System and method for item consolidation

• US 10,387,831 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2018
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramirez, Jeremy C., Solana, Jessica
• Primary Examiner(s): Danneman, Paul
• Application Number:
  US15/917,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20180260770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for improved warehouse operations are provided. A consolidation processor (manual or automatic) establishes a connection to a warehouse management system. The current collection location of the consolidation processor may maybe established either manually or by automatically transmitting their current physical location in a facility to the warehouse management system. The warehouse management system may then direct the consolidation processor to a collection location to collect items for consolidation. This direction may be given based on one or more parameters.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of consolidating items from a plurality of consolidation locations, comprising:

receiving at a processor information about items at each respective consolidation location, the information including an item priority and an associated customer for each respective item, wherein items associated with different customers are located at the same consolidation location;

receiving at the processor location information regarding a location of a consolidation processor;

determining with the processor a number of items available for consolidation at each consolidation location in an area around the location of consolidation processor;

determining with the processor a distance from the location of the consolidation processor to each of the consolidation locations with available items;

determining with the processor an order priority for each consolidation location based on the respective item priorities of the available items at that consolidation location;

receiving at the processor, for each consolidation location, a respective weight for;

the distance from the location of the consolidation processor to that consolidation location;

the order priority of that consolidation location; and

a number of items available at that consolidation location;

determining with the processor, for each consolidation location, a priority score based on the distance from that location of the consolidation processor to that consolidation location the order priority for that consolidation location, the number of items available at that consolidation location and each of the respective weights;

providing instructions to the consolidation processor to proceed to a designated consolidation location based on the priority scores and to scan items at that designated consolidation location;

receiving via a scanner information scanned from the items; and

processing the scanned information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising wherein determining the order priority for each consolidation location is based on an average of the item priorities for the available items at that consolidation location or a maximum priority, depending on a setting in the system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing instructions to the consolidation processor to select items from the designated consolidation location based on the respective item priorities of the items available at the designated consolidation location and whether an item completes an order.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing instructions to the consolidation processor to select items from the designated consolidation location based on whether an item is the next to last step in completing the order and whether an item is starting an order.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a zone for the consolidation processor based on the location of the consolidation processor and determining the distance to consolidation locations in that zone.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the consolidation processor is entered manually by the consolidation processor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location is determined based on at least one of one GPS or Wi-Fi.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising recalculating the order priority for remaining items at the designated consolidation location after one of the items at the designated consolidation location is scanned.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the consolidation processor is a robot.

10. A computer implemented method of consolidating items from a plurality of consolidation locations, comprising:

receiving at a processor information about items at each respective consolidation location, the information including an item priority and an associated customer for each respective item, wherein items associated with different customers are located at the same consolidation location;

receiving at a processor location information regarding a current location of a consolidation processor;

determining with the processor a number of items available for consolidation at each consolidation location in an area around the current location of consolidation processor;

determining with the processor a distance from the current location of the consolidation processor to each of the consolidation locations with available items;

determining with the processor an order priority for each consolidation location based on the respective item priorities of the available items at that consolidation location;

receiving at the processor, for each consolidation location, a weight for;

the distance from the location of the consolidation processor to that consolidation location;

the order priority of that consolidation location; and

a number of items available at that consolidation location;

determining with the processor, for each consolidation location, a priority score based on the distance from that location of the consolidation processor to that consolidation location the order priority for that consolidation location, the number of items available at that consolidation location, and each of the respective weights;

providing instructions to the consolidation processor to proceed to a designated consolidation location with a highest priority scores;

providing instructions to the consolidation processor to scan items at that consolidation location based on whether the item completes an order, whether the item is the next to last step in completing the order and whether the item is starting an order;

receiving via a processor information scanned from the items; and

processing the scanned information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the location is entered manually by the consolidation processor.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the location is determined based on at least one of one GPS or Wi-Fi.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising recalculating the order priority for remaining items at the designated consolidation location after one of the items at the designated consolidation location is scanned.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving information about items at each respective consolidation location, the information including an item priority and an associated customer for each respective item, wherein items associated with different customers are located at the same consolidation location;

receiving location information regarding a location of a consolidation processor;

determining a number of items available for consolidation at each consolidation location in an area around the location of consolidation processor;

determining a distance from the location of the consolidation processor to each of the consolidation locations with available items;

determining an order priority for each consolidation location based on the respective item priorities of the available items at that consolidation location;

receiving, for each consolidation location, a respective weight for;

the distance from the location of the consolidation processor to that consolidation location;

the order priority of that consolidation location; and

a number of items available at that consolidation location;

determining, for each consolidation location, a priority score based on the distance from that location of the consolidation processor to that consolidation location the order priority for that consolidation location, the number of items available at that consolidation location and each of the respective weights;

providing instructions to the consolidation processor to proceed to a designated consolidation location based on the priority scores and to scan items at that designated consolidation location;

receiving via a scanner information scanned from the items; and

processing the scanned information.