Supply Chain Duty Cost Optimization Through Loop-Free Path Enumeration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing supply chain network models fail to efficiently account for duty costs and taxes, leading to inefficient decision-making and significant expenses for businesses, especially in complex supply chains with numerous sites and products, requiring substantial computing resources and often resulting in costly or unfeasible outcomes.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that calculates and optimizes duty and tax costs across complex supply chains by enumerating path solutions, detecting and removing loops, and using network optimization models to determine optimal paths that minimize costs, incorporating duty rates based on site locations and product flows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If existing supply chain network models are used to account for duty costs and taxes, then comprehensive cost analysis is achieved, but computational complexity and resource requirements increase substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the supply chain network into discrete path solutions between origin and destination sites. By enumerating specific paths and calculating duty costs for each path fragment separately, the system breaks down the complex overall calculation into manageable segments, maintaining accuracy while reducing computational burden.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and removes loops from the supply chain network paths. By identifying and eliminating cyclic paths that do not contribute to optimal duty cost calculation, the system reduces the number of paths that need to be evaluated, thereby decreasing computational complexity while preserving the accuracy of duty cost measurements for valid paths.
2Measurement precision
If existing supply chain network models are used to account for duty costs and taxes, then comprehensive cost analysis is achieved, but computation time increases substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the supply chain network into discrete path solutions between origin and destination sites. By enumerating specific paths and calculating duty costs for each path fragment separately, the system breaks down the complex overall calculation into manageable segments, maintaining accuracy while reducing computational burden.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and removes loops from the supply chain network paths. By identifying and eliminating cyclic paths that do not contribute to optimal duty cost calculation, the system reduces the number of paths that need to be evaluated, thereby decreasing computational complexity while preserving the accuracy of duty cost measurements for valid paths.
3Measurement precision
If existing supply chain network models are used to account for duty costs and taxes, then comprehensive cost analysis is achieved, but the solutions become costly or unfeasible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary enumeration of all possible path solutions between origin and destination sites before optimizing for minimum duty costs. By pre-identifying valid paths and removing loops in advance, the system prepares the data structure needed for efficient optimization, enabling faster and more feasible supply chain decisions while maintaining accurate duty cost calculations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the calculated duty costs for each path fragment as feedback to determine the optimal path solution. By evaluating duty costs across all enumerated paths and selecting the minimum cost path, the system provides feedback-driven optimization that improves supply chain efficiency and feasibility while maintaining accurate cost measurement.
Data Source
AI summary
Input data provides an order of a quantity of finished goods to a site. Software is programmed for: accessing data defining an architecture of the supply chain network with sites, and a location of each site; enumerating one or more path solutions along the supply chain network to fulfill the order, each path solution comprising path fragments connecting two sites, a path fragment defining movement of a sub-quantity of the finished goods or raw materials; determining a cost associated with each of the plurality of path fragments, the cost comprising a duty rate, the duty rate associated with a particular path fragment based on the locations of the two sites connected by the particular path fragment and the sub-quantity of the finished goods or finished goods raw materials moved between the two sites; determining one or more optimal path solutions; and outputting the optimal path solutions for display.