Patent ID: 8452679

Claim:
Apparatus for providing a supply chain link performance change indicator, the apparatus comprising: a processor module including hardware that is configured to provide to a user a vector selection control and to formulate a margin vector by normalizing elements AR i of a third vector of the plurality of vectors to corresponding elements R i of a fourth vector of the plurality of vectors wherein each element m i of the margin vector is computed as AR i /R i ; a receiver module including hardware that is configured to: receive financial data corresponding to the supply chain link, the financial data including a plurality of vectors; and receive via the vector selection control a first vector identifier corresponding to a first vector in the plurality of vectors and a second vector identifier corresponding to a second vector in the plurality of vectors; and an output device that is configured to provide to the user a first supply chain link performance change indicator corresponding to the first vector and a second supply chain link performance change indicator corresponding to the second vector and a margin change vector having elements representing changes between elements m i of the margin vector, the margin change vector having elements M i =(m i −m i-1 )/m i-1 .