FINDING MINIMUM COST TRANSPORTATION ROUTES FOR ORDERS THROUGH A TRANSPORTATION NETWORK

• US 20140180958A1
• Filed: 12/16/2013
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: ARUNAPURAM, Sundararajan, WANG, Yun, TSUKADA, Thomas Kaeppel Payne, DRUMMOND, Albert Charles Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 10,007,889 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/338
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for enterprise software application modules for order consolidation management. The method commences by receiving a set of orders where individual orders have one or more order constraints, then mapping the orders onto one or more transportation legs, where the individual transportation legs have leg constraints. A set of feasible paths through the legs for the orders is generated and ranked based on a total cost through the legs to pick-up an order from a source location and deliver it to a destination location. The method continues by determining a set of shortest paths through a transportation network for the set of orders, wherein the determination of any one of the shortest paths is made subject to honoring respective order constraints while concurrently honoring the leg constraints. The orders are then remapped onto one of the shortest paths.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

using a computing system having at least one processor to perform a process, the process comprising;

receiving a set of orders, at least some of the orders having one or more order constraints, the order constraints comprising at least one of, a time constraint, a consolidation constraint, and a packing constraint;

mapping the orders onto one or more transportation legs, at least some of the transportation legs having leg constraints;

determining a set of candidate paths through a transportation network for the set of orders, wherein the determination of any one of the candidate paths is made subject to honoring respective order constraints;

analyzing the set of candidate paths based at least in part upon a cost of transporting the orders using the transportation legs; and

mapping at least some of the orders of the set of orders to a selected one of the analyzed candidate paths.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a set of additional orders, at least some of the set of additional orders having at least one respective order constraint; and

mapping at least some of the orders of the set of additional orders to a selected one of the analyzed candidate paths subject to honoring respective order constraints.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the honored order constraints comprises a content characteristic of the order.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the honored order constraints comprises a source location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the honored order constraints comprises a destination location.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising honoring a carrier capacity constraint.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the set of candidate paths uses a linear programming network solver.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising ordering the analyzed candidate paths by a sum of costs associated with each leg.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping includes sequencing of pickup and delivery stop constraints.

10. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a process to implement finding minimum cost transportation routes by consolidating orders under relaxed constraints, the process comprising:

receiving a set of orders, at least some of the orders having one or more order constraints, the order constraints comprising at least one of, a time constraint, a consolidation constraint, and a packing constraint;

mapping the orders onto one or more transportation legs, at least some of the transportation legs having leg constraints;

determining a set of candidate paths through a transportation network for the set of orders, wherein the determination of any one of the candidate paths is made subject to honoring respective order constraints;

analyzing the set of candidate paths based at least in part upon a cost of transporting the orders using the transportation legs; and

mapping at least some of the orders of the set of orders to a selected one of the analyzed candidate paths.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions for:

receiving a set of additional orders, at least some of the set of additional orders having at least one respective order constraint; and

mapping at least some of the orders of the set of additional orders to a selected one of the analyzed candidate paths subject to honoring respective order constraints.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein at least one of the honored order constraints comprises a content characteristic of the order.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein at least one of the honored order constraints comprises a source location.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein at least one of the honored order constraints comprises a destination location.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions for honoring a carrier capacity constraint.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein analyzing the set of candidate paths uses a linear programming network solver.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising ordering the analyzed candidate paths by a sum of costs associated with each leg.

18. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein mapping includes sequencing of pickup and delivery stop constraints.

19. A computer system comprising:

a consolidator module to receive a set of orders, at least some of the orders having one or more order constraints, the order constraints comprising at least one of, a time constraint, a consolidation constraint, and a packing constraint, wherein the orders are mapped onto one or more transportation legs, at least some of the transportation legs having leg constraints;

a routing engine solver to determine a set of candidate paths through a transportation network for the set of orders, wherein the determination of any one of the candidate paths is made subject to honoring respective order constraints; and

a mapping engine to analyze the set of candidate paths based at least in part upon a cost of transporting the orders using the transportation legs, the set of analyzed candidate paths used in mapping at least some of the orders of the set of orders to a selected one of the analyzed candidate paths.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein ordering the analyzed candidate paths is determined by calculating a sum of costs associated with each leg.