JP2002183257A - System for managing order reception and order placing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make an order reception answer quickly performable to an order from a customer. SOLUTION: Advance order data 120 are prepared about parts subjected to an advance order to a supplier on the basis of demand forecasting, the scheduled date 126 of arrival of goods and the estimated quantity 128 of goods to be arrived are recorded. When an order is received from the customer, the stock data 100 of the ordered parts is checked. When goods stock quantity 104 is zero (out of stock), the advance order data 120 about the parts is checked, and if there are parts whose estimated quantity 128 of goods to be arrived is more than quantity already reserved 130, the parts are virtually allocated for the order and the order reception is answered to the customer. When the part of products for the advance order arrive, the part for the quantity already allocated are included in stock quantity 106 under appointing and the rest is included in the goods stock quantity 104.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an order management system for managing an order of a handled item to a supplier and an order received from a customer, and more particularly to a technique of stock allocation management.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Companies procure parts from various suppliers and assemble products, and provide products to consumers through various dealers and sales companies. When providing products, it is very important to provide spare parts for repairs and the like without delay, and companies have long been making various efforts to provide stable parts. Even if you say at a glance with parts,
There are various types of products, from those manufactured in our own factories to those purchased from other companies. In order to stably supply these to customers (distributors, etc.), companies stock various parts in their own warehouses. It is common to adopt a system that can supply in response to the request of the above.

[0003] In addition to such a part supply, there are many schemes in the world where goods are procured from various suppliers (in many cases, they are stocked in warehouses) and provided according to customer orders. Can be In such a scheme, order management including inventory management is an important point, and systems for inventory management and order management using a computer have been proposed.

[0004] In such a system, the stock quantity of each item in the warehouse is generally managed as a stock database, and the stock quantity data is updated in accordance with entry into or exit from the warehouse. In addition, the order management system,
It is a general configuration that, for an order from a customer, it is determined whether inventory allocation is possible with reference to the inventory database and an order response is made if the allocation is made. Regarding orders, in addition to the on-demand case where a sales representative places an order with an appropriate supplier when an order is received from a customer, it is also common to place an order ahead of time in anticipation of demand. ing. In some cases, a demand forecasting system that automates this demand forecasting has been introduced. Generally, the demand forecasting system predicts the future demand amount and demand time of each item based on data of past shipment results, current inventory status and order status. There is also a system that creates order data to a supplier based on this forecast data.

[0005]

However, in the conventional system, if an order from a customer cannot be reserved for inventory, that is, if the amount of the current warehouse is less than the order quantity, it will be impossible to receive an order, and the customer A notification is given or a predetermined sales person or the like is notified to that effect and a response is required. That is, in the conventional system, even if the order is placed in advance according to the demand forecast, the order is not considered in the order receiving system, and even if the order arrives on the next day of the order, , The order receiving system determined that the order could not be accepted.

[0006] The present invention has been made based on such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a system capable of promptly responding to an order from a customer. Also, the present invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system capable of responding to a customer with a delivery date that is as accurate as possible even if the customer cannot respond to the customer's order delivery date.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, an apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a demand forecasting means for forecasting the demand of each item from basic information including actual shipping data for a predetermined period in the past; Pre-ordering means for specifying an item, quantity, and delivery date so as to satisfy the forecast demand predicted by the demand forecasting means for the supplier of Inventory management means that manages information on the quantity, expected arrival time, and allocation status of the order, and whether or not the inventory quantity of the order item related to the order is less than the order quantity for the order received from the customer via the communication line Is checked by referring to the inventory management means, and if it is sufficient, the inventory is allocated to the ordered item, and if not, the pre-order of the item is virtually allocated to the insufficient item, and Depending on the result of the provision process and a stock allowance means for updating the information provision condition of the item in the inventory management means.

[0008] According to this apparatus, it is possible to manage the order by associating the advance order with the order, and even when there is no stock, the system can automatically receive the order from the customer.

