Automatically identifying a capacity of a resource

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9400970-B2
Application number	US-201414249782-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2012
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

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.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for automatically identifying a capacity of a resource, wherein a first type of resource comprises a plurality of instances of the first type of resource, wherein a plurality of instance capacities of the first type of resource are each comprised by an instance of the plurality of instances, wherein a total available capacity of the first type of resource is a sum of all instance capacities of the plurality of instance capacities, and wherein a disruption of a first instance of the plurality of instances results in a corresponding reduction of a first instance capacity comprised by the first instance, the method comprising:
a processor of a computer system accepting information that identifies the plurality of instances,
wherein the plurality of instances comprises a first instance, a second instance, and a third instance, and
wherein the first instance comprises a first instance capacity of the first type of resource, the second instance comprises a second instance capacity of the first type of resource, and the third instance comprises a third instance capacity of the first type of resource;

the processor identifying an initial value of the total available capacity as a sum of the first instance capacity, the second instance capacity, and the third instance capacity;
the processor receiving a set of resource relationships,
wherein a first relationship of the set of resource relationships specifies the first instance, the second instance, and a first dependency between the first instance and the second instance,
wherein the first dependency identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance causes a disruption of the second instance,
wherein a second relationship of the set of resource relationships specifies the second instance, the third instance, and a second dependency between the second instance and the third instance, and
wherein the second dependency identifies that a disruption of the second instance causes a disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption of the first instance directly results in a reduction of the first instance capacity by a first-instance reduction amount;
the processor inferring that the initial disruption indirectly results in a reduction of the second instance capacity by a second-instance reduction amount, wherein the inferring is a function of the first relationship;
the processor further inferring that the initial disruption indirectly results in a reduction of the third instance capacity by a third-instance reduction amount, wherein the further inferring is a function of the second relationship;
the processor decreasing the total available capacity by the 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 type of 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 type of resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, wherein the resumption-cost threshold value is a cost incurred by resuming a disrupted project, wherein the disrupted project would be rendered infeasible by the initial disruption, and wherein the rendering infeasible is a function of the value of the decreased total available capacity.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,
wherein the substitution cost is a function of a cost of compensating for the reduction of the first instance capacity, the reduction of the second instance capacity, and the reduction of the third instance capacity by substituting a capacity of a substitute resource,
wherein the substitute resource is associated with a second type of resource, and
wherein the time-delay cost is a function of a length of time required to perform the substituting.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule,
wherein the substitutability rule specifies the disrupted project, the first resource type, and the second resource type, and
wherein the substitutability rule further specifies a formula that equates a capacity of the first type of resource with an equivalent capacity of the second type of resource.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first type of resource and a second geographic location of an instance of the second type of resource location of an instance of the second type of resource.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least part of each relationship of the set of resource relationships is represented by a directed graph that represents a pair of instances of the plurality of resource instances as a pair of nodes of the directed graph, and further represents a dependency between the pair of instances as a 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, wherein the computer-readable program code in combination with the computer system is configured to implement the accepting, identifying, receiving, determining, inferring, further inferring, and 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 automatically identifying a capacity of a resource, wherein a first type of resource comprises a plurality of instances of the first type of resource, wherein a plurality of instance capacities of the first type of resource are each comprised by an instance of the plurality of instances, wherein a total available capacity of the first type of resource is a sum of all instance capacities of the plurality of instance capacities, and wherein a disruption of a first instance of the plurality of instances results in a corresponding reduction of a first instance capacity comprised by the first instance, the method comprising:
the processor accepting information that identifies the plurality of instances,
wherein the plurality of instances comprises a first instance, a second instance, and a third instance, and
wherein the first instance comprises a first instance capacity of the first type of resource, the second instance comprises a second instance capacity of the first type of resource, and the third instance comprises a third instance capacity of the first type of resource;

the processor identifying an initial value of the total available capacity as a sum of the first instance capacity, the second instance capacity, and the third instance capacity;
the processor receiving a set of resource relationships,
wherein a first relationship of the set of resource relationships specifies the first instance, the second instance, and a first dependency between the first instance and the second instance,
wherein the first dependency identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance causes a disruption of the second instance,
wherein a second relationship of the set of resource relationships specifies the second instance, the third instance, and a second dependency between the second instance and the third instance, and
wherein the second dependency identifies that a disruption of the second instanc

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kenkre Sreyash D
• Mehta Sameep
• Narayanam Krishnasuri
• Pandit Vinayaka D

Classifications

• G06Q10/06313 Primary

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title