Patent ID: 7058587

Claim:
A system for producing an optimal supply play for allocating a supply of a component, the system comprising: a) a computerized database containing electronically readable information related to said component, said information describing the supply and changes to the supply; b) a computerized supply planner that automatically produces a plurality of proposed supply plans for said component using synchronized allocation with the component information in the database, wherein each of said proposed supply plans has associated supply plan values comprising: α i representing a revenue associated with a demand i, β i representing a margin associated with said demand i, c j representing a standard cost of an item j, u jkt representing a quantity of consumed inventory, t jk representing a quantity of issued inventory, I jt representing an inventory of an item j at end of a time period t, M representing a number of independent demands, and T representing a number of time periods; c) data input means for accepting user input, wherein said supply planner uses said user input to define user preference values comprising ω CS , ω R , ω M , and ω I representing weightings for customer service, revenue, margin, and inventory for said component, γ CS , γ R , γ M , and γ I representing scaling factors for customer service, revenue, margin, and inventory for said component, and δ it representing a scaling factor to give preference for shipping orders on-time versus shipping late or early, wherein said supply planner evaluates the plurality of proposed supply chain plans using the associated supply plan values and the user preference values through an objective function comprising: [ ω cs ⁢ γ cs ⁢ ∑ i = 1 M ⁢ ⁢ ∑ t = 1 T ⁢ ⁢ δ it ⁢ x it + ω R ⁢ γ R ⁢ ∑ i = 1 M ⁢ ⁢ ( α i ⁢ ∑ t = 1 T ⁢ ⁢ x it ) + ω M ⁢ γ M ⁢ ∑ i = 1 M ⁢ ⁢ ( β i ⁢ ∑ t = 1 T ⁢ ⁢ x it ) - ω I ⁢ γ I ⁢ ( ∑ j = 1 M ⁢ ⁢ ( c j ⁢ ∑ t = 1 T ⁢ ⁢ I jt ) + ∑ j = 1 M ⁢ ⁢ ( c j ⁢ ∑ k = 1 T ⁢ ( t jk - ∑ t = 1 T ⁢ ⁢ u jkt ) ) ) ] , where x it is a binary variable; e) wherein said supply planner selects the optimal supply plan from the proposed plurality of proposed supply chain plans, wherein said optimal supply plan maximizes the objective function.