Patent ID: 8682707

Claim:
A scheduling system comprising: a computer which executes a stochastic model; the stochastic model having one or more jobs associated with one or more resources and input parameters, wherein each job of the one or more jobs has one or more user-defined targets, wherein each associated job and resource includes (i) elements with variability defined by probability distributions and (ii) unplanned events; a first subroutine operably connected to the stochastic model, wherein the first subroutine executes the stochastic model in a deterministic mode to generate a finite-capacity schedule based on the one or more jobs; a second subroutine operably connected to the stochastic model, wherein the second subroutine executes the stochastic model a number of times specified by a user or calculated by an automatic subroutine executed by the second subroutine to generate multiple finite-capacity schedules, wherein each execution of the stochastic model incorporates (i) variations in the elements based on a sampling from the element probability distributions and/or (ii) the unplanned events to generate and record a set of resulting target samples for each of the one or more user-defined targets for the one or more jobs; a third subroutine to compute one or more risk measures from the recorded set of resulting target samples for the one or more user-defined targets; and a fourth subroutine to display the one or more risk measures across the one or more jobs, whereby the user determines whether the one or more risk measures of the finite-capacity schedule is acceptable.