Patent ID: 7953625

Claim:
A method of representing the availability of a resource to an entity, the method implemented by a data processing apparatus and comprising: receiving, at the data processing apparatus, a planned resource description describing how the resource was expected to be consumed by the entity; receiving, at the data processing apparatus, a consumed resource description describing how the resource is actually being consumed by the entity; and generating, by the data processing apparatus, a graphic representation indicating a correlation between the planned resource description and the consumed resource description in a single display panel, including: displaying a first gauge that extends between a first wholly available position and a first wholly depleted position, displaying a second gauge that extends between a second wholly available position and a second wholly depleted position, determining an amount of the resource expected to be available at a current time from the planned resource description, determining an amount of the resource actually available at the current time from the actual resource description, positioning a planned current availability marker along the first gauge, the planned current availability marker indicating the amount of the resource expected to be available at the current time, positioning an actual current availability marker along the second gauge, the actual current availability marker indicating the amount of the resource that is actually available at the current time, determining a potential consequence of a proposed order to allocate the resource in a certain way upon the actual current availability of resources, and positioning a proposed order consequence indicator along the second gauge, the order consequence indicator indicating the potential consequences of the proposed order relative to the actual current availability of the resources, wherein the first gauge and the second gauge are aligned on the single display panel for visual comparison of the positioning of the planned current availability marker and the positioning of the actual current availability marker.