# US 11,113,648 B2 · Multi-line system and method for retrieving and fulfilling items in a customer order

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- Number: US 11,113,648 B2
- Document ID: US11113648B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/773,821
- Filed: 2020-01-27
- Published: 2020-08-27
- Granted: 2021-09-07
- Earliest claimed: 2018-07-19
- Assignees: America's Collectibles Network, Inc.
- Applicants: America's Collectibles Network, Inc.
- Inventors: George F. Willard, III; Lei Cao; Dustin W. Cole; Mahendra Satrasala; David Byrd; G. Shannon Meade; Bradley K. Waller
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11113648B2

## CPC

- G06Q 10/06316: {Sequencing of tasks or work}
- B65G 1/1371: {with data records}
- B65G 1/1375: {the orders being assembled on a commissioning stacker-crane or truck}
- G06F 16/29: Geographical information databases
- G06F 16/9024: {Graphs; Linked lists (G06F16/9027 takes precedence)}
- G06F 16/9027: {Trees}
- G06F 16/90335: {Query processing}
- G06Q 10/047: Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
- G06Q 10/06315: {Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis}
- G06Q 10/083: Shipping
- G06Q 10/0843: {using forecasting or optimisation}
- G06Q 10/0875: Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
- G06Q 10/10: Office automation; Time management
- G06Q 30/0635: {replenishment orders; recurring orders}
- B65G 1/1373: {for fulfilling orders in warehouses}
- G06F 3/1296: {Printer job scheduling or printer resource handling}
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B65G: TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS (packaging B65B; handling thin or filamentary materials, e.g. paper sheets or thread, B65H; cranes B66C; portable mobile or lifting or hauling appliances, e.g. hoists, B66D; devices for lifting or lowering goods for loading or unloading purposes, e.g. fork-lift trucks, B66F9/00; emptying bottles, jars, casks, barrels or similar containers, not otherwise provided for, B67C9/00; delivering or transferring liquids B67D; filling or discharging vessels for liquefied, solidified or compressed gases F17C; pipe-line systems for fluids F17D)
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

The customer order fulfillment system includes an order collection unit for collecting information associated with a plurality of customer orders having items and generating customer order data. Each of the plurality of customer order includes one or more items associated therewith. An order generating unit for receiving the customer order data and generating in response consolidated order fulfillment data, a pick tour generating subsystem for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data and in response thereto generating pick tour instructions associated with a pick tour, and a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for grouping together similar ones of the items associated with the plurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks. An automated fulfillment system receives the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and automatically selects one or more of the items from one or more carousels, employing the pick tour or the bulk pick.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A customer order fulfillment system, comprising
an order collection unit for collecting information associated with a plurality of customer orders from a plurality of customers and generating customer order data that includes data associated with each of the plurality of customer orders and the plurality of customers, wherein each of the plurality of customer order includes one or more items associated therewith,
an order generating unit for receiving the customer order data from the order collection unit and generating in response thereto consolidated order fulfillment data,
a pick tour generating subsystem for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and in response thereto generating pick instructions associated with a pick tour or a pick tour plan from the consolidated order fulfillment data, wherein the pick tour generating subsystem comprises
a map unit for storing a map having data associated therewith that corresponds to a location for each of the items in a warehouse,
a graph generating unit for generating a value sorted tree graph by employing a value sorted tree mapping technique based on the map data and the consolidated order fulfillment data, and wherein the value sorted tree graph includes data associating one or more of the items from the plurality of a customer orders with a selected location in the warehouse, and
a pick tour generator for generating the pick tour plan having the pick instructions based on the value ordered tree graph and the map data,
a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and grouping together similar ones of the items associated with the plurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks, wherein one or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or more bulk pick tours, wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit groups selected ones of the items of the plurality of customer orders in the consolidated order fulfillment data into the bulk picks based on a plurality of selectable predetermined logical parameters, including warehouse data and data associated with the items that are common among a selected group of items, so as to optimize a fulfillment process,
wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit includes processing hardware that is configured to generate one or more bulk picks having associated therewith a plurality of bulk pick recipes from the data associated with the customer orders and the warehouse data including one or more locations in the warehouse, wherein each of the bulk pick recipes includes a selected quantity of different ones of the one or more items from different ones of the plurality of customer orders that are grouped together; and
an automated fulfillment system for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and for automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customer order that are store in one or more of a plurality of storage receptacles,
wherein the automated fulfillment system is configured for receiving the pick tour plan or the pick tour and for automatically selecting the items in the customer order set forth in the pick tour plan or the pick tour from the one or more carousels, and is configured for receiving one or more of the plurality of bulk picks for automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customer order from the one or more carousels.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 1, wherein the pick tour generating subsystem further comprises
a cart building unit for generating information associated with a mobile cart for use by a pick agent, wherein the mobile cart has a plurality of totes associated therewith and wherein each of the plurality of totes includes identification information,
wherein the pick instructions of the pick tour plan correlates items of the customer orders at multiple selected locations in the warehouse with one or more of the plurality of totes in the mobile cart,
wherein the cart building unit determines the number of the totes for the mobile cart and the identification information associated with each of the plurality of totes based on the pick tour plan.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of totes includes a plurality of sub-compartments, wherein each of the plurality of sub-compartments includes identification information.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of totes are arranged on the mobile cart according to the pick tour plan.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 4, wherein the value sorted tree graph is an associative array data type having values associated therewith, wherein the value sorted tree graph sorts the values in a selected order.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 5, wherein the values correspond to the locations in the warehouse or to a number of the items at the locations in the warehouse.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 6, wherein the locations within the warehouse include one or more bays associated with each location in the warehouse, and wherein the pick tour plan comprises plan data correlating the location of the bay with selected ones of the items at the locations of the bays to be placed in selected totes in the mobile cart.

