Patent Document ID: 8655707
Application ID: 12869300
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method of delivering products, comprising: receiving demand planning data identifying product quantities for a plurality of hierarchically arranged nodes organized into parent-child relationships, wherein a particular node in the plurality of nodes includes a product quantity and a disaggregation factor, and wherein the disaggregation factor identifies how the product quantity at the particular node is divided among children nodes of the particular node; associating, using one or more data processors, a relieving flow and an augmenting flow with the particular node in the plurality of nodes, wherein a relieving flow is configured to subtract product quantity from one of the plurality of nodes, and wherein an augmenting flow is configured to add product quantity to one of the plurality of nodes; receiving a change to the product quantity or the disaggregation factor at the particular node; generating, using the one or more data processors, a set of simultaneous equations using the demand planning data, the relieving flows, the augmenting flows, and the change at the particular node, wherein one of the equations indicates that a sum of the product quantity and the augmenting flow at the particular node is equal to a sum of the product quantities of the children nodes and the relieving flow of the particular node; and optimally, using the one or more data processors, solving the set of simultaneous equations by minimizing a sum of the augmenting flows and the relieving flows associated with the plurality of nodes and determining revised product quantities at each of the plurality of nodes, wherein one or more products are delivered according to the revised product quantities.