Order processing method and apparatus

• US 4,672,553 A
• Filed: 04/17/1986
• Issued: 06/09/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/1983
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Goody Products Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Goody Products Incorporated
• Inventors: Goldberg, Stanley
• Primary Examiner(s): Harkcom, Gary V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Application Number:
  US06/854,080
• Time in Patent Office: 418 Days
• Field of Search: 364/200, 364/900, 364/478, 364/479, 364/460, 364/476, 414/134, 414/135, 414/136, 198/349, 198/350, 198/502, 198/503, 198/856, 209/552, 209/509, 209/564, 209/559, 209/565, 209/566, 235/383, 235/385, 235/424, 235/425, 221/1
• US Class Current: 700/216
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

In the disclosed method and apparatus, item-identifying codes of packages loaded onto a conveyor are scanned and, based on comparisons with the items in a group of orders stored in a computer, the packages are distributed to corresponding order-assembly lanes while account is kept of the distributed packages. In a preferred embodiment, one code-reader is located at the supply end of the conveyor system and packages are tracked in the computer for delivery to respective order-assembly lanes, deducting from order requirements at the time of scanning and correcting for the deductions if timely deliveries are not effected. Where belt conveyors are used and "slip" of a package behind its theoretical maximum travel speed may occur, package travel is monitored and operation of the system is halted in case of excessive delay of a package along any travel segment. The actual "slip" of each tracked package occurring along each segment of the conveyor system, unless excessive, is erased in monitoring travel of the packages along each succeeding conveyor segment, thereby avoiding tracking complications due to pyramiding of tolerable sequential "slips" along successive segments of the conveyor system.

Claims

1. Apparatus for concurrently processing a group of orders, wherein each order specifies items of one or more varieties and specifies a quantity of items of each variety, by selectively distributing items in the orders to separate order-assembly locations related to the orders of the group, items of the same variety having a common characterization without regard to whether they appear in one or more of the orders and items of different varieties having different characterizations, said apparatus including

i. conveyor means for carrying a series of items to be distributed to the separate order-assembly locations, said conveyor means including plural selective delivery means for directing items carried by the conveyor means selectively to the separate order-assembly locations;

ii. item registering means for registering the characterizations of the items carried by the conveyor means;

iii. order registering means comprising (a) order identifying means for storing identifications of the orders of the group to be processed concurrently, and (b) means for storing characterizations of the varieties of items required in the respective orders, the stored identifications of the orders and the stored characterizations of the items in the orders being related to each other, and (c) means for storing the quantity of each variety of item required in each order;

iv. order selecting means jointly responsive to both said item registering means and said order registering means (a) for selecting respective orders, if any, in said order registering means that require the items carried by the conveyor means, said order selecting means including means for comparing each registered item characterization with a succession of stored item characterizations, thereby allocating such items to the selected orders, respectively;

v. means responsive to said order selection means for controlling said plural selective delivery means to direct each allocated item to a selected one of said order-assembly locations that is related to the selected order; and

vi. means for continuously accounting for the allocation of items to said selected orders, said accounting means controlling said selecting means for preventing selection of any order and allocation of any item to any order exceeding the quantity of that item in the quantity storing means for that item related to that order.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said conveyor means includes a succession of portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means, wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed along the conveyor means in advance of all of said plurality selective delivery means, said apparatus further including means for verifying the delivery of each allocated item to the selected one of said separate order-assembly locations, and means responsive to the verifying means in case of failure of an item to be delivered to said selected one of said separate order-assembly locations for disabling all of said plural selective delivery means from delivering items to said separate order-assembly locations and for maintaining said succession of plural conveyor portions in operation while said plural selective delivery means remain disabled, thereby causing all the items on said succession of plural conveyor portions to be delivered non-selectively to a common location.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said conveyor means includes a succession of portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means, wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed along the conveyor means in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, said apparatus further including means for verifying the delivery of each allocated item to the selected one of said separate order-assembly locations approximately at a time when such delivery should occur in the course of routine operation of the conveyor means, and means responsive to the verifying means in case of failure of an item to be delivered to said selected one of said separate order-assembly locations approximately at said time for disabling all of said plural selective delivery means for delivering items to said separate order-assembly locations and for maintaining said succession of plural conveyor portions in operation while said plural selective delivery means remain disabled, thereby causing the items on said succession of plural conveyor portions to be delivered non-selectively to a common location.

4. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said conveyor means includes a succession of plural portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means, wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, said apparatus further including means for verifying the delivery of each allocated item to the selected one of said separate order-assembly locations, means responsive to the verifying means in case of failure of an item to be delivered to said selected one of said separate order-assembly locations for disabling all of said plural selective delivery means from delivering items to said separate order-assembly locations and for maintaining said succession of plural portions of the conveyor means in operation while said plural selective delivery means remains disabled, thereby causing the items on the succession of plural portions of the conveyor to be delivered non-selectively to a common location, further including means responsive to said verifying means for correcting the aforesaid accounting means corresponding to the items on the successive of plural portions of the conveyor means while operation of the plural selective delivery means is disabled.

5. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said conveyor means includes a succession of plural portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means, wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, said apparatus further including means for verifying the delivery of each allocated item to the selected one of said separate order-assembly locations approximately at a time when such delivery should occur in the course of routine operation of the conveyor means, means responsive to the verifying means in case of failure of an item to be delivered to said selected one of said separate order-assembly locations approximately at said time for disabling all of said plural selective delivery means from delivering items to said separate order-assembly locations and for maintaining said succession of plural portions of the conveyor means in operation while said plural selective delivery means remains disabled, thereby causing items on the succession of plural portions of the conveyor to be delivered non-selectively to a common location, further including means responsive to said verifying means for correcting the aforesaid accounting means corresponding to the items on the succession of plural portions of the conveyor means while operation of the plural selective delivery means is disabled.

6. Apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said item characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed along said conveyor means in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, and wherein said accounting means accounts for the items allocated to a selected order when the allocation is made, said apparatus further including means for verifying delivery of each allocated item to the order-assembly location related to the selected order and means controlled by said verifying means for correcting the accounting means in case an item allocated to a selected order is not delivered to said selected one of said order-assembly locations.

7. Apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said item characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed along said conveyor means in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, and wherein said accounting means accounts for the items allocated to the respective orders when the allocations are made, said apparatus further including means for verifying discharge of each item to one of said separate order-assembly locations related to the selected order approximately at a time when such discharge should occur in the course of routine operation of the conveyor means, and means controlled by said verifying means for correcting the accounting means in case an item allocated to an identified order is not discharged to said selected one of said separate order-assembly locations approximately at said time.

12. Apparatus as in claim 8 or 1 wherein said conveyor means includes a succession of plural portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means and wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, said jointly responsive means including an indexable active table having at least as many table positions for data as separate items to be carried concurrently on the conveyor means, said jointly responsive means also including means for entering control data in such table positions for causing operation of selected ones of said plural selective delivery means and further including means responsive to the data in said active table positions for activating the selected ones of said plural selective delivery means.

13. Apparatus as in claim 8 or 1 wherein each said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed in advance of said plural selective delivery means for scanning items carried by the conveyor means, and wherein said conveyor means includes plural serially related conveyor portions for transporting items from the scanner along a path that extends to said plural selective delivery means in succession, further including prescribed time representing means for representing prescribed travel times of items traveling predetermined distances along said plural serially related conveyor portions, plural actual travel time representing means for representing actual times taken by items in traversing predetermined distances along said plural serially related conveyor portions, there being at least as many actual travel time representing means as items to be carried concurrently by the conveyor means, and means responsive to said prescribed time representing means and said plural actual travel time representing means for signalling excessive deviation of the actual travel time of any item traversing any of said predetermined distances from the prescribed travel times for items traveling those predetermined distances.

14. Apparatus as in claim 13 including an active table having at least as many active table positions as separate items to be carried concurrently by the conveyor means, said plural actual travel time representing means including respective pulse counters forming parts of said active table positions, respectively, and including a tach pulse generator coupled to and operable in coordination with a portion of said conveyor means for providing timing pulses to said pulse counters.

15. Apparatus as in claim 8 or 1 wherein each said package-characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed in advance of said plural selective delivery means for scanning items carried by the conveyor means, and wherein said conveyor means includes plural serially related conveyor portions for transporting items from the scanner along a path that extends to said plural selective delivery means in succession, further including plural actual travel time representing means for representing the actual travel times taken, respectively, by plural items in successively traversing prescribed distances along said path, there being at least as many of said plural actual travel time representing means as separate items to be carried concurrently by the conveyor means, and means responsive to said plural actual travel time indicating means for signalling excessive time taken by any of the items in traversing any of said prescribed distances.

