Patent Document ID: 10042355
Application ID: 14589041
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of operating a facility, comprising: (a) using a computer system that stores an application for determining a plan for the operation of the facility and a schedule for the operation of the facility in accordance with the plan; (b) acquiring data from operational activities of the facility; (c) aggregating the acquired data and defining a mathematical model for the aggregated data to be processed; (d) solving the mathematical model and obtaining results, wherein the obtained results determine the plan for the operation of the facility; (e) extracting operational data and combining the operational data with the obtained results from the mathematical model in order to apply flexible time modeling to develop feasible schedule consistent with the plan, wherein the flexible time modeling includes: (1) defining a set of targets achievable by the schedule, (2) defining a plurality of time segments in the schedule based upon a plurality of upcoming operational events of the facility, (3) analyzing a portion of the schedule containing the plurality of time segments covering the plurality of upcoming operational events of the facility in order for the analyzed portion of the schedule as a whole to remain consistent with the plan obtained from the results obtained by the mathematical model and with the defined set of achievable targets, wherein analyzing a portion of the schedule includes eliminating infeasible scheduling segments associated with the plurality of time segments, and determining optimal feasible scheduling segments; (f) disaggregating data that pertains to the analyzed portion of the schedule and determining an updated schedule according to the disaggregated data; (g) reapplying the flexible time modeling in step (e) and reperforming the disaggregating of data that pertains to the analyzed portion of the schedule and determining the schedule in step (f) upon occurrence of a subsequent operational event that is not accounted for in the mathematical model, and that occurs prior to implementation of the determined updated schedule; (h) applying the application to operate the facility according to the determined plan and the updated determined schedule.