[0009] In a preferred aspect of the present invention, when the inventory allocation means cannot allocate the order item related to the order to either the inventory item or the pre-order item, the order content is waited for a predetermined allocation. It further includes means for registering in the list. According to this aspect, it is possible to notify a human of an order for which neither the stock allocation nor the virtual allocation for the preceding order was performed, and to urge response.

[0010] In another preferred aspect, the means for giving a delivery date response to the customer for the order from the customer, wherein the inventory allocation means allocates inventory to the order, and If the order is reserved and the scheduled arrival time of the assigned pre-order is in time for the customer's designated delivery date, reply the delivery date according to the customer's designated delivery date,
In the case where the pre-order is allocated and the scheduled arrival time of the allocated pre-order is not in time for the designated delivery date of the customer, the delivery date response that answers the delivery date calculated from the scheduled arrival time of the pre-order Means. According to this aspect, even when the customer cannot meet the designated delivery date, a highly accurate delivery date can be answered, and the customer can easily respond.

In a further preferred aspect, there is further provided a means for performing a predetermined delay warning process when the delivery date obtained by the delivery date answering means does not meet the customer's designated delivery date in the order. According to this aspect, when the delivery date in which the system responds to the customer is later than the customer's designated delivery date, it is possible to notify a human to that effect and urge the user to take action.

In another preferred aspect, attribute management means for managing, for each item to be managed, attribute information indicating whether or not the delivery date from the supplier is a long delivery item that does not meet the standard delivery date agreed with the customer. Further, if the item ordered from the customer is the long delivery item, perform the order management by the demand forecasting means, advance order means, inventory management means and inventory allocation means, otherwise, to the order Order the corresponding item and quantity from the corresponding supplier. According to this aspect, it is possible to respond to an order by pre-ordering and stock for a long delivery product, and to take an order from a supplier when an order is received from a customer for a product other than a long delivery product,
It becomes possible to reduce the stock quantity.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall scheme of an article procurement and supply process using a system according to the present invention. Here, a case will be described as an example where the company A procure parts of the device manufactured by the company A from several suppliers 30 and supply them to the overseas customers 20 such as overseas distributors. The supplier 30 may be the company A's own factory, or may be another company.

Here, between the customer 20 and the company A 10,
A fixed reference delivery date (for example, delivery 60 days after receiving an order) is defined for an order, and in principle, it is assumed that an order from the customer 20 is made by specifying a delivery date according to the reference delivery date. For example, when the customer 20 places a planned order, such a standard delivery date is often set. In such a scheme, the company A aims to procure parts according to the standard delivery date and deliver the parts to the customer 20. However, to always meet the standard delivery date,
The company needs to keep a huge inventory, which is not economically feasible. Therefore, a practical method is often employed in which an effort is made to keep the ratio of cases where the standard delivery date cannot be met within an allowable range (often negotiated with the customer 20). However, even if the delivery date is later than the standard delivery date, the exact date that the product can be delivered should be set as accurately as possible and at the earliest possible stage.
Is important for the business performance of the customer 20. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a system is provided in which shipment is performed in accordance with the standard delivery date agreed with the customer 20, and in the case where the standard delivery date is not reached, the promised expected delivery date can be answered to the customer as quickly as possible. I will provide a.

For this reason, in the system according to the present embodiment, the handled parts are managed by being divided into at least two categories, that is, short delivery products and long delivery products. A short delivery item is a component that can be delivered in time to the standard delivery date even if an order is received from the customer 20 and then ordered from the supplier 30. On the other hand, a long delivery product is a component that cannot be delivered in time for the standard delivery date if an order is placed after receiving an order. In the present embodiment, the company A basically has no stock by receiving an order for a short delivery date and then placing an order with the supplier 30. On the other hand, for products with long delivery times, it is necessary to maintain a certain amount of inventory so that it can respond to orders, and to place orders in advance according to demand forecasts (before actual customer orders are placed) (called preordering). Thus, it is possible to respond to an order from the customer 20 without unnecessarily increasing the stock amount. Note that, in the present embodiment, basically, an order with a delivery date designation shorter than the reference delivery date is treated as an exception, and a human judges and responds.

