US 8,543,473 B2Granted

Business partner collaboration and buy analysis

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsLianjun An, Blair A. Binney, Markus Ettl, Mamnoon Jamil, Shubir Kapoor, Rajesh K. Ravi, Yadav P. Singh, Karthik Sourirajan

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

patentgrep

Loading patent…

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, system and computer program product for implementing an automated inventory replenishment process between a manufacturer and a business partner. In one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided comprising the business partner purchasing and maintaining an inventory of goods from the manufacturer, and the manufacturer providing price protection to the business partner for the purchasing of the goods. This embodiment further comprises managing said inventory by using an automated process that takes into account said price protection for the purchasing of the goods.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method of implementing an automated inventory replenishment process between a manufacturer and a business partner, the method comprising:

purchasing and maintaining, by the business partner, an inventory of goods from the manufacturer;
providing, by the manufacturer, price protection to the business partner for the purchasing of the goods from the manufacturer;
and
managing said inventory by using an automated process that takes into account said price protection for the purchasing of the goods, including using said price protection to determine a recommended buy to replenish the inventory of goods, and including displaying a graph showing a current supply line and a recommended supply line over a given time period, the current supply line showing a quantity of the goods actually supplied to the business partner from the manufacturer over said time period, the recommended supply line showing a quantity of the goods recommended to be supplied to the business partners from the manufacturer over said time period, and using a difference between the current supply line and the recommended supply line to calculate a recommended buy quantity to replenish the inventory of goods;
and
performing, using a computer system implementing an inventory replenishment program, the steps of using said price protection to determine a recommended buy, and using a difference between the current supply line and the recommended supply line to calculate a recommended buy quantity.

3 more elements

A system for implementing an automated inventory replenishment process between a manufacturer and a business partner, wherein the business partner purchases and maintains an inventory of goods from the manufacturer, and the manufacturer provides price protection to the business partner for the purchasing of the goods from the manufacture, the system for implementing an automated inventory replenishment process comprising one or more processor units configured for:

managing said inventory by using an automated process that takes into account said price protection for the purchasing of the goods, including using said price protection to determine a recommended buy to replenish the inventory of goods, and including displaying a graph showing a current supply line and a recommended supply line over a given time period, the current supply line showing a quantity of the goods actually supplied to the business partner from the manufacturer over said time period, the recommended supply line showing a quantity of the goods recommended to be supplied to the business partners from the manufacturer over said time period, and using a difference between the current supply line and the recommended supply line to calculate a recommended buy quantity to replenish the inventory of goods.

An article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer usable device having computer readable program code logic tangibly embodied therein to execute a machine instruction in one or more processing units for implementing an automated inventory replenishment process between a manufacturer and a business partner, wherein the business partner purchases and maintains an inventory of goods from the manufacturer, and the manufacturer provides price protection to the business partner for the purchasing of the goods from the manufacturer, and said computer readable program code logic, when executing, performing the following:
managing said inventory by using an automated process that takes into account said price protection for the purchasing of the goods, including using said price protection to determine a recommended buy to replenish the inventory of goods, and including displaying a graph showing a current supply line and a recommended supply line over a given time period, the current supply line showing a quantity of the goods actually supplied to the business partner from the manufacturer over said time period, the recommended supply line showing a quantity of the goods recommended to be supplied to the business partners from the manufacturer over said time period, and using a difference between the current supply line and the recommended supply line to calculate a recommended buy quantity to replenish the inventory of goods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/269,105Filed 12 Nov 2008
Published: US 2010/0121677 A113 May 2010
Granted: 24 Sep 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06Q 10/06315
Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations: needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
G06Q 10/04
Administration; Management: forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or…
G06Q 10/087
Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management: inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling,…
G06Q 10/08726
Using inventory planning: for replenishment processing, procedures, or recommendations using forecasting or optimisation

Family

US 2010/0121677 A1Pre-grant publication · published 13 May 2010
US 8,543,473 B2This patent

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

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key