1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a transaction management server, a transaction management server and a program which enable implementation of VMI without increasing burdens on commodity sellers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's promotion of logistical efficiency is supported by advanced information technologies. The promotion of logistical efficiency has brought about various advantages such as reductions of delivery periods and inventory.
Conditions of transactions between a seller and a buyer are determined by a contract between the interested parties. Typically, FOB (Free On Board) is often applied, and in this case, ownership of a commodity is passed from the seller to the buyer when the commodity is loaded in transportation means such as a ship or an airplane at the location of loading the commodity, and the buyer will be responsible for all costs and risks after that. Therefore, the buyer will own the commodity loaded in the transportation means as their own property and will take self-responsibility for inventory management. Typically, payment to the seller for the commodity is conducted when the commodity is loaded into the transportation means.
Recently, for transaction of commodities, a technique called VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) has been being widespread where commodity inventory management is performed by the seller. In VMI, the seller has ownership of a commodity until the buyer makes shipment of the commodity from the warehouse at the discharge point. Therefore, the seller takes self-responsibility for inventory management of the commodity as their own property. In this way, the buyer can supply a necessary quantity of a commodity to the market when needed, without caring about the inventory. As to the payment, the buyer need only make payment only for a quantity of the commodity shipped from the warehouse.
In this way, nowadays, transactions of commodities are performed with various techniques, and various technologies are developed for the techniques. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-49668.
However, when implementing VMI, while sellers of commodities have the advantage that the sellers can perform commodity inventory management and transportation management by themselves, burdens on the sellers are increased in most cases. Also, collection of payments from buyers will be delayed. Hence, even if a buyer wants to have VMI implemented, the VMI may not be implemented depending on situations of the seller.
Therefore, a technology is desired for enabling implementation of VMI without increasing burdens on sellers.