Method and apparatus for product management
View Patent ↗A method for product portfolio analysis includes selecting a set of solution points along a curve of order benefit as a function of the number of products in a product portfolio and performing a heuristic between an adjacent pair of solution points that approximates the curve between the adjacent pair of solution points. An apparatus that can perform the product portfolio analysis is also described.
1. A method for product portfolio analysis, comprising:
selecting, via a Central Processing Unit (“CPU”), a set of optimal solution points along a curve of revenue as a function of the number of products in a product portfolio stored in memory; and
performing an approximation via the CPU between an adjacent pair of optimal solution points that approximates the curve of revenue as a function of the number of products in the product portfolio, the approximation includes:
solving for
λ
=
R
(
O
1
)
-
R
(
O
2
)
C
1
-
C
2
,
wherein R(O 1 ) is a revenue for a first subset of orders, R(O 2 ) is a revenue for a second subset of orders, |C 1 | is the number of products in the first subset of orders, |C 2 | is the number of products in the second subset of orders and λ is a penalty multiplier.
2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the selecting comprises using a linear program to find the set of optimal solution points.
3. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the linear program comprises a Lagrangian Relaxation.