Patent ID: RE40797

Claim:
A method for generating a prospect for filling a batch with at least one item having at least one characteristic property, the prospect being used to assigning assign an item to a batch having at least one batch shortage expressed in terms of the at least one characteristic property, the method comprising: providing a first set of data representing at least one characteristic property of at least one item; providing a second set of data representing at least one batch shortage; generating a third set of data representing a tally on the number of combinations of the items represented in the first set of data as a function of batch shortage and item count; providing a fourth set of data indicating at least one batch shortage and optionally a maximum number of items on which the prospect generation is to be based; generating the prospect related to the fourth set of data on the basis of multiplying each of the entries of the third set of data by the single count probability corresponding to each entry subject to the proviso that each of the entries multiplied represents: (i) one of the batch shortages indicated in the fourth set of data, and (ii) a number of combinations of items being smaller than or equal to the provided maximum number of items ; removing at least one entry of the first set of data and/or adding at least one entry to the first set of data when an item has been applied in a process of assigning an item to a batch of items; and updating the third set of data when an entry has been removed and/or added to the first set of data without completely regenerating the third set of data .