Manufacturing or service system allocating resources to associated demands by comparing time ordered arrays of data
First Claim
1. A process for altering the physical state of predetermined input materials by allocating one or more resources to meet one or more predetermined demands on the resources, comprising:
- providing predetermined input materials having a physical state it is desired to alter;
identifying a plurality of demands for altering the physical state of the predetermined input materials;
providing a plurality of physical resources needed to perform the desired alteration of the physical state of the predetermined input materials;
converting the demands into an array of physical resource capacity requirements for each resource which is ordered in time and has entries only for time values when the required capacities change;
providing for each resource an array of available capacities which is ordered in time and has entries only for time values when the available capacities change;
comparing the time ordered arrays of required and available capacities to determine whether and when the available capacities equal or exceed the required capacities and, when successful, modifying the time ordered array of available capacities to provide an up-dated time ordered array of available capacities reflecting the assignment of available capacities to meet the requirements associated with the demands, wherein the up-dated time ordered array of available capacities only has entries when the up-dated available capacities change; and
applying the resource required first in time to the input materials to change the physical state thereof.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An improved method and system is described for allocating manufacturing or process resources having multiple constraints thereon to meet various time varying manufacturing or service demands having multiple parameter requirements.
The demand requirements are expressed as a multi-dimensional time ordered array of vertices Dq [t,r,j], for each demand q, wherein t is time and r identifies the physical requirements associated with the qth demand and j is an integer index running from 1 to J wherein J is the total number of times wherein r has differing values. The available resources are expressed as a multi-dimensional time ordered array of resource vertices Rp [t,c,i] for each resource p, where c expresses the physical capacities associted with the pth resource, t is time and i is an integer index running from 1 to I where I is the total number of times wherein c has differing values.
A logical system is provided for comparing Rp and Dq to determine when and how Dq may be accommodated by Rp. The invented arrangement provides very compact representation of the demand and resource information so that very complex processes and products may be modeled and scheduled with great time precision without requiring large amounts of memory. The invented arrangement can provide scheduling accuracy of one second over a scheduling interval of a century even with a modest size computer.
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Citations
7 Claims
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1. A process for altering the physical state of predetermined input materials by allocating one or more resources to meet one or more predetermined demands on the resources, comprising:
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providing predetermined input materials having a physical state it is desired to alter; identifying a plurality of demands for altering the physical state of the predetermined input materials; providing a plurality of physical resources needed to perform the desired alteration of the physical state of the predetermined input materials; converting the demands into an array of physical resource capacity requirements for each resource which is ordered in time and has entries only for time values when the required capacities change; providing for each resource an array of available capacities which is ordered in time and has entries only for time values when the available capacities change; comparing the time ordered arrays of required and available capacities to determine whether and when the available capacities equal or exceed the required capacities and, when successful, modifying the time ordered array of available capacities to provide an up-dated time ordered array of available capacities reflecting the assignment of available capacities to meet the requirements associated with the demands, wherein the up-dated time ordered array of available capacities only has entries when the up-dated available capacities change; and applying the resource required first in time to the input materials to change the physical state thereof.
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2. A process of altering the physical state of predetermined input materials to meet a predetermined production or service demand, including steps for allocating resources, said process comprising:
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providing predetermined input materials having a physical state it is desired to alter; identifying a plurality of demands for altering the physical state of the predetermined input materials and selecting a first demand q from the plurality of demands; identifying one or more quantifiable physical requirements r associated with the qth physical demand, relevant to altering the physical state of the input materials; providing a plurality of physical resources needed to perform the desired alteration of the physical state of the predetermined input materials; selecting a pth physical resource from the plurality of resources and identifying one or more quantifiable physical constraints c associated with the pth physical resource, relevant to altering the physical state of the predetermined input materials; providing an orderable array of multidimensional demand vertices Dq for the demand q, wherein t is time, r identifies the physical requirements associated with the qth demand, and j is an integer index running from 1 to j wherein j is the total number of times wherein r has differing values; ordering the array of multidimensional vertices Dq for increasing values of t, wherein each value of j corresponds to a value of t where r changes value; storing the ordered values of Dq corresponding to each value of j; providing an orderable array of multidimensional resource vertices Rp for the resource p, wherein t is time, c identifies the physical constraints associated with the pth resource, and i is an integer index running from 1 to I wherein I is the total number of times wherein c has differing values; ordering the array of multidimensional vertices Rp for increasing values of t, wherein each value of i corresponds to a value of t where c changes value; storing the ordered values of Rp corresponding to each value of i; comparing Rp and Dq to determine the values i'"'"' and i" of i between which c>
/=r,t(i'"'"')<
/=t(j=1) and t(i")>
/=t(j=2), and decrementing the values of c in Rp for i=(i'"'"'=1) to (i"+1) to (i"-1) by r(j=1), and if t(i'"'"') =t(j=1), replacing c in the value of Rp by c=c(i'"'"')-r(j=1), or if t(i'"'"')<
t(j=1), inserting a first new value R+p in the ordered array of vertices Rp at t(i'"'"')<
t<
/=t(j=1), wherein the first newly inserted value R+p has c=c(i'"'"')-r(j=1), and if t(i")=t(j=2), leaving the value of Rp unaltered, or if t(i")>
t(j=2), inserting a further new value R++p in the ordered array of vertices Rp at t(j=2)<
/=t<
t(i")>
, wherein the further newly inserted value R++p has c=c(i"-1)+r(j=1), and increasing I by the number of newly inserted values of Rp ; andchanging the physical state of the input material by applying the pth resource to the input material of the qth demand at a beginning time tb of t(i'"'"') <
/=tb <
/=t(j=1) until an ending time te of t(j=2)<
/=te <
/=t(i"). - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification