INTEGRATION OF REORDER-POINT BASED PLANNING AND TIME-PERIOD PLANNING

1 . A method comprising:

receiving a forecast demand of location products for a first subset of location products in a distribution network;

obtaining inventory data about location products for a second subset of location products in the distribution network; and

using time period planning for the location products of the first subset and reorder point planning for location products of the second subsets respectively in a single planning run to generate a distribution plan for all location products.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein using reorder point planning comprises:

using time period planning with a horizon set to one period.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein using comprises:

applying time period planning to all parent location products having a child location product in the first subset.

4 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

deploying a planned quantity of the location product to each product location in the distribution network.

5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining for each location product an excess or a shortage; and

generating a stock transfer order between a first location product having an excess and a second location product having a shortage.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein determining an excess for a location product in the second subset comprises:

increasing a maximum stock level by an excess percentage to get an excess maximum stock level; and

reducing a physical stock value by the excess maximum stock level and distribution demand.

7 . The method of claim 5 wherein determining a shortage for a location in the second subset comprises:

reducing a reorder point by a shortage percentage to get a reduced reorder point; and

comparing the reduced reorder point to an aggregate of physical stock, goods in transit and open order quantities.

8 . A system comprising:

a demand forecasting module to generate a demand forecast for a first subset of location products in a supply chain;

an inventory data source to supply inventory data for a second subset of location products in the supply chain; and

a distribution resource planning (DRP) module to generate a distribution plan for the first subset of locations using time phased planning and the second subset of location using reorder point planning in a single planning run.

9 . The system of claim 8 wherein the DRP module comprises:

a location product identifier to determine if the location product is in the first or the second subset

a time period planning (TPP) module to accept demand forecast data and generate a distribution plan for the first subset; and

a calculation module to accept inventory data for the second subset and generate a distribution plan for the second subset by calling the time period planning module setting the horizon to a single period.

10 . The system of claim 9 where the calculation module comprises:

a shortage calculator; and

an excess calculator.

11 . The system of claim 8 further comprising:

a deployment module to create stock transfer orders (STO's) to fulfill the distribution plan.

12 . The system of claim 11 wherein the inventory balancing module generates STO's between two locations when one location has a shortage and the other location has an excess.

13 . A machine readable medium having instructions therein that when executed by the machine cause the machine to:

receive a forecast demand of a product for a first subset of location products in a distribution network;

obtain inventory data about location products for a second subset of location products in the distribution network; and

use time phased planning and reorder point planning to generate a distribution plan for the location products of the first and second subsets respectively in a single planning run.

14 . The machine readable medium of claim 13 , wherein instructions causing the machine to use cause the machine to:

apply time phased planning to all parent location products having a child location in the first subset.

15 . The machine readable medium of claim 13 , having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

generate stock transfer orders to deploy a planned quantity of the location product to each location product in the distribution network.

16 . The machine readable medium of claim 13 , having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

determine for each location product an excess or a shortage; and

generate a stock transfer order between a first location product having an excess and a second location product having a shortage.

17 . The machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein instructions causing the machine to determine an excess comprise instructions causing the machine to:

increase a maximum stock level by an excess percentage to get an excess maximum stock level; and

reduce a physical stock value by the excess maximum stock level and distribution demand.

18 . The machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein instructions causing the machine to determine a shortage comprise instructions causing the machine to:

reduce a reorder point by a shortage percentage to get a reduced reorder point; and

compare the reduced reorder point to an aggregate of physical stock and goods in transit and open order quantities.