16. Apparatus as in claim 15 including an active table having at least as many active table positions as separate items to be carried concurrently by the conveyor means, said plural actual travel time representing means including respective pulse counters forming parts of said active table positions, respectively, and including a tach pulse generator coupled to and operable in coordination with a portion of said conveyor means for providing timing pulses to said pulse counters.

17. Apparatus as in claim 8 or 1 wherein each said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed in advance of said plural selective delivery means for scanning items carried by the conveyor means, and wherein said conveyor means includes plural serially related conveyor portions for transporting items from the scanner along a path that extends to said plural selective delivery means in succession, further including plural actual travel time representing means for representing the actual travel times taken by successive items in being transported by any of said plural serially related conveyor portions, there being at least as many of said plural actual travel time representing means as separate items to be carried concurrently by the conveyor means, plural detectors for signalling the arrival of items at discrete positions along the plural serially related conveyor portions, respectively, and means responsive to any of said plural detectors and to said plural actual time indicating means for signalling the absence of any item being transported along any of said plural serially related conveyor portions having an actual travel time of at least a predetermined minimum.

18. Apparatus as in claim 17 including an active table having at least as many active table positions as separate items to be carried concurrently by the conveyor means, said plural actual travel time representing means including respective pulse counters forming parts of said active table positions, respectively, and including a tach pulse generator coupled to and operable in coordination with a portion of said conveyor means for providing timing pulses to said pulse counters.

21. Apparatus as in any of claims 1, 2, 7, 14, or 15 wherein said conveyor means includes a common conveyor portion for supplying items to said plural selective delivery means, and wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a single scanner at said common conveyor portion.

22. Apparatus as in any of claims 1, 2, 7, 14, or 15 wherein said conveyor means includes a succession of plural portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means and wherein said item-characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed along said conveyor means in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means.

27. Apparatus as in any of claims 22-25 wherein the means for selecting one table position among a group of table positions having a common zone symbol in their zone registers comprises means for testing the timing registers among such group of table positions to identify any of them having an amount in its timing register which exceeds a predetermined difference from the initial amount last previously entered therein, said predetermined difference representing the minimum time for an article to be carried from said entry position to said control position.

8. Apparatus for concurrently processing a group of orders, each order typically requiring items of plural varieties, by assembling items required in the orders at separate order-assembly locations related to the orders of the group, items of the same variety having a common characterization without regard to whether they appear in one or more of the orders and items of different varieties having different characterizations, said apparatus including

i. conveyor means for carrying a series of items to be assembled at the separate order-assembly locations, said conveyor means including plural selective delivery means for directing such items selectively to the separate order-assembly locations;

ii. item registering means for registering the characterizations of the items carried by the conveyor means;

iii. order registering means comprising means for storing identifications of the orders of the group of orders to be processed concurrently and means for storing the requirements for the items of each variety in each order, the stored order identifications and the stored item requirements being related to each other in accordance with the orders;

iv. order selecting means jointly responsive to both said item registering means and one of the item requirements storing means in said order registering means for selecting an order, if any, in said order registering means that requires each item carried by the conveyor means; and

v. means responsive to said order selecting means for controlling said plural selective delivery means to direct items carried by the conveyor means selectively to separate order-assembly locations related to the selected orders.

9. Apparatus for concurrently processing a group of orders as in claim 8, wherein said plural selective delivery means are distributed along a path and wherein said conveyor means includes a series of conveyor portions distributed along said path, there being a series of control positions along said series of conveyor portions forming demarkations between each conveyor portion and the next of the series, at least certain ones of said series of conveyor portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means, at least one of said series of conveyor portions being adapted to carry concurrently plural items distributed along the path, and wherein said means for controlling said plural selective delivery means includes

(a) storage means having a series of initially clear table positions each of which includes a line register, a timing register and a zone register, means responsive to a succession of items appearing at an entry position along said series of conveyor portions for making entries into the registers of successive ones of said series of table positions, respectively, said entries including a divert symbol in its lane register representing one of said plural selective delivery means as determined by said order selecting means and an initial amount in its timing register and a zone symbol in its zone register representing the first of said series of conveyor portions,

