Patent ID: 6885902

Claim:
A method for planning the replenishment of a supply chain network resource by purchase in order to fulfill demand as defined by an order, wherein said order defining a stock keeping unit with attribute, comprising the steps: determining time items, wherein said time items are specific points in time or time periods relating to said order and wherein at least one of said items is a purchase lead time based on said stock keeping unit with attribute, and wherein said time items further comprising a purchase order placement date, a replenish start date, a replenish need date, a maximum lateness, and a maximum earliness, wherein said purchase lead time is defined as amount of time needed to make available requested replenish material; determining timing events based on said time items; creating a timeline comprising of said timing events and time items; selecting an applicable scenario based on said timeline from a group of predetermined scenarios; and generating an output based on said applicable scenario.