Patent ID: 6397118
Filing Date: 2002-05-28
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A method of scheduling demand for a manufacturing resource in response to a customer order for a product in a manufacturing plan including a lead time for manufacturing said product, at least one flex fence period outside said lead time and at least one updateable available resource amount associated with one of scheduled finished goods orders, finished goods inventory, available to promise resources, past due finished goods orders, unallocated customer orders, marketing orders, high flex resources and low flex resources, said method comprising the steps of:a) inputting a customer order for a product indicative of a demand for a manufacturing resource; b) inputting a requested completion date to manufacture said customer order; c) retrieving a lead time for manufacturing said product and a current available resource amount for at least one of scheduled finished goods orders, finished goods inventory, available to promise resources, past due finished goods orders, unallocated customer orders, marketing orders, high flex resources and low flex resources from a manufacturing plan; d) determining whether said requested completion date is one of inside, equal to and outside said lead time; e) if said requested completion date is one of inside and equal to said lead time, consuming said demand for said manufacturing resource from among said available resource amount for said scheduled finished goods orders, said finished goods inventory, said past due finished goods orders, said unallocated customer orders and said marketing orders until said demand for said manufacturing resource is scheduled; f) if said requested completion date is outside said lead time, consuming said demand for said manufacturing resource from among said available resource amount for said scheduled finished goods orders, said finished goods inventory, said available to promise resources, said past due finished goods orders, said unallocated customer orders, said marketing orders and said high flex resources until said demand for said manufacturing resource is scheduled; and g) updating each said available resource amount in said manufacturing plan from which said demand is consumed.