Compensating for reduced availability of a disrupted project resource

• US 9,922,305 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2016
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kenkre, Sreyash D., Mehta, Sameep, Narayanam, Krishnasuri, Pandit, Vinayaka D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US15/161,412
• Publication Number:
  US 20160267415A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method and associated systems for automatically identifying critical resources in an organization. An organization creates a model of the dependencies between pairs of resource types, wherein that model describes how the organization'"'"'s projects and services are affected when a resource type becomes unavailable. This model may include a system of directed graphs. This model may be used to automatically identify a resource type as critical if unacceptable cost is incurred by resuming projects and services rendered infeasible when the resource type is disrupted. The model may also be used to automatically identify a first resource type as critical for a second resource type when disruption of the first resource type forces the available capacity of the second resource type to fall below a threshold value.

Claims

1. A method for compensating for reduced availability of a disrupted project resource,

where a first resource comprises a set of instances of the first resource that are each associated with a corresponding available amount of the first resource that is made available by that instance,

where a total available capacity of the first resource is a sum of available amounts of the first resource that are made available by all instances of the set of instances,

where the project requires a first instance of the set of instances, a second instance of the set of instances, and a third instance of the set of instances,

where the first instance identifies a first available amount of the first resource that is available to the project,

where the second instance identifies a second available amount of the first resource that is available to the project,

where the third instance identifies a third available amount of the first resource that is available to the project, and

where a disruption of the first;

second, or third instance results in a corresponding reduction of the first;

second, or third available amount,

the method comprising

a processor of a computer system identifying an initial value of the total available capacity as a sum of the first available amount, the second available amount, and the third available amount;

the processor receiving a set of dependency relationships,

where a first dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance causes a second disruption of the second instance, and

where a second dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that the second disruption causes a disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption;

directly results in a reduction of the first available amount by a first-instance reduction amount,

indirectly results, as a function of the first dependency relationship, in a reduction of the second available amount by a second-instance reduction amount and

indirectly results, as a function of the second dependency relationship, in a reduction of the third available amount by a third-instance reduction amount; and

the processor, as a result of the determining, decreasing the total available capacity of the first resource by a sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and the third-instance reduction amount.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if the decreased total available capacity is less than a capacity threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, where the resumption cost is a cost to resume the project after the project has been rendered impossible to complete due to the decreasing.

4. The method of claim 3,

where the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,

where the substitution cost is a function of a cost of substituting an available amount of a second resource to compensate for the reduction of the first, second, and third available amounts of the first resource,

where the second resource is distinct from the first resource, and

where the time-delay cost is a function of a duration of time required to perform the substituting.

5. The method of claim 4, where the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule that specifies an amount of the second resource required to compensate for the decrease in the total available capacity of the first resource.

6. The method of claim 4, where the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first resource that is still available to the project and a second geographic location of an instance of the second resource that is available to the project.

7. The method of claim 1, where all or part of the set of dependency relationships is represented by a graph that represents a pair of instances of the set of instances of the first resource as a pair of nodes, and further represents a dependency relationship between the pair f instances as a directed path between the pair of nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing at least one support service for at least one of creating, integrating, hosting, maintaining, and deploying computer-readable program code in the computer system, where the computer-readable program code in combination with the computer system is configured to implement the identifying, the receiving, the determining, and the decreasing.

9. A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having a computer-readable program code stored therein, the program code configured to be executed by a processor of a computer system to implement a method for compensating for reduced availability of a disrupted project resource,

where a first resource comprises a set of instances of the first resource that are each associated with a corresponding available amount of the first resource that is made available by that instance,

where a total available capacity of the first resource is a sum of available amounts of the first resource that are made available by all instances of the set of instances,

where the project requires a first instance of the set of instances, a second instance of the set of instances, and a third instance of the set of instances,

where the first instance identifies a first available amount of the first resource that is available to the project,

where the second instance identifies a second available amount of the first resource that is available to the project,

where the third instance identifies a third available amount of the first resource that is available to the project, and

where a disruption of the first, second, or third instance results in a corresponding reduction of the first, second, or third available amount,

the method comprising

the processor identifying an initial value of the total available capacity as a sum of the first available amount, the second available amount, and the third available amount;

the processor receiving a set of dependency relationships,

where a first dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance causes a second disruption of the second instance, and

where a second dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that the second disruption causes a disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption;

directly results in a reduction of the first available amount by a first-instance reduction amount,

indirectly results, as a function of the first dependency relationship, in a reduction of the second available amount by a second-instance reduction amount and

indirectly results, as a function of the second dependency relationship, in a reduction of the third available amount by a third-instance reduction amount; and

the processor, as a result of the determining, decreasing the total available capacity of the first resource by a sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and the third-instance reduction amount.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if the decreased total available capacity is less than a capacity threshold value.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, where the resumption cost is a cost to resume the project after the project has been rendered impossible to complete due to the decreasing.

12. The computer program product of claim 11,

where the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,

where the substitution cost is a function of a cost of substituting an available amount of a second resource to compensate for the reduction of the first, second, and third available amounts of the first resource,

where the second resource is distinct from the first resource, and

where the time-delay cost is a function of a duration of time required to perform the substituting.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, where the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule that specifies an amount of the second resource required to compensate for the decrease in the total available capacity of the first resource.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, where the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first resource that is still available to the project and a second geographic location of an instance of the second resource that is available to the project.

15. A computer system comprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and a computer-readable hardware storage device coupled to the processor, the storage device containing program code configured to be run by the processor via the memory to implement a method for compensating for reduced availability of a disrupted project resource,

where a first resource comprises a set of instances of the first resource that are each associated with a corresponding available amount of the first resource that is made available by that instance,

where a total available capacity of the first resource is a sum of available amounts of the first resource that are made available by all instances of the set of instances,

where the project requires a first instance of the set of instances, a second instance of the set of instances, and a third instance of the set of instances,

where the first instance identifies a first available amount of the first resource that is available to the project,

where the second instance identifies a second available amount of the first resource that is available to the project,

where the third instance identifies a third available amount of the first resource that is available to the project, and

where a disruption of the first, second, or third instance results in a corresponding reduction of the first, second, or third available amount,

the method comprising

the processor identifying an initial value of the total available capacity as a sum of the first available amount, the second available amount, and the third available amount;

the processor receiving a set of dependency relationships,

where a first dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance causes a second disruption of the second instance, and

where a second dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that the second disruption causes a disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption;

directly results in a reduction of the first available amount by a first-instance reduction amount,

indirectly results, as a function of the first dependency relationship, in a reduction of the second available amount by a second-instance reduction amount and

indirectly results, as a function of the second dependency relationship, in a reduction of the third available amount by a third-instance reduction amount; and

the processor, as a result of the determining, decreasing the total available capacity of the first resource by a sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and the third-instance reduction amount.

16. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if the decreased total available capacity is less than a capacity threshold value.

17. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, where the resumption cost is a cost to resume the project after the project has been rendered impossible to complete due to the decreasing.

18. The computer system f claim 17,

where the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,

where the substitution cost is a function of a cost of substituting an available amount of a second resource to compensate for the reduction of the first, second, and third available amounts of the first resource,

where the second resource is distinct from the first resource, and

where the time-delay cost is a function of a duration of time required to perform the substituting.

19. The computer system of claim 18, where the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule that specifies an amount of the second resource required to compensate for the decrease in the total available capacity of the first resource.

20. The computer system of claim 18, where the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first resource that is still available to the project and a second geographic location of an instance of the second resource that is available to the project.