Patent ID: 7668743

Claim:
A demand-supply scheme planning apparatus comprising: first means for storing data regarding a cost and a time that are needed between a purchase step and a supply step of each demand-supply step of a supply chain and stock amount of items required in each demand-supply step, the supply chain including a plurality of demand-supply steps each having an order receipt step, an order placement step, a purchase step, and a supply step that are related to a commodity; second means for inputting an order receipt scheme, which includes an order quantity, of a demand-supply step of the plurality of demand-supply steps that is located at a supply-side terminal of the supply chain; third means for determining basic scheme data regarding the order receipt step, the order placement step, the purchase step, and the supply step of each of the plurality of demand-supply steps based on the inputted order receipt scheme and at least the stored data relating to the stock amount items required, for each demand-supply step, and distributes the order quantity among the plurality of demand-supply steps based on the basic scheme data of each demand-supply step, the third means determining an amount of order placement of each demand-supply step, based on at least an amount of order receipt, an amount of stock, and a target amount of stock allocated to each demand-supply step from the stock amount; fourth means for calculating a profitability index of each demand-supply step of the supply chain based on the basic scheme data determined and the data stored by the first means; fifth means for adjusting the basic scheme of at least one demand-supply step by at least one of a) changing an initial distribution of the order quantity of the order receipt step, b) advancing or delaying at least a portion of an order amount of the order placement step, and c) changing a target amount of stock of items allocated to the demand-supply step from the stock amount, wherein the fourth means calculates a first profitability index for a first version of the supply chain without making said adjustments, and calculates an additional profitability index for each adjusted version of the supply chain after making said adjustment; and sixth means for establishing a demand-supply scheme for manufacturing the commodity by selecting the version of the supply chain having the highest calculated profitability index.