CONSTRAINT OPTIMIZATION METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

A method of determining availability of a plurality of loading points for an appointment to be scheduled, wherein the availability of each loading point is variably constrained based upon attributes of the appointment and availability of other resources. The preferred method comprises determining a plurality of constraints related to the loading point and to the attributes of the appointment to be scheduled, deriving, from the plurality of constraints related to the loading point and to the attributes of the appointment to be scheduled, a plurality of binary temporal constraint masks, and combining the masks of the plurality of binary temporal constraint masks to create a binary temporal availability mask. The method may present availability of at least one loading point of the plurality of loading points, wherein the presented availability of the loading point is derived from the binary temporal availability mask for the loading point.