System and method of inventory management

1. An order management forecasting system for a site, said system comprising:

a plurality of clinical analyzers for the site, each clinical analyzer of the plurality of clinical analyzers having:

an associated plurality of consumables for conducting a plurality of patient-related tests on a daily basis; and

a plurality of sensors on each analyzer comprising at least one of an optical sensor, a capacitive sensor or a pressure sensor and having sensor data indicative of events on-board the clinical analyzer involving the plurality of consumables, the sensor data comprising at least optical sensor data, capacitive sensor data or pressure sensor data;

a server including:

a processor;

a network interface for communicating with each clinical analyzer;

data storage means for storing:

relationship information for each consumable;

current inventory for each consumable; and

usage history for each consumable as determined by the sensor data indicative of events on board each clinical analyzer;

a portal accessible by a plurality of remote computers and associated authenticated users through the network interface and in which sensor data from each analyzer is transmitted to a central server over said portal; and

an order management module including program instructions that, when executed by the processor, are configured to:

calculate dependencies of consumables of the plurality of clinical analyzers for each customer at each site;

project usage history of each clinical analyzer at each site;

forecast a consumable order schedule based on the relationship information, current inventory, and the projected usage history of each analyzer at a site based on the sensor data including the at least optical sensor data, capacitive sensor data or pressure sensor data from each analyzer, the calculated dependencies of consumables of the plurality of clinical analyzers for each customer at each site, wherein the forecasted consumable order schedule includes a plurality of consumable planning buckets that include common consumables for purposes of creating a balanced spend for the site wherein the plurality of consumables is selected from at least one of the group consisting of reagents, calibrators, controls, verifiers, fluids, and disposables.

2. The order management forecasting system of claim 1 wherein the data storage means is further configured to store at least one of consumable item description, catalog number, pending ship quantity, and suggested order quantity.

3. The order management forecasting system of claim 1 wherein the relationship information includes an associated calibrator for each reagent.

4. The order management forecasting system of claim 1 further comprising at least one interface accessible through the portal for selecting one or more parameters selected from at least one of the group consisting of customer information, payment information, items to be ordered, quantity of items to be ordered, order cycle, workdays between order, safety stock days, workdays per week, and number of assays served for each consumable.

5. The order management forecasting system of claim 4 wherein the order management module further includes program instructions configured to display, in the at least one interface accessible through the portal, the calculated order information in the form of one or more user selectable parameters selected from the group consisting of groups of consumables, suggested order quantity of each consumable in each group of consumable, and timing of purchase.

6. The order management forecasting system of claim 5 wherein the order management module further includes program instructions configured to communicate, using the network interface, a purchase order to a supplier of consumables based on the user selections.

7. The order management forecasting system of claim 1 wherein the data storage means is further configured to store consumable ordering history associated with each clinical analyzer.