A merchandising related method, apparatus and system which includes a product editor for providing product information for products, a classification editor to create hierarchies for the products, a distribution editor to assign distribution channels through which the products will be sold, a horizon editor to establish different time horizons for the sale of the products, and a line editor to provide line builds and produce line lists based on the information entered through the product editing means, classification editing means, distribution channel editing means, and horizon editing means. The method, apparatus and system will work across a variety of different distribution channels such as retail, wholesale, mail-order and the Internet in any number of horizons such as fiscal seasons, calendar seasons, design seasons and media seasons.
A method of developing product characteristics for a new automotive vehicle comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of vehicle attributes including usage experience attributes, driving experience attributes, and design attributes; classifying each of the attributes; generating a preferred vehicle brand position as a function of the vehicle attributes; and, generating target vehicle characteristics as a function of the vehicle attributes and the preferred vehicle brand position. In this manner, the target vehicle characteristics represent customer-driven objectives for each of the plurality of vehicle attributes. An advantage of the present method is that it provides customer-driven products with identifiable brand images.
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, to support real-time inventory management. Changes to the inventory including the addition or removal of an item from the inventory are reported to the item tracking system in real-time. An inventory planner normally operates on a periodic schedule to perform inventory management functions. The inventory planner can receive alerts from an early warning agent that can cause the inventory planner to perform at least some inventory management functions, outside of its normal periodic schedule. In particular, the agent can send an alert to the inventory planner to cause the inventory planner to determine whether replenishment of store inventory is needed. To make this determination, the inventory planner can retrieve real-time inventory data from the item tracking system.
Methods of and apparatus for simulating and projecting future sales, inventory and gross margin are described. Some methods provide bottom-up item-by-item, per location simulation of unit inventory and unit sales. Notional deliveries and other features of simulations and projections are reflected in the detailed description, accompanying figures and claims.
Historical information is stored about demand behavior associated with different sizes of styles of items of commerce. A size assortment recommendation is generated based on the stored historical information and on objectives with respect to purchase or allocation decisions about assortments of the different sizes.
The clamps of the present invention are initially placed apart with a specific separation to properly hold the garments in the constant rate of expansion (CRE) machine. The test method preferably uses panties that have been prepared according to specific test criteria and the CRE machine pre-programmed with specific parameters including the preload and the initial rate of extension. Before testing commences, the midpoint of an individual panty is placed at the center of the clamps. After a pre-determined resistance is sensed by the CRE machine, the rate of extension and the load instantly increase to test the panty's percent of elongation and modulus. This method is repeated for several styles and sizes of panties to obtain accurate, consistent elongation and modulus measurements for each style and size. These measurements thus categorize all of the measured styles and sizes into a standardized panty support classification system.
