International Business Machines Corporation

Shivakumar P Patil

Robert A Orzell

Robert J Milne

Sanjay R Hegde

Mahesh Chandra Pati

Chi-Tai Wang

A method, a system for practicing the method and a storage device storing the method for identifying product assets in a supply chain used to satisfy customer demands. The method including: receiving a feasible schedule of all components to be assembled into products; receiving customer schedules for delivery of the products; and generating from the feasible schedule, from the customer schedules and from bills of materials listing all components required for a particular product, a set of demand pegging records, the demand pegging records associating a quantity and an availability date of each component of each product with a required quantity of each of the products, each demand pegging record consistent with the feasible schedule.

Method for identifying product assets in a supply chain used to satisfy multiple customer demands

A method determines production starts in a manufacturing environment by inputting production starts. The method groups the production starts into production lots according to grouping rules and assigns start dates and associated priorities to each of the production lots based on business priorities. Each production start date of a production lot can have a different priority. The method sorts the production lots according to the associated priorities and the start dates. Then the method capacitates the production lots by iterating through the production lots to assign production capacity to the production lots in order of the associated priorities and the start dates.

Method for resource allocation and re-grouping recognizing competing priorities which vary by date

A method and system for resource rationing which employs decision rules for the optimal allocation of supply and capacity over time that satisfy two key requirements (a) being consistent with accepted operational objectives (e.g. low inventory, short lead times, prioritized allocation of supply and capacity) and (b) allowing for the timely computation of a feasible production schedule. The method and system is generally characterized in that it is able to divide each of the priority ranked scheduled releases (Material Requirements Planning (MRP)) into 'N' separate and smaller sized scheduled releases where the priority of each of the 'N' releases may be equal to the priority of the original release. The &#x201c;N&#x201d; separate and smaller sized scheduled releases are sorted according to priority and then used to determine an optimal supply schedule for allocating resources including component supply and assembly capacity.

Method for allocating limited component supply and capacity to optimize production scheduling

A method and system for efficient allocation of limited manufacturing resources over time to meet customer demand. At the enterprise planning level this typically requires determination of a feasible production schedule for an extended supply chain. The method and system utilizes a new and unique type of systematic decomposition based on both product and process considerations. This approach simultaneously reduces the model size (and therefore computation time) and increases modeling flexibility from strictly linear programming based decision making to include more general nonlinear programming characteristics.

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South Burlington, VT, United States of America

Shivakumar P Patil