U.S. patent application number 11/025059 was filed with the patent office on 2006-02-23 for methods and systems for performing an availability check for a product.
Invention is credited to Christian Woehler.
Application Number | 20060041466 11/025059 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34928463 |
Filed Date | 2006-02-23 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060041466 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Woehler; Christian |
February 23, 2006 |
Methods and systems for performing an availability check for a
product
Abstract
The invention relates to a method of performing an availability
check for a product to determine whether the product is available
for a customer at a predetermined time. The method comprises
providing a processor device; storing an original forecast for a
period of time up to and including the predetermined time;
determining a time integrated forecast value for the original
forecast; using the time integrated forecast values in the
availability check.
Inventors: |
Woehler; Christian;
(Heidelberg, DE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FINNEGAN, HENDERSON, FARABOW, GARRETT & DUNNER;LLP
901 NEW YORK AVENUE, NW
WASHINGTON
DC
20001-4413
US
|
Family ID: |
34928463 |
Appl. No.: |
11/025059 |
Filed: |
December 30, 2004 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/7.31 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/087 20130101;
G06Q 10/06315 20130101; G06Q 30/0202 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/010 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Aug 20, 2004 |
EP |
04077364.0 |
Claims
1. A method of performing an availability check for a product to
determine whether the product is available for a customer at a
predetermined time, the method comprising: providing a processor
device; storing an original forecast for a period of time up to and
including the predetermined time; determining a time integrated
forecast value for the original forecast; and using the time
integrated forecast values in the availability check.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time integrated
forecast value comprises the sum of products together with a
characteristic value combination for each product, which are
available at the predetermined time and during the period of time
up to and including the predetermined time.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time integrated
forecast value is a key figure.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining is
carried out for a series of time buckets, wherein a time bucket
defines a period of time.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the original forecast
includes a characteristic value combination which defines the
product.
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the original forecast
includes a value for each time bucket; the determining includes:
starting with an earliest time for the original forecast, and
adding to the values of the original forecast for the predetermined
time, the values of a previous time bucket of the key figure for
each characteristic value combination separately.
7. The method according to claim 1, including the steps of: a)
taking a predetermined characteristic value combination, which
defines the product; b) reading the value for the predetermined
characteristic value combination for a first time bucket of the
forecasting period from the original forecast key figure; c) adding
to the value of step b), the value of a previous time bucket of the
time integrated forecast key figure, if the previous time bucket is
the first time bucket, the value of the time integrated forecast
key figure is set at zero; d) writing the sum of step c) for the
predetermined characteristic value combination and the time bucket
as read in step b) to the time integrated forecast key figure; and
e) go to step b) for a next time bucket, if the last time bucket is
reached start at step a) for a next predetermined characteristic
value combination.
8. A computer system for performing an availability check for a
product to determine whether the product is available for a
customer at a predetermined time, the system comprising: a
processor device arranged to receive and process data relating to
the product; a storage element for storing an original forecast for
a period of time up to and including the predetermined time; and a
determining module, wherein, in response to the determining module,
the processor is arranged to determine a time integrated forecast
value for the original forecast, and wherein, in response to a user
action, the processor device is arranged to perform the
availability check on the basis of the time integrated forecast
values.
9. An availability check apparatus for performing an availability
check for a product to determine whether the product is available
for a customer at a predetermined time, the apparatus comprises a
storage medium having recorded therein processor readable code
processable to perform the availability check, the processor
readable code comprising storing code for storing an original
forecast for a period of time up to and including the predetermined
time, and determining code for determining a time integrated
forecast value for the original forecast, wherein in response to
the determining code, the apparatus is arranged to perform the
availability check on the basis of the time integrated forecast
values.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is based upon and claims the benefit of
priority from prior patent application EP 04077364.0, filed Aug.
20, 2004, the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated
herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] I. Technical Field
[0003] The present invention relates to a method of performing an
availability check for a product to determine whether the product
is available for a customer at a predetermined time and a computer
system performing an availability check for a product to determine
whether the product is available for a customer at a predetermined
time.
[0004] II. Background Information
[0005] Availability checks for products are used in order to find
out if a specified product is available for a customer on a
requested date or alternatively which is the earliest availability
date for the product. They are often carried out online while the
customer is waiting and they should be fast as well as reliable.
The reliability comprises a positive check result and also a
negative result, i.e. the product is really not available on the
requested date or earlier. Such availability checks are currently
offered by IT-systems, such as, for example, supply chain
management systems developed by SAP AG.
