Patent ID: 7552066

Claim:
A computer-implemented forecasting system for determining time-phased sales forecasts and planned replenishment shipments for products that sell in low volumes in a retail store supply chain, the system comprising: a computing resource having a processor, a memory and a program stored in said memory, wherein said processor executes said program, said program including: i) a first portion that determines projected sales of a plurality of low-volume products for a retail store in the supply chain during a first time period using numerical representations of seasonal selling profiles for each of said plurality of low-volume products during said first time period, wherein said projected sales are determined with respect to each of said plurality of said low-volume products by evaluating when a mathematical product obtained by multiplying a random number times a summation of said numerical representations of seasonal selling profiles for said each low-volume product for a plurality of second time periods exceeds a threshold, wherein said threshold for each of said plurality of low-volume products equals said random number times a summation of said numerical representations for said first time period for said each low-volume product, further wherein said first portion uses said random number to determine an offset from a day in said first time period for each of said low-volume products; and ii) a second portion that, using said projected sales determined by said first portion, distributes within said first time period replenishment shipment dates for each of said plurality of low-volume products, wherein said offset is used by said second portion to define said replenishment shipment dates.