Method and device enabling rapid execution of a multiplicity of physical orders

• US 7,752,086 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Zetes France
• Original Assignee: L4 EPSILON
• Inventors: De Lamaziere, Alain Wiesenbach, Valoggia, Sebastien
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Champagne; Luna
• Application Number:
  US10/859,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20050004704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,225 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method of distributing products, including computer processing content of the orders including regrouping the orders into groups of orders, and ungrouping the content of each order group into a order subgroups; regrouping the products, including performing a collection of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and arranging each to obtain a concordance between the product groups and the order groups, ungrouping the products, including for each product group performing a collection of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and arranging each in a compartment associated with a product subgroup to obtain a concordance between the product subgroups and the order subgroups, and a step of final separation including for each product subgroup performing a collection of each of the products, reading the identifier and arranging each in a compartment associated with a physical order.

Claims

1. A method of distributing products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py, y being a whole number not equal to zero) enabling, by manipulation and displacement of the products, rapid collection of the products, each product having an identifier prior to shipment such that each final product collection corresponds to a list of products itself corresponding to a physical order (C1, C2, C3, . . . , Cx, x being a whole number not equal to zero), the products originating from multiple suppliers (F1, F2, F3, . . . ) or multiple stocks (S 1), the method comprising:

a step of computer processing content of the orders (C1, C2, C3, . . . , Cx) comprising determining a regrouping of each of the orders into a multiplicity of groups of orders (GC 10, GC20, GC30, . . . ) according to at least one selected condition, and determining an ungrouping of the content of each order group into a multiplicity of order subgroups (SGC 10, SGC20, SGC30);

m step(s) of regrouping of the products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py), m being a whole number greater than or equal to 1, comprising performing a manual or automated collection of each of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and provisionally arranging each collected product in a compartment associated with a group of products (GP10, GP20, GP30, . . . ) to obtain an exact concordance between the product groups and the order groups, wherein the products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py) are mixed from said multiple suppliers or stocks to form the groups of products and the orders, each group of products fulfilling a group of an order, and each order comprised of products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py) from said multiple supplier or stocks; and

n steps of ungrouping the products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py), n being a whole number greater than 1, from each of the groups of products, the n steps of ungrouping comprising (i) at least one intermediate step of ungrouping comprising for each product group performing a manual or automated collection of each of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and provisionally arranging each collected product in a compartment associated with a product subgroup (SGP10, SGP20, SGP30, . . . ) to obtain an exact concordance between the product subgroups and the order subgroups, and (ii) a last step of ungrouping comprising a step of final separation comprising for each product subgroup performing a manual or automated collection of each of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and provisionally arranging each collected product in a compartment associated with a physical order;

wherein the steps of regrouping, ungrouping, final separation, and identification are performed in a single workroom by an identical device for each step comprising at least one sorting station equipped with an identification reader connected to a computer-based system to identify each product by reading an identifier and an equipment unit having a multiplicity of compartments for arranging the products in the compartments according to instructions issued by the computer-based system, each of the compartments having its position referenced by a signalizer controlled by the computer-based system.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing, prior to the m step(s) of regrouping, an advance identification step of the products (P1, P2, P3 . . . Py) comprising performing an unsequenced manual or automatic collection of each of the products and reading the identification means of each collected product.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising subsequent to the identification step and prior to the m step(s) of regrouping, withdrawing non-executable orders from the set of orders.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein available products are allocated to an order according to at least one defined rule.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the numbers n and m are optimized to be as small as possible, taking into account product selection capacity of a human or automated operator.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ungrouping of the content of each order group (GC10, GC20, GC30, . . . ) into a multiplicity of order subgroups (SGC10, SGC20, SGC30, . . . ) is performed according to at least one selected condition.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the steps of regrouping, ungrouping, final separation and optionally advance identification are performed in a single workroom by an identical device for each step.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the signalizer is not associated in an unequivocal manner with a specific compartment and a specific product, and the computer-based system comprises a digital table in which are registered at least an identifier of an order, composition of an order, an identifier of a compartment associated with the order and a digital flag indicating for each of the products composing the order whether or not it has already been stored, the computer-based system controlling activation of the signalizer of a compartment as a function of the identifier of a product by the identifier and membership of the product in the composition of an order group, an order subgroup or an order associated with a compartment.