(b) means responsive to items carried by at least one of said series of conveyor portions acting as a supply conveyor portion to the next following one of said series of conveyor portions acting as a receiving conveyor portion for making new entries into registers of one of said table positions that has a zone symbol in its zone register representing said supply conveyor portion, said new entries including a new initial amount in its timing register and a new zone symbol in its zone register representing said receiving conveyor portion, with the result that a group of table positions develop having the zone symbol representing any receiving conveyor portion that carries concurrently a plurality of items distributed along the path,

(c) means operative during the operation of said conveyor means for periodically making cumulative unit changes in the timing registers of all table positions containing initial amounts and any cumulative unit changes,

(d) table position locating and selecting means responsive to activating items reaching a control position at the end of each supply conveyor portion, including (1) means for locating each table position whose zone register contains a zone symbol representing said supply conveyor portion, and, for any group of table positions having a common zone symbol in their zone registers, (2) means for selecting that table position of the group whose timing register contains an amount differing most from the most recently entered initial amount among the amounts in the timing registers of said group of table positions, and

(e) means selectively responsive to a divert symbol in the lane register of the located and selected table position for activating one of said plural selective delivery means.

10. Apparatus as in claim 8, including accounting means responsive to requirement said order selecting means for evidencing less-than-complete allocation of the items of each variety to each order as compared to the requirements for the items of each variety in each order, said accounting means controlling said order selecting means for limiting allocation of items of any variety to any order of the group to no more than the requirements for the respective varieties of items in the respective orders.

11. Apparatus as in claim 10, further including means for verifying delivery of each allocated item to the related order-assembly location, and means controlled by said verifying means for correcting the accounting means in case of non-delivery of an allocated item to the related order-assembly location.

19. Apparatus for concurrently processing a group of orders each of which requires items of one or more varieties, by selectively distributing items in the orders to separate order-assembly locations related to the orders of the group, items of the same variety having a common characterization without regard to whether they appear in one or more of the orders and items of different varieties having different characterizations, said apparatus including

i. conveyor means for carrying a series of items to be distributed to the separate order-assembly locations, said conveyor means including plural selective delivery means for directing items carried by the conveyor means selectively to the separate order-assembly locations;

ii. item registering means for registering the characterizations of the items carried by the conveyor means;

iii. order registering means including means for storing identifications of the orders of the group of orders to be processed concurrently and means for representing the net requirement for each variety of item in each of the orders, respectively, of the group to be processed concurrently, the stored order identifications and the represented net requirements for the respective varieties of items in the orders being related to each other, wherein the net requirement for any variety of item in any particular order is the requirement for that variety of item appearing in that order as reduced by operation of the apparatus;

iv. order selecting means jointly responsive to both said item registering means and one of the net requirements representing means in said order registering means for selecting one of the orders, if any, in said order registering means that has a net requirement for each specific item whose characterization is registered in said characterization registering means and thus allocating such item to the selected order, and

v. means responsive to said order selecting means (a) for reducing the net requirement in the selected order for items of the same variety as said allocated item, and (b) for controlling said plural selective delivery means to direct each allocated item selectively to an order-assembly location related to the selected order.

20. Apparatus as in claim 19, wherein said item characterization registering means comprises a scanner disposed in advance of all of said plural selective delivery means, said apparatus further including means for verifying delivery of each allocated item to an order-assembly location related to the selected order, and means controlled by said verifying means for correcting the net requirement of that item as represented in the net requirement representing means of the selected order in case of nondelivery of such item to the order-assembly location related to the selected order.

23. An article tracking conveyor system, including

plural selective delivery means distributed along a path and a series of conveyor portions distributed along said path, at least certain ones of said series of conveyor portions extending to respective ones of said plural selective delivery means, there being a series of control positions along said path forming demarkations between each of said series of conveyor portions and the next of the series, at least one of said series of conveyor portions being adapted to carry concurrently plural articles distributed along the path, and means for tracking articles carried along said path and for controlling said plural selective delivery means, the last-named means including

(a) storage means having a series of initially clear table positions each of which includes a lane register, a timing register and a zone register, the storage means including means responsive to a succession of articles appearing at an entry position along said series of conveyor portions for making entries into the registers of successive ones of said series of table positions, respectively, said entries including a divert symbol in its lane register representing one of said plural selective delivery means, and an initial amount in its timing register and a zone symbol in its zone register representing the first of said series of conveyor portions;

