US 7,610,112 B2Granted

Method for manufacturing with engineering change override

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsIvory W. Knipfer, Fraser A. Syme, Matthew H. Zemke

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Abstract

The illustrative embodiments provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for processing orders. A request for delivery by a requested delivery date is received for an order having an original delivery date. The ordered product is broken down into one or more materials required for manufacturing the ordered product. For at least one material required for manufacturing the ordered product, a date when an engineering change becomes effective for the material is specified. An alternate bill of materials is created based on the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective for the material. An alternate manufacturing plan based on the alternate bill of materials is created. Manufacturing is initiated based on the alternate manufacturing plan. If manufacturing can be completed in time for delivery by the requested delivery date, the original delivery date of the order is replaced with the requested delivery date.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A computer program product stored in a computer usable medium including computer usable program code when executed by a computer for processing orders, said computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code for receiving a request for delivery of an order by a requested delivery date;
computer usable program code, responsive to receiving the request for delivery of the order by the requested delivery date, for specifying a date when an engineering change becomes effective for at least one material required for the order outside of a material requirements planning system, wherein the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective for the at least one material is the date when a manufacturing operation changes from the at least one material to a different version of the at least one material based on factors not accounted for by a current date when the engineering change becomes effective for the at least one material, and wherein the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective for the at least one material is specified manually or programmatically for overriding the current date;
computer usable program code for creating an alternate bill of materials based on the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective;
computer usable program code for creating an alternate manufacturing plan based on an alternate bill of materials for delivery of the order by the requested delivery date;
and
computer usable program code for initiating the manufacturing operation based on the alternate manufacturing plan.

3 more elements

A data processing system for processing orders, the data processing system comprising:

a bus system;
a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device includes a set of instructions;
and a processing unit connected to the bus system wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to receive a request for delivery of an order by a requested delivery date;
specify a date when an engineering change becomes effective for at least one material required for the order outside of a material requirements planning system in response to receiving the request for delivery of the order by the requested delivery date, wherein the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective for the at least one material is the date when a manufacturing operation changes from the at least one material to a different version of the at least one material based on factors not accounted for by a current date when the engineering change becomes effective for the at least one material, and wherein the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective for the at least one material is specified manually or programmatically for overriding the current date;
create an alternate bill of materials based on the specified date when the engineering change becomes effective;
create an alternate manufacturing plan based on an alternate bill of materials for delivery of the order by the requested delivery date;
and initiate the manufacturing operation based on the alternate manufacturing plan.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/172,586Filed 14 Jul 2008 · continuation
Priority: 22 Aug 2006
Published: US 2008/0051923 A16 Nov 2008
Granted: 27 Oct 2009
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06Q 10/087
Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management: inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling,…
G06Q 10/0631
Operations research, analysis or management: resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
G06Q 10/06315
Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations: needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
G06Q 10/0872
Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders: using inventory planning

Family

Application11/466,190Parent of this continuation · filed 22 Aug 2006
US 2008/0275583 A1Pre-grant publication · published 6 Nov 2008
US 7,437,205 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2008/0051923 A1Published application
US 7,610,112 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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