Cross-dock management system, method and apparatus
AssigneeInnovative Logistics, Inc.
InventorsGARY SHANNON LIVELY, MARK BRADLEY, PATRICK SULLIVAN
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a cross-dock management system comprises: a plurality of movable platforms configured to hold one or more pallets or parcels; at least one barcode or RFID tag positioned on each of said movable platforms, pallets, or parcels, wherein the barcode readers are configured to read the barcodes and RFID readers are configured to read the RFID tags. The data scanned by the barcode readers and RFID readers is stored in a local warehouse database and is used to determine an optimized placement and load for each movable platform in the warehouse.
Claims18
A cross-dock management system comprising:
- a cross-dock having a plurality of separated spaces;
- a plurality of doors for receiving inbound trailers and outbound trailers;
- a plurality of movable platforms arranged on the cross-dock in the separated spaces;
- a plurality of cargo arranged on at least one of the movable platforms,
- wherein the movable platforms and the spaces are assigned at least one unique identifier;
- at least one conveyance vehicle for moving the cargo or the movable platforms,
- wherein the at least one conveyance vehicle comprises a reader for reading the unique identifiers;
- and
- an initial setup optimization server for determining a plurality of ordered move instructions for moving the cargo using the at least one conveyance vehicle.
A cross-dock collaboration system comprising:
- a first cross-dock management system;
- a second cross-dock management system,
- wherein the first cross-dock management system and the second cross-dock management system are utilized on the same cross-dock;
- and
- a heuristic collaboration server for determining collaboration options between the first cross-dock management system and the second cross-dock management system by:
- a. receiving first collaboration data from the first cross-dock management system;
- b. receiving second collaboration data from the second cross-dock management system;
- c. comparing the first collaboration data with the second collaboration data to determine the collaboration options;
- d. for all accepted collaboration options, determining ordered move instructions for
- transferring first overflow cargo from first movable platforms assigned to the first cross-dock management system to second movable platforms assigned to the second cross-dock management system;
- and
- transferring second overflow cargo from the second movable platforms to the first movable platforms;
- and
- e. performing the ordered move instructions using one or more conveyance vehicles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.