Interactive Supply Chain Planning via Web Service
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional supply chain planning systems using batch processing are inefficient due to long runtime, preventing users from interacting with the system during processing, making changes, or performing scenario analyses until the batch process completes.
Innovation Solution
An interactive supply chain planning system utilizing a base-plus-delta model and planning web service allows users to make changes and perform scenario analyses in real-time, with automatic propagation of changes from the database to an in-memory object, enabling faster plan generation and solution creation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If batch processing is used for supply chain planning, then the system can process plans automatically without manual intervention, but the runtime exceeds eight hours and users cannot interact with the system during processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static batch processing system into a dynamic web service architecture that allows real-time user interaction. The planning engine is exposed as a web service that can be invoked on-demand, allowing users to submit planning requests, modify parameters, and retrieve results interactively rather than through fixed batch cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a web service layer as an intermediary between the user and the planning engine. This intermediary enables asynchronous communication where users can submit requests and receive results without blocking the entire system, allowing other operations to proceed concurrently and reducing overall wait time.
2Productivity
If batch processing is used for supply chain planning, then the planning engine can create in-memory objects and run algorithms, but users cannot make changes or perform scenario analysis during the batch run
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static batch mode to dynamic interactive mode through web services. Users can submit planning requests, modify plan parameters, and request scenario analyses at any time, with the planning engine processing these requests on-demand rather than waiting for batch cycles to complete.
Solution Approach 2:
The web service architecture enables continuous planning operations where the engine remains available to process requests, generate plans, and perform scenario analyses without interruption. Multiple planning operations can be executed in sequence or parallel, maintaining continuous productive activity rather than idle batch waiting periods.
3Reliability
If the planning engine runs algorithms on in-memory objects to generate supply chain planning solutions, then the solution can be persisted back into the database, but the entire batch process must complete before users can view or modify results
Solution Approach 1:
The web service acts as an intermediary that manages the flow between plan submission, processing, and result delivery. It allows users to submit plans, track processing status, and retrieve results as they become available without needing to wait for complete batch cycles, improving accessibility while maintaining processing integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a base-plus-delta model where complete base plans and incremental delta plans are copied and processed separately. This allows users to work with plan copies independently, perform scenario analyses on delta changes, and retrieve results without blocking access to the main planning database, enhancing operational flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A new computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, and system is provided which can allow a user to make changes to the planning data, generate a new plan, generate a new solution based on the generated plan, or perform an alternative scenario analysis on the generated plan. In one embodiment, a new model for representing planning data, identified as a “base-plus-delta” model is provided. In another embodiment, a new web service implementation for a planning engine is provided. In another embodiment, a new technique for copying plans to perform an alternative scenario analysis on the copied plan is provided. In another embodiment, an automatic propagation of user changes from a database directly to an in-memory object is provided. In certain embodiments of the invention, two or more of the described features can be combined to provide an interactive supply chain planning system.