Patent ID: 7523048
Filing Date: 2009-04-21
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An improvement to a management decision support system, including a computer system having memory and resources, a retail demand forecasting program applying one or more forecasting approaches, running on the computer system and generating output, and a set of analysis programs running on the computer system which utilize the output to generate analytical reports that support retailing activities, the improvement comprising: a presentation demand calendar stored in memory and utilized by the forecasting program to generate the output, said presentation demand calendar associating with a plurality of good-selling location pairs, data including a good identifier, a selling location identifier, one or more presentation quantities each associated with a start date and a stop date, and a presentation demand type selector that selects one of a plurality of alternative extents to which the good can be sold out of the presentation quantity between the start date and the stop date; and a schedule stored in the memory of display fixtures, including fixture counts and fixture capacities in the plurality of locations, further including fixture identifiers for a plurality of fixture types and quantities of the fixtures present at particular selling locations; wherein particular presentation events are associated with use of particular instances of display fixture types, identified using the fixture identifiers, to display particular items and at least some of the presentation quantity requirements utilized by the forecasting program are derived from the use of the particular instance of the display fixture type to display the particular items.