[0006] Conventional IT-systems provide a quotation component, which
provide a method of availability checks which allows checking the
availability against Demand Planning characteristic value
combinations (CVC). The availability can be used in planning
scenarios in which the forecast is used to plan the production. In
this case it is sensible and efficient to check the availability of
a finished product against the planned production.
[0007] In conventional Demand Planning scenarios the forecast is
done with product independent characteristics, e.g. location, sales
region or customer channel. In such scenarios the check on a
specific CVC should make sure that forecast is available for all
the specified characteristic values of the CVC at the time
requested or on the earliest possible date. An example would be
that the availability of a certain product at a specific location
for a specific customer channel is confirmed only if all the
criteria are met at the requested date. If e.g. the product is
available for the specified customer channel but only at a
different location the check nevertheless fails and a different
date has to be checked.
[0008] For product dependent characteristics, or characteristics
based forecasting, CBF, characteristics, the situation is
different. In conventional IT-systems including a Demand Planning
component, such as the SAP Advance Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO),
the CBF scenario is used to forecast configurable products and the
required number of components. Typical examples are cars or
computers which can be produced in many different variants
depending on the evaluation of their characteristics. In this case
an availability check is used in order to check the availability of
the configurable product with its evaluation and thus checking the
availability of the relevant components required to produce the
requested product.
[0009] It is useful to look at a typical example, i.e. a car model.
In this conventional example, it is assumed that the car can be
produced with different engines, e.g. 90 horse power (HP), 120 HP,
and 150 HP and in different editions, e.g. standard, sport, and
luxury, which determine the kind of air conditioning, radio, and
seats. It is further assumed that the production of the car is
forecast in daily buckets and that for the next week 100 cars are
planned for each day. The distribution with respect to the 90 HP,
120 HP, and 150 HP engines is for each day 10%, 75%, and 15% and
with respect to the standard, sport, and luxury edition it is 50%,
20%, and 30%. From this, it follows using conventional
characteristics based forecasting that for each day of the next
week, it is planned, for example, to produce five cars with 90 HP
and standard edition.
[0010] As indicated above the CBF forecast is usually not used in
order to actually produce the cars but instead it is used in order
to determine the number of required components, e.g. air
conditioning units. The actual car production is done in the
Production Planning component, which is a separate software
component of the IT-system, by exploding the bill of material for
this car according to its forecast evaluations. If the procurement
of the required relevant components is guaranteed the availability
check on Demand Planning CVC is a sufficient and efficient way to
check the availability of the finished product and its relevant
components. However, such a check does not allow a more detailed
check to see if the specified car can be actually produced on the
requested date. Such detailed checks require the check of
additional restrictions and resources but often they are not
necessary because the forecast incorporates already implicitly all
restrictions and it is known to be producible. Further, in the
scenarios considered here it is intended to check availability of
the finished product with respect to its components.
[0011] A problem with conventional IT-system, in particular, Demand
Planning components of such convention system, is that often, the
relevant components to be forecast and for which the availability
should be checked depend only on the evaluation of one
characteristic. In the example given above the engine as a
component depends only on which characteristic value of the
characteristic engine is selected and the air conditioning unit
depends only on the selected edition. In these cases the check
against Demand Planning CVC is too detailed and leads to more
negative results than are acceptable.
[0012] For example, if an availability check is carried out in a
conventional Demand Planning component for the example mentioned
above, for one specific day next week the availability of the 90 HP
engine car with standard edition is checked. Due to previous checks
on this day there are two 90 HP cars available but only with luxury
edition. On the day before, there remains one standard edition car
but not with 90 HP. For this situation the specified car is not
available on the requested day and also not on the day before.
However, the car producer would like to confirm the availability of
the car for the requested day because the relevant components are
actually available on this day: the 90 HP engine is procured in
time for the requested day and the air conditioning, radio and
seats are ordered for the production of the day before.
[0013] It has been found that it is not important that the
production of the specified car is not planned on the requested day
at this point of the planning process because the actual production
will be done according to the sales order of the car anyway.
Instead, it is important that at the time of the availability check
the car is planned to be produced and that all the relevant
required components are available.
[0014] It has been found that the occurrence of such problematic
situations in which the exact Demand Planning CVC is not available
can be expected to be very frequent in conventional CBF scenarios.
The reason for this is that the number of characteristics and
characteristic values can be large resulting in a very large number
of possible combinations. And even if the number of all planned
finished products is large it can happen that for many evaluations
the number of finished products is small. These small numbers can
be quickly exhausted resulting in negative availability checks even
if the required components are available at that time from other
planned configurations using partly identical components.
