Patent ID: 8639546

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a processor, a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor; and logic, stored on the computer-readable storage medium and executed on the processor, for: defining a fulfillment path solution (FPS) comprising a plurality of items undergoing an operational fulfillment process (OFP); wherein the EPS is associated with a plurality of milestones to be fulfilled by the plurality of items as the items travel the OFP; and wherein each milestone of the plurality of milestones exerts a resistive force on each item of the plurality of items; calculating a plurality of sums, each sum corresponding to a particular item and each sum as total of all resistive forces exerted on the corresponding item by each of the milestones; the calculating of each resistive force, comprising: setting an initial resistive force, with respect to each item, based upon a difference between a deadline associated with the milestone and the item, wherein an item with a deadline closer to the current time is set to a higher resistive force than an item with a deadline farther from the current time; and increasing, each resistive force on each item as a corresponding deadline approaches each item; wherein a higher sum corresponding to a first item and a lower sum corresponding to a second item indicates a need for more immediate attention to the first item than the second item; and transmitting a notification event based upon the plurality of sums and corresponding items to indicate which items require more immediate attention.