### Claim 8 (depends on 2)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 2, wherein the pick tour plan is generated by the pick tour generator by mapping the consolidated order fulfillment data generated by the order generating unit with the warehouse configuration stored in the map unit via the graph generating unit.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 7, wherein the pick tour generator converts the pick tour plan into a pick tour, wherein the pick instructions of the pick tour includes an ordered list of pick tasks.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 9, wherein each of the pick tasks includes a plurality of: the location of the bay, identification information associated with the location of the bay, shipping information associated with one or more of the customer orders, a quantity of the items, identification information associated with each of the items, one or more of the items to be picked from the bay, and the tote on the mobile cart in which to place the picked items.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 10, wherein the pick tour generator generates the pick tour based on a similarity in the customer orders and the location of the items in the warehouse.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 1, wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit groups the items in the consolidated order fulfillment data into shipments according to one or more predetermined logical parameters.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 12, wherein the processing hardware of the bulk pick order fulfillment unit further configured to:
map the one or more items in each of the plurality of customer orders to product identification data,
and
generate a bulk pick ticket associated with each of the bulk picks.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 13, wherein the bulk pick ticket includes information about the one or more items in the bulk pick recipe, and location information associated with the location of the one or more items in the warehouse.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 13, wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit generates one or more bulk pick recipes by using a connected graph of groupings of the items from the customer orders and the one or more additional items, wherein the items from the customer orders and the additional items form nodes of the connected graph, and wherein the connected graph includes a plurality of connecting lines coupled to one or more of the nodes and which are representative of a number of the customers associated with the nodes that are connected by the connecting lines.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 1, further comprising a packing and shipping sub-system for packing and shipping the items from the customer orders.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The customer order fulfillment system of claim 15, wherein one of the order generating unit and the bulk pick order fulfillment unit generates a window having a tree map for visually displaying on a display device selected consolidated order fulfillment data, and wherein the window includes
a top pane for displaying the tree map further includes a plurality of configurable and the selectable logical parameters for allowing a user to select parameters associated with the customer orders, and wherein the selectable parameters include a plurality of one or more of: a selected selectable warehouse location, the a maximum number of items per bulk pick ticket, the a minimum shipment count per bulk pick recipe, or the a maximum number of recipes per bulk pick, a selectable fulfillment line type, and a selectable pick location, wherein each of the recipes includes a selected number of items from the customer orders, and
a plurality of bottom panes forming the tree map, wherein each of the plurality of bottom panes is representative of a total number of customer orders included in a bulk pick, and wherein each of the plurality of bottom pane elements has a different size relative to each other and is representative of a different number of bulk picks, wherein the plurality of bottom panes are arranged in order of the number of bulk picks.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of storage receptacles comprises a plurality of vertically extending and rotatable carousel units.

