WO2012093410A2

WO2012093410A2 - Real-time demand supply control system

Info

Publication number: WO2012093410A2
Application number: PCT/IN2012/000022
Authority: WO
Inventors: Vaibhav MISHRA
Original assignee: Mishra Vaibhav
Priority date: 2011-01-07
Filing date: 2012-01-09
Publication date: 2012-07-12
Also published as: WO2012093410A4; WO2012093410A3

Abstract

The invention relates to a real-time demand and supply control system in a supply chain management. Further, the invention relates to a system for managing 'Just in Time' inventory and overall monitoring and recommending solutions to minimize error conditions in supply chain distribution of any commodity/goods from the manufacturer point to the retailer end. The invention further relates to an automated artificial intelligence environment and system to manage manufacturing unit in response to the deviation in demand and hence reducing the inventory costs as well as losses due to under-supply of commodities.

Description

REAL-TIME DEMAND SUPPLY CONTROL SYSTEM"

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a real-time demand and supply control system in a supply chain management. More specifically, the invention relates to a system for managing 'Just in Time' inventory and overall monitoring and recommending solutions to minimize error conditions in supply chain distribution of any commodity/goods from the manufacturer point to the retailer end. The invention further relates to an automated artificial intelligence environment and system to manage manufacturing unit in response to the deviation in demand and hence reducing the inventory costs as well as losses due to under-supply of commodities.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A supply chain is a process by which distribution of a finished product starts from a manufacturer and reaches the end consumer. It includes a network of facilities and distribution options through various suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers that enable a product to be made, sold and delivered to the end consumer.

Usually, a supply chain for any product depends upon the market demand in a cyclic way: a manufacturer would make a product based on its market forecast; a supplier would place orders for the product based on its market forecast; and a retailer would order the product from the supplier based on its market forecast. However, the end consumer would purchase the product based on his or her needs or desires. Therefore, the market forecast is highly unpredictable for a manufacturer, supplier and retailer. Uncontrolled system to monitor any change in buying habits of end consumer would lead to overproduction or underproduction from manufacturer end, more supply or less supply from supplier end, and

l more or less storage from retailer end. In the entire situation market would suffer huge loss or create market inefficiency.

So far many activities have been made in demand supply control to minimize the market inefficiency and day to day loss of manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers. But none of them has yet been implied effectively to minimize these risks. Still, the handling and inventory cost are more than the manufacturing cost in most of the products. And, these transaction costs, transportation costs, transportation delay, insurance costs etc. play a major role in market inefficiency and business loss.

There are various supply chain management applications have been developed in recent years to minimize these risks. Most of these applications are referred to as supply chain planning or advanced planning solutions to predict the various parameters in demand supply control system. The goal of these systems is to create various business and marketing plans that minimize total supply chain costs while maintaining the desired product pool to the end consumer. However, such systems fail to fulfill the exact requirement to support the business need in the most effective and efficient manner. US Patent 7443282 relates to a system and method, including software and hardware, for providing an accurate, real-time, and synchronized view of supply chain information. The system utilizes various RFID technologies to collect and manage data in real time. It then implements a synchronization mechanism to synchronize supply chain data from various data sources within and across a company in near real time fashion to allow different types of enterprise users, both internal and external, to access the synchronized information and take synchronized action with-in an appropriate timeframe. The major disadvantage of this application is that it doesn't provide for coordination with the rate of production at the manufacturing end point. Further, there is a requirement to integrate already available systems like ERP, Inventory management systems, forecasting systems, and warehouse management to be more effective and user friendly. There is not disclosed any method to provide analysis of the real time data thus obtained in this US patent. Patent Application WO2005067438relates to a system and method for managing inventory and out-of-stock conditions using radio frequency identification systems, particularly in the retail market. The major disadvantage of this application is that it talks about only managing out of stock condition using RFID and not about holistic view of the supply chain, real time control, alerting and generation of recommendations and dynamically changing production rate.

Therefore, there is a need for a real-time demand supply control system that integrates with various operations and business needs in a very effective and efficient manner.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The main object of the invention is to remove the market inefficiencies and reduce the losses incurred by both manufacturers and suppliers in the sale and distribution of products.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a means to control the entire demand supply chain. Still another object of the invention is to provide a system for managing 'Just in Time' inventory.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a real-time demand supply control system.

