Assortment Planning via Intermediate Links and Validity Periods
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current assortment planning methods in retail environments often lack flexibility and effectiveness, leading to repetitive product offerings that fail to cater to changing customer demands and trends, resulting in inefficient product placement and timing.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for assigning articles to assortments through intermediate links with defined validity periods, allowing for dynamic and targeted product placement across stores at specific times, enabling more flexible and customer-centric merchandise planning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If articles are assigned to assortments using traditional direct methods, then the assortment planning process is simple, but the flexibility and effectiveness of product placement is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediate link between articles and assortments, where articles are assigned to assortments through intermediate nodes rather than direct assignment. This intermediate structure enables more flexible and effective product placement by allowing multiple pathways and conditions for article-assortment relationships, thereby resolving the contradiction between flexibility and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the assortment planning system into distinct components: articles, intermediate links, and assortments. By dividing the direct article-assortment relationship into multiple staged relationships, the system achieves greater adaptability while managing complexity through modular structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If products are offered continuously without time restrictions, then product availability is maximized, but customer satisfaction decreases due to irrelevant offerings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining validity periods for intermediate links during the assortment planning phase. These time restrictions are established in advance, allowing the system to automatically enforce appropriate product availability windows without requiring continuous manual intervention, thus achieving customer-centric offerings while minimizing time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically manages product availability by incorporating time-validity constraints on intermediate links. Articles can be assigned to different assortments at different time periods through the intermediate structure, enabling the system to adapt product offerings to changing customer needs while automatically managing the complexity of time-based adjustments.
3Productivity
If the same assortment is repeated across seasons, then inventory management is simplified, but the ability to respond to changing customer demands is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by enabling different article assignments to assortments in different time periods through the intermediate link structure. Validity periods are defined on intermediate links, allowing the system to automatically update assortments seasonally or periodically while maintaining efficient inventory management through the structured approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediate link structure serves multiple functions: it enables time-based assignment, supports seasonal variations, maintains inventory efficiency, and provides flexibility for different planning scenarios. This multi-functional design resolves the contradiction by making the same system structure adaptable to various temporal and strategic requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method and program product are provided for performing assortment definition/planning (i.e., matching the right articles with the right stores at the right times). The method comprises assigning a first article to the assortment via a first intermediate link, and assigning a first validity period to the first intermediate link to determine a first time period during which the first article is in the assortment.