1. A computer implemented method for optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes, comprising:
planning supply of inventory, by a processor, said step of planning supply of inventory comprising at least, forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand and a plurality of supply transportation modes,
the reorder point policy being a threshold for determining whether an order to a supplier should be placed and the plurality of supply transportation modes including transportation modes with different speeds of transportation, the planning further including minimizing expected total cost incurred including order and transportation costs of the order, and inventory holding cost and backlog costs for meeting a service level target, wherein the minimizing determines at least a level of order quantity for each of the plurality of supply transportation modes while satisfying an inventory balance constraint comprising at least demands of different classes associated with different customer order priority and a sum of on-hand inventory and incoming inventory that will become available by a specific period with lead time, wherein the planning provides joint inventory replenishment and transportation decisions that minimize overall cost of both decisions,
wherein the planning produces as an output the plurality of supply transportation modes including transportation modes with different speeds of transportation and an order quantity for each of the plurality of supply transportation modes,
wherein the reorder point policy with safety stock level is updated using parameters including at least the service level target and transportation lead-time and cost,
wherein an inventory level of the inventory is checked using inventory position and backlog data, and in response to determining that the inventory level is below the reorder point policy, new replenishment orders are placed for delivery via at least one of the plurality of supply transportation modes as determined using at least said different customer order priority and transportation budget data, to replenish the inventory to a desired level.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of establishing reorder point policy includes establishing reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, and the service level target, and computing
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wherein
Rk1 represents a reorder point associated with transportation mode 1 at period k;
\u03bck,k+l11 represents a mean demand associated with demand class 1 between period k and k+order lead time l of transportation mode 1;
kf1 represents a safety stock level associated with a supply of transportation mode 1 given by distribution of dk+l11;
\u03c3k,k+l11 represents a standard deviation associated with \u03bck,k+l11;
Rk2 represents a reorder point associated with transportation mode 2 at period k;
\u03bck,k+l22 represents a mean demand associated with demand class 2 between period k and k+order lead time l of transportation mode 2;
\u03c3k,k+l22 represents a standard deviation associated with \u03bck,k+l22;
kf2 represents a safety stock level associated with supply of transportation mode 2 given by joint distribution of dk+l11+dk+l22.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of planning supply of inventory further includes:
replenishing current inventory to meet said reorder point policy, wherein the minimizing is performed by solving
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wherein,
k index of time period, k=1, . . . , N, where N is the number of periods;
Ckm is a unit cost of the order with transportation mode m, Ck1>Ck2;
Okm is an order quantity in period k, associated with transportation mode m;
hk is an inventory holding cost;
bk is a backlog cost; and
xk is an on-hand inventory level at beginning of period k, where xk\u2212=\u2212min(xk,0) and xk+=max(xk,0),
while satisfying inventory balance constraint comprising
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wherein,
yk1 is on-hand and incoming inventory that will become available by period k+l1;
yk2 represents inventory position at period k.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of replenishing includes:
selecting a shipping mode from a plurality of shipping modes based on transportation budget.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of replenishing includes:
selecting a shipping mode from a plurality of shipping modes based on priority of orders from a customer.
6. The method of claim 1, further including:
receiving one or more orders from a customer;
filling said one or more orders from said supply of inventory.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein said supply of inventory includes on-hand inventory and in-transit inventory.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein if said one or more orders cannot be filled from said supply of inventory, placing orders according to a selected shipping method, said selected shipping method based at least on customer order priority and transportation budget.
9. The method of claim 6, wherein said step of filling one or more orders is performed concurrently with the step of planning supply of inventory.
