Automated order pick process
AssigneeSt. Onge Company
InventorsRobert E. Bradley, Bruce Shingleton, Shankar Narayan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for controlling order setup and operation of order fulfillment devices, which devices include dispensers that dispense low quantities of low-demand articles from an inventory containing a very large number of different low-demand articles. The method arranges the articles in totes so the dispensers have efficient access thereto, and efficiently refills the totes based upon past orders.
Claims22
A control method for fulfilling a plurality of orders, each having at least one ordered article, comprising the steps of:
- predicting article demand based on past article demand,
- storing articles in totes according to predicted article demand,
- storing the position and quantity of articles in the totes within a control system,
- positioning the totes in a dispensing zone so that a plurality of different articles are in the dispensing zone and storing the tote positions in the control system,
- moving a dispenser to an ordered article in the dispensing zone according to the stored article and tote positions and removing the ordered article from the tote, and
- placing the removed ordered article into an article receiving area to permit fulfillment of an order.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the step of placing the removed article into an article receiving area includes the step of scanning one end of the dispensing zone for entry of an order receiving area assigned to a particular order and timing the release of the removed article so that it is received in the order receiving area as the area travels through the dispensing zone.
A process for filling orders containing one or more individual articles from an inventory containing a large number of low-frequency demand articles, comprising the steps of:
- providing a storage of structurally similar articles including a large quantity of said articles which are different;
- arranging said articles in storage in vertical stacks so that the individual articles within the stacks are identical;
- providing an article dispensing zone which defines a horizontally elongated support area on which stacks of articles are positionable;
- providing a moving article collecting arrangement adjacent and movable along said elongate support area;
- moving selected stacks of articles from storage to a replenishment area which is positioned adjacent the dispensing zone;
- transferring selected article stacks from the replenishment zone to said support area, and positioning said stacks at predetermined locations within said support area based on an analysis of the demand frequency of the different articles, and storing the locations of the stacks in said support area and the number of articles therein in a control system;
- and
- moving an article picking and transferring device lengthwise of the dispensing zone for automatically removing ordered individual articles from the stacks in said zone for transfer to the collecting arrangement for fulfillment of an order.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.