### Claim 19

A method for retrieving items from a customer order from a warehouse so as to fulfill a customer order, comprising
collecting information associated with a plurality of customer orders from a plurality of customers and generating customer order data that includes data associated with each of the plurality of customer orders and the plurality of customers with an order collection unit, wherein each of the plurality of customer order includes one or more items associated therewith,
generating in response to the customer order data consolidated order fulfillment data with an order generating unit, and
receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data and generating pick instructions associated with a pick tour plan or a pick tour from the consolidated order fulfillment data by a pick tour generating subsystem, wherein the pick tour generating subsystem is configured for
storing a map having data associated therewith that corresponds to a location for each of the items in a warehouse with a map unit,
generating information associated with a mobile caret for use by a pick agent with a cart building unit, wherein the mobile cart has a plurality of totes associated therewith and wherein each of the plurality of totes includes identification information,
generating a value sorted tree graph by employing a value sorted tree mapping technique based on the map data and the consolidated order fulfillment data with a graph generating unit, and wherein the value sorted tree graph includes data associating one or more of the items from the plurality of customer orders with a selected location in the warehouse, and
generating the pick tour plan having the pick instructions bases on the value ordered tree graph and the map data with a pick tour generator, wherein the pick instructions for the pick tour plan correlates items of the customer orders at multiple selected locations in the warehouse with one or more of the plurality of totes in the mobile cart, wherein the cart building unit determines the number of totes for the mobile cart and the identification information associated with each of the plurality of totes based on the pick tour plan,
receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and grouping together similar ones of the items associated with the plurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks with a bulk pick order fulfillment unit, wherein one or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or more bulk pick tours, wherein the pick tour instructions selectively includes the bulk picks, wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit groups selects one of the items of the plurality of customer orders in the consolidated order fulfillment data into the bulk picks based on a plurality of selectable predetermined logical parameters, including the map data and data associated with the items that are common among a selected group of items, so as to optimize a fulfillment process,
wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment until includes processing hardware that is configured for generating one or more bulk picks having associated therewith a plurality of bulk pick recipes from the data associated with the customer orders and the map data including one or more locations in the warehouse, wherein each of the bulk pick recipes includes a selected quantity of different ones of the one or more items from different ones of the plurality of customer orders that are grouped together, and
receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and for automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customer order that are stored in one or more of a plurality of storage receptacles of an automated fulfillment system,
wherein the automated fulfillment system is configured for receiving the pick tour plan or the pick tour and for selecting the items in the customer order set forth in the pick tour plan or the pick tour from the one or more carousels, and is configured for receiving one or more of the plurality of bulk picks for selecting one or more of the items in the customer order from the one or more carousels.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The method of claim 19, wherein the pick tour generating subsystem is further configured for
generating information associated with a mobile cart for use by a pick agent with a cart building unit, wherein the mobile cart has a plurality of totes associated therewith and wherein each of the plurality of totes includes identification information,
wherein the pick tour plan correlates items of the customer orders at multiple selected locations in the warehouse with one or more of the plurality of totes in the mobile cart,
wherein, the cart building unit determines the number of totes for the mobile cart and the identification information associated with each of the plurality of totes based on the pick tour plan.

### Claim 21 (depends on 20)

The method of claim 20, further comprising arranging the plurality of totes on the mobile cart according to the pick tour plan.

### Claim 22 (depends on 20)

The method of claim 20, wherein the value sorted tree graph is an associative array data type having values associated therewith, wherein the value sorted tree graph sorts the values in a selected order.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein the values correspond to the locations in the warehouse or to a number of the items at selected locations in the warehouse.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23, wherein the locations within the warehouse include one or more bays associated with each location in the warehouse, further comprising correlating the location of the bay with selected ones of the items at the locations of the bay to be placed in selected totes in the mobile cart.