[0015] It is further noted that the problem and solution proposed
by the present invention is not limited to the use of CBF or
product dependent characteristics. It is an object of the present
invention to address the problem that the availability check of a
CVC is not successful if all the criteria are met in the same time
bucket but if there is a time bucket at which and before which all
the criteria are met. Thus, it is an object of the present
invention to guarantee that the reduction with respect to the
confirmed criteria is done so that for following availability
checks the finiteness of the respective quantities is correctly
taken into account.
SUMMARY
[0016] According to a first aspect of the invention, there is
provided a method of performing an availability check for a product
to determine whether the product is available for a customer at a
predetermined time, the method comprising: providing a processor
device; storing an original forecast for a period of time up to and
including the predetermined time; determining a time integrated
forecast value for the original forecast; using the time integrated
forecast values in the availability check.
[0017] In this way, inaccurate negative availability check results
are avoided. Thus, providing an efficient manner in which the
processor device provides accurate and reliable information,
without placing undue processing requirements on the processing
device. The invention provides the further advantages that computer
memory is saved, as well as CPU time.
[0018] According to a second aspect of the present invention, there
is provided a computer system for performing an availability check
for a product to determine whether the product is available for a
customer at a predetermined time, the system comprising: a
processor device arranged to receive and process data relating to
the product, a storage element for storing an original forecast for
a period of time up to and including the predetermined time, and a
determining module, wherein, in response to the determining module,
the processor is arranged to determine a time integrated forecast
value for the original forecast, and wherein, in response to a user
action, the processor device is arranged to perform the
availability check on the basis of the time integrated forecast
values.
[0019] According to a third aspect of the present invention, there
is provided an availability check apparatus for performing an
availability check for a product to determine whether the product
is available for a customer at a predetermined time, the apparatus
comprises a storage medium having recorded therein processor
readable code processable to perform the availability check, the
processor readable code comprising storing code for storing an
original forecast for a period of time up to and including the
predetermined time, and determining code for determining a time
integrated forecast value for the original forecast, wherein in
response to the determining code, the apparatus is arranged to
perform the availability check on the basis of the time integrated
forecast values.
[0020] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general
description and the following detailed description are exemplary
and explanatory only, and should not be considered restrictive of
the scope of the invention, as described and claimed. Further,
features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set
forth herein. For example, embodiments of the invention may be
directed to various combinations and sub-combinations of the
features described in the detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0021] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and
constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate various
embodiments and aspects of the present invention. In the
drawings:
[0022] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a computer that runs
software for managing a supply chain; and
[0023] FIG. 2 shows a flow chart showing an availability check in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] The following detailed description refers to the
accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference
numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to
refer to the same or similar parts. While several exemplary
embodiments and features of the invention are described herein,
modifications, adaptations and other implementations are possible,
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For
example, substitutions, additions or modifications may be made to
the components illustrated in the drawings, and the exemplary
methods described herein may be modified by substituting,
reordering or adding steps to the disclosed methods. Accordingly,
the following detailed description does not limit the invention.
Instead, the proper scope of the invention is defined by the
appended claims.
[0025] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a computer that runs
software for managing a supply chain. In particular, computer
system 10 comprises a hard disk 12 that stores software, such as
operating system software 14 and network software 16 for
communicating over a network. The hard disc 12 also stores other
software, including, but not limited to, planning application 18.
In this embodiment, processor 20 executes planning application to
perform the functions described. Planning application 18 comprises
various software routines for use in supply chain management. To
this end, planning application 18 may include a demand planning
application including a modelling application. The planning
application 18 uses data relating to a configurable product or
products. In particular, the planning application 18 uses data
relating to the product or products to model a bill of materials.
The data includes the characteristics described herein below. The
planning application 18 causes the processor carry out the
functions described. In one embodiment, demand plans are stored as
data objects in a cache 22 on computer system 10. The cache 22 may
for example be the LiveCache described. The characteristics are
stored in a data storage system (a database), such as hard drive 12
on computer system 10 or elsewhere. The planning application 18
causes the processor 20 to retrieve data from a data storage
element 12, 22. However, the planning application 18 may cause the
processor 20 to retrieve the data from any other location. The
location of the data storage element is not essential and does not
have to form a part of the computer system 10. In one embodiment,
pointers are comprised in the data objects in the cache 22 which
point to the characteristics in the data storage system. Although
the data objects and characteristics are stored on the same machine
in the embodiment shown, they may be stored on different machines
that are connectable to each other, via, for example, a network,
communications link or the like.
