System and method for visual verification of order processing

• US 9,626,712 B1
• Filed: 03/28/2014
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shakes, Jonathan J., Rouaix, Francois M., Kaufman, Donald L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rosen, Nicholas D
• Application Number:
  US14/229,575
• Time in Patent Office: 1,117 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261, 705 272, 705 29, 705330, 705332, 705333
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0832 Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

One or more images of items for an order being processed at processing station of an order fulfillment center may be captured and associated with the order. Alternatively, a short video clip may be captured of the order being packaged. An electronic notification that the order has been processed may be sent to a customer associated with the order. The electronic notification may include a reference to one or more of the captured images or video clips. The customer may use a reference included in the notification to view the captured images. The customer may view captured images to verify that the order has been correctly processed. The captured images may include images of the items being packaged for shipment and may show the shipping address on the package allowing the customer to verify that indeed it is his package in the images.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more data stores, configured to maintain an archive of a plurality of captured images of inventory items being processed at one or more order processing stations of an order fulfillment center, wherein each of the plurality of captured images depicts at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for a particular one of a plurality of previously processed customer orders at the one or more order processing stations, the previously processed customer orders from an electronic commerce site; and

at least one computing device, configured to;

in response to receiving, over a network, an electronic request to review one or more orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders, access the data store to retrieve respective captured images that depict at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for the one or more customer orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders; and

transmit, over the network, the captured images that depict at least the portion of the order fulfillment process for the one or more customer orders;

subsequent to transmission of the captured images over the network, receive an indication that one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders;

in response to receipt of the indication that one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders, identify the one or more customer orders for corrective action; and

initiate the corrective action.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the request to review the one or more orders is received from a customer associated with the one or more orders, and wherein the indication that the one or more processing errors occurred is received from the customer associated with the one or more customer orders.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing station is a packing station, and wherein the captured images of inventory items being processed comprise images of a respective one or more items being packed into a shipping container.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to receiving the indication that one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders, the at least one computing device is further configured to electronically send the captured images to make the captured images available to at least one of:

a customer service representative;

or

a customer associated with the one or more customer orders.

5. A method, comprising:

maintaining an electronic storage archive of a plurality of captured digital images of inventory items being processed at one or more processing stations of an order fulfillment center, wherein each of the plurality of captured digital images depicts at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for a particular one of a plurality of previously processed customer orders at the one or more order processing stations, the customer orders from an electronic commerce site;

accessing, over a network, the electronic storage archive to retrieve respective captured digital images that depict at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for one or more customer orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders;

based, at least in part, on the retrieved digital images that depict at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for the one or more customer orders, determining that one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders;

in response to determining that the one or more processing errors occurred, identifying a corrective action for the one or more processing errors; and

initiating the corrective action.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to receiving an indication of a customer complaint with respect to the one or more customer orders, performing said accessing, said determining, and said identifying.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determined one or more processing errors is an incorrect item included in the one or more customer orders.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the determined one or more processing errors is an unperformed or incorrectly performed value added service with respect to the one or more customer orders.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said determining that the one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders comprises:

making available to the customer via an electronic network the respective captured images that depict at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for the one or more customer orders;

receiving an indication of a particular one or more images of the respective captured images that illustrate the one or more processing errors from the customer; and

sending via the electronic network the particular one or more images in the indication from the customer to a customer service representative in order to verify the one or more processing errors.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

in response to receiving an indication of another customer complaint with respect to a different one or more customer orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders;

accessing the archive to retrieve respective captured images associated with the different one or more customer orders;

based, at least in part, on the retrieved images associated with the different one or more customer orders, determining that one or more shipping errors occurred with respect to the different one or more customer orders; and

in response to determining that the one or more shipping errors occurred with respect to the different one or more customer orders, sending the retrieved images associated with the different one or more customer orders to a shipping carrier that carried the different one or more customer orders.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

in response to receiving an indication of another customer complaint with respect to a different one or more customer orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders;

accessing the archive to retrieve respective captured images associated with the different one or more customer orders;

based, at least in part, on the retrieved images associated with the different one or more customer orders, determining that the different one or more customer orders were correctly processed at the order fulfillment center; and

in response to determining that the different one or more customer orders were correctly processed at the order fulfillment center, sending the retrieved images associated with the different one or more customer orders to a customer associated with the different one or more customer orders.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the one or more customer orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders includes a same particular item, and wherein said determining that the one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders comprises reviewing the respective captured images with regard to the particular item in order to identify the one or more processing errors with respect to the particular item.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the processing station is a packing station, and wherein the captured images of inventory items being processed comprise images of a respective one or more items being packed into a shipping container.

14. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium, storing program instructions that when executed by one or more hardware processors cause the one or more hardware processors to:

maintain, in a data store, an archive of a plurality of captured images of inventory items being processed at one or more order processing stations of an order fulfillment center, wherein each of the plurality of captured images depicts at least a portion of an order fulfillment process for a particular one of a plurality of previously processed customer orders at the one or more order processing stations, the previously processed customer orders from an electronic commerce site;

in response to receipt, over a network, of a request to review one or more orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders;

access the data store to retrieve respective captured images associated with the one or more customer orders of the plurality previously processed customer orders; and

transmit the captured images associated with the one or more customer orders over a network for review;

subsequent to transmission of the captured images over the network,

receive an indication that one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders;

in response to receipt of the indication that one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders, identify one or more corrective actions with regard to the one or more processing errors; and

initiate the corrective action.

15. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the request to review the one or more orders is received from a customer associated with the one or more orders, and wherein the captured images associated with the one or more customer orders are made available to the customer.

16. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the program instructions when executed by the one or more hardware processors further cause the one or more hardware processors to:

receive an indication of a particular one or more images of the respective captured images that illustrate the one or more processing errors from the customer;

send via the network the particular one or more images in the indication from the customer to a customer service representative in order to verify the one or more processing errors; and

wherein the indication that the one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders is received from the customer service representative.

17. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the indicated one or more processing errors is at least one of:

an incorrect item included in the one or more customer orders;

or

an unperformed or incorrectly performed value added service with respect to the one or more customer orders.

18. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the request to review the one or more orders is received from a customer service representative, wherein the captured images associated with the one or more customer orders are made available to the customer service representative, and wherein the indication that the one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the one or more customer orders is received from the customer service representative.

19. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein each of the one or more customer orders of the plurality of previously processed customer orders includes a same particular item, wherein the indicated one or more processing errors occurred with respect to the same particular item, and wherein the identified corrective action modifies an item-handling process for the particular item included in subsequently processed orders.

20. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the program instructions implement a web-based customer complaint system.