Automated retail supply chain and inventory management system
AssigneeAlert Innovation Inc.
InventorsJohn G. Lert, JR., William J. Fosnight
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method are disclosed for supplying one or more goods to a physical store location. The goods may be received at a distribution center (DC). At the DC, the goods may be decanted from their shipping containers into one or more sub-totes, which are contained within one or more product totes. The sub-totes may be transferred from the one or more product totes to one or more order totes based on a velocity of movement of the plurality of goods at the physical store location.
Claims21
An order fulfillment system comprising a distribution center for supplying goods to a physical store location, the order fulfillment system comprising:
- a decanting station for receiving goods into the distribution center from an upstream supplier of the goods, the decanting station receiving a plurality of sub-totes of differing sizes, two or more of the plurality of sub-totes being configured to fit within a product container, a sub-tote of the plurality of sub-totes being selected for packing with goods of the same stock keeping units (SKUs), a size of the sub-tote being selected based on inventory requirements for the goods of the same SKU at the physical store location;
- a picking workstation configured to transfer goods from product containers to order containers, goods being picked and placed into the order containers based on an order for the goods at the physical store location, the sub-tote comprising the goods of the same SKU being transferred as a whole from the order container to a product container of the product containers;
- and
- a delivery section for loading the order containers from the distribution center onto shipping vehicles, the delivery section loading the order container including the sub-tote with the goods of the same SKU onto a shipping vehicle for shipment to the physical store location.
An order fulfillment system comprising a distribution center for supplying goods to a physical store location, the order fulfillment system comprising:
- a decanting station for receiving goods into the distribution center from an upstream supplier of the goods, the decanting station receiving a plurality of sub-totes of differing sizes, two or more of the plurality of sub-totes being configured to fit within a product container, a sub-tote of the plurality of sub-totes being selected for packing with goods of the same stock keeping units (SKUs), a size of the sub-tote being selected based on inventory requirements for the goods of the same SKU at the physical store location;
- a picking workstation configured to transfer goods from product containers to order containers, goods being picked and placed into the order containers based on an order for the goods at the physical store location;
- and
- a picking robot at the picking workstation configured to automatically grip sub-totes of differing sizes and configured to transfer the sub-tote having the goods of the same SKU as a whole from the product tote to the order tote.
An order fulfillment system comprising a distribution center for supplying goods to a plurality of physical store locations, the order fulfillment system comprising:
- a decanting station for receiving goods into the distribution center from an upstream supplier of the goods, the decanting station receiving a plurality of sub-totes of differing sizes, two or more of the plurality of sub-totes being configured to fit within a product container, goods of the same stock keeping unit (SKU) being placed in a plurality of different sized sub-totes, each sub-tote of the plurality of different sized sub-totes destined for a different physical store of the plurality of different physical stores;
- and
- a picking workstation configured to transfer goods from product containers to order containers, goods being picked and placed into the order containers based on an order for the goods at the plurality of physical store locations, each of the sub-totes of the plurality of different sized sub-totes transferred as a whole to different order containers of the order containers for shipment of the different order containers to the plurality of different physical stores.
-63. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.