368343 results about "Industrial engineering" patented technology

CCRM is a business method and computer software system, to be used by Enterprises selling portfolios of products/services, aiming to optimize the expected value of transactions (or contracts) with consumers or business customers. At a transaction level, CCRM estimates the probability of choice of potential offers by the customer. These offers may be presented alone with possible variation of their attributes (such as price), or in combinations/sets, or in sequences. CCRM calculates the probability of consequent conversion and realization of the sale. Probabilities of choice and conversion are forecasted based on a disaggregated customer choice model, taking into account customer characteristics and stated preferences as well as product/service attributes such as price. Offers are then scored and ranked by expected value based on their revenue, cost and choice probability. Finally, CCRM recommends which offer(s) to present to the customer, at which price(s) and in which display/sequence order, to maximize a business objective function such as the expected value of the transaction/contract.

An apparatus and method of reserving conveyance, such as taxis and limousines, in which the pickup locations, times, and contract are established and logged electronically. The system is configured to increase the assurance that the conveyance will arrive properly on time and on location, and that the patron will also keep their end of the agreement. The system preferably configured for disincentives for either party to not follow in accord with the contract.

A method of application of popular casino, lottery, and sports games formatted and modified specifically for the parimutuel race industry. The invention games possess unique rules and formats to govern their play within parimutuel race wagering while reflecting existing games from casinos, lotteries and sports. Wagers are placed electronically with parimutuel race operators who retain a percentage of all bets as determined by individual state law. Outcomes of the invention games are determined by their unique rules and interpretation of current parimutuel racing results.

Provided are a method, system, and program for managing multiple resources in a system at a service level, including at least one host, network, and a storage space comprised of at least one storage system that each host is capable of accessing over the network. A plurality of service level parameters are measured and monitored indicating a state of the resources in the system. A determination is made of values for the service level parameters and whether the service level parameter values satisfy predetermined service level thresholds. Indication is made as to whether the service level parameter values satisfy the predetermined service thresholds. A determination is made of a modification to one or more resource deployments or configurations if the value for the service level parameter for the resource does not satisfy the predetermined service level thresholds.

A vacuum chamber is evacuated through a first evacuation passage provided with a first valve and a second evacuation passage provided with a second valve. An opening degree of the first valve is adjusted so that a pressure in the vacuum chamber becomes substantially equal to a process pressure P; an opening degree of a butterfly valve further provided in the second evacuation passage is adjusted to substantially equal to a set value determined by a table in order to set flow rates of gases to be evacuated through the first evacuation passage and the second evacuation passage to be substantially equal to corresponding set values determined by the recipe; and an opening degree of the second valve is adjusted so that a measurement value of a differential pressure gauge further provided in the second evacuation passage becomes substantially equal to a differential pressure written in the table.

The present invention provides novel systems and methods for improving the voice quality of wireless-to-wireless calls or wireless-to-fixed terminal calls. This disclosure describes methods and apparatuses to determine and control the quality of service objectives in a telecommunication network involving at least one wireless terminal.

An auction service is provided that stimulates competition between energy suppliers (i.e., electric power or natural gas). A bidding moderator (Moderator) receives bids from the competing suppliers of the rate each is willing to charge to particular end users for estimated quantities of electric power or gas supply (separate auctions). Each supplier receives competing bids from the Moderator and has the opportunity to adjust its own bids down or up, depending on whether it wants to encourage or discourage additional energy delivery commitments in a particular geographic area or to a particular customer group. Each supplier's bids can also be changed to reflect each supplier's capacity utilization. Appropriate billing arrangements are also disclosed.

Methods, systems and computer readable code for travel planning are provided. According to some embodiments, a travel planning engine schedules a plurality of activities within one or more time intervals and generates a travel plan, where each activity is associated with a physical location and optional time parameters. Alternatively or additionally, the travel planning is implemented by receiving manual travel planning directives through a user interface. According to some embodiments, the activities are scheduled so as to satisfy specific constraints and/or travel benefit parameters. According to some embodiments, the travel plan includes information about traveling between relevant locations. Some embodiments of the present invention include a method of comparing and/or presenting a plurality of travel options, wherein each travel option is associated with a respective mode of transportation. Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method or computer readable code for customizing a travel itinerary for a traveler. Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method or computer readable code for presenting information about pricing of at least three targeted travel services on a single screen including a plurality of distinct bundling combinations.

The present invention allocates the supply of critical components and manufacturing capacity by optimizing critical material planning decisions and dynamically allocating constrained materials using advanced substitution logic that considers alternate suppliers and supports product life cycle from design through end-of-life. The present invention may utilize unique synchronized allocations and matched sets logic. The synchronized allocations ensure that all materials necessary for production are available in the appropriate time-phased allocation before beginning production to minimize wasted production capacity and materials. The supply system may include various combination of components, including a Supply Planner, a Resource Optimizer, a Constraint Based Master Planner, a Product Change Analyzer, a Comparer, a Resource Requirements Planner, a Finite Resource Planner, a Customer Promiser, and an Interactive Master Scheduler. Another embodiment of the supply system includes a tool that allows users to define products using engineering specifications.