Further, in the present embodiment, when an order is received from the customer 20, not only the inventory reservation of the current warehouse but also a virtual reservation (or reservation reservation) can be made for the preceding order. Thus, an order response and a delivery date response to the customer 20 can be promptly performed. Hereinafter, referring to FIG.
The configuration of this system will be described in detail.

In FIG. 1, Company A 10 includes an order management system 12, an inventory management system 14, a demand forecasting system 16, and a database unit 18.

The inventory management system 14 is a system for managing the inventory status in the warehouse, receives a notification of entry and exit from the warehouse, and receives inventory information of an inventory DB (database) 18C of the database unit 18 according to the notification. Update.

The demand forecasting system 16 stores shipment result data of each part for a predetermined past period (for example, the past six months or the past year) accumulated in the shipment result DB 18D in the database unit 18 and a current state managed by the stock DB 18C. Inventory status,
Based on the current order status managed by the order DB 18B or the like, the future demand of each component is predicted. The demand forecast is a content for predicting, for example, when (time) and how many (quantity) orders will be received for each part.

The order management system 12 is connected to the order system 22 of each customer 20 via a predetermined communication network, receives order data issued by the order system 22, and reserves inventory in response to the order. Perform other order handling tasks. In the present embodiment, at the time of this inventory allocation processing, not only the allocation to the current warehouse but also the virtual allocation (allocation reservation) with the preceding order is made possible.
Reduce the likelihood of out-of-stock response to customer orders.

The order management system 12 is connected to the order receiving system 32 of each supplier 30 via a predetermined communication network, and stores order data of necessary parts.
Processing such as transmission to an appropriate supplier 30 is performed.

The order management system 12 includes a GUI
Etc., so that sales representatives can see the status of orders and inventory,
It is possible to receive instructions from a person in charge, such as instructions for receiving orders and ordering, and corrections and changes to data such as already-ordered cases.

The order management system 12 has a pre-order function, and places an order with each supplier 30 so as to satisfy the demand forecast by the demand forecast system 16. In other words, in order to obtain the necessary quantity of the parts that are determined to be necessary in the demand forecast at the time that it is determined to be necessary, the timing of the advance order is determined in consideration of the production lead time of the parts, and the order is placed at that timing. multiply. If the demand forecast is accurate, the parts obtained by the preceding order will be allocated to the order almost at the same time as entering the warehouse. Of course, the demand forecast was not expected to be completely accurate, and the error between the forecast and the reality was either left in the warehouse as inventory or, conventionally, treated as simply out of stock. In the present embodiment, the system can automatically receive an order and reply to a delivery date even when the stock is simply out of stock.

It should be noted that, even if an order is placed after receiving an order for a short delivery item, the standard delivery date can be met, so the advance order based on the demand forecast described above is applied only to a long delivery item. Therefore, the demand forecasting system 16 includes:
Information (shipping results, current warehouse, order status, etc.) on only long delivery items is passed and processed.

Instead of the order management system 12 automatically ordering in advance, the demand forecasting system creates a list of parts to be ordered in advance, their quantity, and delivery date designation based on the demand forecast. It is also preferable to adopt a processing procedure in which a person in charge inspects the data, makes corrections as necessary, and sends it to each supplier 30 via the order management system.

The database unit 18 includes an order DB 18A,
Order DB18B, Inventory DB18C, Shipment Results DB18D
And various masters 18E.

The order DB 18A is provided by the company A as the supplier 30.
Stores the data of each order made for. The stored order data includes, for example, identification information (a code or the like) of the ordered part, its quantity, and the supplier 30 of the order.
And information such as a designated delivery date and a response delivery date (scheduled arrival date) from the supplier 30 to the designated delivery date.

The order DB 18B stores data of individual orders received from the customer 20 by the company A. The stored order data includes, for example, identification information of the customer, identification information and the quantity of the ordered parts, information such as the customer's designated delivery date and the response delivery date of Company A in response thereto.

The stock DB 18C is a database holding information on the stock status of the company A. As shown in FIG. 2, the stock DB 18C manages stock status data 100 of each component, pre-order data 120 for each pre-order, allocation data 140 indicating the contents of individual stock allocation, and the like.