(b) means responsive to articles carried successively by any of said series of conveyor portions acting as a supply conveyor portion to the next of said series of conveyor portions acting as a receiving conveyor portion for making new entries into the registers of one of said table positions that has a zone symbol in its zone register representing said supply conveyor portion, said new entries including a new initial amount in its timing register and a new zone symbol in its zone register representing said receiving conveyor portion, with the result that a group of table positions develop having a zone symbol representing any receiving conveyor portion that carries concurrently a plurality of articles distributed along the path;

(c) means operative during the operation of said series of conveyor portions for periodically making cumulative unit changes in the timing registers of all table positions containing initial amounts and any cumulative unit changes;

(d) table position locating and selecting means responsive to an activating article reaching a control position at the end of any particular supply conveyor portion including (1) means for locating each table position whose zone register contains a zone symbol representing said particular supply conveyor portion and, for any group of table positions having a common zone symbol in their registers, (2) means for selecting that table position among such a group whose timing register contains an amount differing most from the initial amount most recently entered therein among the amounts in the timing registers of such group of table positions; and

(e) means selectively responsive to a divert symbol in the lane register of the located and selected table position for activating one of said plural selective delivery means.

24. An article tracking conveyor system, including a series of conveyor portions distributed along a path past a series of control positions forming the demarkations between each of said series of conveyor portions and the next of the series, at least one of said series of conveyor portions being adapted to carry concurrently plural articles distributed along said path, and means for tracking articles carried along said path including

(a) storage means having a series of initially clear table positions each of which includes a timing register and a zone register, the storage means including means responsive to a succession of articles appearing at an entry position along said series of conveyor portions for making entries in the registers of successive ones of said series of table positions, respectively, said entries including an initial amount in its timing register and a zone symbol in its zone register representing the first of said series of conveyor portions;

(b) means responsive to articles carried successively by any of said series of conveyor portions acting as a supply conveyor portion to the next of said series of conveyor portions acting as a receiving conveyor portion for making new entries in the registers of one of said table positions that has a zone symbol in its zone register representing said supply conveyor portion, said new entries including a new initial amount in its timing register and a new zone symbol in its zone register representing said receiving conveyor portion, with the result that a group of table positions develop having a zone symbol representing any receiving conveyor portion that carries concurrently a plurality of articles distributed along the path;

(c) means operative during the operation of said series of conveyor portions for periodically making cumulative unit changes in the timing registers of all table positions containing initial amounts and any cumulative unit changes;

(d) table position locating and selecting means responsive to an activating article reaching a control position at the end of any particular supply conveyor portion including (1) means for locating each table position whose zone register contains a zone symbol representing said particular supply conveyor portion and, for any group of table positions having a common zone symbol in their registers, (2) means for selecting that table position among such a group whose timing register contains an amount differing most from the initial amount most recently entered therein among the amounts in the timing registers of such group of table positions; and

(e) means, responsive to said table position locating and selecting means, for making new entries in registers of at least some of such table positions including new initial amounts in their respective timing registers and new zone symbols in their zone registers representing said receiving conveyor portion.

25. An article tracking conveyor system including conveyor means having a series of conveyor portions for conveying articles along a path, any one of said series of conveyor portions acting as a supply conveyor portion and the next-following one of said series of conveyor portions acting as a receiving conveyor portion, and means for tracking articles carried along said path by said series of conveyor portions, said tracking means including

26. (a) storage means including a series of initially clear table positions each having a timing register and a zone register, the storage means including means for making entries into successive ones of said table positions in time with the appearance of successive articles at an entry position along said supply conveyor portion including for each table position a common zone symbol in its zone register representing said supply conveyor portion and an initial amount in its timing register, with the result that a group of table positions develop having a zone symbol representing said supply conveyor portion when plural articles distributed along said path are carried concurrently by said supply conveyor portion,

(b) means operative during operation of said series of conveyor portions for making cumulative unit changes in the amounts in the timing registers of those table positions containing initial amounts and any cumulative unit changes;

(c) table position locating and selecting means responsive to an activating article reaching a control position along said supply conveyor portion to a control position spaced downstream of said entry position including (1) means for locating each table position whose zone register contains a zone symbol representing said supply conveyor portion and, for any group of table positions having such zone registers, (2) means for selecting that table position among the group whose timing register contains an amount differing most from the initial amount last entered in the timing registers of that group of table positions; and

(d) means responsive to such location and selection of table positions for making new entries in registers of at least some of such table positions including new initial amounts in their respective timing registers and new zone symbols in their zone registers representing said receiving conveyor portion.

