Patent ID: 8582986

Claim:
An inventory management device, connected over a network to one or more device groups each including one or more image processing devices, for managing inventory, by device group, of consumable supplies used in the image processing devices, the inventory management device comprising: a replaced supply information acquisition unit configured to acquire, from each image processing device, replaced supply information that includes an indication of replacement of a supply in the image processing device, a type of the supply that is replaced, and an identifier of the image processing device; a consumption information acquisition unit configured to acquire consumption information indicating a degree of consumption of each supply in use in each image processing device; a projected replacement timing unit configured to calculate, in accordance with the consumption information, a projected replacement timing for replacement of each supply as necessitated by consumption; an inventory information storage unit for storing inventory information by device group, the inventory information including, in association for each supply, a current amount of the inventory, an identifier of the image processing device in which the supply is to be used, an identifier of the device group of the image processing device, a maximum inventory amount that is set for the device group, and the projected replacement timing calculated by the projected replacement timing unit, the inventory information storage unit updating the inventory information by referring to the replaced supply information; and an inventory supplement selection unit configured to select one or more supplies to supplement the inventory, wherein upon acquisition of the replaced supply information by the replaced supply information acquisition unit, the inventory supplement selection unit refers to the updated inventory information for the device group of the image processing device from which the replaced supply information is acquired in order to operate in a first supply selection mode for selecting, from among supplies used in the device group and not currently in the inventory, each supply to supplement the inventory without exceeding the maximum inventory amount for the device group, starting from the supply with an earliest projected replacement timing.