Patent ID: 8165914

Claim:
A method for determining desired stock levels, comprising: causing a computer to execute: determining demand histories, including peak demands, for each of a plurality of items; determining a desired service level metric range; determining a desired resource metric range; assigning order quantities to each of the plurality of items; ranking the plurality of items, based on unit price, to produce a ranked list; dividing the ranked list into groups of price percentiles; assigning multipliers to each of the plurality of items, based on the respective groups of price percentiles; determining stock levels for each of the plurality of items by multiplying the peak demand of each item and the respective assigned multiplier; determining a resource metric based on the determined stock levels for each of the plurality of items and the respective order quantities; determining a service level metric based on the determined stock levels for each of the plurality of items and the respective order quantities; comparing the resource metric and the service level metric with the desired resource metric range and the desired service level metric range, respectively, and determining whether the resource metric and the service level fall within the desired resource metric range and the desired service level metric range, respectively; and determining that the determined stock levels are the desired stock levels if the resource metric and the service level metric fall within the desired resource metric range and the desired service level metric range, respectively.