28. Apparatus as in claim 26, further including means for signalling a maximum cumulative unit change from the initial amount entered into the timing registers of those table positions having a common zone symbol in their zone registers, for thereby revealing any excessively delayed package or article.

34. Article-tracking conveyor means as in claim 28, 29 or 30, including a tach pulse generator coupled to and operable in timed coordination with a portion of said transporting means, wherein each of said timers includes a pulse counter responsive to pulses from said tach pulse generator.

36. An article tracking conveyor system as in claim 34, wherein each of said table positions further includes a lane register and wherein said storage means includes means for entering a divert symbol in the lane register of each of a succession of said table positions receiving entries in its timing and lane registers, further including a plurality of article diverters corresponding, respectively, to divert symbols entered in said lane registers, said diverters being disposed along said conveyor means near respective ones of said further sensors, and means selectively responsive to the divert symbols of said controlling table positions identified as aforesaid in response to articles activating said further sensors for diverting such articles selectively from said series of conveyor positions.

37. An article tracking conveyor system as in claim 34 or 35, wherein said means for selecting one of said group of table positions comprises means for locating that table position whose timing register has an amount that differs from the initial amount entered into the timing registers of that group of table positions by at least a minimum amount that represents the shortest time as measured by said unit changes for an article to be transported to the next-following one of said further sensors by the conveyor portion represented by such common zone symbol.

39. Conveyor apparatus as in claim 37, wherein said means for identifying those tach pulse counters whose counts are within a prescribed range includes means for detecting those tach pulse counters whose tach pulse counts exceed a minimum and signalling means responsive to any of said tach pulse counters whose count exceeds a maximum.

40. Conveyor apparatus as in claim 37 or 38 wherein each of said means for initializing said tach pulse counters is adapted to establish a starting count related, respectively, to the extent of the segment from each of said article detectors to the next-following one of said article detectors, respectively.

41. Conveyor apparatus as in either claims 37 or 38 further including plural diverters for diverting articles selectively from said transporting means, divert registers related, respectively, to said tach pulse registers and their related zone registers, means for entering divert designations selectively into said divert registers, and control means responsive to said article detectors for selectively activating said diverters in dependence on divert designations in said divert registers related to those tach pulse counters whose counts are within the prescribed range and which are also related to zone registers having zone designations corresponding to the segments of the transporting means that next precede such article detectors.

42. Apparatus as in claim 40 wherein said article transporting means comprises a series of belt conveyors and a series of diverters interposed between the belt conveyors, each of said belt conveyors and said diverters having separate drive motors.

44. The method as in claim 42, including the steps of (vi.) accounting for items of the respective varieties allocated pursuant to step (v.) to the orders, respectively, and (vii.) limiting each new allocation of an item pursuant to step (v.) so that, with respect to items of the same variety in any selected order, the total of the allocations will not exceed the stored requirement.

46. The method as in claim 44, including, in coordination with each allocation of an item to an order pursuant to step (v.), the further step (vi.) of reducing the corresponding net requirement for that variety of item in that order, thereby preventing allocation of an item to an order after its net requirement has been reduced to zero.

49. The method as in claim 42, including the further steps of (vii.) verifying selective discharge, pursuant to step v.(b), of items to the order-assembly locations related to the allocations, and (viii.) correcting the accounting pursuant to step v.(a) for allocated items that are not verified as having been delivered to said order-assembly locations related to the selected orders.

29. Article tracking conveyor apparatus comprising transporting means for carrying a succession of articles along a path wherein an article may fail for any reason to travel at or within a prescribed deviation from the speed of the transporting means, a series of detectors distributed along said path including a first detector and further detectors, a series of timers including at least as many timers as articles to be carried concurrently by said transporting means, means acting in response to successive articles reaching said first detector for initializing said timers successively, signalling means responsive to any of said timers attaining a time-interval representation exceeding a prescribed maximum, and means responsive to articles reaching said further detectors for re-initializing any of said timers whose time-interval representation exceeds a prescribed minimum, for tracking the articles in a manner that avoids accumulating the separate variations in the time of travel of an article from each of said detectors to the next in monitoring the speed of the articles and for signalling any removal or blockage of articles.

