Patent ID: 8352335

Claim:
A method for facilitating the sale of a specified spare part between a first manufacturer which possesses, but is reluctant to sell, such spare part, and a second manufacturer who is seeking to buy such spare part (hereinafter “prospective buyer”), comprising the steps of: (i) providing a website programmed to receive from said prospective buyer, via the internet, a request for a specified spare part; (ii) maintaining a global database of manufacturers who may have various types of spare parts available; (iii) in response to such request, selecting from a database at least one manufacturer, other than the prospective buyer, who may possess the specified spare part; (iv) sending over the internet to each selected manufacturer an inquiry whether such manufacturer possesses the specified spare part; (v) upon receiving a response from a particular manufacturer (hereinafter “potential source”) that said potential source has, but is reluctant to sell, the specified spare part, presenting interactively over the internet a series of questions to be answered by said potential source; wherein said questions are derived from experts in order to be able to determine whether the potential source's current supply of said part is excessive, correct, or insufficient; wherein said questions include at least one question to determine the frequency and likelihood of failure of the particular part during production operations, and at least one question to determine the consequences to the production operation should such part fail; (vi) upon receiving responses to said questions from said potential source, processing such responses using a computer programmed to assign a predetermined score to each response, to ascertain an overall cumulative score; and determine, based at least on cumulative score, the risk whether the current level of inventory of said specified spare part held by said potential source is excessive, correct, or insufficient; (vii) communicating over the internet the results of such determination to said potential source; (viii) in the event the potential source's inventory is excessive, requesting electronically said potential source to authorize a sale of said specified spare part; and (ix) in the event said potential source authorizes said sale, brokering a sale between said potential source and said prospective buyer.