[0026] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention,
there is provided a computer system 10 for performing an
availability check for a product to determine whether the product
is available for a customer at a predetermined time, the system
comprising: a processor device arranged to receive and process data
relating to the product, a storage element for storing an original
forecast for a period of time up to and including the predetermined
time, and a determining module, wherein, in response to the
determining module, the processor is arranged to determine a time
integrated forecast value for the original forecast, and wherein,
in response to a user action, the processor device is arranged to
perform the availability check on the basis of the time integrated
forecast values.
[0027] With respect to the demand planning component or module of
the supply chain management application, according to one
embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an
availability check apparatus for performing an availability check
for a product to determine whether the product is available for a
customer at a predetermined time, the apparatus comprises a storage
medium having recorded therein processor readable code processable
to perform the availability check, the processor readable code
comprising storing code for storing an original forecast for a
period of time up to and including the predetermined time, and
determining code for determining a time integrated forecast value
for the original forecast, wherein in response to the determining
code, the apparatus is arranged to perform the availability check
on the basis of the time integrated forecast values.
[0028] In demand planning or long term planning, characteristics
and corresponding characteristic values can be used to describe in
a general and flexible way the supply chain. Characteristics of
different types describe different aspects of the material
distribution. Some examples of characteristics include geographical
aspects which are described, for example, by sales region or
location, customer aspects which are described, for example, by
customer group, or product aspects which are described, for
example, by product family.
[0029] Characteristic value combinations CVC are a variable number
of uniquely specified characteristic values, for example, sales
region: USA and customer channel: internet sales. In demand
planning, if all the characteristics used in the supply chain model
are specified the CVC is referred to as a detailed CVC. The
characteristic value combinations may be stored in the demand
planner as master data.
[0030] The characteristics used to define a product are defined
when setting up the supply chain model. Although it is possible to
change the characteristics at a later point in time, typically,
they are usually not changed later. The values however can change.
For example, if a new product is introduced, and this may well lead
to new CVC. The detailed CVC are master data and within a supply
chain management solution, for example, a supply chain management
solution provided by SAP AG, time series are assigned to the data.
The master data representing the CVC describe the demand plan
values in a particular format. In the particular format, it is
possible to define selections. Selections are typically not
detailed CVC but specify, for example, only a reduced number of
characteristics and represent an aggregate of detailed CVC for the
reduced number of characteristics. The aggregate being a summed
value of the characteristics. Within the selected CVC the planning
is consistent. This means that the demand plan values can be
displayed and changed on different levels, for example, on a
product group level as well as on a product or other level, and the
changes are automatically propagated to the detailed CVC data.
Downward propagation is called a disaggregation calculation and
upward propagation is an aggregation calculation. The hierarchy
with which the data are modelled is flexible and can be changed
interactively by navigating through the selected data in different
ways. For example, changing the number of a particular product
planned in the next month for one product leads to consistent
changes in the different sales regions where the product is sold;
on the other hand changing the number for one sales region changes
the values for the products sold there.
[0031] The characteristics described hereinabove, including the
product characteristic, are called product independent
characteristics.
[0032] Further characteristics called product dependent
characteristics may also be defined. For example, if assembled
finished products which are manufactured with components are
considered, it will be appreciated that the assembled products are
complex and can be manufactured in many different variants. For
such configurable products, it is useful to introduce configurable
products which are specified by an evaluation. The evaluation is
defined by using product dependent characteristics and by
specifying their values uniquely for each characteristic. Typical
examples of product dependent characteristics are defined, for
example, for automobiles which may have product dependent
characteristics such as color or engine size or for computers which
may have product dependent characteristics such as memory size
and/or hard disc, since automobiles and computers may be
manufactured in many different variants. As with product
independent characteristics, product dependent characteristics have
a CVC, that is a variable number of uniquely specified
characteristic values.
[0033] It is noted, that before providing further detailed
description, that the present invention is not limited to the use
of CBF or product dependent characteristics.
[0034] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the
availability check is not done with the entire CVC but with respect
to a specially calculated key figure. This key figure is not just
copied from the original forecast but instead it contains the time
integrated forecast values. This means that for a specific date it
contains the sum of configurable products with their CVC which are
available on the specific date and on all the dates before.
[0035] At the beginning of the planning process, i.e. before the
first products are checked the values of the time integrated
forecast can be calculated from the original forecast by starting
with the earliest date of the forecast and adding to the values of
the original forecast for any given date the values of the previous
time bucket of the special key figure for each CVC separately.
