Patent ID: 7966208

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining a production plan, said method comprising: receiving, by a computer, a file comprising purchase order receipts, said purchase order receipts being defined as line items on purchase orders; performing, by said computer, a first rescheduling process, said first rescheduling process comprising: evaluating each purchase order receipt to determine whether rescheduling of said purchase order receipt is one of permissible and impermissible, as indicated by a flag; and for all of said purchase order receipts for which rescheduling is determined to be permissible, rescheduling when said purchase order receipts are to be received by a plant so as to indicate that said purchase order receipts will be received by said plant during earlier time periods than initially specified; after said performing of said first rescheduling process, solving core production planning system equations with linear programming using rescheduled purchase order receipts associated with said earlier time periods from said first rescheduling process so as to determine an initial production plan; after said solving of said core production planning system equations with said linear programming, performing, by said computer, post-processing, said post-processing comprising: performing a second rescheduling process, said second rescheduling process comprising rescheduling when said rescheduled purchase order receipts from said first rescheduling process are to be received by said plant so as to indicate that said rescheduled purchase order receipts will be received by said plant during later time periods than specified during said first rescheduling process without causing inventory balances to be depleted to zero; and generating and outputting, by said computer, a final production plan based on said initial production plan and said second rescheduling process.