Patent ID: 8615417

Claim:
A supply plan control method for a computer to manage a supply plan of a subject of transaction with a plurality of customers, the supply plan control method comprising: storing a planned supply quantity of the subject of transaction to be supplied in a specified period; calculating, with the computer, a planned allocation quantity for each individual customer by distributing the planned supply quantity to the customers according to a forecast; storing, for each individual customer, records of the planned allocation quantity that is calculated, an allocated quantity that indicates how much part of the planned allocation quantity has been allocated, and local business hours; accepting an order placed by one of the customers, the order specifying an order quantity of the subject of transaction; examining, in response to the order, the stored records of local business hours of each individual customer to identify the customers who are at work at a moment when the order has been accepted, the identified customers including the ordering customer who has placed the order; calculating, for each of the identified customers, a possible allocation quantity by subtracting the allocated quantity from the planned allocation quantity which are indicated in the stored records; calculating an effective allocation quantity by summing up the possible allocation quantities of the identified customers; allocating the effective allocation quantity to the order of the ordering customer to fulfill the specified order quantity; and updating the stored records of allocated quantities of the identified customers so as to reflect the quantity that the allocating has actually allocated to the order.