International Business Machines Corporation

Columbia University

David D Yao

Markus Ettl

Daniel Patrick Connors

Zhengliang Xue

Gerald E Feigin

Kaan Kudsi Katircioglu

Grace Y Lin

Jinfa Chen

Shaohui Zheng

Joint pricing and replenishment of freshness inventory or products having different qualities determines the joint pricing and inventory strategies to optimize the retailer's benefits from product freshness, employing a dynamic programming formulation that incorporates a demand model that captures consumer choice based on both the freshness and price.

Joint pricing and replenishment of freshness inventory

Freshness inventory control problem may be formulated as a stochastic dynamic program. In one aspect, a stochastic dynamic programming formulation takes as input inventory status, stochastic demand forecast and cost information associated with on-hand inventory. The stochastic dynamic programming formulation is maximized to determine order quantity and depletion quantity of the product per period.

Managing fresh-product inventory

A method suitable for use in a physical distribution network. The method comprises the steps of using a distribution resource planning (DRP) logic for providing estimates of at least one of projected future on-hand inventory and replenishment requirements; and, incorporating within the DRP logic an uncertainty of future demand for estimating at least one of future replenishment requirements and inventory levels in the physical distribution network.

Method of estimating future replenishment requirements and inventory

A method for providing inventory optimization for levels of products in a complex supply chain network for multiple internal supplier or manufacturer locations and external distributor or retailer locations. The invention constructs a representative supply chain network model to indicate the flow of products between internal and external locations, it determines inventory levels and fill rates to meet the service level requirements, calculates a total inventory cost for all products in the network, and optimizes the fill rates based on estimated gradient information of the total inventory cost.

Method for providing inventory optimization

A batch of units of a product are inspected before they are supplied to customers with warranties. The units are either defective or non-defective, realizing a defect index which is a random variable characterized by a statistical distribution. During the inspection, the units identified as being defective are repaired. A dynamic inspection technique has been developed and can be used to identify different thresholds for which number of units within a batch need to be inspected, such that costs due to the inspection, repair and warranty are minimized.

System and method for inspection of products with warranties

An apparatus and method for configuring semiconductor jobs to achieve a desired level of set serviceability, in either probability or expectation, using a minimal number of wafers. The configuration problem is formulated as a mathematical optimization, where the serviceability level and yield losses, at chip, wafer and job levels, are explicitly considered. The problem is then reformulated by replacing the mathematically intractable service level constraints with tractable lower bounds. The reformulated mathematical optimization is efficiently solved using marginal allocation, giving good, feasible solutions to the original configuration program.

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Yorktown Heights, NY, United States of America

David D Yao