The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 13, 1997
Filed:
Aug. 16, 1993
Brenda L Dietrich, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);
Robert J Wittrock, Ossining, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for constrained material requirements planning, optimal resource allocation, and production planning provides for an optimization of a manufacturing process by designating the amounts of various manufactured products to be produced, which products include both end products as well as subassemblies to be employed in the manufacture of one or more of the end products. In order to accomplish the optimization, the method employs an objective function such as the maximization of income in a situation wherein there are limitations on the inventory of raw materials and tools to be employed in the manufacturing process. Data describing elemental steps in the manufacturing process for the production of each end product, as well as the quantity or demand for each end product which is to be supplied, are presented as a set of linear mathematical relationships in matrix form to be inserted in a computer which determines the optimum number of each end product in accordance with an LP optimization algorithm. The matrix contains bill of material data, and various constraints such as a constraint on the sum of products shipped and used as subassemblies, and constraints based on inventory, on available time for use of resources such as tools, and on inventory left over from an early production run for a later run.