# US 2014/0195389 A1 · Inventory management system

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- Number: US 2014/0195389 A1
- Document ID: US20140195389A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/203,307
- Filed: 2014-03-10
- Published: 2014-07-10
- Earliest claimed: 2005-09-02
- Assignees: Flowvision, LLC
- Applicants: Flowvision, LLC
- Inventors: Michael Henderson; David Pytel; Gerson Cortes
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140195389A1

## CPC

- G06Q 10/06: Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
- G06Q 10/04: Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" (market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202)
- G06Q 10/063: Operations research, analysis or management
- G06Q 10/0637: Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
- G06Q 10/0832: Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
- G06Q 10/0833: Tracking
- G06Q 10/0838: {Historical data}
- G06Q 10/087: Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
- G06Q 10/08726: {for replenishment processing, procedures, or recommendations using forecasting or optimisation}
- G06Q 10/067: Enterprise or organisation modelling
- G06Q 10/08: Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
- 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 statistical inventory management system may optimize inventory investment using historical usage and/or consumption of an inventory component by determining one or more target inventory levels (e.g., replenishment levels). Historical usage data may be summed for a plurality of at least partially non-overlapping time periods that may be each equal in duration to a supplier lead-time period for the component to create lead-time usage data. The lead-time usage data may be utilized to more accurately determine future inventory levels (e.g., target inventory levels) because the lead-time usage data may have a reduced variance compared to, for example, day-to-day usage. The inventory management system may be employable by a computing system having a display module (e.g., GUI) that allows a user to receive at least one graphical representation indicative of at least one target inventory level of at least one inventory component (e.g., by selectively interacting with the display module).

## Claims

### Claim at position 1

1-3. (canceled)

### Claim 4

An inventory control system for determining a target inventory level of at least one component of a product, comprising:
a target inventory module that is employable to determine a plurality of target inventory levels for the at least one component at least in part by analyzing usage data for the at least one component, the target inventory module including computer readable instructions that are operable to:
obtain a plurality of chronologically-arranged usage data points for the at least one component;
identify any of the chronologically-arranged usage data points comprising a value higher than a predetermined threshold value;
reduce the value of any identified chronologically-arranged usage data points to create corresponding reduced chronologically-arranged usage data points, wherein chronologically-arranged usage data points that have not been reduced comprise non-reduced chronologically-arranged usage data points;
sum, for each of a plurality of at least partially different time periods that each have a common duration equal to a supplier lead-time for the at least one component, any reduced and/or non-reduced chronologically-arranged usage data points over the time period to create a plurality of corresponding bucketed lead-time data points; and
determine the plurality of target inventory levels from the plurality of bucketed lead-time data points; and
a processor that is operable to employ the computer readable instructions to determine the plurality of target inventory levels.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The system of claim 4, wherein the target inventory module includes computer readable instructions that determine that a quantity of the identified chronologically-arranged usage data points is less than a threshold number of chronologically-arranged usage data points before the value of each of the identified chronologically-arranged usage data points is reduced.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The system of claim 4, wherein the threshold value comprises a total of an average value and a standard deviation of at least some of the plurality of chronologically-arranged usage data points for the at least one component.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The system of claim 6, wherein the average value is determined utilizing both zero and non-zero chronologically-arranged usage data point values.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The system of claim 6, wherein the average value is determined utilizing only non-zero chronologically-arranged usage data point values.

### Claim 9 (depends on 4)

The system of claim 4, wherein the computer readable instructions that operable to reduce include computer readable instructions that are operable to reduce the identified usage data point down to at least the predetermined threshold value.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, wherein the computer readable instructions that operable to reduce include computer readable instructions that are operable to reduce the identified usage data point down to at least the average value.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The system of claim 10, wherein the computer readable instructions that operable to reduce include computer readable instructions that are operable to reduce the identified usage data point down to zero.

### Claim 12

An inventory control system for determining a target inventory level of at least one component of a product, comprising:
a target inventory module that is employable to determine a plurality of target inventory levels for the at least one component at least in part by analyzing usage data for the at least one component, the target inventory module including computer readable instructions that are operable to:
obtain a plurality of chronologically-arranged usage data points for another component;
correlate the chronologically-arranged usage data points for the another component with the at least one component;
sum, for each of a plurality of at least partially different time periods that each have a common duration equal to a supplier lead-time for the at least one component, the correlated, chronologically-arranged usage data points over the time period to create a plurality of corresponding bucketed lead-time data points; and
determine the plurality of target inventory levels for the at least one component from the plurality of bucketed lead-time data points; and
a processor that is operable to employ the computer readable instructions to determine the plurality of target inventory levels.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one component is a replacement part for the another component.

### Claim at position 12

14-16. (canceled)

### Claim 17

A method for use in determining one or more target inventory levels of at least one component of a product, comprising:
obtaining a plurality of chronologically-arranged usage data points for the at least one component;
identifying chronologically-arranged usage data points comprising a value higher than a predetermined threshold value;
reducing the value of any identified chronologically-arranged usage data points to create corresponding reduced chronologically-arranged usage data points, wherein chronologically-arranged usage data points that have not been reduced comprise non-reduced chronologically-arranged usage data points;
summing, for each of a plurality of at least partially different time periods that each have a common duration equal to a supplier lead-time for the at least one component, any reduced and/or non-reduced chronologically-arranged usage data points over the time period to create a plurality of corresponding bucketed lead-time data points; and
determining the one or more target inventory levels from the plurality of bucketed lead-time data points.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The method of claim 17, further comprising:
determining that a quantity of the identified chronologically-arranged usage data points is less than a threshold number of chronologically-arranged usage data points before reducing the value of each of the identified chronologically-arranged usage data points.

### Claim 19 (depends on 17)

The method of claim 17, wherein the threshold value comprises a total of an average value and a standard deviation of at least some of the plurality of chronologically-arranged usage data points for the at least one component.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The method of claim 19, wherein the average value is determined utilizing both zero and non-zero chronologically-arranged usage data point values.

### Claim 21 (depends on 19)

The method of claim 19, wherein the average value is determined utilizing only non-zero chronologically-arranged usage data point values.

### Claim 22 (depends on 17)

The method of claim 17, wherein the reducing comprises:
reducing the identified usage data point down to at least the predetermined threshold value.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein the reducing comprises:
reducing the identified usage data point down to at least the average value.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23, wherein the reducing comprises:
reducing the identified usage data point down to zero.

### Claim at position 21

25-26. (canceled)