Patent ID: 8121884

Claim:
A computer-implemented method performed by a computer for identifying a gating component for a plurality of different products estimated to be produced by a manufacturing facility during a planning period, the method comprising: providing a connect rate for each component of each product, the connect rate of a component of a product representing the number of the component needed to manufacture one unit of the product; determining an expected demand for each of the plurality of products; for each component of the products, determining a quantity that is a maximum availability of the component; computing, by the computer, a derivative of an expected quantity of the products with respect to a quantity of the component of the products, the expected quantity of the products being a mean production of the products given the quantity of the components and the expected demand for the products; computing, by the computer, a component gating risk for the component based on the derivative and the connect rate of the component, the component gating risk being the risk that the component will be the cause of a failure to fulfill an order; determining, by the computer, whether the component is a gating component based on the component gating risk for the component; and storing an indication of the determined gating component in a memory; and for each gating component, determining a quantity of the gating component to purchase for availability during the planning period based of the computed gating risk for the gating component to reduce the probability of the gating component will be the cause of a failure to fulfill an order.