Still another object of the invention is to access and monitor the distribution of a product remotely from manufacturing or distribution or retail or any other facility in the supply chain.

-Still another object of the invention is to provide such a system that allows for complete automation without a trace of unused inventory, overproduction or underproduction. Still another object of the invention is to minimize the amount of human intervention in Supply Chain Management system from start to end point.

Still another object of the invention is to greatly reduce the expense of transaction costs, transportation costs, transportation delay, insurance costs etc. through the simple, yet very effective manner.

Still further object of the invention is to provide a system without requiring any substantial modifications in the existing systems of supply chain, product distribution or sale.

Still further object of the invention is to provide a new revolutionary way of controlling the actual shipping and production in supply chain network. The new system also captures the flow of products systematically without manual intervention throughout the supply network.

Yet another object of the invention is the use of a unique programmable software and hardware infrastructure in the system of the invention so as to specifically and effectively address the need of recommending solutions to minimize error conditions in supply chain.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a real-time demand supply control system in supply chain management. More specifically, the invention relates to a system for managing 'Just in Time' inventory and overall monitoring and error correction in case of deviation of actual from planned in a supply chain distribution of any goods from the manufacturer point to the retailer end. The present invention provides an intelligent demand control system that can track or monitor the supply chain distribution of products in real-time and forecast the actual demand or supply of those products. The invention further relates to an automated artificial intelligence environment and system to manage manufacturing unit in response to W

the deviation in demand and hence reducing the inventory costs as well as losses due to under-supply of commodities. The system is aimed at incorporating visibility of the supply chain network from any point in the selected network.

The invention relates to using a unique integration of programmable software and hardware infrastructure in the system that can easily track and monitor the distributed products. The invention relates to a method of integrating various means to enable the monitoring and recommending solutions to minimize error conditions in system in a product supply chain network. The present invention is an amalgamation of various devices such as RFID readers, Portals, Barcode readers, LED displays, Variable frequency drive etc. and all rolled into a single node that form a plurality of nodes and a control system through which Variable Frequency Drive over RS485 protocol talk to production machines in order to change the rate of production.

The system thus provides unified platform across distributed network of facilities. The system also provides integration with manufacturing appliances to capture speed of products fed into supply chain. The system also allows systematic changing of manufacturing speed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Figure 1 describes the system which is deployed across different facilities of a manufacturing company and includes central server which communicates with client system deployed at each of the facility. A refers to Data transfer between Server Node and Client Node in Manufacturing Facility. B refers to Data transfer between Server Node and Client Node in Retail Center. I refers to Data transfer between Server Node and Client Node in Distribution Center. K refers to Goods transfer from Manufacturing Facility to Distribution Center. M refers to Goods transfer from Manufacturing Facility to Retail Center. Figure 2 describes client nodes and server node of the system. It also shows external systems interacting with the client and server nodes of the system. A refers Track and Trace Data captured through data capture devices transferred to the Client Node. B refers Sales retrieved through Point of Sales systems through Client Node in the Retail Center. C refers Supply chain events from Retail Center to Server Node. D refers Supply Chain events from distribution center to Server Node. E refers Track and Trace Data captured through data capture devices transferred to the Client Node. F refers Picking and Packing data for the delivery orders retrieved through Warehouse Management systems through Client Node in the distribution center. G refers Current inventory data from Inventory Management Systems. H refers Forecast data. I refers Order data. J refers Supply chain events. K refers Supply chain events. L & M refers Alerts. N refers Recommendations. 0 refers Control information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a real-time demand and supply control system in a supply chain management. More specifically, the invention relates to a system for managing 'Just in Time' inventory and overall monitoring and recommending solutions to minimize error conditions in supply chain distribution of any commodity/goods from the manufacturer point to the retailer end. The invention further relates to an automated artificial intelligence environment and system to manage manufacturing unit in response to the deviation in demand and hence reducing the inventory costs as well as losses due to under-supply of commodities.

The invention relates to using a unique integration of programmable software and hardware infrastructure in the system that can easily track and monitor the distributed products. The invention relates to a method of integrating various means to enable the monitoring and forecasting system in a product supply chain network. The present invention is an amalgamation of various devices such as RFID readers, Portals, Barcode readers, LED displays, Variable frequency drive etc. and all rolled into a single node that form a plurality of nodes and a control system through which Variable Frequency Drive over RS485 protocol talk to production machines in order to change the rate of production.