### Claim 25 (depends on 24)

The method of claim 24, further comprising generating the pick tour plan by mapping the consolidated order fulfillment data generated by the order generating unit with the warehouse configuration stored in the map unit via the graph generating unit.

### Claim 26 (depends on 25)

The method of claim 25, further comprising converting with the pick tour generator the pick tour plan into the pick tour having the pick instructions, wherein the pick instructions of the pick tour includes an ordered list of pick tasks.

### Claim 27 (depends on 26)

The method of claim 26, wherein each of the pick tasks includes a plurality of: the location of the bay, identification information associated with the location of the bay, shipping information associated with one or more of the customer orders, a quantity of the items, identification information associated with each of the items, one or more of the items to be picked from the bay location, and the tote on the mobile cart in which to place the picked items.

### Claim 28 (depends on 19)

The method of claim 19, wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit includes processing hardware that is configured for:
mapping the one or more items in each of the plurality of customer orders to product identification data,
and
generating bulk pick ticket associated with each of the bulk picks.

### Claim 29 (depends on 28)

The method of claim 28, wherein the bulk pick ticket includes information about the one or more items in the bulk pick recipe, and location information associated with the location of the one or more items in the warehouse.

### Claim 30 (depends on 28)

The method of claim 28, wherein the bulk pick order fulfillment unit generates one or more bulk pick recipes by using a connected graph of groupings of the items from the customer orders and the one or more additional items, wherein the items from the customer orders and the additional items form nodes of the connected graph, and wherein the connected graph includes a plurality of connecting lines couples to one or more of the nodes and which are representative of a number of the customers associated with the nodes that are connected by the connecting lines.

### Claim 31 (depends on 30)

The method of claim 30, further comprising generating a window having a tree map for visually displaying on a display device selected consolidated order fulfillment data, and wherein the window includes
a top pane for displaying the tree map further includes a plurality of configurable and selectable logical parameters for allowing a user to select parameters associated with the customer orders, and wherein the selectable parameters include a plurality of one or more of: a selected warehouse location, a maximum number of items per bulk pick ticket, a minimum shipment count per bulk pick recipe, a maximum number of recipes per bulk pick, a selectable fulfillment line type, and a selectable pick location, wherein each of the recipes includes a selected number of items from the customer orders, and
a plurality of bottom panes forming the tree map, wherein each of the plurality of bottom panes is representative of a total number of customer orders included in a bulk pick, and wherein each of the plurality of bottom pane elements has a different size relative to each other and is representative of a different number of bulk picks, wherein the plurality of bottom panes are arranged in order of the number of bulk picks.

### Claim 32

A customer order fulfillment system, comprising
an order collection unit for collecting information associated with a plurality of customer orders from a plurality of customers and generating customer order data that includes data associated with each of the plurality of customer orders and the plurality of customers, wherein each of the plurality of customer order includes one or more items associated therewith,
an order generating unit for receiving the customer order data from the order collection unit and generating in response thereto consolidated order fulfillment data,
a pick tour generating subsystem for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and in response thereto generating pick instructions associated with a pick tour or a pick tour plan from the consolidated order fulfillment data,
a bulk pick order fulfillment unit for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and grouping together similar ones of the items associated with the plurality of customer orders to form a plurality of bulk picks, wherein one or more of the plurality of bulk picks can form part of one or more bulk pick tours, and
an automated fulfillment system for receiving the consolidated order fulfillment data from the order generating unit and for automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customer order, wherein the automated fulfillment system includes a plurality of storage receptacles in communication with a conveyor subsystem, wherein each of the plurality of storage receptacles has a plurality of tubs associated therewith for storing selected items,
wherein the automated fulfillment system is configured for receiving the pick tour plan or the pick tour and for automatically selecting the items in the customer order set forth in the pick tour plan or the pick tour from one or more of the plurality of storage receptacles, and is configured for receiving one or more of the plurality of bulk picks for automatically selecting one or more of the items in the customer order from the storage receptacles.

### Claim 33 (depends on 32)

The system of claim 32, wherein the plurality of storage receptacles comprises a plurality of vertically extending and rotatable carousel units.