Patent ID: 8645431

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a data processing system having a data field library, a supply chain database, and a supply chain model, wherein the data processing system is capable of processing a set of instructions to perform one or more functions on the data field library, on the supply chain database, and on the supply chain model; providing the data field library having a plurality of data fields, wherein each data field of the plurality of data fields hold the data related to a single database schema of the supply chain database; creating the supply chain model having a plurality of internally-stored supply chain model nodes, wherein each internally-stored supply chain model node includes the plurality of data fields; associating a particular item of the plurality of data fields as a component of one internally-stored supply chain model node of the plurality of internally-stored supply chain model nodes without utilizing newly downloaded external data for each association; automatically defining a relationship between the one supply chain model node and other supply chain model nodes in a multi-level supply chain through linkages of the particular item with other items in the other supply chain model nodes as referenced through paired ones of the particular item in different supply chain model nodes; and providing an internally-stored condensed data structure to a particular entity in the multi-level supply chain.