Inventory management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11615373-B2
Application number	US-201815975604-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 9, 2018
Priority date	May 9, 2018
Publication date	Mar 28, 2023
Grant date	Mar 28, 2023

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing inventory items within a supply chain are disclosed. One method includes receiving, at a software tool, inputs related to a plurality of inventory items, the inputs including a cost of holding each of the plurality of inventory items at a location type. The method includes determining, individually for each inventory item of a plurality of inventory items, an optimal inventory balance across a plurality of locations, wherein the optimal inventory balance is a predetermined statistical availability level set based on a desired customer availability of the inventory item. The method further includes automatically generating one or more inventory adjustment requests to achieve the optimal inventory balance across each of the plurality of locations for each of the plurality of inventory items.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of managing inventory items within a supply chain, the method comprising:
receiving, at a software platform implemented on a supply chain management computing system, inputs related to a plurality of inventory items, the inputs being received from a transportation management computing system and including a set of defined constraints including a cost of holding each of the plurality of inventory items at a location type and a cost of moving each of the plurality of inventory items between locations, wherein a plurality of locations within the supply chain includes a plurality of retail locations, a receiving center, and a flow center servicing the plurality of retail locations;
determining, at a replenishment management system included within the software platform, for each individual inventory item and across a plurality of different inventory item stock keeping units (SKUs), an optimal inventory balance across the plurality of locations for a predetermined future time period, wherein the optimal inventory balance is a discreet number of individual inventory items of each SKU at each of the plurality of inventory locations, wherein determining the optimal inventory balance includes:
receiving demand signals from a point of sale system within an enterprise;
assigning a predetermined statistical availability level at each of the plurality of retail locations that is based on a desired customer availability at each of the plurality of retail locations for the predetermined future time period and based on a level of uncertainty regarding consumer demand;
assigning a predetermined statistical availability level at the flow center that is based on a second level of uncertainty representing a collective uncertainty across the plurality of retail locations, wherein the second level of uncertainty is lower than the level of uncertainty at each of the plurality of retail locations, the predetermined statistical availability level representing a cumulative percent of possible sales values; and
receiving demand forecast information from a demand forecasting engine, the demand forecast information defining a statistical distribution of estimated demand representing a distribution of sales volume outcomes for each SKU at each of the plurality of locations for the predetermined future time period, the plurality of locations including the flow center and the plurality of retail locations, the statistical distribution of estimated demand serving to aggregate the demand across the plurality of locations to reduce demand variability allowing the plurality of locations to decrease an average amount of the plurality of inventory items held at the plurality of locations;

providing the optimal inventory balance from the replenishment management system to an inventory management system included within the software platform;
responsive to the determination of the optimal inventory balance, automatically generating, at the inventory management system, and based on the set of defined constraints, one or more inventory adjustment requests to achieve the optimal inventory balance across each of the plurality of locations for each of the plurality of inventory items, the inventory adjustment requests resulting in an inventory status satisfying the predetermined statistical availability level given the statistical distribution of estimated demand for each of the plurality of inventory items, the inventory adjustment requests being selected from among a transfer order or rebalance order to initiate movement of a discrete number of inventory items within the enterprise on a per-item basis, or a purchase order to a vendor to order additional inventory items;
responsive to generating the one or more inventory adjustment requests, communicating the one or more inventory adjustment requests from the supply chain management computing system to the transportation management computing system, thereby effectuating movement of inventory items among the plurality of locations within the supply chain; and
responsive to receipt of the one or more inventory adjustment requests, scheduling and executing, by the transportation management computing system, deliveries of shipments by delivery services of at least one item of the plurality of inventory items.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically determining an appropriate unit of measurement for each of the plurality of inventory items at each of the plurality of locations.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein an appropriate unit of measurement is selected from a pallet, a case, and an each.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined statistical availability level is at least 98% availability at the retail location.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inputs further include future events comprising promotions, sales plans, inventory item goals, and expected changes in sales patterns.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inputs further include at least one of costs of moving the inventory item between locations, current inventory item levels at each location, and transit time to transfer the inventory item between locations.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rebalance order includes the amount of inventory items to be moved, where the inventory items are to be moved, and when the inventory items are needed at the location.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein an optimal inventory balance for a flow center among the plurality of flow centers is based at least in part on optimal inventory balances at each of a plurality of related retail locations, and wherein the optimal inventory balances of each of the plurality of related retail locations is based on the predetermined statistical availability level.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating via the software tool a user interface providing a selectable view of current and optimal inventory balances at one or more of the plurality of locations.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving, via the software platform, an input identifying the predetermined statistical availability level for at least one item across the plurality of locations.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a computing system cause the computing system to perform a method of managing inventory items in a supply chain, the method comprising:
receiving from a transportation management computing system, at a software platform implemented on a supply chain management computing system, inputs related to a plurality of inventory items, the inputs being received from a transportation management computing system and including a set of defined constraints including a cost of holding each of the plurality of inventory items at a location type and a cost of moving each of the plurality of inventory items between locations, wherein a plurality of locations within the supply chain includes a plurality of retail locations, a receiving center, and a flow center servicing the plurality of retail locations;
determining, at a replenishment management system included within the software platform, individually for each individual inventory item and across a plurality of different inventory item stock keeping units (SKUs), an optimal inventory balance across the plurality of locations for a predetermined future time period, wherein the optimal inventory balance is a discreet number of individual inventory items of each SKU at each of the plurality of inventory locations, wherein determining the optimal inventory balance includes:
receiving demand signals from a point of sale system within an enterprise;
assigning a predetermi

Assignees

• Target Brands Inc

Inventors

• Malecha Gregory
• Neerkaje Abhijith
• Gruzman Aron
• Rao Ashwin
• Tallichetty Chandrashekar
• Eul Jeffrey
• Cox Joseph
• Chen Shaokuan
• Jelvis Tikhon

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q30/0223

  based on inventory · CPC title

• G06Q20/203

  Inventory monitoring · CPC title

• G06Q10/083 Primary

  Shipping · CPC title

• G06Q30/0201

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title