A production system for retail goods and a raw material ordering system. The production system allows a timely collection of accurate sales information from retail outlets and a flexible production of the goods in accordance with the same information. The production system includes a retail sales information collecting device, a production quantity setting device for determining a production quantity according to the information so collected, a directing device for directing the preparation and production of raw materials according to the determined production quantity, and a production device for producing the determined production quantity according to a direction to produce.

A method resolves the problem of projecting future stock levels for multiple stockholding locations in production-distribution networks, and minimizing the total dollar delinquency within given inventory budgets or within given allowable inventory holding costs. The invention communicates process control parameters and production-distribution network parameters, computes priorities for each product held at retail locations of the distribution network. It allocates available global and local budgets among products, sets starting stock levels for each product, computes and displays stock levels and the distribution network performance measures.

Methods are described for predicting parts procurement requirements for products over a plurality of time periods, with certain of the parts being common to a plurality of products. The actual demand for the products is unknown, but the method assures that a specified service level is met for all products and minimizes expected excess part inventories. The methods are provided with inputs which, among others, includes lists of parts for each product, prices for the parts, and demand forecasts for each product in each time period, each forecast in the form of a mean and standard deviation. The description of the problem includes an objective function of minimizing expected excess inventory while satisfying the constraint that a specified service level be achieved. The problem is transformed into an unconstrained problem through the use of a Lagrange multiplier. The solution is achieved by performing a one parametric search on the value of the multiplier. The solution may achieve higher service levels than specified. Additional methods are described for improving the procurement decisions to more closely meet the service requirement.

A post-delivery support system for private branch exchanges, which permits a customer support department to provide post-delivery support to delivered private branch exchanges includes an automatic notifying unit which is arranged in a private branch exchange and automatically notifies identification information of a private branch exchange, stored in an identification information storage unit and clue information providing a clue to tracing a recipient to whom the private branch exchange is delivered, to the customer support department via a public line. The notification is carried out when system software is initialized at the time of installation of the private branch exchange. The clue information is, for example, a telephone number of the recipient of the private branch exchange. A shipment information storage unit, provided at the customer support department, previously stores the identification information and component parts information of the private branch exchange when the private branch exchange is shipped. A linking unit links the identification information and the component parts information stored in the shipment information storage unit, to the identification information and the clue information notified by the automatic notifying unit, to organize a database.

In a computer based inventory control method and system, feasible profit maximizing sets of requisitions are created. System processing starts with the creation of detailed, multi-dimensional forecasts of sales and cash receipts using stored algorithms and data preferentially extracted from a basic financial system and the adjustment of the forecasts to match the controlling forecast specified by the user. The adjustment of the forecasts is facilitated by the use of a calculated variable that defines the magnitude of the relative adjustment for each forecast element. All forecasts are adjusted to exactly match a controlling forecast which is either a multivalent combination of the previously generated forecasts or the user specified controlling forecast. The adjusted forecast of sales by item is then used in calculating a requisition set that satisfies expected demand while meeting user specified service level targets. A profit maximized requisition set is then created that utilizes vendor and unit of measure substitution under a variety of discount schedules to the extent possible within the user specified constraints. The processing completed by the system to determine the profit maximizing requisition set utilizes multi-objective, mixed-integer, linear programming techniques. A financial forecast is then calculated and displayed to determine if purchasing the profit maximizing requisition set will be feasible under the forecast financial conditions. Once the constraints and/or forecasts are adjusted as required to produce a feasible solution, processing advances to the profit enhancement stage where overall financial constraints are established and user specified constraints on commitment percentages, global unit of measure substitution and global vendor substitution are optionally relaxed and profit enhancing changes are calculated, stored and displayed. The user optionally accepts displayed enhancements and the financial forecast is recalculated to demonstrate the impact of the accepted changes before the requisitions are modified to reflect the accepted enhancements.