stores.

17. The system of claim 16, further including a risk priority generator generating for each incident a risk priority number where the risk priority number is a product of severity measure, occurrence measure and detection measure.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein severity measure is a value dependent on a financial impact measure, a guest/employee measure and a reputation measure.

19. The system of claim 8, further including an apprehension score generator determining an apprehension score for each store in a set of stores.

20. The system of claim 8, further including a high-traffic day incident score generator determining a high-traffic day incident score for each store in a set of stores.