US 2014/0278627 A1 · FLEXIBLE STORE FULFILLMENT

Abstract

Aspects described herein relate to a flexible order fulfillment management system that utilizes predefined fulfillment workflows including common business processes. By utilizing predefined workflows including common business processes, the order fulfillment management system is able to drive store-based fulfillment programs efficiently as multiple fulfillment workflows may utilize the same common business processes and a single fulfillment management system may operate workflows in parallel. In addition, such an order fulfillment management system may also be more easily adapted for different retail store environments as the system allows a designer to easily create or modify a fulfillment workflow by selecting predefined common business processes or creating any additional custom business processes. Another aspect described herein relates to a tool that allows a designer of an order fulfillment program to select from a group of predefined common business processes to create workflows associated with an order fulfillment program.

Claims34

Dependent claims

An order fulfillment system comprising:

a fulfillment management engine configured to be coupled to a retail store computer system, the fulfillment management engine configured to receive orders from a central order management system;
a database coupled to the order fulfillment management engine, the database including storage for fulfillment operation information including a plurality of predefined fulfillment workflows stored within, each predefined fulfillment workflow including at least one common business process, each common business process including at least one action;
a task management system coupled to the order fulfillment management engine;
and
at least one device configured to communicate with the task management system and including software components that implement business processes,
wherein the order fulfillment management engine is configured to select one of the plurality of predefined fulfillment workflows for each received order, and
wherein the task management system is configured to drive the at least one device to instruct a user of the at least one device to perform actions associated with the common business processes of the selected predefined process workflows.

4 more elements

A method for fulfilling customer orders, the method comprising acts of:

selecting, via an input device of a process design system within the distributed computer system, a first group of common predefined business processes from a plurality of common predefined business processes stored in a database coupled to the process design system, each one of the plurality of common predefined business process including at least one action;
and
defining, via the input device of the process design system, at least a portion of a fulfillment workflow of a first fulfillment program to include the selected first group of common predefined business processes.

A computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed on a processor performs a method for fulfilling customer orders, the method comprising acts of:

selecting, via an input device of a process design system within the distributed computer system, a first group of common predefined business processes from a plurality of common predefined business processes stored in a database coupled to the process design system, each one of the plurality of common predefined business process including at least one action;
and
defining, via the input device of the process design system, at least a portion of a fulfillment workflow of a first fulfillment program to include the selected first group of common predefined business processes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Flexible store fulfillment

Life of this patent

Flexible store fulfillment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims34