System and method for supporting purchase or production of products by potential demand prediction

Abstract

To support a purchase or a production of a product by accurately predicting a sold amount of the product. A system that supports a purchase or a production of a product, the system including an input section for accepting an input of a history of a supplied amount and a sold amount of the products, a function generating section for representing a conditional probability function showing probability distribution of a sold amount when the sold amount is restricted by the supplied amount by means of a potential demand probability function including a parameter showing probability distribution of the sold amount when it is supposed that the sold amount is not restricted by the supplied amount and computing a value of the parameter maximizing a value of a likelihood function of the conditional probability function using the input history as a sample to generate the potential demand probability function, and a supplied amount computing section for computing a supplied amount of the product maximizing a profit by a sale of the product, based on the generated potential demand probability function and a predetermined selling price and supplying price of the product, and outputting the amount as a quantity of the product to be purchased or produced.