31. Article tracking conveyor means as in claim 29 further including selective discharge means activated under control of said zone detectors for directing articles selectively to plural discharge lanes, further including verifying detectors disposed along said plural discharge lanes, respectively, and means responsive to articles reaching said verifying detectors for resetting timers re-initialized in response to the respective zone detectors that activated said selective discharge means.

33. Article-tracking conveyor means as in claim 29, including a tach pulse generator coupled to and operable in timed coordination with a portion of said transporting means, and an active table having at least as many table positions as articles to be concurrently carried by said transporting means, each table position including a counter that comprises a respective one of said timers and is responsive to pulses from the tach pulse generator and each table position comprising one of said series of zone storing means.

30. Article tracking conveyor apparatus comprising transporting means for carrying a succession of articles along a continuous path wherein an article may fail for any reason to travel at or within a prescribed deviation from the speed of the transporting means, a series of article detectors distributed along said path including an entry detector and a succession of zone detectors, a series of timers and a series of zone storing means related respectively to said timers including at least as many of such timers and zone storing means as articles to be carried concurrently by said transporting means, means triggered by each of a series of articles reaching said entry detector for initializing each of said timers in succession and for entering into each zone storing means related to the initialized timer a zone designation corresponding to the next zone detector along said path, means for signalling the occurrence of any of said timers exceeding a prescribed maximum time-interval representation, and means activated by respective ones of said zone detectors in response to articles carried by the transporting means for re-initializing any of said timers that has a stored zone designation corresponding to such activated zone detector and that has a time representation exceeding a prescribed minimum time representation and for changing the zone designation in the zone storing means related to such re-initialized counter to a designation representing the next-following zone detector along said path.

32. Article-storing means as in claim 30, including an active table having at least as many table positions as articles to be concurrently carried by said transporting means, each table position including a counter that comprises a respective one of said timers and is responsive to pulses from the tach pulse generator and each table position comprising one of said series of zone storing means, and each such table position including a means for storing an eject designation for selectively activating one of said selective discharge means.

35. An article tracking conveyor system, including conveyor means for conveying successive articles along a path, a series of sensors located at spaced-apart positions distributed along said path, said sensors being disposed to be activated by articles carried by said conveyor means, said sensors including a first sensor at a starting position along said path and further sensors, said conveyor means being divided by said series of sensors into a series of conveyor portions, and means for tracking articles carried along said path by said conveyor means, said tracking means including

(a) storage means including a series of initially clear table positions each having a timing register and a zone register, and means controlled by said first sensor for entering data in successive ones of said series of table positions, including for each of said table positions an initial amount in its timing register and, in its zone register, a zone symbol representing that one of said series of conveyor portions which next follows said first sensor;

(b) means operative during the operation of said conveyor means for periodically making cumulative unit changes in the timing registers of all table positions containing initial amounts and any cumulative unit changes;

(c) up-dating means responsive to each of said further sensors when activated by the articles carried by the conveyor means for making up-dating entries in at least certain ones of said series of table positions whose zone registers contain a zone symbol representing that conveyor portion which next-precedes the activated one of said further sensors, said up-dating entries including for each of said certain table positions a new initial amount in its timing register and, in its zone register, a zone symbol representing that one of said series of conveyor portions that next follows each activated one of said further sensors, with the result that a group of said table positions will develop having a common zone symbol in their zone registers when any of said conveyor portions that next follows any of said sensors carries a succession of articles distributed along said path, said tracking apparatus further including

(d) means for selecting one table position of each group of table positions having a common zone symbol in their zone registers, said selecting means being operable in dependence on which of said group of table positions has an amount in its timing register that differs most from the initial amount most recently entered in the timing registers of that group of table positions, whereby to identify controlling table positions as being either table positions whose zone registers contain zone symbols differing from those of all other table positions or the table positions selected by said selecting means; and

(e) means for limiting said up-dating means to making said up-dating entries in only said controlling table positions.

38. Conveyor apparatus comprising transporting means for transporting a series of articles along a path, said transporting means being of a type that may allow slip to occur between the operation of the transporting means and the travel of the articles, a series of article detectors distributed along said path and separated from each other by respective segments of the transporting means, said article detectors including a first article detector and succeeding article detectors;

a tach pulse generator operative in time with the transporting means;

a series of tach pulse counters and a series of zone registers related to the tach pulse counters, respectively;

means activated by the first of said article detectors in response to articles carried by the transporting means for initializing respective ones of said tach pulse counters and for entering, into the related zone registers, zone designations corresponding to the first of said segments of said transporting means, means for identifying those tach pulse registers whose tach pulse counts are within a prescribed range, and reset means responsive to each of said succeeding article detectors in response to the articles carried by the transporting means for again initializing particular ones of said tach pulse registers whose related zone registers have entries corresponding to the next-preceding segments of the transporting means, respectively, and whose counts are within a prescribed range and for entering, into the related zone registers, zone designations corresponding to the respective next-following segments of the transporting means.

