Method for fulfilling an order in an integrated supply chain management system

A method for moving one or more physical items in a supply chain that is distributed over a plurality of geographic locations, comprising:

• extracting from a customer system information pertaining to a work order that specifies a piece of equipment to be repaired and the one or more physical items expected to be used during the repair procedure;
• determining, using data extracted from an equipment knowledge database, a probability that each of the one or more physical items specified in the work order will be needed to effect the repair procedure;
• using the determined probability to move the one or more physical items specified in the work order to a respective at least one of the geographic locations within the supply chain whereby the one or more physical items are made ready for use in the repair procedure;
• extracting from the customer system information pertaining to a completion of the repair procedure;
• and
• using the information pertaining to the completion of the repair procedure to populate the equipment knowledge database for use in future probability of need calculations.

A computer-readable media having instructions for facilitating movement of a physical item in a supply chain that is distributed over a plurality of geographic locations, the instructions performing steps comprising:

• extracting via a computer network information from a customer maintenance system indicative of a change in a scheduled maintenance work order to create an advance demand notice that includes a specification of the physical item;
• extracting from the advance demand notice information concerning the one or more physical items;
• and
• using the information extracted from the advanced demand notice to move each of the one or more physical items to a respective at least one of the plurality of geographic locations within the supply chain as a function of a probability that the one or more physical items specified in the advance demand notice will be needed to be used during performance of the scheduled maintenance work order.

A computer-readable media having instructions for moving one or more physical items in a supply chain that is distributed over a plurality of geographic locations, the instructions performing steps comprising:

• extracting from a customer system information pertaining to a work order that specifies a piece of equipment to be repaired and the one or more physical items expected to be used during the repair procedure;
• determining, using an equipment knowledge database, a probability that each of the one or more physical items specified in the work order will be needed to effect the repair procedure;
• and
• using the determined probability to move each of the one or more physical items specified in the work order to a respective at least one of the geographic locations within the supply chain whereby the one or more physical items are made ready for use in the repair procedure.