8. A device for distributing products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py, y being a whole number not equal to zero) such that each final collection of products itself corresponds to a list of products itself corresponding to a physical order (C1, C2, C3, . . . , Cx, x being a whole number not equal to zero), the products originating from multiple suppliers (F1, F2, F3 . . . ) or multiple stocks (S 1) the device comprising:

a single workroom comprising at least one sorting station equipped with an identification reader connected to a computer-based system to identify each product by reading an identifier and an equipment unit having a multiplicity of compartments to arrange the products in the compartments according to instructions issued by the computer-based system, each of the compartments having its position referenced by a signalizer controlled by the computer-based system, the computer-based system implementing a data processing step and the workroom enabling activation of steps of regrouping, ungrouping, final separation and, optionally, identification, wherein the products (P1, P2, P3 . . . , Py) are mixed from said multiple suppliers or stocks to form groups of products (GP10, GP20, GP30, . . . ) and the orders, each group of products fulfilling a group of an order, and each order comprised of products (P1, P2, P3 . . . Py) from said multiple suppliers or stocks, wherein the steps of regrouping, ungrouping, final separation and, optionally, identification are performed by an identical device for each step.

10. The device according to claim 8, wherein an optional advance identification step and steps of regrouping, ungrouping and final separation are implemented in the workroom, the workroom comprising at least one sorting station equipped with a microcomputer or similar device connected to the computer-based system and linked to an identification reader to identify by reading an identifier of each product and an equipment unit having a multiplicity of compartments to arrange the products in the compartments according to instructions issued by the microcomputer.

11. The device according to claim 8, wherein the compartments of the equipment unit each comprise a position referencing module comprising at least one light source, each position referencing module being connected directly or via an intermediary of other position referencing modules to the computer-based system by an intermediary of the microcomputer, the position referencing module being activated by the computer-based system via an intermediary of the microcomputer to issue an instruction to arrange an identified product in the thereby position-referenced compartment.

12. The device according to claim 8, wherein the compartments of the equipment unit each comprise a controller, each controller being connected directly or via an intermediary of another controller to the computer-based system, via an intermediary of the microcomputer, activation of the controller being controlled by the computer-based system via an intermediary of the microcomputer to ensure that an identified product is correctly arranged.

13. The device according to claim 8, further comprising sets of compartments comprising rows of compartments or columns of compartments, each set of compartments comprising a bar code identifier.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein each set of compartments comprises at least one rail supporting a guiding system for attachment of position referencing modules.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein each set of compartments comprises a multiplicity of infrared transmitters and a multiplicity of infrared receivers, the infrared transmitters and the infrared receivers being positioned, respectively, back to back.

16. The device according to claim 8, wherein each compartment has a bar code identifier.

17. The device according to claim 8, wherein the equipment unit has a bar code identifier.

18. The device according to claim 8, further comprising transport carriers to transport the products originating from or with a destination of a workroom(s), each transport carrier comprising a bar code identifier.

19. A method of distributing products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py, y being a whole number not equal to zero) enabling, by the manipulation and displacement of the products, rapid collection of the products, each product having an identifier prior to their shipment such that each final product collection corresponds to a list of products itself corresponding to a physical order (C1, C2, C3, . . . , Cx, x being a whole number not equal to zero), the products originating from multiple suppliers (F1, F2, F3, . . . ) or multiple stocks (S 1), the method comprising:

processing content of the orders (C1, C2, C3, . . . , Cx) by determining a regrouping of the orders into a multiplicity of groups of orders (GC10, GC20, GC30, . . . ) according to at least one selected condition, and determining an ungrouping of the content of each order group into a multiplicity of order subgroups (SGC 10, SGC20, SGC30);

regrouping the products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py) in m step(s), m being a whole number greater than or equal to 1, by performing a manual or automated collection of each of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and provisionally arranging each collected product in a compartment associated with a group of products (GP10, GP20, GP30, . . . ) to obtain concordance between the product groups and the order groups, wherein the products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py) are mixed from said multiple suppliers or stocks to form the groups of products (GP10, GP20, GP30, . . . ) and the orders, each group of products fulfilling a group of an order, and each order comprised of products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py) from said multiple supplier or stocks; and

ungrouping the products (P1, P2, P3, . . . , Py) in n steps, n being a whole number greater than 1, from each of the groups of products, the n steps of ungrouping comprising (i) at least one intermediate step of ungrouping by performing a manual or automated collection of each of the products for each product group, reading the identifier of each collected product and provisionally arranging each collected product in a compartment associated with a product subgroup (SGP10, SGP20, SGP30, . . . ) to obtain concordance between the product subgroups and the order subgroups, and (ii) a last step of ungrouping comprising performing a final separation for each product subgroup by manually or automatically collecting each of the products, reading the identifier of each collected product and provisionally arranging each collected product in a compartment associated with a physical order;

wherein the steps of regrouping, ungrouping, final separation, and identification are performed in a single workroom by an identical device for each step.