Method and apparatus for reducing supply orders in inventory management

1. An inventory management system for at least one piece of equipment requiring routine maintenance for a plurality of items, each of said items being associated with a respective parameter that provides an estimate of servicing needs for said item, said system comprising:

an inventory of replacements for said items;

a computational element operatively coupled to said at least one piece of equipment and to each of said parameters;

a tracking device operatively coupled to said computational element to derive a criteria to generate at least one order form that details current and future requirements of said items for said piece of equipment that are stocked within said inventory; and

wherein said computational element includes a dormancy feature for at least one of said plurality of items, said dormancy feature being activated so that an associated parameter for one or more of the plurality of items is placed in a dormant state so that such associated parameters do not become a trigger point for the tracking device to generate an order for said one or more items.

2. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one order form is directed to a supplier of said items, at a location different from said at least one piece of equipment.

3. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said criteria includes a delivery time to enable timely creation of said at least one order form to insure proper stocking of said inventory.

4. The inventory management system of claim 3 , wherein said criteria includes a specified set of ship dates to enable timely creation of said at least one order form to insure proper stocking of said inventory.

5. The inventory management system of claim 4 , wherein said criteria further comprises a plurality of optional ship dates, wherein each of said optional ship dates has an individual set of items for said piece of equipment.

6. The inventory management system of claim 4 , wherein for each one of said specified set of ship dates an identical set of items for said piece of equipment are placed in the at least one order form.

7. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said criteria is responsive to changes made in shipping dates for replenishment of said items used to stock said inventory.

8. The inventory management system of claim 7 , wherein said criteria is responsive to changes in shipping dates of replacements for said items, whereby said criteria adjusts to insure proper local inventory for items for said piece of equipment.

9. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said criteria prevents unnecessary shipping of replenishments for said items by arranging said order form such that shipments can occur based on a cost factor of shipping versus parts cost.

10. The inventory management system of claim 9 , wherein said cost factor of shipping versus parts cost provides for early shipping of increased amounts of inexpensive items to avoid additional shipments.

11. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said piece of equipment is a printing press.

12. The inventory management system of claim 11 , wherein said criteria includes at least an expected life for each of said items.

13. The inventory management system of claim 12 , wherein said expected life remaining includes a parameter selected from at least one of the following parameters: a number of printer pages remaining before said item is exhausted; a number of clock time hours remaining before said item is exhausted; a number of power on hours remaining before said item is exhausted; and a number of hours of specific component processing pages remaining before said item is exhausted.

14. The inventory management system of claim 13 , wherein said expected life remaining includes multiples of said parameters.

15. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said criteria is at least partially based on replacement part cost and shipping cost for said items.

16. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein said criteria is at least partially based on a threshold that compares expected life of said items with usage of said equipment.

17. The inventory management system of claim 1 , further comprising an electronic interface between said piece of equipment and a provider for supplies of said items, wherein said order form is transferred from said piece of equipment to said provider for supplies at a different location from said piece of equipment.

18. A computer implemented method of managing an inventory for serviceable equipment requiring routine maintenance for a plurality of items comprising the steps of:

providing an inventory of replacement parts for said items;

associating each of said items using a processor with a parameter that provides an estimate of servicing needs for said item;

tracking said parameters using a processor to identify replenishment needs for said inventory;

generating an order form for replacement parts of said items for said inventory based on estimated needs using a processor; and

providing a dormancy feature for at least one of said plurality of items, the dormancy feature being activated so that an associated parameter for one or more of the plurality of items is placed in a dormant state so that such associated parameters do not become a trigger point for the tracking device to generate an order for said one or more items.

19. The method of managing an inventory of claim 18 , wherein the generating step further comprises generating said order form based on current and future needs of said serviceable equipment.

20. The method of managing an inventory of claim 19 , wherein the step of generating an order form further comprises establishing a criteria for ordering replacement parts wherein said criteria is used to create a reduced number of said order forms that are generated to replenish said inventory.