Stow and sortation system

• US 7,941,244 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Issued: 05/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Young, Eric, Somin, Irina M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawford; Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): JONES, YOLANDA RENEE
• Application Number:
  US11/860,943
• Publication Number:
  US 20090081008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,323 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 700/216
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

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.

Claims

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 is separately picked from the inventory storage and includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders, wherein at least one of the collections includes items picked for two or more different orders and at least one of the collections includes two or more heterogeneous items;

wherein the control system is configured to;

determine stowing of each of the collections of items to a respective location at the stow and sortation station;

associate the units of items in the collections with the locations to which the collections are stowed;

detect that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at the locations of the stow and sortation station; and

direct picks for the particular orders at the stow and sortation station from the locations into order receptacles corresponding to the particular orders in response to said detection that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at the locations of the stow and sortation station.

2. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein, to associate the units of items in the collections with the locations to which the collections are stowed, the control system is configured to receive information from the stow and sortation station associating each stowed collection of items with the particular location of the stow and sortation station to which the collection of items is stowed.

3. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein each collection of items is picked from the inventory storage into a pick receptacle, and wherein, to associate the units of items in the collections with the locations to which the collections are stowed, the control system is configured to:

receive a receptacle identifier associated with a pick receptacle from the stow and sortation station;

receive a location identifier associated with the particular location of the stow and sortation station to which the collection of items in the pick receptacle is stowed from the stow and sortation station; and

associate the stowed collection of items with the particular location of the stow and sortation station to which the collection of items is stowed in accordance with the receptacle identifier and the location identifier.

4. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein each collection of items is picked from the inventory storage into a pick receptacle, and wherein the collections of items are stowed to the locations by inducting the pick receptacles containing the collections of items into the locations.

5. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein each collection of items is picked from the inventory storage into a pick receptacle, and wherein the collections of items are stowed to the locations by conveying the collections of items from the pick receptacles containing the collections of items to the locations.

6. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the stow and sortation system comprises two or more substations, wherein each substation comprises one or more bins, wherein each bin comprises two or more slots, wherein each slot is one of the plurality of locations, and wherein one or more agents of the materials handling facility are assigned to each substation.

7. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the order receptacles are shipping containers.

8. The sortation system as recited in claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the shipping containers are branded shipping containers.

9. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein each collection of items is stowed to a randomly selected location at the stow and sortation station.

10. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the stow and sortation station comprises a bulk stowage area for stowing bulk quantities of one or more items, and wherein the control system is configured to direct picking of one or more units of items for one or more of the particular orders from the bulk stowage area into order receptacles corresponding to the one or more orders.

11. The sortation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to:

determine that a unit of an item needed to fulfill a first order has been picked from inventory storage and stowed to a location of the stow and sortation station for a second order; and

direct picking of the unit of the item from the location to fulfill the first order.

12. A method, comprising:

picking collections of items from inventory storage of a materials handling facility to fulfill a plurality of orders, wherein each collection is separately picked from the inventory storage and includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders, wherein at least one of the collections includes items picked for two or more different orders and at least one of the collections includes two or more heterogeneous items;

conveying the collections of items to a stow and sortation station;

determining stowing of each of the collections of items to a respective location at the stow and sortation station;

associating the units of items in the collections with the locations to which the collections are stowed;

detecting that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at the locations of the stow and sortation station; and

in response to said detecting that all units of items for particular orders are stowed at the locations of 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.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein said associating the units of items in the collections with the locations to which the collections are stowed comprises communicating information from the stow and sortation station to a control system, wherein the information associates each stowed collection of items with the particular location of the stow and sortation station to which the collection of items is stowed.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein each received collection of items is contained in a pick receptacle, and wherein said stowing the collections of items to a plurality of locations of the stow and sortation station comprises stowing the pick receptacles containing the collections of items to the locations.

15. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein each received collection of items is contained in a pick receptacle, and wherein said stowing the collections of items to a plurality of locations of the stow and sortation station comprises conveying the collections of items from the pick receptacles containing the collections of items to the locations.

16. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the stow and sortation system comprises two or more substations, wherein each substation comprises one or more bins, wherein each bin comprises two or more slots, wherein each slot is one of the plurality of locations, and wherein one or more agents of the materials handling facility are assigned to each substation.

17. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the order receptacles are shipping containers.

18. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein said stowing the collections of items to a plurality of locations of the stow and sortation station comprises stowing each received collection of items to a randomly selected location at the stow and sortation station.

19. A materials handling facility, comprising:

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 is separately picked from the inventory storage and includes one or more units of items picked from the inventory storage to fulfill one or more of the plurality of orders, wherein at least one of the collections includes items picked for two or more different orders and at least one of the collections includes two or more heterogeneous items;

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;

associate the one or more units of items in each stowed collection with the particular location to which the respective 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 from the one or more locations at the respective stow and sortation station into one or more order receptacles corresponding to the particular order in response to said detection.