STOW AND SORTATION SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A sortation system, comprising:
- a control system; and
a stow and sortation station, wherein the stow and sortation station comprises a plurality of locations for stowing collections of items picked from inventory storage of a materials handling facility to fulfill a plurality of orders, wherein each collection includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage of the materials handling facility to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders;
wherein the control system is configured to;
detect that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at locations of the stow and sortation station; and
direct picks for the particular orders at the stow and sortation station into order receptacles corresponding to the particular orders in response to said detection.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
System and method for sortation of picked inventory into individual orders in an order fulfillment process, for example order fulfillment processes in materials handling facilities. Collections of items picked from inventory for multiple orders are stowed to locations at a stow and sortation station. The items for a particular order may be stowed to two or more different locations, and items for two or more orders may be stowed to one location; no particular location is assigned to or reserved for each order. Thus, no space is allocated or reserved for incomplete orders at the station. When all items for a particular order are stowed to locations at the station, the order may be picked from the various locations at the station and placed into order receptacles. The order receptacles may be shipping containers.
72 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A sortation system, comprising:
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a control system; and a stow and sortation station, wherein the stow and sortation station comprises a plurality of locations for stowing collections of items picked from inventory storage of a materials handling facility to fulfill a plurality of orders, wherein each collection includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage of the materials handling facility to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders; wherein the control system is configured to; detect that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at locations of the stow and sortation station; and direct picks for the particular orders at the stow and sortation station into order receptacles corresponding to the particular orders in response to said detection. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by the processor to; receive from a stow and sortation station information associating collections of items with particular locations of the stow and sortation station to which the collections of items are stowed, wherein each collection includes one or more units of items picked from inventory storage of a materials handling facility to fulfill one or more of a plurality of orders; detect that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at locations of the stow and sortation station; initiate picks for the particular orders at the stow and sortation station in response to said detection; and direct the picking of units of items for the particular orders from the plurality of locations and the placement of the picked units into order receptacles corresponding to the particular orders. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A method, comprising:
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picking collections of items from inventory storage of a materials handling facility to fulfill a plurality of orders, wherein each collection includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage of the materials handling facility to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders; conveying the collections of items to a stow and sortation station; stowing the collections of items to a plurality of locations of the stow and sortation station; detecting that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at the stow and sortation station; picking units of items for the particular orders from two or more of the plurality of locations; and placing the units of items picked for the particular orders from the two or more locations into order receptacles corresponding to the particular orders. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A computer-accessible storage medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to implement:
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receiving from a stow and sortation station information associating collections of items with particular locations of the stow and sortation station to which the collections of items are stowed, wherein each collection includes one or more units of items picked from inventory storage of a materials handling facility to fulfill one or more of a plurality of orders; detecting that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at locations of the stow and sortation station; initiating picks for the particular orders at the stow and sortation station in response to said detection; and directing the picking of units of items for the particular orders from the plurality of locations and the placement of the picked units into order receptacles corresponding to the particular orders. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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25. A materials handling facility, comprising:
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a control system; an inventory storage; and one or more stow and sortation stations, wherein each stow and sortation station comprises a plurality of locations for stowing collections of items picked from the inventory storage to fulfill a plurality of orders, wherein each collection includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage of the materials handling facility to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders; wherein the control system is configured to; direct picking of the collections of items from the inventory storage to fulfill the plurality of orders; receive information from each stow and sortation station for each stowed collection indicating a particular location to which the collection is stowed; detect that all units of items for a particular order are stowed at one or more locations of one of the stow and sortation stations; and direct a pick for the particular order at the stow and sortation station into one or more order receptacles corresponding to the particular order in response to said detection.
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Specification