Patent ID: 7860739

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a relationship between a output value and a plurality of variables, wherein the plurality of variables comprise: a set of refinement quantities, wherein each refinement quantity corresponds to one refinement among a plurality of refinements, and generation of each refinement among the plurality of refinements requires at least one corresponding resource among a plurality of resources; receiving statistical information regarding the refinement quantities; generating by a computer a transformation in response to the statistical information, wherein the transformation relates the set of refinement quantities to a set of transformed refinement quantities; for each transformed refinement quantity among the set of refinement quantities: identifying by the computer at least one gating resource, among the plurality of resources, that limits the transformed refinement quantity, in response to the identifying, constructing by the computer a single-variable relationship between a constituent of the output value and a single variable, wherein the constituent of the output value, the single-variable relationship, and the single variable correspond to the transformed refinement quantity, and optimizing by the computer the constituent of the output value based on the single-variable relationship; and generating by the computer output data based on the optimizing the constituents of the output value, wherein the output data is usable in optimizing the output value.