Patent ID: 7376578

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of valuing products, the method being performed using one or more processing units, the method comprising: using one or more processing units, assigning a price to each of a plurality of products, each product comprising a plurality of product components; using one or more processing units, assigning a demand probability value to each product; using one or more processing units, calculating a component value for each component by performing the following steps: (a) assuming a beginning value for each component; (b) for a first component, calculating prorated values, such that for each product using that component, a prorated value is calculated on that component by calculating the difference between the product price and a value of the product's other components; (c) calculating a component value as a function of the prorated values and the probability values; (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) for all other components; (e) determining whether the component values converge; and (f) if any component value does not converge, using the calculated component value as the beginning component value and repeating steps (b) through (e) for that component; and using one or more processing units, calculating a value for each product, based on the results of the preceding step, by summing the component values of all components of that product.