Demand breakout for a supply chain

• US 7,248,937 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 07/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: i2 Technologies US Incorporated (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Brown, Richard W., Chapman, Paul T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rudy; Andrew Joseph
• Application Number:
  US09/895,487
• Time in Patent Office: 2,216 Days
• Field of Search: 700/99, 703/6, 705 8- 10, 717/100
• US Class Current: 700/99
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A system (100) for demand breakout for a supply chain includes a memory (112) operable to store a plurality of orders (118) for at least one product. Each product may be produced using at least one precursor. The memory (112) is also operable to store a production schedule (120) identifying one or more resources (108) in the supply chain, a quantity of each product and precursor scheduled to be produced by the resources (108), and a time period associated with production of each product and precursor. The system (100) also includes one or more processors (114) collectively operable to identify one or more particular units of the product that correspond to each product order. The one or more processors (114) are also collectively operable to identify one or more particular units of one or more precursors that correspond to each product order.

Claims

1. Software for demand breakout for a supply chain, the software embodied in at least one computer-readable medium and, when executed using one or more computer systems, operable to:

access a plurality of orders for at least one product, each product produced using at least one precursor;

access a production schedule identifying one or more resources in the supply chain, a quantity of each product and precursor scheduled to be produced by the one or more resources, and a time period associated with production of each product and precursor;

identify one or more particular units of the product that correspond to each product order;

identify one or more particular units of one or more precursors that correspond to each product order;

identify one or more particular units of one or more precursors by generating a first event for each product order, the first event comprising a request for a specified quantity of a specified item; and

generate a weighted average for each of the first events, each first event associated with a plurality of attributes and an attribute value corresponding to each attribute, at least one attribute value being representative of customer importance, each attribute associated with an attribute weight, the weighted average based on the attribute values and the attribute weights.

2. The software of claim 1, further operable to, using the one or more computer systems, execute the first event to generate at least one second event, the second event comprising a reservation of a specified quantity of a specified precursor used to produce the item requested by the first event.

3. The software of claim 2, wherein the second event is associated with a flow that represents at least the specified quantity of the specified precursor arriving at one of the resources.

4. The software of claim 1, wherein:

a plurality of flows representing at least one precursor are associated with a resource; and

the software is further operable to, using the one or more computer systems, execute the first event by;

determining the specified quantity of the specified precursor using the first event;

identifying one or more of the plurality of flows that represent the specified precursor; and

generating at least one second event associated with at least one of the identified flows.

5. The software of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the precursors needed to produce the item requested by the first event is too scarce to produce the specified quantity of the specified item; and

the software is further operable to, using the one or more computer systems;

identify the precursor that is most scarce using a bill of materials table;

determine a fractional quantity of the specified item that can be produced using the most scarce precursor; and

determine a fractional quantity of each precursor needed to produce the fractional quantity of the specified item.

6. The software of claim 5, wherein:

the specified item may be produced according to a plurality of bill of materials tables; and

the software is further operable to, using the one or more computer systems, identify the bill of materials table that results in the production of the largest quantity of the specified item.

7. The software of claim 1, wherein the first event comprises a first layer of a tree;

and

the software is further operable to, using the one or more computer systems;

execute the first event to generate at least one second event; and

execute the second event to generate at least one additional first event in a second layer of the tree.

8. The software of claim 7, wherein the first event and the second event may be propagated through the layers of the tree to allocate one or more particular units of one or more precursors to the product orders.

9. The software of claim 1, further operable to, using the one or more computer systems:

rank the first events according to their weighted average; and

execute the first events based on the rank of the events.

10. Software for demand breakout for a supply chain, the software embodied in at least one computer-readable medium and, when executed using one or more computer systems, operable to:

access a plurality of orders for at least one product, each product produced using at least one precursor;

access a production schedule identifying one or more resources in the supply chain, a quantity of each product and precursor scheduled to be produced by the one or more resources, and a time period associated with production of each product and precursor;

generate a first event for each product order, the first event comprising a request for a specified quantity of a specified item, the first events forming a first layer in a tree;

generate a weighted average for each of the first events, each first event associated with a plurality of attributes and an attribute value corresponding to each attribute, at least one attribute value being representative of customer importance, each attribute associated with an attribute weight, the weighted average based on the attribute values and the attribute weights;

execute the first events in order of decreasing weighted average by;

determining a specified quantity of one or more specified precursors needed to produce the specified quantity of the item requested by the first event;

determining if at least one of the precursors needed to produce the item requested by the first event is too scarce to produce the specified quantity of the item;

determining a fractional quantity of each specified precursor if at least one of the precursors is too scarce; and

generating at least one second event for each of the specified precursors, the second event comprising a reservation of one of the specified quantity of the specified precursor or the fractional quantity of the specified precursor;

execute the second events to produce one or more additional first events in a second layer of the tree; and

propagate the first and second events through any additional layers of the tree to allocate one or more particular units of one or more precursors to each product order.