[0036] FIG. 2 shows steps carried out by the processor in order to
manage the supply chain to generate a demand plan in accordance
with an embodiment of the present invention. In the process 30, the
processor device 20 is arranged to carryout the steps of:
[0037] (1) take one specific CVC;
[0038] (2) read the value for this CVC for the first time bucket of
the forecasting period from the original forecast key figure
(OFKF);
[0039] (3) add to value of step 2) the value of previous time
bucket of the time integrated forecast key figure (TIFKF); in the
case of the first time bucket in step 2) the value of the TIFKF is
taken to be zero;
[0040] (4) write the sum of step 3) for the same CVC and time
bucket as read in step 2) to the TIFKF; and
[0041] (5) go to step 2) for the next time bucket, if the last time
bucket is reached start at step 1) for the next CVC.
[0042] Once the last CVC is reached, step 6, the process ends, step
7.
[0043] In this way, it is possible to calculate the original TIFKF
and then the availability checks are done with respect to this key
figure in a manner similar to the conventional logic of the
quotation component. If the OFKF is changed the TIFKF is
recalculated taking into account the already confirmed products
from successful availability checks. This problem also appears in
the standard Quotation component and the solution used there,
introducing a new key figure for recording the confirmed
quantities, can be applied to the suggested process, too. For
simplicity, we will consider the time integrated availability key
figure, TIAKF, which at the beginning is equal to the TIFKF but is
reduced by the successful availability checks.
[0044] While the availability check and the reduction of the TIAKF
are more complex than in the conventional Quotation logic, the
advantages are that false negative availability checks are avoided.
In further embodiments of the invention, the following steps may be
performed in order to guarantee a consistent availability check
procedure: first, the TIAKF has to be reduced for the checked CVC
for the checked date and for all the following time buckets of the
checked date so that its availability does not falsely appear at a
later point of time. If this is not possible because the value for
the CVC is already zero in a following time bucket the temporary
availability has to be taken back for the checked date and the
check has to be continued for a later date than the zero value
date. Such a later zero value date reflects the fact that at least
one of the components described by the CVC is "available" at an
earlier date but has been used already for a different availability
confirmation before the present one. And, of course, it is not
intended to take back the already issued confirmation for a
different sales order only because the new request is closer to the
procurement time of the components.
[0045] The described procedure is independent of the way the CVC
are technically represented in the Demand Planning component. The
advantage of the described procedure being independent of the way
the CVC are technically represented in the Demand Planning
component is that within the CBF scenario there are different
possibilities how the characteristics are represented with internal
CVC. It is noted that the expression CVC is intended to cover two
different meanings: on the one hand, an application CVC may
represent the evaluation of a configurable product and contains the
characteristics, such as engine, edition and the like; on the other
hand, a technical CVC which is mentioned in the above calculation
procedure of the TIFKF is the CVC with technical characteristics
for planning profile, planning table and planning table row. In CBF
the profile specifies the relation between application
characteristics and technical characteristics by combining them in
the planning table. For example, the profile may contain
independent application characteristics and dependent application
characteristics. If all the characteristics are dependent, i.e.
contained in one planning table and the planning table is the only
one in the profile, there is a one to one relation between the
application and technical CVC. In the case of independent
characteristics, i.e. each characteristic is in a different
planning table of the profile, the value for the application CVC is
calculated dynamically from the technical CVC. It is also possible
to have dependent and independent characteristitics on one profile
by using planning tables which combine some of the application
characteristics. However, it is important that the profile is
defined in such a way that the component structure of the
configurable product is modelled correctly. This means that each
row of the planning tables in the profile represents one component
product. The planning tables may combine one or more application
characteristics but each one should represent an assembly group and
a row should represent a component of the assembly group. Such a
definition rule for CBF profiles is useful for planning
configurable products and their components. If the rule is followed
the availability check as well as the reduction of the TIAKF can be
accomplished independently of how the technical CVC are related to
the evaluation cvc.
[0046] It is worthwhile to note that from a business point of view
the TIAKF reflects in the CVC the number of available components
which are either procured in the respective time bucket or which
have been procured before and are still in store. In other words
the TIAKF represents the enhanced number of producible variants of
the finished product by taking also previously procured components
into account--even if they were planned to be used for a different
finished product. It is to be understood that the difference
between the TIAKF and the standard forecast key figure is that for
the TIAKF the characteristics represent less an attribute of the
product, for example, the car, but rather a component of the
product.
