Patent ID: 8700443

Claim:
A method, comprising: performing, by one or more computers: correlating a supply constraint of an item to be supplied from a supplier to a fulfillment entity's inventory with fulfillment-related features of the item to determine a subset of the fulfillment-related features, wherein at least some of the fulfillment-related features are demand-side features pertaining to fulfillment of the item from the fulfillment entity's inventory, said correlating comprising: identifying the fulfillment-related features corresponding to the item to be supplied to the fulfillment entity's inventory; selecting the subset of the fulfillment-related features based, at least in part, on a determination that the subset of the fulfillment-related features of the item to be fulfilled from the fulfillment entity's inventory is correlated with the supply constraint associated with the item from the supplier and that another subset of the fulfillment-related features is unrelated to the supply constraint, wherein the supply constraint includes at least one of a purchase order rejection, a purchase order cancellation, a purchase order backorder, or a partial receipt, and wherein the determination is based at least in part on historical supply constraint data; building a supply risk early detection model based, at least in part, upon the subset of fulfillment-related features of the item to be fulfilled from the fulfillments entity's inventory; evaluating the supply risk early detection model to determine a probability that the supplier will suffer a shortage in the supplier's inventory of the item, wherein the supplier's inventory is separate from the fulfillment entity's inventory, and to determine an expected duration of the shortage; and creating a purchasing plan for the item based at least in part on: the probability of the supplier's shortage, the expected duration of the supplier's shortage, an associated cost of buying additional units of the item, and an associated cost of not having sufficient supply of the item to serve an expected demand for the item.