The stock status data 100 includes data items of the part number 102 (part code) of the part, the current available stock quantity 104, and the stock quantity 106 in the order. The available stock quantity 104 is the quantity of unallocated stock. On the other hand, the in-order stock quantity 106 is the quantity of stock that has been allocated. When an order is placed for a certain part, if the order quantity is equal to or less than the effective stock quantity 104 of the part, immediate stock allocation is possible. Parts delivered and received from the supplier 30 are basically recorded in the available stock quantity 104, but if they are pre-ordered parts that have been virtually allocated, they are recorded in the stock quantity 106 in the instruction. When unallocated stock is allocated, the quantity is subtracted from the available stock quantity 104, and the quantity is added to the stock quantity in order 106. Then, when the stock is issued, the issued quantity is subtracted from the in-order stock quantity 106 of the part.

The advance order data 120 is created and managed for each individual order placed by the order management system 12. The pre-order data 120 includes a pre-order ID 122 uniquely assigned to each pre-order, a part number 124 of a target part of the pre-order, and a scheduled arrival date 1 of the part.
26, scheduled arrival quantity 128, reserved quantity 130, and the like. The expected arrival date 126 is set with the value of the delivery date for which the supplier 30 has responded to the advance order, and the expected arrival quantity 128 is set with the expected quantity to be received at that time. The allocated quantity 130 is the expected quantity 12
8 is the quantity of the virtual allocation completed. If the order management system 12 virtually assigns an order to the order, the quantity of the order is stored in the data 12 of the order.
0 is added to the allocated quantity 130. Note that, of the items of the pre-order data 120, items managed by the order DB 18A also use the same data (for example, the part number, the expected arrival date, the expected arrival quantity, etc. can be standardized).

The allocation data 140 is data that is created each time the order management system 12 performs virtual allocation for inventory allocation or advance ordering.
44, product number 146, allocation destination ID 148, allocation quantity 15
0 and items such as schedule information 152. Allocation ID 142
Is an identification code that uniquely identifies the allocation (or virtual allocation) represented by this data. The order ID 144 is an order DB
This is the identification code of the order data corresponding to this allocation, which is in 18B. Thereby, it is possible to know which customer order is to be allocated. The product number 146 is the product number of the assigned component. The allocation destination ID 148 is an identification code of the allocation destination of the order, that is, the inventory or individual pre-order. In the allocation destination ID 148, a specific code indicating that fact is set in the case of inventory allocation, and in the case of virtual allocation for the pre-order, the pre-order ID of the pre-order is set.
The allocation quantity 150 indicates the quantity allocated in this allocation.
In the schedule information 152, information on various schedules related to shipment of parts corresponding to the allocation is set. In the case of shipment to an overseas customer, there are various procedures such as determination of an invoice, export declaration, and delivery to a carrier (airline or shipping company) for export, and the schedule information 152 includes each of these steps. The target schedule for each step is registered. The most important of these dates is the FOB (Free On Board) date, and other dates are based on this. An example of how to determine each of these schedules will be described later.

It should be noted that the quantity of ordered parts is in stock or 1
If it is not possible to secure only one pre-order, allocation will be made for inventory and a plurality of pre-orders. In this case, the allocation data 140 will be created for each of these individual destinations. The reason why the schedule information 152 is incorporated in the allocation data 140 is that, if the schedule information 152 is allocated to a plurality of pre-orders, if the scheduled arrival dates are different, it is possible to ship the product in a plurality of times. is there. For example,
When a part of an order is virtually reserved for a base order or a pre-order that does not meet the customer's designated delivery date, it may be better to ship only the order that is in time.

The configuration of the management data of the inventory DB 18C described above is merely an example, and any data configuration can be adopted as the data configuration of the inventory DB 18C as long as the above-described and the following processes can be realized. sell.

Returning to FIG. 1, the shipping results DB 18D
This is a database for managing information on past shipment results of each component.

The master storage unit 18E is a storage unit for storing various types of master data used in this system. FIG. 3 shows an example of individually stored master data.

