Patents by Inventor Markus R. Ettl

Markus R. Ettl has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20130018700
    Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for managing configurable products via solving an optimization problem. In one embodiment, the method comprises collecting data from a software application and a user; formulating a set of constraints based on the collected data; defining the optimization problem by the set of constraints and an optimization objective; solving the optimization problem using the collected data, the set of constraints, the optimization objective and the objective function via mixed integer programming; and outputting a solution of the optimization problem.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2011
    Publication date: January 17, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Thomas R. Ervolina, Markus R. Ettl, Soumyadip Ghosh, Donna Leigh Gresh, Sechan Oh
  • Patent number: 8352355
    Abstract: Win probability estimation model that statistically computes the probability of winning a bid at a given price, and profit optimization models that compute the optimal price for a bid balancing the probability of winning a bid at a price with the profitability of the bid at the given price. In one stage, an expected profit margin of a product may be formulated as a function of its profit margin and win probability to compute its optimal profit margin. In another stage, an expected profit for one or more product accessories may be formulated as a function of the profit margin and their conditional win probability given the server win to compute their optimal profit margins. The conditional win probabilities for the product accessories may be modeled as a function of the utilities of the various purchase options that contain the product and that accessory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Markus R. Ettl, Karthik Sourirajan, Zhengliang Xue
  • Publication number: 20120303492
    Abstract: There are provided a system, a method and a computer program product for tracking an inventory distribution of a perishable product in a supply chain. The system receives shipment data and point of sale data for the product from every location in the supply chain. The system creates, based on the obtained shipment data and the point of sale data, a network graph that represents a flow of the product in the supply chain. The system identifies an age of unsold inventory of the product at each node of the graph based on the created graph. The system provides a notification to a user at each location that informs the age of the unsold inventory of the product at that location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2011
    Publication date: November 29, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daniel P. Connors, Markus R. Ettl, Mary E. Helander, Shubir Kapoor, Stuart A. Siegel
  • Publication number: 20110112889
    Abstract: Proactive demand shaping of configurable products with uncertain demand computes a lower bound and an upper bound on optimal profit by considering future demand distribution of one or more products, supply outlook of one or more components and customer behavior. The upper bound and the lower bound solutions are used to generate one or more rationing heuristics. Simulation may be used to determine a rationing policy to implement in practice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2009
    Publication date: May 12, 2011
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Markus R. Ettl, Anshul Sheopuri, Karthik Sourirajan
  • Publication number: 20080312978
    Abstract: A system and method for allowing an organization access to supplier data, allows an organization which has outsourced one or more supply functions to one or more suppliers, permits feeding in real-time data from suppliers and processing and analyzing the data to determine performance metrics. Monitoring of these performance metrics against thresholds, which are established periodically based on customer data and forecast data, allows for the generation of alerts when the thresholds have been exceeded. This may occur, for example, when a supplier contract may have been violated or when new controls may need to be enforced within the contracts. Corrective actions may be taken in response to alerts, and these actions may modify previously established performance metrics and provide for recalculating the performance metrics with the new data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2007
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Inventors: Blair A. Binney, Markus R. Ettl, Shubir Kapoor, Rajesh Kumar Ravi, Sarah Elizabeth Santo, Young-Jun Yoon