×

Crossdocking transshipments without sortation

  • US 9,336,509 B1
  • Filed: 03/27/2014
  • Issued: 05/10/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2014
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A materials handling facility, comprising:

  • a receiving area configured to receive items into the materials handling facility;

    an inventory storage area configured to store items in inventory in the materials handling facility;

    a shipping area configured to ship items to customers to fulfill customer orders, and to transship items to one or more other materials handling facilities; and

    a control system configured to;

    determine a plurality of containers of items that are in the receiving area of the materials handling facility;

    assign one or more containers of the plurality of containers of items in the receiving area to a stow process for stowing the items into the inventory storage area of the materials handling facility;

    assign one or more other containers of the plurality of containers of items in the receiving area to a transshipment crossdock process in which a transshipment destination is assigned to each of the one or more other containers at a container-level granularity such that the items in a respective container of the one or more other containers are assigned to the same transshipment destination; and

    for the transshipment crossdock process, direct the one or more other containers of items from the receiving area to the shipping area for transshipment to another materials handling facility without the items in the one or more other containers being stowed in the inventory area and without the items in the one or more other containers going through an item-level sortation process.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×