Methods for supply chain management incorporating uncertainty

A robust method for solving in a computer, optimization problems under uncertainty including the steps of: specifying the uncertainty as a hierarchical series of sets of constraints on parameters, with the parameters restricted to each constraint set forming an ensemble, and the hierarchy of constraints, represented as mathematical sets forming a hierarchy of ensembles, said hierarchy being based on subset, intersection or disjoint relationships amongst them; utilizing optimization techniques to create effective identify minimum and maximum bounds on the each objective function, said bounds depending on the constraints comprising each ensemble of parameters and being computed for each of the assumptions about the future; estimating a volume of candidate ensembles and relating the volume to one or more information theoretic measures; and utilizing information theoretic measures to analyze and improve the candidate iteratively refine the ensembles and associated by changing a specificity of the bounds on the objective function.