Applications
of an Implosion Engine
Brenda
Dietrich
Department
Manager
Mathematical
Sciences Department,
In response to world-wide chip
shortages in the late 1980's, IBM extended its Enterprise Material Logistics
System to address component shortages through the implementation of an
Enterprise Shortfall Implosion Tool. The implosion capability, which allocates
scare parts to products, was developed by IBM Research. The implosion engine,
implemented both as a fast heuristics and as an exact linear-programming based
solver, has been used for a wide range of resource allocation processes within
IBM for over 10 years. In this talk I will discuss the underlying model, the LP
formulation, the basic heuristic and its more sophisticated variations, and the
software development and deployment processes used throughout this decade long
project.