Patent ID: 8249740

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining a material utilization for one or more assemblies having a plurality of parts, the method comprising: receiving offal data for one or more parts comprising one or more part assemblies; receiving a blank material utilization status for each of the one or more part assemblies based on a blank material utilization status for each of the one or more parts; standardizing the offal data to obtain standardized offal data; receiving a plurality of input offal utilization assignment strategies, wherein the strategies are further ranked; determining one or more offal utilization assignments for the one or more part assemblies having a plurality of parts based on the standardized offal data, the blank material utilization status for the one or more part assemblies, and at least one of the utilization assignment strategies, wherein the utilization assignment strategies are applied based on order of ranking; and transmitting the one or more offal utilization assignments for assignment to the one or more part assemblies.