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  Systems and methods for forecasting demand for a subcomponentRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Generic Control Systems Or Specific Applications, Specific Application, Apparatus Or Process, Product Assembly Or Manufacturing, 3-d Product Design (e.g., Solid Modeling), Material Requirement, Bill Of MaterialThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070219661. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates generally to improvements in the field of project management, and, in particular, to systems and methods for forecasting demand at a subcomponent level across at least one configuration of an assembled product. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Typically, the price at which an assembled product can be sold drops rather quickly over the life time of the product. An assembled product such as a telecommunication base station may comprise many subcomponents. Furthermore, the telecommunication base station may be sold in various configurations to meet customer scaling requirements. Each configuration may include a different quantitative mix of subcomponents. To be competitive in today's global economy and maintain a consistent profit, a business enterprise, which builds and sells the assembled product, needs to manage the costs of these subcomponents. [0003] Many times these subcomponents can be replaced by cheaper subcomponent's due to technology advances, manufacturing efficiency, and the like. Integrating new subcomponents into an assembled product can prove costly depending on the new subcomponents complexity. For example, a new subcomponent may require additional software for it to operate in the assembled product, a new wiring plan to electrically connect the new subcomponent to the assembly, a new packaging plan for the assembled product, and the like. [0004] Since operating budgets of the business enterprise are limited, how does the business enterprise decide which subcomponents should be replaced? Out of the subcomponents chosen to be replace, what goals should be used to determine a reasonable price reduction target? Without any goals, how can allocating development resources between projects defined by each new subcomponent be justified? When would be the best time to introduce an assembled product with one or more new subcomponents to minimize stranded inventory and maximize savings? How does a business enterprise measure the effectiveness of introducing the assembled product with one or more new subcomponents? Conventionally, management teams of the business enterprise introduce an assembled product on an adhoc basis without being able to answer these and other related questions, resulting in wasting time on replacing subcomponents which do not affect the bottom line, increased development costs, and shrinking profits, if any at all, remain after introducing the new subcomponents. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] Among its several aspects, the present invention recognizes and addresses the need for computer implemented methods and computer readable medium for translating forecast sales data of at least one configuration of assembled product into a forecast schedule of subcomponents composing the assembled product. To this end, forecast sales data of at least one configuration of assembled product is received. Usage factors of a plurality of subcomponents composing the assembled product are also received. Each usage factor corresponds to the at least one configuration of assembled product. The forecast schedule of subcomponents composing the assembled product is then composed by applying the usage factors of the plurality of subcomponents to the forecast sales data of at least one configuration of assembled product wherein the forecast schedule includes demand for the subcomponents over time. [0006] A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages of the invention, will be apparent from the detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0007] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative system employing a cost reduction project management system in accordance with the present invention. [0008] FIG. 2 shows exemplary software components of and interfacing to the cost reduction project management software 130 of FIG. 1 in accordance with the present invention. [0009] FIGS. 3A and 3B (collectively FIG. 3) show a flow chart of an overall method for managing cost reduction projects in accordance with the present invention. [0010] FIGS. 4A and 4B (collectively FIG. 4) show a flow chart of a method for determining a best of the best assembled product according to subcomponent costs and market based target costs in accordance with the present invention. [0011] FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of a method for determining forecast schedule data for subcomponents common across one or more assembled products in accordance with the present invention. [0012] FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of a method for determining the set of cost reduction projects to pursue in accordance with the present invention. [0013] FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of a method for extracting additional overall cost savings by advancing the general availability (GA) date of high savings cost reduction projects in accordance with the present invention. [0014] FIG. 8 shows an exemplary spreadsheet utilized as implementing the forecasting and coincident component 230 in accordance with the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0015] The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which several presently preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. [0016] As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as methods, systems, or computer readable media. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Any suitable computer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, flash memories, magnetic storage devices, or the like. [0017] Computer program code or "code" for carrying out operations according to the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language such as JAVA.RTM., JavaScript.RTM., Visual Basic.RTM., C, C++ or in various other programming languages or may be written in the form of a spreadsheet such as one which is run in a Microsoft Excel.RTM. or Lotus 123 environment. Software embodiments of the present invention do not depend on implementation with a particular programming language or spreadsheet. Portions of the code may execute entirely on one or more systems utilized by a server in the network or a mobile device. [0018] FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a system 100 employing a cost reduction project management system in an environment accordance with the present invention. The illustrated system 100 is implemented as a stand-alone personal computer or workstation 112. As described in further detail below, system 100 includes cost reduction project management software 130 in accordance with the present invention which is stored in memory and run by the central processing unit of the personal computer 112. The presently preferred cost reduction project management software 130 is embodied in an Excel spreadsheet. However, the present invention contemplates that the data stored in the Excel spreadsheet may alternatively be stored in a database. In that environment, the cost reduction project management software 130 may be embodied as a program which stores, retrieves, and modifies the data in the database. Cost reduction project management software 130 achieves one or more of the steps defined in FIG. 3. [0019] The computer 112 includes a number of standard input and output devices, including a keyboard 114, mouse 116, CD-ROM drive 118, disk drive 120, and monitor 122. Optionally, the computer 112 includes an Internet or network connection 126 to automatically retrieve over network 150 input data utilized by cost reduction project management software 130 such as inventory data of sub-components from remote suppliers utilizing known systems such as electronic manufacturer services (EMS), supply chain portal, Webplan.RTM., DataMart.RTM. implemented on computing systems 140.sub.1 . . . 140.sub.n, respectively, general availability dates for subcomponents from design and development system 180, forecast data for assembled product from customer systems 170.sub.1 . . . 170.sub.n or a sales system 160 containing a database 162 which tracks won and lost contracts. Alternatively or in combination with automatically retrieving input data over network 150, input data may be manually inputted into cost reduction project management software 130. Continue reading... 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