Multi-Tier BOM Planning for Inventory Bottleneck Visibility
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
ERP systems lack visibility of both finished goods and their components' availability in a single view, preventing effective multi-tier planning and bottleneck identification for manufacturers.
Innovation Solution
A multi-tier planning solution using multi-tier data to provide a unified view of finished goods and their components through a bill of materials (BOM) hierarchy, integrating with ERP systems to manage inventory and estimation, and utilizing a cloud integration gateway, message broker, and in-memory databases for real-time data processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If ERP systems maintain separate inventory views for finished goods and components, then system simplicity is preserved, but visibility and planning capability are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges finished goods inventory views with component inventory views into a unified multi-tier planning interface. This allows users to see both finished goods and their components in a single view, eliminating information silos and enabling comprehensive visibility across the supply chain hierarchy without requiring separate system views.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical dimension to the inventory view by organizing data across multiple tiers (finished goods at top level, components at lower levels). This dimensional structure allows the system to display complex multi-level relationships in an organized manner, transforming a flat single-level view into a structured multi-dimensional presentation that improves visibility while maintaining manageable complexity.
2Measurement precision
If real-time data processing is implemented across multiple tiers, then planning accuracy is improved, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary data processing by pre-resolving bill of materials relationships and pre-calculating inventory availability across multiple tiers before the user views the data. This preliminary action ensures that when users access the multi-tier planning view, the data is already processed and ready, improving planning accuracy without requiring complex real-time calculations during user interaction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing layer that sits between the raw inventory data sources and the user interface. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of multi-tier data resolution, availability checking, and relationship mapping, thereby improving planning accuracy while shielding the user interface from processing complexity through a simplified data presentation layer.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multi-tier data structures are implemented, then planning capability is enhanced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal multi-tier data structure that serves multiple planning functions simultaneously. The same hierarchical structure supports finished goods planning, component planning, availability checking, and bottleneck identification across all tiers. This multi-functional approach enhances planning capability while avoiding the need for separate specialized structures for each function, thereby managing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
In an example embodiment, a multi-tier solution is provided in a system that will solve the visibility and bottleneck identification issues faced by manufacturers who produce finished items in a system while the same or separate system is used to procure one or more components used to produce the finished items. More particularly, the multi-tier solution uses multi-tier data to give the user a view of a finished item material and all of its components in one screen/view.