Patent ID: 7139719
Filing Date: 2006-11-21
Classification: G05B,G06Q,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A method for scheduling development planning for a plurality of products of an enterprise, comprising: Receiving a list of a plurality of products to be developed; receiving a list of required completion dates, each completion date specifying the completion date for the development of a corresponding product in the plurality of products; receiving, for each product in the plurality of products, a project definition of a project for developing the product, each project definition defining: a plurality of phases associated with the project for development the product, the plurality of phases having a plurality of tasks required to complete a project for developing the product associated with the project definition; and a list of resources required to complete each task defined in the product definition, at least one of the plurality of tasks for at least one of the plurality of projects requiring a material to be provided by an outside party distinct from the enterprise; receiving a list of available resources, each resource in the list of available resources comprises: a capacity level, representing a function of time available to each resource; an availability level, representing a function duration available to each resource; and an ability level, including at attribute level, representing a function of work characteristic capable of being performed by each resource and a competency level, representing a function of competence of each resource; receiving, for each task associated with each phase of the project definition requiring a resource, a specified minimum ability level of one of more resources to be used for that task; receiving a list of materials available from outside parties distinct from the enterprise and a schedule of availability of the materials available from the outside parties; and maintaining a scheduler operable to automatically generate a development schedule comprising all tasks for all projects, the development schedule allocating the resources such that each resource is allocated at a level less than or equal to its capacity, the development schedule also allocating the resources that have an ability level at least as high as the specified minimum ability level, the development schedule also scheduling tasks that require materials from outside parties at a time when such materials will be available; monitoring the materials identified in the list of materials from outside parties distinct from the enterprise using one or more supply chain tools operable to monitor the outside parties; and automatically modifying the development schedule based on material availability information obtained by the one or more supply chain tools.