Rapid sorting-based supply assignment tool for order fulfillment with short supply

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11966868-B2
Application number	US-202016879219-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2020
Priority date	Dec 16, 2019
Publication date	Apr 23, 2024
Grant date	Apr 23, 2024

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments for sorting-based assignment to optimize order fulfillment with short supply. One embodiment includes identifying a set of one or more distributions within a series of days. Sorting all demands of a first priority level occurring in the series of days by ascending order of size of the demand. For each demand of the first priority level in sorted order, (a) selecting an initial distribution during which the demand is scheduled to be fulfilled from the set of distributions, and (b) generating an indication that the demand can cannot be completely fulfilled, based on the size of the demand and the amount of supply available. Automatically arranging a graphical representation of a schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for the series of days in a graphical user interface based at least on the indications generated for each demand.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
automatically arranging a graphical representation of a schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for a series of days in a graphical user interface;
accepting a user input through the graphical user interface to cause the schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for the series of days to be regenerated;
identifying a set of one or more distributions within the series of days;
sorting all demands of a first priority level occurring in the series of days by ascending order of size of the demand;
for the demands of the first priority level in sorted order, selecting an initial distribution during which the demand is scheduled to be fulfilled from the set of distributions,
for the demands of the first priority level in sorted order, generating, by a processor, (i) an indication that one of the demands can be completely fulfilled, and (ii) an indication that another of the demands cannot be fulfilled and is to be left entirely unmet, based on sizes of the demands and amount of supply available for assignment in the initial distribution and all previous distributions preceding the initial distribution; and
automatically rearranging the graphical representation of the schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for the series of days in the graphical user interface based at least on the indications generated for each demand.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the indications for each demand further comprises:
while (i) a unit quantity of unassigned units for the demand remain, and (ii) a current distribution under consideration remains unevaluated among the initial distribution and the previous distributions,
(a) selecting as a least quantity one of (i) a supply quantity available for assignment from the current distribution and (ii) the unit quantity,
(b) reducing both the supply quantity and the unit quantity by the least quantity,
(c) inserting the current distribution and the least quantity into an assignment map, and
(d) in response to the supply quantity being completely exhausted, setting the current distribution to be a previous distribution immediately preceding the current distribution;

determining whether unassigned units remain for the demand; and
in response to a determination
(i) that unassigned units for the demand remain, removing the least quantities stored in the assignment map and adding the least quantities to the supply quantities of the respective distributions, and generating the indication that the demand cannot be fulfilled; and
(ii) that unassigned units for the demand do not remain, generating the indication that the demand can be completely fulfilled, and retaining the assignment map, wherein the assignment map indicates source distributions and quantities for all supply assigned to the demand.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sorting all demands of a second priority level occurring in the series of days by ascending order of size of the demand;
for the sorted demands of each priority level, further sorting each group of multiple demands of equal size in descending order of ship date;
wherein (i) the selection of an initial distribution and (ii) the generation of an indication of whether the demand can be filled are further performed for each demand of the second priority level in sorted order; and
wherein the demands of the second priority level are included in the graphical representation of the schedule.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each demand that is completely fulfilled, retrieving an assignment map that indicates source distributions and quantities for all supply assigned to the demand; and
transmitting an instruction to fulfill or leave unfulfilled the individual demands over the series of days in accordance with the assignment maps and the schedule.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accepting an additional input that indicates a change to the schedule;
automatically re-generating the schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands by initiating
(i) the identification of the distributions,
(ii) the sorting of all demands, and
(iii) the selection of an initial distribution and generation of an indication of whether the demand can be filled for each demand
in response to the acceptance of the additional input; and

automatically re-arranging the graphical representation of the schedule based on the re-generated schedule to display the effect of the change;
wherein the indication of a change to the schedule is selected from the group consisting of (i) an indication that that a particular demand is required to be met, (ii) an indication that a particular demand is required to be unmet, (iii) an indication that a particular demand or supply is moved from one day to another, (iv) an indication that that a particular demand is moved from one priority level to another, (v) an indication that a particular demand or supply is deleted, and (vi) a set of one or more inputs that describe addition of a new demand or supply.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a distribution is more than one consecutive days in which supply arrives on a first day of the more than one consecutive days and not on days subsequent to the first day of the distribution.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing the indications generated for each demand as a first optimal solution;
generating a mapping between each set of demands of equal size in the demands and a number of demands that are met for the set of demands of equal size in the first optimal solution;
for each set of equal sized demands, generating all alternative sets of met demands that meet the same number of demands;
determining each permutation of selecting one set of met demands for each of the demand sizes to create a list of candidate solutions; and
removing each permutation that cannot be met by available supply to create a list of equivalently optimal solutions from the list of candidate solutions.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes stored thereon computer-executable instructions that when executed by at least a processor of a computer cause the computer to:
automatically arrange a graphical representation of a schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for a series of days in a graphical user interface;
accept a user input through the graphical user interface to cause the schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for the series of days to be generated;
identify, by at least the processor, a set of one or more distributions within the series of days;
sort, by at least the processor, all demands of a first priority level occurring in the series of days by ascending order of size of the demand;
for the demands of the first priority level in sorted order, select, by at least the processor, an initial distribution during which the demand is scheduled to be fulfilled from the set of distributions,
for the demands of the first priority level in sorted order, generate, by at least the processor, (i) an indication that one of the demands can be completely fulfilled, and (ii) an indication that another of the demands cannot be fulfilled and is to be left entirely unmet, based on sizes of the demands and amount of supply available for assignment in the initial distribution and all previous distributions preceding the initial distribution; and
automatically rearrange, by at least the processor, the graphical representation of the schedule of supplies and met and unmet demands for the series of days in the graphical user interface based at least on the indications generated for each demand.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Long Jing
• Smith Randall B
• Wood Alan P

Classifications

• G06Q10/06315 Primary

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06F7/08

  Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry (by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16) · CPC title

• G06Q10/04

  Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" (market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202) · CPC title

• G06Q10/06312

  Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling · CPC title

• G06Q10/06316

  Sequencing of tasks or work · CPC title