Patent ID: 8577757

Claim:
An inventory management system for forecasting demand in a print production environment, the system comprising: a computing device; and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, the computer-readable storage medium comprising one or more programming instructions for: updating a predictive model, by a computing device, with intervention information that is outside of the predictive model, wherein the intervention information comprises an anticipated demand value and a confidence value associated with the anticipated demand value, wherein the predictive model is associated with a demand distribution of a print-related service in a print production environment, incorporating new demand data into the predictive model associated with the print-related service, wherein the new demand data comprises an observed demand value associated with a time period, wherein the one or more programming instructions for incorporating new demand data into the predictive model comprise one or more programming instructions for: identifying a mean value associated with the demand distribution, determining an error value equal to a difference between the observed demand value and a previous forecast value associated with the print-related service, determining a weighted error value by multiplying the error value by a weight value, and identifying a new mean value associated with the demand distribution by summing the mean value and the weighted error value, generating a demand forecast associated with the print-related service by using the updated predictive model, using the generated demand forecast to compare a current inventory level associated with the print-related service to an anticipated inventory level associated with the demand forecast of the print-related service, and ordering additional inventory in response to the current inventory level being less than the anticipated inventory level.