Patent ID: 6292784
Filing Date: 2001-09-18
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A method of maintaining customer order and delivery information, the method comprising:storing ship/dock information for respective customers to indicate whether the customers consider delivery dates for particular products to be ship dates or dock dates;storing desired advance delivery times for individual customers;creating a customer order entry for a particular customer, the customer order entry including a customer-requested delivery date supplied by the particular customer;calculating a customer-preferred ship date for t he customer order entry based at least in part upon the customer-requested delivery date and the desired advance delivery time for the customer;communicating the calculated customer-preferred ship date to a human order scheduler;obtaining a targeted ship date for the customer order entry from the order scheduler; andcalculating a customer expected delivery date by adding data representing anticipated shipping delay to the targeted ship date, taking into consideration whether the customer defines delivery dates to be ship dates or dock dates, and by also adding the customer's desired advance delivery time to the targeted ship date.