Systems and methods for implementing specialty packaging in a materials handling facility

• US 9,230,233 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sundaresan, Subramanian, Lehmann, Sebastian, Tian, Hong, Murarka, Abhay, Gupta, Rohit K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nelson, Freda A
• Application Number:
  US13/247,838
• Time in Patent Office: 1,560 Days
• Field of Search: 705/335, 705/336, 705/332, 455/456.1, 706/62
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0832 Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08345 Pricing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

The systems described herein may provide mechanisms for recommending specialty packaging in a materials handling facility dependent on physical characteristics of items to be shipped and/or feedback received in response to previous shipments of the items. For example, if feedback indicates frequent low customer ratings for damage during shipping and/or for the suitability of the container in which a particular item was shipped, of if feedback indicates that concession costs were repeatedly incurred due to damage of the item during shipping, the item may be designated as needing special damage protection. This protection may be realized by shipping the item in sturdier containers, in containers of a more suitable size, and/or with improved or increased protective cushioning. For example, a stored indication that an item is designated for special damage protection may influence the selection of a container recommended for shipping the item, e.g., by excluding unsuitable containers from consideration.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

performing, by a hardware computer system;

receiving an identifier of an item, the item to be shipped from a materials handling facility in response to an order received by an entity;

determining, by a container recommendation service, three or more candidate containers for shipping the item, dependent on physical dimension values associated with the item;

accessing, by a specialty packaging service, data indicating whether the item is designated as needing special damage protection, wherein the item designation is based at least in part on delivery-related feedback received by the entity from one or more recipients of one or more previous shipments of the item;

in response to determining that the item is designated as needing special damage protection, excluding, by the specialty packaging service, one or more of the three or more candidate containers from consideration, wherein said excluding leaves at least two candidate containers for consideration;

selecting, by the container recommendation service, a recommended container in which to ship the item from among the two or more candidate containers other than the one or more excluded containers; and

transmitting an instruction to a machine that either directs the machine to route the item to a particular packing station supporting the recommended container or directs the machine to pick or present at least the recommended container for packing the item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer rating of a suitability of a container in which the item was shipped, a customer rating of a condition of the item when it was received, a customer experience penalty, a lost opportunity cost, an indication of a concession incident, or a cost associated with a concession incident.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning an indication that protective packaging materials should be used when preparing the item for shipping in the recommended container.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data indicating whether the item is designated as needing special damage protection comprises a collection of identifiers of items designated as needing special damage protection.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer rating of the suitability of a container in which the item was shipped, or a customer rating of the condition of the item when it was received.

5. A computing system, comprising:

one or more hardware processors; and

one or more modules comprising program instructions that are executed by the one or more hardware processors and cause the one or more processors to perform;

receiving an identifier of an item, the item to be shipped in a container in response to an order received by an entity;

accessing, by a container recommendation module, data representing physical characteristics of the item;

accessing, by a specialty packaging service, data representing delivery-related feedback that was received by the entity from one or more recipients of one or more previous shipments of the item;

determining a container in which to ship the item, dependent on the data representing the physical characteristics of the item and the data representing the feedback; and

transmitting an instruction to a machine to either direct the machine to route the item to a particular packing station supporting the determined container or direct the machine to pick or present the determined container for packing the item.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the data representing physical characteristics of the item comprises data representing one or more of:

a dimension of the item, a volume of the item, or a weight of the item.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the item is one of a plurality of items to be shipped together in the determined container.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein said determining is further dependent on one or more of:

a customer to whom the item is to be shipped, a service level agreement, a destination of the item, a shipping carrier selected for shipping the item, item affinity information, an indicator of a fragility of the item, or an environmental constraint.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer experience penalty, a lost opportunity cost, an indication of a concession incident, or a cost associated with a concession incident.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein when executed by the one or more processors, the program instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform

determining whether the item should be designated as needing special damage protection, dependent on the data representing the feedback;

and

in response to determining that the item should be designated as needing special damage protection, storing an indication that the item is designated as needing special damage protection in association with the identifier of the item.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein said determining comprises:

determining two or more candidate containers for shipping the item, dependent on the data representing the physical characteristics of the item; and

selecting a container in which to ship the item from among the two or more candidate containers, dependent on the data representing feedback.

