I2 Technologies US, Inc.

Jda Software Group, Inc.

Deepak Rammohan

Amol B Adgaonkar

Thomas Burkhardt

Pradip Som

Nikhil T Jain

In an embodiment, a method for on-demand repair planning includes modeling for a repair location: a good parts buffer; a first buffer for unserviceable parts determined to be serviceable without repair; and a second buffer for unserviceable parts determined to be repairable. A forecasted demand, for a specified quantity of serviceable parts, is accessed. Parts available in the first buffer to help satisfy the forecasted demand is estimated. If a part is available, an operation plan is generated for a use-as-is operation. If the forecasted demand is not fully satisfied, a quantity of parts available in the second buffer to help satisfy the forecasted demand is estimated and, if one or more parts are available: the latest time at which a repair operation can begin is estimated; a repair order is planned; and an operation plan is generated for the repair operation.

Pull planning for serviceable parts to facilitate on-demand repair planning

In one embodiment, planning repairs in response to demand in a multi-level repair network includes accessing a forecasted demand for serviceable parts at a repair location and, for each inspected unserviceable part at the location that is not repairable at the location: (1) planning a move of the part to an upstream repair location such that the part can be available for repair at the upstream location at an estimated earliest time; (2) estimating a latest time at which a repair of the part can begin at the upstream location to help satisfy the forecasted demand, according to the forecasted demand and the estimated earliest time, and planning a repair at the upstream location at the estimated latest time; and (3) re-planning the move, according to the start time of the repair, by modifying a move delivery time according to a repair start time and modifying a move start time according to the modified delivery time. The re-planned move start time is an estimated latest time at which the part can be moved to the upstream location for repair to help satisfy the forecasted demand.

Pull planning for unserviceable parts in connection with on-demand repair planning

In one embodiment, a method is provided for planning repairs in response to demand in a multi-level repair network of locations at which parts may be repaired. Modeled for a location are: (1) an unserviceable buffer for parts inspected at the location and repairable at the location, and (2) a serviceable buffer for parts inspected at the location and serviceable without repair. A forecasted demand, for a quantity of serviceable parts at a future time at the location, is accessed. In a push planning phase, for each inspected part in the unserviceable buffer, the earliest time at which repair can begin for the part at the location is estimated. In a pull planning phase, if the forecasted demand cannot be satisfied using parts in the serviceable buffer: (1) a quantity of parts in the unserviceable buffer repairable at the location and available to help satisfy the forecasted demand is estimated; (2) the latest time at which repair can begin with respect to these parts at the location to help satisfy the forecasted demand is estimated; and (3) repair for these parts is planned at the estimated latest time to pull these parts from the unserviceable buffer, from which they cannot be put to service to help satisfy the forecasted demand, into the serviceable buffer, from which they can be put to service to help satisfy the forecasted demand.

On-demand repair planning

In one embodiment, a method for repair planning for a location in a repair network includes modeling: (1) an uninspected buffer for parts received but not yet inspected at the location; (2) a first buffer for parts inspected at the location and repairable at the location; (3) a second buffer for parts inspected at the location and not repairable at the location; (4) a third buffer for parts inspected at the location and not repairable at any location in the repair network; and (5) a fourth buffer for parts inspected at the location and serviceable without repair. The parts in the uninspected buffer are assigned to the first, second, third, and fourth buffers at corresponding rates according to an inspection operation. One or more operation plans are generated to push parts out of the uninspected buffer to the first, second, third, and fourth buffers according to the corresponding rates, a part pushed out being available within the first, second, third, or fourth buffer only after a predetermined disposition time has elapsed. An operation plan is generated to push parts out of the second buffer to one or more upstream locations, a part pushed out being available at an upstream location only after a predetermined move lead time has elapsed. For each part pushed out of the uninspected buffer to the first or second buffer, the earliest time at which repair can begin for the part is estimated, this earliest repair time determining the earliest time at which, after the part has been repaired to make it serviceable, the part can be available to satisfy a demand at the location.

Growing community of inventors

Irving, TX, United States of America

Deepak Rammohan