The present invention sets forth a system, method, and computer program product for automating an interaction between a buyer and an electronic, variable, dynamic pricing online auction service. The method can include receiving a registration of a buyer at an Internet enabled buyer bidding site, a portfolio, and account information. The method can also receive entered information about financial transaction instruments, contact information, and product preferences in an auction profile. The method can receive a search query for a desired product from product auctions of a plurality of auction sites and can use a search agent or a meta-search agent, and can provide returned auctions, including retrieving and presenting current status of product auctions. The method can receive a selection of returned auctions to store in the portfolio for tracking by scan agents and for bidding by bid proxies. The method can receive selections of product auctions of the returned auctions and place the product auctions into the portfolio for use by a cascaded bid proxy. The method can provide auction monitoring by scan agents of temporal progression of product auctions, and can notify someone via a messaging center of any changes in relevant aspects of the status that could prevent an initial bid from being placed by a bid proxy. The method can enable activation of bid proxies as an auction nears completion to begin placing bids until the auction is won or lost by auction closing and can confirm a counter-offer has not out-bid. The method can compute and execute another higher bid if a counter-offer has been made and accepted, higher than the most recent bid detected

A system and method for facilitating, coordinating and managing the operation of a competitive marketplace via the Internet. The system and method collect bids for market services from a plurality of customers, calculators a clearing piece for the market service and calculates settlement information based on the clearing piece calculated and the bids collected.

Some embodiments provide a system for fully autonomous order fulfillment and inventory management within a distribution site or warehouse. The system operates by autonomous robots directly pulling customer order items from distribution site shelves or pulling individual bins from distribution site shelves and dispensing appropriate quantities of items from the bins until all items of a customer order are retrieved without human involvement. The system further involves the robots autonomously monitoring item quantities within the distribution site, identifying and autonomously responding to shortages, and organizing the items within the distribution site for most efficient order fulfillment.

A slot machine issues a percentage of one or more progressive awards based upon any wager level ("Percentage Progressive"). In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the Percentage Progressive concept operates as follows: The game displays the total progressive award amount; The player sets the wager; The game displays a Percentage Progressive value based upon the wager level; The player presses the spin button; The reels to spin and stop; The player collects credits for any winning combinations appearing on the reels, including pay table and progressive awards. In the event of a progressive award, the player receives the Percentage Progressive value * total progressive award amount. The preferred embodiment of the present invention, therefore, allows players to participate in progressive awards at any wager level.

A process and apparatus for free form fabrication of a three-dimensional work piece comprising (a) feeding raw material in a solid state to a first predetermined location; (b) depositing the raw material onto a substrate as a molten pool deposit under a first processing condition; (c) monitoring the molten pool deposit for a preselected condition; (d) comparing information about the preselected condition of the monitored molten pool deposit with a predetermined desired value for the preselected condition of the monitored molten pool deposit; (e) solidifying the molten pool deposit; (f) automatically altering the first processing condition to a different processing condition based upon information obtained from the comparing step (d); and repeating steps (a) through (f) at one or more second locations for building up layer by layer a three-dimensional work piece. The apparatus is characterized by a detector that monitors a preselected condition of the deposited material and a closed loop electronic control device for controlling operation of one or more components of the apparatus in response to a detected condition by the detector.

A method is disclosed which enables travelers to discover other travelers with similar and compatible travel plans, for purposes of contacting them and negotiating shared travel agreements. Travel plans are characterized quantitatively, enabling numerical measurement of the match between a pair of plans. Dependence upon similarity of place names is eliminated. The temporal difference between plans is converted to an equivalent distance difference and summed with the origin and destination differences to yield a single number ranking the match. Plans are ordered by this ranking against a search specification. The method is more compatible than the prior art with computer automation, and is accessible via the Internet.

If some aspect of serving or scoring an ad is subject to a performance (e.g., click-through rate, etc.) threshold, such a threshold may be adjusted using a confidence factor of the ad targeting used. For example, ads served pursuant to a more relaxed notion of match might have to meet a higher performance threshold (e.g., than the threshold applied to ads served pursuant to a stricter notion of match). Alternatively, or in addition, ads served pursuant to a stricter notion of match might be subject to a lower performance threshold (e.g., than the threshold applied to ads served pursuant to a more relaxed notion of match. Thus, in general, a performance threshold could increase as match confidence decreases, and/or a performance threshold could decrease as match confidence increases.