43. A method of concurrently processing a group of orders by assembling varieties of items required in the orders at separate order-assembly locations related to said orders, all items of each variety having the same characterization without regard to whether they appear in one or more of the orders and items of different varieties having mutually different characterizations, wherein one or more orders may have requirements for any particular variety of item, said method including the steps of

i. storing the requirements of the orders of the group including stored identifications of the orders and stored characterizations of the varieties of items required in the orders, the item characterizations and the order identifications as stored being related to each other,

ii. loading a series of items that may be required in the orders on a sorting conveyor having plural selective delivery means for directing items on the conveyor selectively to said order-assembly locations;

iii. registering the characterization of each of the items on the conveyor;

iv. comparing the registered characterization of each specific item on the conveyor and the stored characterizations of the varieties of items required in the stored orders;

v. based on such comparison, selecting one of the orders, if any, among one or more of the stored orders having a requirement for said specific item, thus allocating such item to the selected order; and

vi. selectively controlling said selective delivery means in accordance with such order selection to cause such item on the conveyor to be directed selectively to one of said order-assembly locations that is related to said selected order.

45. A method of concurrently processing a group of orders by assembling varieties of items required in the orders at separate order-assembly locations related to said orders, all items of each variety having the same characterization without regard to whether they appear in one or more of the orders and items that are of different varieties having mutually different characterizations, wherein one or more orders may require items of the same variety;

said method including the steps of

i. representing the order identifications and the characterization of and the net requirement for items of each variety in each of the orders, so that a plurality of net requirements for the same variety of item will be represented when there are net requirements for such variety of item in a plurality of the orders, a net requirement being the requirement for any item appearing in any of said orders as reduced up to any point in processing of the group of orders;

ii. loading items that may be required in the orders on a sorting conveyor having plural selective means for directing items on the conveyor selectively to said order-assembly locations;

iii. registering the characterization of each of the items on the conveyor;

iv. with respect to each item loaded on the conveyor, comparing the registered characterization thereof with the represented characterizations of the varieties of items in the orders;

v. based on such comparison, selecting one of said orders, if any, for which there is a net requirement for the variety of such item, thus allocating such item to the selected order; and

vi. selectively controlling said selective directing means in accordance with such order selection to cause the allocated items on the conveyor to be directed selectively to said order-assembly locations related to said selected orders.

47. The method as in claim 45, including the further steps of (vii.) verifying discharge of items to order-assembly locations related to the selected orders, and (viii.) correcting net requirements as reduced pursuant to step (vi.) for the items previously allocated to the orders pursuant to step (v.) that are not verified pursuant to step (vii.) as having been discharged in accordance with their allocations.

48. A method of concurrently processing a group of orders by assembling, at separate order-assembly locations related to the orders of the group, items of the varieties required in the orders, wherein one or more of the orders may require items of the same variety, such items being supplied separately or as packages of plural items of the same variety, items of different varieties having mutually different characterizations and items of any one variety having the same characterization without regard to whether they appear in one or more of the orders, said method including the steps of

i. registering the orders so as to include stored order identifications and representations of the variety and quantity requirements for each item in each order, the stored order identifications and the stored requirements representations being related to each other;

ii. loading items on a sorting conveyor having means for discharging the items from the conveyor selectively to said order-assembly locations;

iii. registering the characterizations of the items on the sorting conveyor;

iv. as to each of the items whose characterization has been registered, selecting one of said orders, if any, having a stored representation of a variety of item corresponding to the registered characterization of such item on the conveyor but only if the quantity requirement for that item has not yet been met at any point in the performance of the method, thus ascertaining that such item is required by the selected order;

v. accounting for items of each variety allocated to each order and discharging the required items from the conveyor selectively at said order-assembly locations related to the selected orders; and

vi. limiting the selection of orders and allocation of items to said orders so that the items of any variety allocated to any order do not exceed the stored representation of the requirement for that variety of item in that order.