System and method for determining carbon emission-conscious order fulfillment alternatives with multiple supply modes

• US 8,458,014 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2012
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Feng, Lee, Young Min
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARIKH, HARSHAD R
• Application Number:
  US13/570,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20120310793A1
• Time in Patent Office: 299 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/13, 705/22
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/845 Inventory and reporting systems for greenhouse gases [GHG]

Abstract

A system and method for optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes in one aspect, plans supply of inventory by forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, cost of carbon emissions and limit on carbon emission credits. Current inventory position is monitored and if the current inventory position is below the reorder point policy, orders are placed according to a selected shipping method. The selected shipping method may be based at least on customer order priority, transportation budget, and carbon emission limit.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes, comprising:

planning, by a processor, supply of inventory, said step of planning supply of inventory comprising at least, forecasting demand and estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and

establishing reorder point policy based at least on said forecasting demand, said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, cost of carbon emissions and limit on carbon emission credits,

wherein the reorder point policy comprises reorder points comprising quantities ordered using different supply modes, based on modeling an objective function,

wherein the objective function minimizes a weighted overall inventory cost, transportation cost and the cost of carbon emission and wherein the objective function enables prioritizing one or more of reducing the cost of carbon emissions or reducing the inventory cost by assigning weighing factors in the objective function, subject to constraint that the total amount of carbon emission for all orders is less than or equal to the limit for entire time period and service level for all orders is greater than or equal to a desired target level, and

wherein the objective function is solvable by time period and by product group and by using a recursion algorithm.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of establishing reorder point policy includes establishing reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, service level target, the cost of carbon emissions and the limit on carbon emission credits.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of planning supply of inventory further includes:

replenishing current inventory to meet said reorder point policy, and based on said limit on carbon emission credits.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of replenishing includes:

selecting a shipping mode from a plurality of shipping modes based on transportation budget and amount of carbon emission of the plurality of shipping modes.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of replenishing includes:

selecting a shipping mode from a plurality of shipping modes based on priority of orders from a customer.

6. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving one or more orders from a customer;

filling said one or more orders from said supply of inventory.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said supply of inventory includes on-hand inventory and in-transit inventory.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein in response to determining that said one or more orders cannot be filled from said supply of inventory, placing orders according to a selected shipping method, said selected shipping method based at least on customer order priority, transportation budget and cost associated with emission from said selected shipping method.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said step of filling one or more orders is performed concurrently with the step of planning supply of inventory.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein said step of filling one or more orders further includes:

collecting and analyzing carbon emission data associated with a plurality of transportation modes;

checking availability of current inventory to determine whether said one or more orders can be filled from said current inventory, and filling said one or more orders from said current inventory in response to determining the availability;

checking availability of in-transit inventory to determine whether said one or more orders can be filled from said in-transit inventory, and filling said one or more orders from said in-transit inventory in response to determining the availability; and

in response to determining that said one or more orders are not filled from said current inventory or said in-transit inventory, placing an order for said one or more orders using premium shipping based on a plurality of criteria.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said step of placing an order for said one or more orders using said premium shipping based on a plurality of criteria includes:

determining whether requested ship date associated with said one or more orders is less than lead-time for regular shipment, and in response to determining that said requested ship date is less than said lead-time for regular shipment, determining priority of said one or more orders and in response to determining that said priority meets a threshold for being high priority, determining whether premium shipping is approved for said one or more orders, and in response to determining that the premium shipping is approved, placing an order for said one or more orders using said premium shipping.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said plurality of criteria includes requested ship date, service level agreement (SLA), transportation costs of one or more shipping modes, budget for transportation expense, realized order forecast, realized demand forecast, order backlog, inventory positions, customer priority, order priority, carbon emission associated with said one or more shipping modes, the limit on carbon emission credits, or combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy are performed automatically and repeatedly.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy are performed repeatedly every predetermined period.

15. The method of claim 1, further including:

collecting and analyzing carbon emission data associated with the plurality of supply transportation modes; and

analyzing historical forecasts and orders to estimate accuracy of the forecasted demand.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand includes using probability distribution.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of establishing reorder point policy includes minimizing an objective function that considers at least expected total cost incurred for ordering, transportation costs of orders, inventory holding costs, backlog costs and carbon emissions associated with the plurality of supply transportation modes, subject to one or more service level constraints and one or more premium transportation budget constraints.

18. A system for optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes, comprising:

a processor;

collection module operable to collect and analyze carbon emission data associated with a plurality of supply transportation modes;

planning process module operable to execute on the processor and also operable to at least forecast demand and estimate accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establish reorder point policy based at least on said forecasted demand, said accuracy of said forecasted demand, the plurality of supply transportation modes, cost of carbon emissions and carbon emission budget, to plan supply of inventory; and

order execution module operable to run concurrently with said planning process module, and further operable to fill one or more orders received from a customer using said supply of inventory,

wherein the reorder point policy comprises reorder points comprising quantities ordered using different supply modes, based on modeling an objective function,

wherein the objective function minimizes a weighted overall inventory cost, transportation cost and the cost of carbon emission and wherein the objective function enables prioritizing one or more of reducing the cost of carbon emissions or reducing the inventory cost by assigning weighing factors in the objective function, subject to constraint that the total amount of carbon emission for all orders is less than or equal to the limit for entire time period and service level for all orders is greater than or equal to a desired target level, and

wherein the objective function is solvable by time period and by product group and by using a recursion algorithm.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said planning process module establishes reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, cost of carbon emissions and carbon emission budget, and service level target.

20. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes, comprising:

planning supply of inventory, said step of planning supply of inventory comprising at least, forecasting demand and estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and

establishing reorder point policy based at least on said forecasting demand, said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, cost of carbon emissions and limit on carbon emission credits,

wherein the reorder point policy comprises reorder points comprising quantities ordered using different supply modes, based on modeling an objective function,

wherein the objective function minimizes a weighted overall inventory cost, transportation cost and the cost of carbon emission and wherein the objective function enables prioritizing one or more of reducing the cost of carbon emissions or reducing the inventory cost by assigning weighing factors in the objective function, subject to constraint that the total amount of carbon emission for all orders is less than or equal to the limit for entire time period and service level for all orders is greater than or equal to a desired target level, and

wherein the objective function is solvable by time period and by product group and by using a recursion algorithm.