# US 10,872,309 B2 · System and method for root cause analysis and early warning of inventory problems > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,872,309 B2 - Document ID: US10872309B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/797,381 - Filed: 2017-10-30 - Published: 2018-03-08 - Granted: 2020-12-22 - Earliest claimed: 2008-11-19 - Assignees: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. - Applicants: JDA Software Group, Inc. - Inventors: Shipra Surendra; Manish Ghosh; Adeel Najmi; Arindam Banerjee; Krishna Pal Singh - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10872309B2 ## CPC - G06Q 10/087: Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders - G06Q 10/06: Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling - G06Q 10/067: Enterprise or organisation modelling - G06Q 10/08726: {for replenishment processing, procedures, or recommendations using forecasting or optimisation} - G06Q 20/203: {Inventory monitoring} - G06Q 10/0877: {by inventory control or reporting using inventory tracking or counting} - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract A system and method is disclosed for root cause analysis and early warning of inventory problems. The system includes a server coupled with a database and configured to access the data describing inventory policy parameters of a supply chain network, the data describing one or more demand patterns and one or more replenishment patterns of the supply chain network, and the data describing the supply chain network comprising a plurality of entities, each entity configured to supply one or more items to satisfy a demand. The server is further configured to optimize the inventory policy parameters for each of the one or more items according to the one or more demand patterns and the one or more replenishment patterns and store the optimized inventory policy parameters in the database for each of the one or more items. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system of adjusting inventory levels of items at stock keeping locations, comprising: a supply chain network comprising two or more supply chain entities, the two or more supply chain entities supply one or more items to satisfy a demand and comprise an inventory of the one or more items at one or more stock keeping locations; a computer comprising a processor and a memory, the computer coupled with a database and programmed to: access data describing the inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; access data describing one or more replenishment patterns of the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; quantify a deviation between the one or more replenishment patterns with a forecasted demand and an actual demand of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; access and update inventory policy parameters for each of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities according to the one or more replenishment patterns; generate an executable inventory replenishment plan in accordance with the updated inventory policy parameters; and responsive to the executable inventory replenishment plan, at least one of the two or more supply chain entities automatically adjust the inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations based on the updated inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more stock keeping locations are one or more locations located within at least one of the one or more entities. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the inventory policy parameters comprise one or more of minimum safety stock targets, replenishment intervals, sourcing splits and reorder quantities. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the computer is further programmed to generate an inventory replenishment plan in order to meet demand and the two or more supply chain entities maintain inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations within one or more inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the computer is further programmed to identify one or more root causes and generate one or more alert rules to modify one or more of the updated inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the computer is further programmed to: access one or more demand patterns comprising data representing historical forecasted demand and actual demand for the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations; and access one or more replenishment patterns comprising data representing the size and frequency of replenishments for the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations. ### Claim 7 A computer-implemented method of adjusting inventory levels of items at stock keeping locations, comprising: accessing data describing inventory levels of inventory of one or more items at one or more stock keeping locations of a supply chain network, the supply chain network comprises two or more supply chain entities that supply one or more items to satisfy a demand; accessing data describing one or more replenishment patterns of the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; quantifying a deviation between the one or more replenishment patterns with a forecasted demand and an actual demand of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; accessing and updating inventory policy parameters for each of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities according to the one or more replenishment patterns; generating an executable inventory replenishment plan in accordance with the updated inventory policy parameters; and responsive to the executable inventory replenishment plan, at least one of the two or more supply chain entities automatically adjusting the inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations based on the updated inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the one or more stock keeping locations are one or more locations located within at least one of the one or more entities. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the inventory policy parameters comprise one or more of minimum safety stock targets, replenishment intervals, sourcing splits and reorder quantities. ### Claim 10 (depends on 7) The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising generating an inventory replenishment plan in order to meet demand and the two or more supply chain entities maintain inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations within one or more inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 11 (depends on 7) The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising identifying one or more root causes and generating one or more alert rules to modify one or more of the updated inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 12 (depends on 7) The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising: accessing one or more demand patterns comprising data representing historical forecasted demand and actual demand for the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations; and accessing one or more replenishment patterns comprising data representing the size and frequency of replenishments for the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations. ### Claim 13 A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodied with software for adjusting inventory levels of items at stock keeping locations, the software when executed using one or more computers is programmed to: access data describing inventory levels of inventory of one or more items at one or more stock keeping locations of a supply chain network, the supply chain network comprises two or more supply chain entities that supply one or more items to satisfy a demand; access data describing one or more replenishment patterns of the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; quantify a deviation between the one or more replenishment patterns with a forecasted demand and an actual demand of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities; access and update inventory policy parameters for each of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations of the two or more supply chain entities according to the one or more replenishment patterns; generate an executable inventory replenishment plan in accordance with the updated inventory policy parameters; and responsive to the executable inventory replenishment plan, at least one of the two or more supply chain entities automatically adjust the inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations based on the updated inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more stock keeping locations are one or more locations located within at least one of the one or more entities. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the inventory policy parameters comprise one or more of minimum safety stock targets, replenishment intervals, sourcing splits and reorder quantities. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the software is further programmed to generate an inventory replenishment plan in order to meet demand and the two or more supply chain entities maintain inventory levels of the inventory of the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations within one or more inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 17 (depends on 13) The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the software is further programmed to identify one or more root causes and generate one or more alert rules to modify one or more of the updated inventory policy parameters. ### Claim 18 (depends on 13) The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the software is further programmed to: access one or more demand patterns comprising data representing historical forecasted demand and actual demand for the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations; and access one or more replenishment patterns comprising data representing the size and frequency of replenishments for the one or more items at the one or more stock keeping locations.