The component master 200 is master data in which basic data of each component is registered. Parts master 20
0 is the part number 202 of the part, the product name (part name) 20
4. Supplier code 206, procurement category 208, price 2
10, including data items such as production lead time (LT) 212. The supplier code 206 is an identification code of a supplier that supplies the part. Procurement category 208
Is data indicating a handling category at the time of procurement, such as whether the part is a short delivery item or a long delivery item. The information of the procurement section 208 is referred to when receiving an order. The production LT 212 is a lead time from when the part is ordered to the supplier 30 until it is available.

The customer master 220 is master data of each customer 20, and includes identification code (customer code) 222, name (customer name) 224, and designated flight information 226 of the customer.
including. In the designated flight information 226, conditions relating to airmail and seamail used by the customer for parts transportation are set. For example, the airline or shipping company to be used, or the day of the week of the departure flight is set. The designated flight information 226 is used when determining an export schedule in accordance with a customer order.

It is needless to say that the master storage unit 18E may include information other than the illustrated component master 200 and customer master 220.

Next, an example of the processing procedure when the order management system 12 receives an order from the customer 20 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, a case will be described in which an order from a customer specifies a delivery date that is equal to or longer than the reference delivery date. If the customer's designated delivery date is shorter than the standard delivery date, it is necessary to make a decision by the sales person, and the system 1
2 cannot be used as a basis, and this will be described after the description of the flow in FIG.

The order management system 12 receives order information from the order system 22 of the customer 20 (S10). Here, the order from the customer 20 is performed by transmitting order data in a predetermined data format from the customer 20 to the order management system 12 of the company A 10. The order data includes the part number of the part to be ordered, its quantity, and the specification of the delivery date. As for the delivery date, a standard delivery date decided between the company A and the customer can be set as a default value. Upon receiving the order information, the order management system 12 determines whether or not the part related to the order is a long delivery item (stock correspondence) (S12). In the case where the order information has a format for ordering a plurality of parts, the processing is performed separately for individual parts in the following. The determination in S12 is performed by accessing the master storage unit 18E and referring to the information of the procurement category 208 of the parts master 200 of the ordered part.

In S12, if it is determined that the product is not a long delivery product, the order is accepted and the order management system 12 sends an order response notice to the ordering customer 20 (S36). Here, the delivery response is included in the order response. In this delivery date response, if the designated delivery date of the customer 20 is later than the standard delivery date, the F determined based on the date of the designated delivery date
Answer the OB date. The FOB date is a date advanced from the designated delivery date in accordance with the departure date of airmail or seamail. On the other hand, if the delivery date is not specified or the same date as the reference delivery date is specified, the delivery date is returned as the FOB date with the date advanced from the reference delivery date to the departure date. Subsequent to the order response (S36), the ordered parts are ordered from the corresponding supplier 30 (S36).
38). In this ordering, the delivery date is specified to the supplier 30 so that the export can be performed on the returned delivery date (FOB date), taking into account export preparations and various procedures. At this time, based on the FOB date, a schedule for export and preparation such as an export declaration date, a delivery date, and an invoice confirmation date is determined, and the schedule is associated with the order and order information in the database unit 18. Register.

When the order (S38) is completed, basically,
According to the schedule, delivery, shipping instructions, export packing, export procedures, and various preparations for export from the supplier 30 are advanced. During this time, documents (paper or electronic data) such as necessary slips are created based on the order and allocation data stored in the database unit 18 and sent to the necessary departments and suppliers. Here, necessary schedule information such as the FOB date can be posted on documents such as slips, and the work in each department can be used as a guide. Sales representatives can also adjust delivery times as needed, such as by adjusting suppliers and orders received,
In that case, delivery date (FOB date) in ordering management system 12
The change can be registered and the customer 20 can be notified of that (S40). When the designated delivery date is earlier than the standard delivery date, the responsible person performs delivery date adjustment such as negotiation with the supplier 30 and notifies the customer of the changed delivery date (FOB date).