13. A method, comprising:

performing, by a hardware computer system;

receiving feedback in response to a shipment of an item;

accessing, by a specialty packaging service, previously stored data representing delivery-related feedback that was received by an entity from one or more recipients of one or more previous shipments of the item;

determining, by the specialty packaging service, whether the item is a candidate for special damage protection, dependent on the received feedback and the previously stored data;

in response to determining that the item is a candidate for special damage protection, storing, to a data store, an indication that the item is designated as an item for which special damage protection is recommended;

selecting, by a container recommendation service, and in response to an order received by the entity, a container for a subsequent shipment of the item, dependent on the stored indication; and

transmitting an instruction to a machine that either directs the machine to route the item to a particular packing station supporting the selected container or directs the machine to pick or present the selected container for packing the item.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer rating of the suitability of a container in which the item was shipped, or a customer rating of the condition of the item when it was received.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer experience penalty, a lost opportunity cost, an indication of a concession incident, or a cost associated with a concession incident.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing an indication that an item similar to the item is designated as an item for which special damage protection is recommended.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said selecting is further dependent on one or more physical characteristics of the item.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said selecting comprises:

determining two or more candidate containers for shipping the item, dependent on the one or more physical characteristics of the item; and

selecting a container in which to ship the item from among the two or more candidate containers, dependent on the stored indication.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein said selecting is further dependent on one or more of:

a customer to whom the item is to be shipped, a service level agreement, a destination of the item, a shipping carrier selected for shipping the item, item affinity information, an indicator of the fragility of the item, or an environmental constraint.

20. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more hardware computers cause the one or more hardware computers to perform:

receiving an identifier of an item, the item to be shipped in a container in response to an order received by an entity;

accessing data representing physical dimensions of the item;

determining, by a container recommendation service, three or more candidate containers for shipping the item, dependent on the data representing the physical dimensions of the item;

accessing, by a specialty packaging service, data representing feedback that was received by the entity from one or more recipients of one or more previous shipments of the item;

excluding, by the specialty packaging service, one or more of the three or more candidate containers from consideration, dependent on the data representing the feedback, wherein said excluding leaves at least two candidate containers for consideration;

selecting, by the container recommendation service, a container in which to ship the item from among the at least two candidate containers other than the one or more excluded containers; and

transmitting outputting an instruction to a machine that either directs the machine to route the item to a particular packing station supporting the selected container or directs the machine to pick or present recommend the selected container for packing the item.

21. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein the item is one of a plurality of items to be shipped together in the selected container.

22. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein said excluding comprises:

determining whether the item should be designated as needing special damage protection, dependent on the data representing the feedback; and

in response to determining that the item should be designated as needing special damage protection, excluding from consideration one or more containers that are unsuitable for shipping items needing special damage protection.

23. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein when executed on the one or more computers, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to perform:

storing an indication that the item is designated as needing special damage protection in association with the identifier of the item.

24. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein when executed on the one or more computers, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to perform:

storing an indication that an item that is similar to the item is designated as needing special damage protection.

25. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein at least one of said determining or said excluding is further dependent on one or more of:

a weight of the item, a customer to whom the item is to be shipped, a service level agreement, a destination of the item, a shipping carrier selected for shipping the item, item affinity information, an indicator of a fragility of the item, or an environmental constraint.

26. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer rating of the suitability of a container in which the item was shipped, or a customer rating of the condition of the item when it was received.

27. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein the feedback comprises one or more of:

a customer experience penalty, a lost opportunity cost, an indication of a concession incident, or a cost associated with a concession incident.