David J Michael

US Patent:

7672862, Mar 2, 2010

Filed:

Dec 4, 2001

Appl. No.:

10/004725

Inventors:

Manoj Abraham - Dallas TX, US
David Michael - Dallas TX, US
Mehdi Sheikhzadeh - Irving TX, US

Assignee:

i2 Technologies US, Inc. - Dallas TX

International Classification:

G06F 9/46

US Classification:

705 8

Abstract:

Generating a supply chain plan includes accessing data describing a supply chain network having buffers. Each buffer is operable to store items and is associated with a corresponding time variable. The supply chain network is constrained by a constraint. A linear programming problem is generated for the supply chain network. The linear programming problem is approximated by discretizing the time variables of the buffers to yield discretized time variables and by relaxing the constraint to yield a relaxed constraint. An optimized supply chain plan is calculated for the approximated linear programming problem. The optimized supply chain plan describes a quantity of items at each buffer for at least one time value of the corresponding time variable. The optimized supply chain plan is adjusted to satisfy the constraint.

US Patent:

8504402, Aug 6, 2013

Filed:

Jun 26, 2009

Appl. No.:

12/492978

Inventors:

Chieh Hsien Tiao - Irving TX, US
David John Michael - Dallas TX, US

Assignee:

Southwest Airlines Co. - Dallas TX

International Classification:

G06Q 10/00

US Classification:

705 712, 705 713, 705 729

Abstract:

A schedule for a network of transportation resources is produced by iteratively generating sets of variables for each market pair using an objective function and based on at least an identified range of permissible departure or arrival times for each market pair and spacing parameters. Each variable represents a different set of possible departure or arrival times for a particular market pair. The proposed schedule is built based on the generated sets of variables for each market pair and a set of constraints.