Self healing andon system and method

• US 8,195,533 B1
• Filed: 12/08/2008
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mishra, Devesh, Young, Eric C., Shah, Sameer Vinod, Tien, Timothy Jesse, Zhao, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Haider, Fawaad
• Application Number:
  US12/329,944
• Time in Patent Office: 1,275 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments of a self healing andon system. One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a system comprising at least one server. The system further includes logic executed on the at least one server that retrieves a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory. The at least one product is stocked in a materials handling facility, and the defect history is associated with a specified time period. The at least one server extracts at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system and calculates an inventory defect rate. The at least one server imposes remedial measures if the inventory defect rate exceeds a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate.

Claims

1. A method, comprising the steps of:

retrieving a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory, the at least one product to be stocked in a materials handling facility, the defect history being associated with a specified time period;

extracting at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system;

calculating an inventory defect rate in the computer system for the specified time period, wherein the inventory defect rate is associated with the vendor and the remedial measures are imposed on the vendor;

imposing at least one remedial measure on the vendor if the inventory defect rate exceeds a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate, wherein the at least one remedial measure includes reducing a size of a subsequent specified time period associated with the vendor and generating a warning message including information describing the at least one inventory defect, the information including an inventory defect type, a date, and a vendor identifier associated with the vendor; and

imposing additional remedial measures on a vendor if the vendor does not correct the at least one inventory defect, the additional remedial measures comprising at least one of;

ceasing acceptance at the materials handling facility of inbound shipments from the vendor, restricting quantity of products ordered from the vendor, and restricting inbound shipments from the vendor to a particular materials handling facility.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory defect rate is associated with an individual in the materials handling facility and the remedial measures are imposed on the individual.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises:

generating a message in the computer system instructing the individual to seek assistance to correct the at least one inventory defect; and

encoding the message for display.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one inventory defect comprises at least one of:

an inaccurate count of inventory in the inbound shipment and lost inventory from the inbound shipment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises lowering the specified threshold for a subsequent time period.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

weighing the at least one inventory defect based on a weighting factor;

assigning at least one weighted value to the weighted at least one inventory defect; and

wherein the step of calculating the inventory defect rate further comprises calculating a weighted rate from the at least one weighted value assigned to the at least one inventory defect.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the weighting factor is based on at least one of:

a remediation cost associated with a type of the at least one inventory defect, a scarcity of the product associated with the at least one inventory defect, duration of business relationship with the vendor, whether the vendor has promised to correct the at least one inventory defect, and whether a first inventory defect rate associated with the vendor and a previous specified time period exceeds the specified threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting the warning message to the vendor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises generating a message in the computer system instructing at least one of:

the materials handling facility to cease acceptance of future inbound shipments from the vendor, a procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor, and the procurement system to restrict quantity of products ordered from the vendor.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of interfacing with the procurement system to cause the procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a corrective action, the corrective action instructing how the inventory defect can be corrected.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of transmitting the corrective message to personnel in the materials handling facility.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory defect is at least one of:

a missing barcode, a missing purchase order identifier associated with the inbound shipment, late arriving inventory, a quantity discrepancy between a first quantity of items in the inbound shipment and a second quantity expected to be present in the inbound shipment, at least one damaged product in the inbound shipment, and a user generated inventory defect data.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory defect is a missing universal product code label for the at least one product and the step of imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises causing a replacement universal product code label to be generated.

15. A system, comprising:

at least one server;

logic executed on the at least one server that retrieves a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory, the at least one product to be stocked in a materials handling facility, the defect history being associated with a specified time period;

logic executed on the at least one server that extracts at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system and calculates an inventory defect rate in the computer system for the specified time period, wherein the inventory defect rate is associated with the vendor and the remedial measures are imposed on the vendor;

logic executed on the at least one server that imposes remedial measures on the vendor if the inventory defect rate exceeds a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate, wherein the remedial measures include reducing a size of a subsequent specified time period associated with the vendor and generating a warning message including information describing the at least one inventory defect, the information including an inventory defect type, a date, and a vendor identifier associated with the vendor; and

logic that imposes additional remedial measures on a vendor when the vendor does not correct the at least one inventory defect, the additional remedial measures comprising at least one of;

ceasing acceptance at the materials handling facility of inbound shipments from the vendor, restricting quantity of products ordered from the vendor, and restricting inbound shipments from the vendor to a particular materials handling facility.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the inventory defect rate is associated with an individual in the materials handling facility and the remedial measures are imposed on the individual.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

logic executed on the at least one server that generates a message in the computer system instructing the individual to seek assistance to correct the at least one inventory defect; and

logic executed on the at least one server that encodes the message for display.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one inventory defect comprises at least one of:

an inaccurate count of inventory in the inbound shipment and lost inventory from the inbound shipment.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that generates a warning message including information describing the at least one inventory defect, the information including an inventory defect type, a date, and a vendor identifier associated with the vendor.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that lowers the specified threshold for a subsequent time period.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

logic executed on the at least one server that weighs the at least one inventory defect based on a weighting factor;

logic executed on the at least one server that assigns at least one weighted value to the weighted at least one inventory defect; and

logic executed on the at least one server that calculates a weighted rate from the at least one weighted value assigned to the at least one inventory defect.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the weighting factor is based on at least one of:

a remediation cost associated with a type of the at least one inventory defect, a scarcity of the product associated with the at least one inventory defect, duration of business relationship with the vendor, whether the vendor has promised to correct the at least one inventory defect, and whether a first inventory defect rate associated with the vendor and a previous specified time period exceeds the specified threshold.

23. The system of claim 19, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that transmits the warning message to the vendor.

24. The system of claim 15, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that generates a message in the computer system instructing at least one of:

the materials handling facility to cease acceptance of future inbound shipments from the vendor, a procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor, and the procurement system to restrict quantity of products ordered from the vendor.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that interfaces with the procurement system to cause the procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor.

26. The system of claim 15, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that generates a corrective action, the corrective action instructing how the inventory defect can be corrected.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that transmits the corrective message to personnel in the materials handling facility.

28. The system of claim 15, wherein the inventory defect is at least one of:

a missing barcode, late arriving inventory, a missing purchase order identifier associated with the inbound shipment, a quantity discrepancy between a first quantity of items in the inbound shipment and a second quantity expected to be present in the inbound shipment, at least one damaged product in the inbound shipment, and a user generated inventory defect data.

29. The system of claim 15, wherein the inventory defect is a missing universal product code label for the at least one product and the step of imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises causing a replacement universal product code label to be generated.