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Abstract

A method for determining procurement for parts (P) in a production system having constraints comprising at least one of constrained resources (r.sub.i) and known maximum demands (d.sub.j). The method comprises two steps. Step 1 includes constructing a production planning decision space comprising independent sets of hyperplanes defined by decision variables (q.sub.j) corresponding to product quantities for products (j). The constructing step subsumes steps of expressing a potential usage of part (p) as a linear combination of production quantities (q.sub.j) based on bill of material usage rules; limiting the production quantities (q.sub.j) so that each is less than or equal to the maximum demand quantity (d.sub.j); and limiting the production quantities (q.sub.i) so that the usage of each resource (r) is based on bill of material and bill of capacity usage rates less than or equal to the availability of that resource. For each part p, the second step includes locating a region in the decision space corresponding to a high level of usage of part (p).

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