10. The method of claim 6, wherein said step of filling one or more orders further includes:
checking availability of current inventory to determine whether said one or more orders can be filled from said current inventory, and filling said one or more orders from said current inventory if available;
checking availability of in-transit inventory to determine whether said one or more orders can be filled from said in-transit inventory, and filling said one or more orders from said in-transit inventory if available; and
if said one or more orders are not filled from said current inventory or said in-transit inventory, placing an order for said one or more orders using premium shipping based on a plurality of criteria.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein said step of placing an order for said one or more orders using said premium shipping based on a plurality of criteria includes:
determining whether requested ship date associated with said one or more orders is less than lead-time for regular shipment, and if said requested ship date is less than said lead-time for regular shipment, determining priority of said one or more orders and if said priority meets a threshold for being high priority, determining whether premium shipping is approved for said one or more orders, and if approved, placing an order for said one or more orders using said premium shipping.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein said plurality of criteria includes requested ship date, service level agreement (SLA), transportation costs of one or more shipping modes, budget for transportation expense, realized order forecast, realized demand forecast, order backlog, inventory positions, customer priority, or order priority, or combinations thereof.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy are performed automatically and repeatedly.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy are performed repeatedly every predetermined period.
15. The method of claim 1, further including:
analyzing historical forecasts and orders to estimate accuracy of the forecasted demand.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand includes using probability distribution.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of establishing reorder point policy includes minimizing an objective function that considers at least expected total cost incurred for ordering, transportation costs of orders, inventory holding costs, and backlog costs, subject to one or more service level constraints and one or more premium transportation budget constraints.
18. A system for optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes, comprising:
a processor;
planning process module operable to execute on the processor and to at least forecast demand, estimate accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establish reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand and a plurality of supply transportation modes, to plan supply of inventory; and
order execution module operable to run concurrently with said planning process module, and further operable to fill one or more orders received from a customer using said supply of inventory,
the reorder point policy being a threshold for determining whether an order to a supplier should be placed and the plurality of supply transportation modes including transportation modes with different speeds of transportation, the planning further including minimizing expected total cost incurred including order and transportation costs of the order, and inventory holding cost and backlog costs for meeting a service level target, wherein the minimizing determines at least a level of order quantity for each of the plurality of supply transportation modes while satisfying an inventory balance constraint comprising at least demands of different classes associated with different customer order priority and a sum of on-hand inventory and incoming inventory that will become available by a specific period with lead time, wherein the planning provides joint inventory replenishment and transportation decisions that minimize overall cost of both decisions,
wherein the planning process module produces as an output the plurality of supply transportation modes including transportation modes with different speeds of transportation and an order quantity for each of the plurality of supply transportation modes,
wherein the reorder point policy with safety stock level is updated using parameters including at least the service level target and transportation lead-time and cost,
wherein an inventory level of the inventory is checked using inventory position and backlog data, and in response to determining that the inventory level is below the reorder point policy, new replenishment orders are placed for delivery via at least one of the plurality of supply transportation modes as determined using at least said different customer order priority and transportation budget data, to replenish the inventory to a desired level.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein said planning process module establishes reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand, a plurality of supply transportation modes, and the service level target, wherein the minimizing is performed by solving
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wherein,
k index of time period, k=1, . . . , N, where N is the number of periods;
Ckm is a unit cost of the order with transportation mode m, Ck1>Ck2;
Okm is an order quantity in period k, associated with transportation mode m;
hk is an inventory holding cost;
bk is a backlog cost; and
xk is an on-hand inventory level at beginning of period k, where xk\u2212=\u2212min(xk,0) and xk+=max(xk,0),
while satisfying inventory balance constraint comprising
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wherein,
yk1 represents sum of on-hand inventory and incoming inventory that will become available by period k+l1, where l1 represents lead time;
yk2 represents inventory position at period k.
20. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of optimizing order fulfillment by considering multiple supply modes, comprising:
planning supply of inventory, said step of planning supply of inventory comprising at least, forecasting demand, estimating accuracy of said forecasted demand, and establishing reorder point policy based at least on said accuracy of said forecasted demand and a plurality of supply transportation modes,
the reorder point policy being a threshold for determining whether an order to a supplier should be placed and the plurality of supply transportation modes including transportation modes with different speeds of transportation, the planning further including minimizing expected total cost incurred including order and transportation costs of the order and inventory holding cost and backlog costs by solving
min
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+
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wherein,
k index of time period, k=1, . . . , N, where N is the number of periods;
Ckm is a unit cost of the order with transportation mode m, Ck1>Ck2;
Okm is an order quantity in period k, associated with transportation mode m;
hk is an inventory holding cost;
bk is a backlog cost; and
xk is an on-hand inventory level at beginning of period k, where xk\u2212=\u2212min(xk,0) and xk+=max(xk,0),
while satisfying inventory balance constraint comprising
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wherein,
yk1 represents sum of on-hand inventory and incoming inventory that will become available by period k+l1, where l1 represents lead time;
yk2 represents inventory position at period k,
wherein the planning provides joint inventory replenishment and transportation decisions that minimize overall cost of both decisions,
the joint inventory replenishment and transportation decisions comprising the plurality of supply transportation modes including transportation modes with different speeds of transportation and an order quantity for each of the plurality of supply transportation modes,
wherein the reorder point policy with safety stock level is updated using parameters including at least the service level target and transportation lead-time and cost,
wherein an inventory level of the inventory is checked using inventory position and backlog data, and in response to determining that the inventory level is below the reorder point policy, new replenishment orders are placed for deliver via at least one of the plurality of supply transportation modes as determined using at least said different customer order priority and transportation budget data, to replenish the inventory to a desired level.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of detecting a flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) in the surroundings (50) of an aircraft (4), such as an unmanned aircraft (4), wherein at least two images of at least one respective part of the surroundings (50) are recorded, the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) is detected from the images and provided with an identification, and a signal (66, 68, 76) associated with the identification is outputted in a ground station (6), characterised in that detection and allocation of the identification are effected on board the aircraft (4) and the identification is sent to the ground station (6).
2. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that a classification of a risk potential of the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) is effected on board the aircraft (4) and is sent to the ground station (6).
3. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that a measurement with respect to the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) is effected with an active measurement signal.
4. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that an avoidance trajectory (42) is ascertained on board and data associated with the avoidance trajectory (42) are communicated to the ground station (6).
5. A method according to claim 4 characterised in that the avoidance trajectory (42) is ascertained with the incorporation of items of information ascertained on board about the surroundings (50) andor the flight situation of the aircraft (4).
6. A method according to claim 4 characterised in that a decision as to whether the aircraft (4) is to fly on the avoidance trajectory (42) is made by a control apparatus (18) on board the aircraft (4).
7. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that a detail image (38) representing the flight obstacle (28, 30) is sent to and displayed at the ground station (6).
8. A method according to claim 7 characterised in that a portion of an image used for detection of the flight obstacle (28, 30) is used as the detail image (38).
9. A method according to claim 7 characterised in that the detail image (38) is recorded in a spectral range which differs from the spectral range of the images used for detection of the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34).
10. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that the images from which the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) is detected are recorded in the infrared spectral range.
11. A method according to claim 1 characterised in that a moving image of the flight obstacle (28, 30) is sent to the ground station (6).
12. An apparatus for detecting a flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) in the surroundings (50) of an aircraft (4), such as an unmanned aircraft (4), comprising at least one camera unit (24) for recording at least a part of the surroundings (50) and an evaluation apparatus (26) for detecting the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34) and associating an identification with the flight obstacle (28, 30, 32, 34), characterised in that the evaluation apparatus (26) is electrically connected to the at least one camera unit (24) and a transmitting device for sending the identification to a ground station (6).
13. Apparatus according to claim 12 characterised by a detail image unit for extraction of a detail image (38) showing the flight obstacle (28, 30) and for forwarding the detail image (38) to the transmitting device.
14. Apparatus according to claim 12 characterised by a first camera unit (24) for recording an overall image in a first spectral range and a second camera unit (36) for recording an image, such as a detail image (38) in a spectral range which is different from the first spectral range.