Product demand data validation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10867306-B1
Application number	US-86457904-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 9, 2004
Priority date	Jun 9, 2004
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

A validation engine validates product demand data using novel supply-demand imbalance data. Validating the product demand data provides confidence that the demand data is accurate. Confidence in the demand data allows manufacturers, distributors, and others involved in commerce to rely upon the demand data for product manufacture and ordering. The validation engine correlates determined product demand data with product supply data to generate ‘imbalance data’. The product supply data represents data for the same time period as the time period of the product demand data. The imbalance data is, in one embodiment, a difference between the product supply data and the product demand data. In one embodiment, the validation engine generates the imbalance data by subtracting product demand data from the supply data associated with the same product. Negative imbalance data indicates undersupplied products, and positive imbalance data indicates oversupplied products.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of validating demand data for products in an electronic data processing system and producing a supply of products in accordance with validated demand data, the method comprising:
validating demand data for products in an electronic data processing system and producing a supply of products in accordance with validated demand data;
wherein validating the demand data comprises:
executing code by one or more processors of the electronic data processing system to configure the electronic data processing system into a machine and cause the machine to execute steps of:
retrieving product demand data for a particular time period from an electronic memory;
retrieving product supply data for a time period that is approximately correlated in time with the particular time period associated with the product demand data;
processing the retrieved product demand data and product supply data to generate supply-demand imbalance data;
retrieving product commerce data associated with the products for the time period that is approximately correlated in time with the particular time period associated with the product demand data, wherein the product commerce data represents product movement;
comparing the supply-demand imbalance data with the product commerce data, wherein a negative imbalance data indicates undersupplied products, and positive imbalance data indicates oversupplied products;
generating validation data from a comparison of the supply-demand imbalance data with the product commerce data;
determining the validation data validates the product demand data if the supply-demand imbalance data trends toward undersupplied products as the product commerce data trends towards better than average product movement in commerce; and
providing the validation data and product demand data to a manufacturer of the products represented in the product demand data to direct production of the one or more products in accordance with the product demand data that has been validated; and

wherein producing the supply of products in accordance with validated demand data comprises:
accessing the validated demand data; and
producing the supply of the products configured in accordance with the product demand data that is validated.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
performing by the electronic data processing system programmed with code and executable by a processor of the electronic data processing system to further configure the electronic data processing system into the machine for:
processing the validation data with one or more data processors to detect correlations, if any, between oversupply imbalance data and below average commerce movement data and undersupply imbalance data and above average commerce movement data, wherein any detected correlations indicate valid product demand data.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein processing the validation data comprises:
determining a validation trend from the compared supply-demand imbalance data and the product commerce data.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining a validation trend from the compared supply-demand imbalance data and the product commerce data further comprises:
determining if the validation data indicates that the supply-demand imbalance data trends toward undersupplied products as the product commerce data trends towards better than average product movement.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the validation data comprises:
subtracting the product demand data from the product supply data on a product-by-product basis.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining the product demand data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the product demand data comprises:
developing a set of master session profiles, wherein the master session profiles include product demand indicators;
processing at least a subset of user session data to evaluate the user session data using the master session profiles; and
determining product demand from the evaluations.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the commerce data comprises dealer-to-dealer trade rate.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the commerce data comprises an average number of days that a product is available for sale and remains unsold.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the commerce data comprises a period supply for products of a particular type.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the products are selected from the group comprising vehicles, airline tickets, or computers.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein each product comprises a different configuration of a base product model.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
displaying the validation data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein displaying the validation data comprises displaying the validation data in four quadrants comprising:
(I) product commerce data indicating better than average product movement versus oversupply imbalance data;
(II) product commerce data indicating better than average product movement versus undersupply imbalance data;
(III) product commerce data indicating worse than average product movement versus undersupply imbalance data; and
(IV) product commerce data indicating worse than average product movement versus oversupply imbalance data.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein displaying the validation data comprises:
displaying validation data points on a product-by-product basis, wherein a size of each validation data point represents a statistical significance of the validation data point.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein determining if the validation data validates the product demand data comprises determining if the validation data resides in quadrants II and IV.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein determining if the validation data validates the product demand data comprises determining if the validation data generally trends between quadrant II and IV.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein generating validation data further comprises:
generating validation data points on a product-by-product basis.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:
performing by the electronic data processing system programmed with code and executable by a processor of the electronic data processing system to configure the electronic data processing system into the machine for:
weighting each validation data point in accordance with a number of equivalent products represented by the validation data point.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
retrieving from multiple types of commerce data from one or more data storage devices; and
comparing the product demand with the multiple types of commerce data to increase a confidence level in the validation data.

21. An apparatus for validating demand data for products in an electronic data processing system and producing a supply of products in accordance with validated demand data, the apparatus comprising:
a product demand data validation system for validating demand data for products in an electronic data processing system and a manufacturing system for producing a supply of products in accordance with validated demand data;
wherein the product demand data validation system comprises:
one or more non-transitory computer readable media having code stored therein and executable by one or more processors to configure a computer system machine as the product demand data validation system to:
generate supply-demand imbalance data from product demand data and product supp

Assignees

• Karipides Daniel P
• Schwartz Elizabeth M
• Kamm Iv John W
• Ogden James H
• Versata Dev Group Inc

Inventors

• Karipides Daniel P
• Schwartz Elizabeth M
• Kamm Iv John W
• Ogden James H

Classifications

• G06Q30/02 Primary

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title