Systems and methods for material management
AssigneeMGM Services, Inc.
InventorRichard E. Waitkus, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method are provided for scheduling the emptying or replacement of a waste container based on the fullness of the container or the usage of the container. These factors may be considered to determine when the waste container will become completely full. Additionally, the system and method may consider the customer preferences or the limitations of the waste hauler. All of these factors may be considered to determine an optimal time for the waste container to be emptied or replaced. These factors are also considered to determine when to accomplish the scheduling (i.e. when to notify the waste hauler that the waste container should be emptied or replaced at a given time).
Claims28
A material management system including:
- one or more waste containers adapted to receive and compact waste;
- a fullness-measuring subsystem for determining the fullness of one or more waste containers;
- a computerized scheduling subsystem in communication with the fullness-measuring subsystem for automatically determining an optimal time to empty each waste container, the computerized scheduling subsystem comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- a memory, the memory comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to determine an optimal time to empty each waste container based on:
- the fullness of the waste container;
- and
- scheduling factors including:
- customer preferences;
- and
- waste hauler limitations;
- where the waste hauler limitations include one or more limitations selected from the group consisting of:
- a number of drivers available at a specified time;
- a number of trucks available at a specified time;
- a distance from the waste hauler to the customer's waste container;
- a distance from the customer's waste container to the material receiving site;
- operating hours of the waste hauler's dispatcher/routing office;
- and
- operating hours of a company that schedules hauls with the waste hauler,
- and
- where the computerized scheduling subsystem stores at least one scheduling factor before determining the optimal time to empty each waste container.
A computerized method for scheduling a pick up time to remove of one or more waste containers, including, for each waste container:
- automatically determining a fullness of the waste container;
- automatically determining when a waste container will a target level of fullness, based on the current fullness and predicted future usage;
- storing at least one scheduling factor selected from the group of scheduling factors consisting of customer preferences and waste hauler limitations;
- automatically determining an optimal time to remove the waste container, based on:
- when the waste container will reach the target level of fullness;
- customer preferences;
- and
- waste hauler limitations;
- and
- automatically scheduling the removal of the waste container for the optimal time;
- where the waste hauler limitations include one or more limitations selected from the group consisting of:
- a number of drivers available at a specified time;
- a number of trucks available at a specified time;
- a distance from the waste hauler to the customer's waste container;
- a distance from the customer's waste container to the material receiving site;
- operating hours of the waste hauler's dispatcher/routing office;
- and
- operating hours of a company that schedules hauls with the waste hauler.
A computer program, stored on a tangible storage medium, for use in scheduling a pick up time to remove one or more waste containers, the computer program including executable instructions that cause a computer to, for each waste container:
- determine a fullness of the waste container;
- determine when the waste container will reach a target level of fullness, based on the current fullness and predicted future usage;
- storing at least one scheduling factor selected from the group of scheduling factors consisting of customer preferences and waste hauler limitations;
- determine an optimal time to remove the waste container, based on:
- when the waste container will reach the target level of fullness;
- customer preferences;
- and
- waste hauler limitations;
- and
- schedule the removal of the waste container for the optimal time;
- where the waste hauler limitations include one or more limitations selected from the group consisting of:
- a number of drivers available at a specified time;
- a number of trucks available at a specified time;
- a distance from the waste hauler to the customer's waste container;
- a distance from the customer's waste container to the material receiving site;
- operating hours of the waste hauler's dispatcher/routing office;
- and
- operating hours of a company that schedules hauls with the waste hauler.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.