[0047] In order to further exemplify the invention, the example
given above of the two days of next week, is referred to again.
Assuming that the earlier of the two day is the first time bucket
of the forecast period, the TIAKF contains for the earlier day no
car with 90 HP but one with 120 HP and one car with standard
edition but not with luxury edition. For the next day there are two
cars with 90 HP and one car with 120 HP from the day before as well
as one car with standard edition from the day before and two cars
with luxury edition. This means that for the second day that two 90
HP engine components and one standard edition component is
available and that they can be combined for a car with 90 HP and
standard edition. Therefore, according to the invention, an
availability check with respect to the TIAKF would give a positive
result on the second day, as intended according to the
invention.
[0048] It is noted that there are different kinds of availability
checks. Further, other availability checks may check also with
respect to the components, e.g. reservation planning. In order to
carry out such checks, the explosion of the bill of material, BOM,
of the finished product is generally required. The BOM establishes
the relation between the components and the evaluation of the
configurable product with the aid of object dependencies. However,
the BOM explosion requires more time, is much more complicated to
set up and maintain and also to use in an availability check. In
contrast to this, according to an embodiment of the present
invention, the availability check uses the forecast which is
already created to perform an efficient and reliable check.
[0049] In a further embodiment, the TIFKF calculation part of the
implementation may be done in a program and this program may be
executable using a standard Demand Planning macro. In this way, the
execution of the calculation can be easily triggered every time the
OFKF is changed by the user in the interactive Demand Planning as
well as when the OFKF is recalculated in a batch job. For the TIAKF
reduction calculation the process of the availability check can be
modified directly.
[0050] According to an embodiment of the present invention, there
is provided a method of performing an availability check for a
product to determine whether the product is available for a
customer at a predetermined time, the method comprising: providing
a processor device; storing an original forecast for a period of
time up to and including the predetermined time; determining a time
integrated forecast value for the original forecast; using the time
integrated forecast values in the availability check.
[0051] In a further embodiment, the time integrated forecast value
comprises the sum of products together with a characteristic value
combination for each product, which are available at the
predetermined time and during the period of time up to and
including the predetermined time. In a further embodiment, the time
integrated forecast value is a key figure. In a yet further
embodiment, the determining is carried out for a series of time
buckets, wherein a time bucket defines a period of time. Examples
of time buckets include, days, weeks, months, hours. The invention
is not limited with respect to a particular time bucket. In a
further embodiment, the original forecast includes a characteristic
value combination which defines the product. In a further
embodiment, the original forecast includes a value for each time
bucket; the determining includes: starting with an earliest time
for the original forecast, and adding to the values of the original
forecast for the predetermined time, the values of a previous time
bucket of the key figure for each characteristic value combination
separately.
[0052] The invention as described can be implemented in digital
electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software,
or in combination thereof. An apparatus according to the present
invention can be implemented in a computer program product tangibly
embodied in a machine readable storage device for execution by a
programmable processor; and method steps of the invention can be
performed by a programmable processor executing a program of
instructions to perform functions of the invention by operating on
input data and generating output. The invention can be implemented
in one or more computer programs that are executable on a
programmable system including at least one programmable processor
coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data
and instructions to, a data storage system, at least one input
device, and at least one output device. Each computer program can
be implemented in a high-level procedural or object-oriented
programming language, or in assembly or machine language if
desired; and in any case, the language can be a compiled or
interpreted language. Suitable processors include, by way of
example, both general and special purpose microprocessors.
Typically, a processor will receive instructions and data from a
read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Typically, a
computer will include one or more mass storage devices for storing
data files; such devices include magnetic disks, such as internal
hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and optical
disks. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer
program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile
memory, including by way of example, semiconductor memory devices,
such as EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as
internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and
CD-ROM disks. Any of the foregoing can be supplemented by, or
incorporated in ASICs (application specific integrated
circuits).
[0053] To provide for interaction with a user, the invention can be
implemented on a computer system having a display device such as a
monitor or LCD screen for displaying information to the user and a
keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball by
which the user can provide input to the computer system. The
computer system can be programmed to provide a graphical user
interface through which computer programs interact with users.
[0054] While certain features and embodiments of the invention have
been described, other embodiments of the invention will be apparent
to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification
and practice of the embodiments of the invention disclosed herein.
It is intended, therefore, that the specification and examples be
considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the
invention being indicated by the following claims and their full
scope of equivalents.
* * * * *