Infeasibility Management in E-Sourcing Systems
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for providing feedback in an electronic sourcing system. A system is configured to receive bids from users in an electronic sourcing system. Additionally, the system receives one or more rules from the users that describe desired properties of an award of one or more items. Responsive to such input, the system builds a model based at least in part on rules provided by one or more users. If one or more irreducible infeasible sets of constraints are identified in the model, where the one or more sets of irreducible infeasible constraints include the given constraint, information based on said one or more irreducible infeasible sets is output.
1 . A computer-implemented method of conducting e-sourcing comprising:
receiving via a computing device from a bidder a bid on an item;
receiving via a computing device a rule that describes a desired property of an award of one or more items;
a model builder electronically constructing a model including a plurality of constraints, said plurality of constraints including:
a given constraint based at least in part on said rule; and
a mapping between said rule and said given constraint;
subsequent to identifying one or more irreducible infeasible sets of constraints in the model, where the one or more sets of irreducible infeasible constraints include the given constraint, outputting information identifying one or more incompatible constraints.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said model comprises a mixed integer programming problem.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said identifying is done using a mixed integer programming solver.
4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the model builder constructing a non-linear programming problem.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said identifying is done using a non-linear programming solver.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said information comprises an identification of constraints in said one or more irreducible infeasible sets and said mapping.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sets of irreducible infeasible sets of constraints are caused by at least one rule, and said information includes an identification of the at least one rule.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said information comprises a report in the form of a spreadsheet, text document, word processor document, or pdf file.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more irreducible infeasible sets of constraints include one or more rules, and wherein the method further comprises relaxing one or more of the rules identified as part of an infeasible set of rules.
10 . A computing system comprising:
a data store configured to store data; and
a processing system, wherein the processing system is configured to:
receive via a computing device from a bidder a bid on an item;
receive via a computing device a rule that describes a desired property of an award of one or more items;
construct a model including a plurality of constraints, said plurality of constraints including:
a given constraint based at least in part on said rule; and
a mapping between said rule and said given constraint;
subsequent to identifying one or more irreducible infeasible sets of constraints in the model, where the one or more sets of irreducible infeasible constraints include the given constraint, output information identifying one or more incompatible constraints.
11 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein said model comprises a mixed integer programming problem
12 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein said identifying is done using a mixed integer programming solver executed by the processing system.
13 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the processing system is further configured to construct a non-linear programming problem.
14 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein said identifying is done using a non-linear programming solver executed by the processing system.
15 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein said information comprises an identification of constraints in said one or more irreducible infeasible sets and said mapping.
16 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more sets of irreducible infeasible sets of constraints are caused by at least one rule, and said information includes an identification of the at least one rule.
17 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein said information comprises a report in the form of a spreadsheet, text document, word processor document, or pdf file.
18 . The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more irreducible infeasible sets of constraints include one or more rules, and wherein the method further comprises relaxing one or more of the rules identified as part of an infeasible set of rules.
19 . One or more non-transitory computer readable media comprising program instructions executable to:
receive via a computing device from a bidder a bid on an item;
receive via a computing device a rule that describes a desired property of an award of one or more items;
construct a model including a plurality of constraints, said plurality of constraints including:
a given constraint based at least in part on said rule; and
a mapping between said rule and said given constraint;
subsequent to identifying one or more irreducible infeasible sets of constraints in the model, where the one or more sets of irreducible infeasible constraints include the given constraint, output information identifying one or more incompatible constraints.
20 . The one or more non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 19 , wherein said information comprises an identification of constraints in said one or more irreducible infeasible sets and said mapping.