System for optimizing drink blends

• US 8,626,327 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Coca-Cola Company
• Original Assignee: The Coca-Cola Company
• Inventors: Bippert, Douglas A., Hutter, Sherri Lynn, Anglea, Timothy A., Higbie, Jon A. Jr., Cross, David Quinton, Lee, Seonah, Lennon, Sean Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Booker, Kelvin
• Application Number:
  US12/940,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20120116563A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 700/95, 700/100, 705/7.32, 705/7.33, 705/7.36, 705/7.34
• US Class Current: 700/100
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/418 Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors

Abstract

A system for optimizing blending. The system can include a processor configured to aggregate material information, aggregate production information, model consumer liking of the at least one product, and provide plan information for controlling production resources based on the material information, the production information, and the consumer liking. The material information can be associated with a product input of the at least one product. The production information can be associated with the production resources of the at least one product.

Claims

1. A system for optimizing blending comprising:

a processor configured to;

aggregate material information for mass production of at least one product, wherein the material information is associated with a product input of at least one product;

aggregate production information, wherein the production information is associated with production resources of the at least one product;

aggregate consumer liking information of the at least one product;

model consumer liking based on the aggregated consumer liking information of the at least one product;

calculate a blending plan as a function of the aggregated material information, production information, and modeled consumer liking; and

provide blending plan information based on the blending plan for controlling the production resources.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the product input comprises an agricultural commodity.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the agricultural commodity comprises oranges.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the material information comprises at least one of brix, acidity, limonin, nomilin, color, mouth-feel, pulp content profile, cost, freight cost, storage cost, and quality.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the production information comprises at least one of machine availability, vat availability, storage availability;

machine turnover time;

machine turnover cost, labor information, plant capacity, and machine capacity.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein modeling consumer liking of the at least one product comprises determining a demand distribution based on consumer data comprising at least one of consumer purchase data and consumer survey data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one product comprises at least one stock keeping unit.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processor is further configured to:

establish objective functions;

establish constraint functions; and

in calculating the blending plan, utilize the objective and constraint functions.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein said processor is further configured to solve for at least one variable utilizing a system of linear equations used to describe the objective and constraint functions when calculating the blending plan.

10. A method of optimizing blending comprising:

aggregating, by a processor, material information for mass production of at least one product, wherein the material information is associated with a product input of at least one product;

aggregating, by the processor, production information, wherein the production information is associated with production resources of the at least one product;

aggregating, by the processor, consumer liking information of the at least one product;

modeling, by the processor, consumer liking based on the aggregated consumer liking information of the at least one product;

calculating, by the processor, a blending plan as a function of the aggregated material information, production information, and modeled consumer liking; and

providing, by the processor, blending plan information based on the blending plan for controlling the production resources.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the product input comprises an agricultural commodity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the agricultural commodity comprises oranges.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein modeling consumer liking of the at least one product comprises determining a demand distribution based on consumer data comprising at least one of consumer purchase data and consumer survey data.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one product comprises at least one stock keeping unit.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the material information comprises at least one of brix, acidity, limonin, nomilin, color, mouth-feel, pulp content profile, cost, freight cost, storage cost, and quality.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the production information comprises at least one of machine availability, vat availability, storage availability;

machine turnover time;

machine turnover cost, labor information, plant capacity, and machine capacity.

17. An article of manufacture including a tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

aggregating material information for mass production of at least one product, wherein the material information is associated with a product input of at least one product;

aggregating production information, wherein the production information is associated with production resources of the at least one product;

aggregate consumer liking information of the at least one product;

modeling consumer liking based on the aggregated consumer liking information of the at least one product;

calculating a blending plan as a function of the aggregated material information, production information, and modeled consumer liking; and

providing blending plan information based on the blending plan for controlling the production resources.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the product input comprises an agricultural commodity and the at least one product comprises at least one stock keeping unit.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18, wherein the agricultural commodity comprises oranges.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein modeling consumer liking of the at least one product comprises determining a demand distribution based on consumer data comprising at least one of consumer purchase data and consumer survey data.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the material information comprises at least one of brix, acidity, limonin, nomilin, color, mouth-feel, pulp content profile, cost, freight cost, storage cost, and quality.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the production information comprises at least one of machine availability, vat availability, storage availability;

machine turnover time;

machine turnover cost, labor information, plant capacity, and machine capacity.