Inventory cache

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9773223-B2
Application number	US-201414192650-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2014
Priority date	Jun 28, 2013
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure extends to maintaining an item inventory status at an inventory cache management system. The inventory cache may be refreshed regularly by a threshold-based triggering mechanism. In embodiments, as item inventory breaches certain thresholds, the inventory cache may be refreshed with increased frequency to mitigate overselling or underselling scenarios and reduce overall network traffic for items having relatively high inventory levels.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of updating a store inventory cache management system, comprising:
providing a website to a user computer device at a front end server and over an internet, the website comprising an inventory status indicator;
at a store inventory database module, receiving an item inventory level quantity from at least one individual store database;
at the store inventory database module, comparing the item inventory level quantity with an item high threshold;
if the item inventory level quantity is less than the item high threshold, transmitting a Limited Stock inventory status from the store inventory database module to a store inventory cache;
at a store inventory data ingestion layer within the store inventory cache, processing the Limited Stock inventory status;
at a data store within the store inventory cache, storing the Limited Stock inventory status;
at an inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving a data request from the front end server;
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, determining that the data request is for data related to the Limited Stock inventory status;
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, calling the store inventory cache for the Limited Stock inventory status in response to the data request;
transmitting the Limited Stock inventory status to the front end server for display at the website as the inventory status indicator in response to determining that the data request is for the data related to the Limited Stock inventory status; and
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, requesting the item inventory level quantity from the store inventory database module if transmitting the Limited Stock inventory status fails.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at the store inventory database module, comparing the item inventory level quantity with an item medium threshold; and
if the item inventory level quantity is less than the item medium threshold, transmitting an Out of Stock inventory status from the store inventory database module to the store inventory cache.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a second request from the inventory availability orchestration layer to the store inventory database module; and
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving the item inventory level quantity in response to the second request.

4. A system comprising:
a front end server providing a website to a user computer device over an internet, the website comprising an inventory status indicator;
an inventory cache comprising:
an owned inventory cache;
an owned inventory data ingestion layer;
a store inventory cache; and
a store inventory data ingestion layer;

an inventory core database, adapted to store an item inventory level quantity;
an inventory management application module, adapted to:
compare the item inventory level quantity to a predetermined high threshold; and
if the item inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold, transmit a Limited Stock inventory status to the owned inventory cache; and

an inventory availability orchestration layer configured to:
receive a data request from the front end server;
determine that the data request is for data related to the Limited Stock inventory status;
call the store inventory cache for the Limited Stock inventory status in response to the data request; and
request the item inventory level quantity from the inventory core database if the transmitting the Limited Stock inventory status fails;

wherein:
the inventory management application module is further adapted to transmit the Limited Stock inventory status to the front end server for display at the website as the inventory status indicator in response to determining that the data request is for the data related to the Limited Stock inventory status.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein:
the inventory management application module is further adapted to:
compare the item inventory level quantity with an item medium threshold; and
if the item inventory level quantity is less than the item medium threshold, transmit an Out of Stock inventory status to the store inventory cache.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein
the inventory availability orchestration layer is further configured to:
transmit a second request to a store inventory database module; and
receive the item inventory level quantity in response to the second request.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein:
the inventory availability orchestration layer is configured to:
transmit a second request to a store inventory database module; and
receive the item inventory level quantity in response to the second request; and

the inventory management application module is further adapted to:
compare the item inventory level quantity with an item medium threshold;
if the item inventory level quantity is less than the item medium threshold, transmit an Out of Stock inventory status to the store inventory cache; and
transmit the Limited Stock inventory status to the front end server in response to the data request.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a second request from the inventory availability orchestration layer to the store inventory database module;
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving the item inventory level quantity in response to the second request;
at the store inventory database module, comparing the item inventory level quantity with an item medium threshold;
if the item inventory level quantity is less than the item medium threshold, transmitting an Out of Stock inventory status from the store inventory database module to the store inventory cache; and
from the front end server, transmitting the Limited Stock inventory status for display at the user computer device.

Assignees

• Wal Mart Stores Inc

Inventors

• Vasantham Madhavan Kandhadai
• Sreedhararaj Sreekanth
• Tyagarajan Mahesh

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

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

• G06F17/30

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L67/2852

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/5682 Primary

  Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data · CPC title

• G06F16/00

  Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor · CPC title