Patent ID: 8484068

Claim:
A method for estimating consumer demand for a product based on sales data for the product at remotely located equipment comprising: receiving in an application server first inventory level data from the remotely located equipment, wherein the first inventory level data represents product inventory levels in the remotely located equipment, the product inventory levels recorded at multiple time intervals; receiving in the application server equipment operating status data from the remotely located equipment, wherein the equipment operating status data represents equipment operating status of the remotely located equipment, the equipment operating status recorded at multiple time intervals; arranging in the application server the received first inventory level data and the received equipment operating status data in associated levels of a data hierarchy of reliability, quality and quantity; storing in the application server the received first inventory level data and the received equipment operating status data and associated levels of the data hierarchy; and calculating in the application server a consumer demand estimate for the product based on the levels of the data hierarchy of the stored first inventory level data and the stored equipment operating status data.