Patent ID: 7831463

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for allocating customer demand to suppliers in a procurement process, the method comprising: identifying at least two supplier performance attributes; associating a weight with each pair of supplier performance attributes; determining an overall importance value for each of the at least two supplier performance attributes based on the weights for each pair of supplier performance attributes; determining, using a computer, a supplier ranking value for each supplier based on overall importance values of the at least two supplier performance attributes and supplier performance information for each supplier, the supplier performance information comprising data describing the supplier's performance in each of the at least two supplier performance attributes; and allocating, using the computer, customer demand to the suppliers by utilizing a quantitative model based upon the supplier ranking values and their performance data, wherein the quantitative model is determined by the function 1 α ⁢ ⁢ ii ⁡ [ ∑ k = 1 p ⁢ ( c ik ⁢ x ik + β ⁢ ∑ j = 1 m ⁢ ( d jk - d j ) 2 ) ] , and wherein 1/αii is the supplier rank for a i th supplier; c ik is a unit cost of item k for supplier i; x ik is a quantity allocated to i th supplier for the k th item; ∑ k = 1 p ⁢ C ik ⁢ χ ik is a cost as quoted by supplier i for fulfilling demand for p items; d jk is a due date specified by the i th customer for k th item; and β ⁢ ∑ j = 1 m ⁢ ( d jk - d j ) 2 is a penalty for not delivering m items on specified due date.