If it is determined in S12 that the ordered part is a long delivery item, the order management system 12 then proceeds to
With reference to the stock DB 18C, it is determined whether the stock of the part is sufficient for the ordered quantity (S14). If the stock quantity is equal to or greater than the order quantity, the date of the advance delivery from the date of the designated delivery date of the order to the departure date of the airmail or seamail is set as the response delivery date (F
The order response set as OB date is transmitted to the customer 20 (S1).
6). At this time, when the customer 20 has a designation related to the transportation service such as the day of the week (designated flight information 22 in the customer master 220).
6 can be determined), the response delivery date is adjusted to match the designation (this also applies to S36 described above). Then, inventory allocation processing is executed for the ordered part (S1).
8). In this step, the stock data 100 of the part
The available stock quantity 104 and the stock quantity in order 106 are updated according to the order quantity, and the allocation data 14 for the part is updated.
Create 0. At this time, a schedule for export processing is also created based on the FOB date. After this, the work will proceed according to the determined schedule.

If it is determined in step S14 that the stock quantity is not enough to satisfy the order quantity, the order management system 12 responds to the orders and reserves the stock in the processing in steps S16 and S18 for the stock that can be secured in the stock. Then, with reference to the inventory DB 18C, it is determined whether or not there is a pre-order for the ordered part that has not been virtually allocated (hereinafter referred to as “unallocated”) (S20). Then, if there is an unallocated prior order, virtual allocation is made to secure it. in this case,
For example, the preorder data 120 for the part is checked in the order of the oldest arrival date 126, and a search is made for a part whose reserved quantity 130 is less than the planned arrival quantity 128. Then, a delivery date (FOB date) when a predetermined export preparation procedure is performed is calculated from the scheduled arrival date 130 of the found prior order data 120, and it is determined whether or not the delivery date is in time for the designated delivery date (S).
22). If the delivery date is in time, the customer is notified of an order response with a response delivery date (FOB date), which is a date advanced from the date of the designated delivery date to the departure date of air or sea service (SOB).
16), allocation data 140 is created, and virtual allocation for the preceding order is performed (S18). If the order quantity of one preceding order alone is not enough for the order quantity, further S20, S2
Step 2 is repeated. Here, if the preceding order found is in time for the designated delivery date, S16 and S1 are executed in the same manner as described above.
8 and proceed, but if you can not meet the specified delivery date,
The FOB date obtained by adding the required number of days of the predetermined work for export to the scheduled arrival date 126 of the advance order is returned as an answer delivery date, and an order is answered (S24), and virtual allocation processing is performed for the advance order (S24). S18). The database unit 18 also records the customer's designated delivery date and the response delivery date of the system 12 for the virtual order assigned to the advance order that is not in time for the designated delivery date, and provides this to the sales representative. It is also possible to bring the delivery date forward by making adjustments with the supplier or the like after seeing it (S40).
The processes from S20 to S18 described above are performed until all the ordered quantities can be secured or there is no unallocated preceding order for the ordered parts.

If the order quantity cannot be ensured for both the stock and the preceding order, the processes of S26 to S28 are performed for the unallocated portion (for which neither the stock reservation nor the virtual reservation for the preceding order can be performed). That is, first, the production lead time of the part is checked in the parts master 200, and for the missing part, the date calculated taking into account the production lead time and the period of entry / exit and export preparation is used as the response date. The customer 2
Send to 0. Then, the information of the unallocated portion is registered in an allocation waiting list (not shown) (S28). This reservation waiting list can be provided to a sales representative by a user interface of the order management system 12.
The sales representative refers to the reservation waiting list on a display screen or the like, and when finding an unallocated portion, inputs an urgent order instruction to allocate the unallocated portion to the order management system 12 (S30). As a result, the order management system 12 creates allocation data 140 that virtually allocates the urgent order and the unallocated portion, and generates the inventory DB 1
8C is registered (S32). At the time of this urgent order, if it becomes possible to guarantee a delivery date earlier than the delivery date answered in S26 due to negotiations with the supplier 30 or the like, the person in charge registers the change of the delivery date in the order management system 12.
The order management system 12 responds to this input by using the inventory DB
18C, the schedule information of the allocation data 140 relating to the allocation is changed, and the changed delivery date is notified to the customer 20 (S3).
4).