The invention provides a method which encompasses a distributed software connected with various hardware viz. RFID readers, Portals, Barcode readers, LED displays, Variable frequency drive etc. at every node.

This method senses any real-time fluctuation in demand supply chain and provides the upstream data to the manufacturing company so that the required number of product can be manufactured from the production units at any stage.

This real-time fluctuation would follow the bottom up approach in supply chain system. That automatically control the demand supply i.e. how much is going to be shipped and how much is going to be produced.

Figure 1 depicts a network of plurality of software applications and hardware components working in a supply network. These applications include Server Node of the system [1], Enterprise resource Planning Systems [2], Client Node of the system working in Distribution Center [3], Data capture devices such as RFID readers, RFID portals, barcode readers etc {4]working in distribution center to track incoming and outgoing products, Warehouse Management Systems interacting with Client Node [5], Client Node of the system working in Manufacturing Facility [6], Data capture devices such as RFID readers, RFID portals, barcode readers etc [7]working in manufacturing facility to track outgoing products, manufacturing execution systems [8] which interact with Client Node in the same facility, Client Node of the system working in Retail Center [9] and Data capture devices such as RFID readers, RFID portals, barcode readers etc [lOJworking in manufacturing facility to track incoming products. Node in Distribution Center 1105], Warehouse Management Systems 1106], Inventory Management Systems [115], Demand Planning Systems [116], Order Entry Systems [117].

Through "edge" devices the system captures the information at the different stages of supply chain i.e. what amount of goods are shipped, what amount of goods are received, what amount of inventory in the warehouse etc.

2. SERVER CONTROL SYSTEM

System will read the entire data thus acquired. Based on the input and in case of any fluctuation it chooses the optimal route for fulfilling the demand from the supply chain network.

The data thus obtained by the central server is received by Data Acquisition Layer [109],and provides the input to the Alert Generator [110, 111], which then provides input to the Recommendations Generator [112] and Dashboard [113]. Recommendations Executor [114] executes the functions and provides recommendations to manufacturing unit.

The system recommends fulfilling a purchase order from a warehouse and at the same time also alerts dedicated "capacity line" for shipping the order. If the inventory level falls below threshold, the system will automatically alert production units to start producing more goods in a given quantity. Here the system will help in integrating the whole supply network into a single virtual entity as it can moderate the rate of production based on demand. The system interacts with bunch of hardware over serial ports, com ports, USB, network etc. to capture the data at the edge, namely RFID readers; Barcode scanners; Handheld devices; LED for feedback; Portals; and Others.

The system interacts with Variable Frequency Drive (over RS485 protocol) to talk to production machines in order to change rate of production. 3. OUTPUT/MANAGEMENT OF MANUFACTURING UNIT

The system provides for reporting through a central node over the data captured from various facilities. The system will interact with business intelligence tools in order to do that.

The system also acts as information hub for any information related to the supply chain lying across various systems in the supply network. Since system interacts with every system lying in facility and also works with the centrally located servers, it becomes obvious choice to act as "information hub" for the supply network.

A capacity line is some area/production unit in a manufacturing facility or warehouse which either automatically or manually does some unit of work.

The system is able to work on common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)system. The system will generate information from ERP to run optimization algorithm on the data. The system will then generate exceptions. Based on exceptions system will generate recommendations for facility managers across the supply network of the company.

The recommendations of the central server are received by the Client Node in Manufacturing Facility [108] component of the manufacturing unit where the received data is analyzed Data Acquisition Layer [109] and the recommendations are then executed accordingly.

Based on the analysis of the data acquired, the central server shall generate the strategic plan report with suggestions and recommendations in accordance with the fluctuations in the demand and/or supply forecasts. The system is enabled in a way to provide feedback to manufacturing units to increase or decrease production rate to control inventory and overhead expenses. In a preferred embodiment of the proposed invention is disclosed a real time demand supply control system comprising of: a) plurality of data receiving means; b) a server having at least one Data Acquisition Layer [109]to receive data from various data receiving means, at least one Alert Generator [110, 111] to process and analyze the data thus received, at least one Recommendations Generator [112] to identify and generate a recommendation, at least one Dashboard [113] and at least one Recommendations Executor [114] to execute the recommendation, c) at least one means for integrating with enterprise resource planning systems with the said server; and d) at least one means for integrating manufacturing unit with the said server, wherein the said data acquisition layer is in continuous communication with said data receiving means, and with said enterprise resource planning systems; the said server receives, processes, and analyzes the input data to provide a forecast on demand or production and further recommends solutions to problems and executes the recommendations in real time manner; the recommendation of the said server are continuously fed into the client node [108] of the available manufacturing units to enable the said unit to increase or decrease the production to meet the demand received by the server with minimum human intervention; and the said control system is able to interact directly with any of the end points in the supply chain system.

