FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to an
automatic inventory management system, especially to an automatic inventory
management system executed upon setting by user target value of management.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In the contemporary
enterprises, using the computer system to mange internal operations of an
enterprise has become a trend. The inventory management is one of the important
parts of the enterprise internal management. Many inventory management systems
using the computer system have been developed.
[0003] The term
"inventory management" as used here should include at least tow aspects. The
first one is the management of inventory of merchandise or products and the
other is the management of material and components in storage. For a trading
company, the term "inventory management" should denote to management of
merchandise. For a manufacturer, it should denote to management of products,
material and components. For some service providers, inventory management
denotes to management of recourses such as persons in service and time available
for providing services. In this patent specification, they will be referred to
as "resource" separately and "resources" collectively.
[0004] For most
inventory management systems currently available in the industry, the major
purpose is to generate information useful to staffs that are in charge of the
inventory management. Such information is useful to these staffs because in the
middle to large size enterprises, it is merely impossible to conduct effective
management of inventory of products, material and components without the
inventory management information, taking into consideration the large quantity
and the wide variation of products, material and components being stored in the
warehouse. However, the information as generated by the commercially available
inventory management system is nothing but information for reference; the
conventional inventory management system typically does not make a decision
automatically based on the generated information. Most decisions related to
inventory management are made by human being manually, taking the generated
information into consideration. These inventory management systems may be called
inventory management information generating system.
[0005] Still, there
are some inventory management systems that are capable of making decisions
automatically based on information generated and related to inventory management
issues. These systems are able to generate alert signals, when the shortage of a
product, a component or material in the warehouse is sensed or calculated. Some
systems generate a suggested purchase quantity along with the alert, so that
persons in charge of the inventory management can determine whether or not and
how a purchase order for the product, component or material in shortage should
be suggested or made. In such a system, quantity of resource to be supplemented
is determined by staffs in charge of the management matters.
[0006]
Nevertheless, in the conventional inventory management system, calculations and
determinations on inventory management related factors are conducted in a
mechanical or merely logical manner that determinations or suggestions generated
by these systems seldom comply with the practice of the real world. To use the
conventional inventory management system the enterprise is asked to take
necessary safety policies, such as setting a safety stock. Costs and expenses in
the management of inventory are thus increased.
[0007] In the
conventional inventory management system, two concepts are essential in
designing the system. They are the "safety stock" and the "time to purchase".
"Safety stock": "Safety stock" denotes to a minimum quantity of inventory that
should be kept in store. In most cases, this quantity is equal to quantity of a
resource that would be consumed or used during the term from when a purchase
order is placed to supplier to when the ordered resource is received. The safety
stock allows the enterprise to continue supplying its products to customers
without being interrupted. Sometimes, the term safety stock denotes to quantity
of a resource that needs to be stored in warehouse in order to satisfy an
instantaneous increase of demand. No matter what the term safety stock means,
how to determine the quantity of such stock is an open question. In general
practice, quantity of the safety stock is decided by persons in charge of the
inventory management according to their experience.
[0008] "Time to
purchase": "Time to purchase" means the time point, always a date, at which the
inventory management system should generate an alert to remind the user to
purchase a particular resource, in order to maintain the safety stock. In the
inventory management system, "time to purchase" relates to a quantity of
inventory. When the quantity of a particular resource in store reaches
(approaches to) the quantity, the inventory management system generates an alert
to remind the user to take necessary actions. Formula to calculate the "time to
purchase" in the conventional art is as follows:
Time to purchase=safety
stock+lead time*daily consumption (1)
[0009] Wherein "lead time" denotes
to number of days counting from the date oil which a purchase order is made to a
supplier to the date when the purchased resource is delivered, or from the date
on which an order to produce a resource is made to the date when production of
the same product is completed, "daily consumption" denotes to quantity of a
resource that is used or consumed daily. The "daily consumption" may be the
average daily consumption quantity of a resource in the past 30 days or for the
past one year.
[0010] In the above formula, "safety stock" is a value
dependent on the judgment of a person. In addition, "lead time" is the most
important factor to determine the time to purchase. If value of "lead time" is
determined too small, the result could lead to interruption of supply of the
related product or merchandize. In order to avoid interruption of supply,
managers of inventory would increase the quantity of "safety stock" or set the
"lead time" longer than necessary, which results at unnecessarily excessive
stock of inventory. Costs in the operation of an enterprise are thus increased.
Nevertheless, quantity of the "daily consumption" in most companies is
hypothetic and has no factual bases.
[0011] In addition to the above,
although the congenital inventory management system is able to generate an alert
when quantity of stock of a particular resource approaches to the "time to
purchase", the value of quantity representing the "time to purchase" is
calculated mechanically and does not always meet the actual situation. In the
conventional art, the factor "time to purchase" is provided to avoid
interruption of product supply. The value of "time to purchase" may be divided
by "daily consumption" to produce a value to represent number of days before
supply of the corresponding resource is interrupted. This value, however, is a
result of calculation from the existing values. It is not a target of the
inventory management, as should be in the mind of most managers.
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
[0012] The objective of this
invention is to provide an automatic inventory management system to
automatically detect inventory information to generate suggestions relating to
inventory management.
[0013] Another objective of this invention is to
provide an automatic inventory management system to manage inventory based on
target information set by the user.
[0014] Another objective of this
invention is to provide an automatic inventory management system to generate
suggestions that comply with the actual situation of an enterprise.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0015] According to this invention, the
automatic inventory management system comprises an inventory management database
to store inventory information useful in the inventory management and to include
description, lead time, daily consumption quantity etc. of a plurality of
resources; a maximum stock factor setting module to allow user to set a maximum
stock factor; a purchase quantity control module to calculate and output a
suggested purchase quantity for particular resources based on factors as set in
said maximum stock factor setting module and data contained in said inventory
management database; and an alert module to generate an alert when the quantity
of inventory of a particular resource approaches to a predetermined value, to
suggest the user to purchase the particular resource. In the present invention,
a user needs only to set the maximum stock factor and the invented system
automatically calculates quantity of resource for which a purchase order should
be made and the inventory management is thus conducted automatically.
[0016] These and other objectives and advantages of this invention may
be clearly understood from the detailed description by referring to the
drawings:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0017] FIG. 1
illustrates the system diagram of the automatic inventory management system of
this invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
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