In the above processing, when an unallocated portion is generated, it is also preferable to display a warning to that effect on the display of the order management system 12, or to notify the sales representative by e-mail or the like. is there.

In the above procedure, the case where the designated delivery date of the customer's order is equal to or longer than the reference delivery date has been described. On the other hand, when the designated delivery date is shorter than the reference delivery date, processing such as notifying a sales representative of the fact by posting it in a predetermined exception order list, for example, is performed. The salesperson looks at the exception order list and takes necessary measures such as negotiating the delivery date with the supplier 30 and urgently placing an order. Instead, a response to the customer 2 indicating that the order was received with the standard delivery date
0 to notify the person in charge that the designated delivery date is before the reference delivery date, and take measures such as prompting adjustment.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. As described above, according to the present embodiment, the scheduled arrival of the pre-order is managed, and if the inventory is insufficient for the customer order, the pre-order is virtually allocated,
Even if there is no warehouse at present, it is possible to receive an order for a customer and reply the delivery date. According to this embodiment,
We manage the arrival schedule for each advance order, and even if the advance order assigned to the customer's order is not in time for the customer's designated delivery date, it is highly accurate based on the arrival schedule of the advance order Since the delivery date can be answered, there is an advantage that the customer side can easily take the response. Also, in this embodiment, the parts handled are classified and managed as a long delivery product and a short delivery product, and the short delivery product can be automatically ordered from the supplier when receiving an order, contributing to reduction of inventory can do.

The order management system 12, the demand forecasting system 14, and the like of the present embodiment can be typically embodied by causing a computer system to execute a program describing the contents of each of the above processes.

In the above example, the case of parts supply is taken as an example. However, it can be easily understood that the system of the above embodiment is applicable to the procurement and supply of goods and articles other than parts. Will.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of management data of an inventory DB (database).

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of master data stored in a master storage unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure when an order is received by the order management system.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 order management system, 14 inventory management system,
16 Demand forecasting system, 18 Database section, 20
Customers, 30 suppliers.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A demand forecasting means for forecasting the demand of each item from basic information including shipping result data of a past predetermined period, and a supplier of each item for satisfying the forecasted demand forecasted by the demand forecasting means. Pre-ordering means for pre-ordering by specifying the item, quantity and delivery date, and inventory management for managing information on the stock quantity, the quantity of each pre-order, the scheduled arrival time, and the allocation status for each item Means, for the order received from the customer via the communication line, check whether the inventory quantity of the order item related to the order is sufficient for the order quantity by referring to the inventory management means, and if it is sufficient, check the order item. In the case where the inventory is not sufficient, the pre-order of the item is virtually allocated in the case of the shortage, and the inventory management means performs the allocation of the item in accordance with the result of the allocation processing. An order management system including: inventory allocation means for updating allocation status information. 2. A means for registering the contents of an order in a predetermined allocation waiting list when the inventory allocation means cannot allocate an order item related to the order to either an inventory item or a pre-order item. 2. The order management system according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. A means for giving a delivery date reply to an order from the customer to the customer, wherein the stock allocating means allocates the inventory to the order and allocates the pre-order to the order. In this case, if the scheduled arrival time of the allocated pre-order is in time for the specified delivery date of the customer, the delivery date according to the specified delivery date of the customer is answered, and if the pre-order is allocated, 2. A delivery time answering means for answering a delivery time calculated from the scheduled delivery time of the preceding order when the scheduled delivery time of the preceding order is not in time for the designated delivery date of the customer. The order management system described. 4. The order receiving / managing system according to claim 3, further comprising: means for performing a predetermined delay warning process when the delivery date obtained by said delivery date answering means does not meet the customer's designated delivery date for the order. 5. An attribute management means for managing, for each item to be managed, attribute information indicating whether or not the delivery date from the supplier is a long delivery item that does not meet the standard delivery date agreed with the customer, If the item ordered from the customer is the long delivery item, the demand forecasting means, advance ordering means, inventory management means and inventory management means perform ordering management, otherwise, the item according to the order, 2. The order management system according to claim 1, wherein the quantity is ordered from a corresponding supplier.