In yet another embodiment of the proposed invention, the data receiving means are selected from the group of, but not limited to, RFID readers, Portals, Barcode readers installed at various point of sales, retail centers, distribution points, warehouses, inventories and alike.

In still another embodiment, the server is installed with various back end and business applications to receive data from the various data receiving means and to generate various alert to process and analyze the data and send various recommendations. In still another embodiment, the server is integrated with various supply chain management applications and enterprise resource planning systems.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the server is directly integrated with manufacturing unit to initiate a protocol that relates to manufacturing control and management of the unit.

In still another embodiment of the invention the data acquisition layer continuously communicates a demand plan, a forecast plan and an inventory control plan in the communication system.

In still another embodiment of the invention, the real time demand supply control system application facilitates extending data from resources to server and converting it into an executable recommendation resulting into control over flow of supply and rate of production at a manufacturing unit.

In yet another embodiment of the proposed invention, the facilitation comprises the steps of receiving data at an interface from one of the data receiving means, integrating the realtime data to a various applications, analyzing the data and generating recommendation in integration with enterprise resource planning to generate alerts and recommendations to provide solutions to minimize error conditions in , initiating a protocol in accordance with input data, and extending the protocol to manufacturing unit.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in carrying out the above method and steps set forth without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrated and not in a limiting sense. It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention in which, as a matter of language might be said to fall there between.

Claims

CLAIMS I claim:

1. A real time demand supply control system comprising of: a) plurality of data receiving means; b) a server having at least one Data Acquisition Layer [109]to receive data from various data receiving means, at least one Alert Generator [110, 111] to process and analyze the data thus received, at least one Recommendations Generator [112] to identify and generate recommendations, at least one Dashboard [113] and at least one Recommendations Executor [114] to execute the recommendation, c) at least one means for integrating with enterprise resource planning systems with the said server; and d) at least one means for integrating manufacturing unit with the said server; wherein: the said data acquisition layer is in continuous communication with said data receiving means, and with said enterprise resource planning systems; the said server receives, processes, and analyzes the input data to generate exceptions in the supply chain such as under production, overproduction or unused inventory, recommend solutions to problems, and execute the recommendations in real time manner; the recommendation of the said server are continuously fed into the client node [108] of the available manufacturing units to enable the said unit to increase or decrease the production to meet the demand received by the server with minimum human intervention; and the said control system is able to interact directly with any of the end points in the supply chain system.

2. The real time demand supply control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said data receiving means are selected from the group of, but not limited to, RFID readers, Portals, Barcode readers installed at various point of sales, retail centers, distribution points, warehouses, inventories and alike.

3. The real time demand supply control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said server is installed with various back end and business applications to receive data from the various data receiving means and to generate various alertsin case of exceptions and various recommendations to overcome the said exceptions.

4. The real time demand supply control system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the said server is integrated with various supply chain management applications and enterprise resource planning systems.

5. The real time demand supply control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said server is directly integrated with manufacturing unit to initiate a protocol that relates to manufacturing control and management of the unit.

6. The real time demand supply control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said data acquisition layer [109] continuously communicates a demand plan, a forecast plan and an inventory control plan in the communication system.

7. A real time demand supply control system application that facilitates extending data from resources to server and converting it into an executable recommendation resulting into control over flow of supply and rate of production at a manufacturing unit.

8. The system application as claimed in claim 7, wherein the facilitation comprises the steps of receiving data at an interface from one of the data receiving means, integrating the real-time data from various applications, analyzing the data and generating recommendation in integration with enterprise resource planning to generate alerts for exceptions in the supply chain, initiating a protocol in accordance with demand forecast, and extending the protocol to manufacturing unit.