Detection of inner pack receive errors

• US 10,074,071 B1
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Engdahl, Patrick Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Iwarere, Oluseye
• Application Number:
  US14/732,176
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 235379, 705 28, 705407, 340 1331
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Embodiments herein described relate to methods for enabling the detection of inner pack receive errors at a receiving site for a marketplace by comparing quantities of predicted and received items by receiving a predicted quantity, determining a received quantity, performing a modulus division of the predicted and received quantities of items, and using the remainder to detect the presence of inner packs within received packages of items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting inner pack receive errors at a package receiving site that receives a first package containing a plurality of second packages, each second package containing at least one stowable unit, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system at the package receiving site, a first count indicating a first prediction of a number of stowable units in the first package;

receiving a second count indicating a number of second packages originating from the first package having undergone a stowing operation; and

performing a predictive troubleshooting act comprising;

determining that the first count is not equal to the second count;

performing a modulus division of the first count with respect to the second count, resulting in a remainder;

detecting an inner pack receive error based at least in part on the remainder; and

providing an indication for presentation to a user that the inner pack receive error has been detected.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein detecting an inner pack receive error comprises detecting that the first count is greater than the second count and that the remainder is zero.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing an indication for presentation further comprises providing instructions to unpack an inner package.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising updating vendor information by generating a flag indicating at least that an inner pack receive error has been detected and associating the flag with the vendor information.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first count further comprises:

receiving a carton identifier corresponding to the first package; and

obtaining the first count from a data store based in part on the carton identifier.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first count further comprises:

receiving information concerning a physical parameter of the first package; and

obtaining the first count based in part on the physical parameter.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the second count further comprises:

receiving a plurality of instances of data indicating that the plurality of second packages has been scanned; and

determining the second count by counting a number of the instances.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the first count is greater than the second count; and

detecting the inner pack receive error based at least in part on the first item count being greater than the second count.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein detecting the inner pack receive error further comprises determining that the remainder is within a range from 0 to n;

and wherein n is within a predefined range.

10. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory including instructions that, when executed with the one or more processors, cause the system to, at least;

receive a first package at a package receiving site, the first package having a first identifier and containing a plurality of second packages therein, each second package containing at least one stowable unit;

generate, at a first processing operation, a first quantity corresponding to a number of stowable units in the first package based at least in part on the first identifier;

generate, at a second processing operation, a second quantity based on the plurality of second packages;

perform a division based on the first quantity and the second quantity, resulting in a remainder;

detect one of an inner pack receive error or a broken set receive error based at least in part on the remainder; and

provide an indication for presentation to a user that the inner pack receive error or broken set receive error has been detected.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the system to, at least, detect the one of an inner pack receive error or a broken set receive error by at least determining that the remainder is 0.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the system to, at least, detect the one of an inner pack receive error or a broken set receive error by further determining that the remainder is within a range from 0 to n, where a value of n is based in part on the first quantity.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the system to, at least, generate the first quantity by, at least:

receiving vendor information based in part on the first identifier; and

retrieving the first quantity from a data store based in part on the vendor information.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the system to generate the first quantity by, at least:

receiving physical parameter information concerning a physical parameter of the first package; and

generating the first quantity based in part of the physical parameter information.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the system to, at least, obtain data concerning the first identifier from an input device via a wireless network.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein:

each of the plurality of second packages has a respective second identifier; and

the instructions further cause the system to generate the second quantity based at least in part on the respective second identifier of each of the plurality of second packages.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the system to provide an indication for presentation to a user with directions to unpack a second package.

18. A computer-implemented method for detecting broken set receive errors at a package receiving site that receives a first package containing a plurality of second packages, each second package containing at least one stowable unit, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system at the package receiving site, a first count indicating a first prediction of a number of stowable units in the first package;

receiving a second count indicating a number of second packages originating from the first package having undergone a stowing operation; and

performing a predictive troubleshooting act comprising;

determining that the first count is not equal to the second count;

performing a modulus division of the first count with respect to the second count, resulting in a remainder;

detecting a broken set receive error based at least in part on the remainder; and

providing an indication for presentation to a user that the broken set receive error has been detected.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining that the second count is greater than the first count;

detecting the broken set receive error based at least in part on the second count being greater than the first count.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein providing an indication for presentation further comprises providing instructions to unpack an second package.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising updating vendor information by generating a flag indicating at least that a broken set receive error has been detected and associating the flag with the vendor information.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein receiving the first count further comprises:

receiving a first package identifier corresponding to the first package; and

obtaining the first count from a data store based in part on the first package identifier.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein receiving the first count further comprises:

receiving information concerning a physical parameter of the first package; and

obtaining the first count based in part on the physical parameter.

24. The computer-implemented method claim 18, wherein receiving the second count further comprises:

receiving a plurality of instances of data indicating that the plurality of second packages has been scanned; and

determining the second count by counting a number of the instances.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein detecting the broken set receive error further comprises determining that the remainder is within a range from 0 to n;

and wherein n is within a predefined range.