US 8,571,915 B1Granted

System and method for selectively advancing items in a picking schedule

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsCherie G. Wong, Eric Young, Ramon A. Palacios Durazo

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Abstract

Embodiments of a system and method for selectively advancing items in a picking schedule are described. Embodiments may include a pick scheduler configured to determine that available labor exceeds labor needed to perform a picking process during a time period of a picking schedule. From items not scheduled to be picked during that time period, the pick scheduler may identify candidate items that are candidates to be picked during that time period. Each candidate item may improve a performance metric of the picking process. The pick scheduler may, for each of multiple candidate items, determine that advancing that item to the time period is expected to improve a shipping metric. The pick scheduler may, in response to determining that the expected shipping metric improvement of a particular candidate item is greater than that of other candidate items, generate an instruction to pick the particular candidate item during the time period.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a memory;
and
one or more processors coupled to the memory, wherein the memory comprises program instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement a pick scheduler component configured to:
determine that a quantity of available labor is greater than a quantity of labor needed to perform an item picking process that includes picking a plurality of items from respective locations of a materials handling facility, wherein the plurality of items are scheduled to be picked during a particular time period of a picking schedule;
in response to that determination, evaluate multiple items that are not scheduled to be picked during the particular time period in order to identify candidate items that are candidates to be picked during said particular time period, wherein picking a given candidate item during said particular time period is projected to improve one or more performance metrics of said item picking process;
for each of multiple candidate items, determine that temporally advancing the picking of that item to the particular time period is expected to improve a shipping metric of a shipment including that item;
and
in response to determining that the expected shipping metric improvement of a particular candidate item is greater than the expected shipment metric improvement of one or more other candidate items, generate an instruction to pick the particular candidate item during the particular time period.

5 more elements

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining that a quantity of available labor is greater than a quantity of labor needed to perform an item picking process that includes picking a plurality of items from respective locations of a materials handling facility, wherein the plurality of items are scheduled to be picked during a particular time period of a picking schedule;
in response to that determination, evaluating multiple items that are not scheduled to be picked during the particular time period in order to identify candidate items that are candidates to be picked during said particular time period, wherein picking a given candidate item during said particular time period is projected to improve one or more performance metrics of said item picking process;
for each of multiple candidate items, determining, by a computer system, that temporally advancing the picking of that item to the particular time period is expected to improve a shipping metric of a shipment including that item;
and
in response to determining that the expected shipping metric improvement of a particular candidate item is greater than the expected shipment metric improvement of one or more other candidate items, generating, by the computer system, an instruction to pick the particular candidate item during the particular time period.

2 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing program instructions computer-executable on a computer system to implement a pick scheduler component configured to perform a method comprising:

determining that a quantity of available labor is greater than a quantity of labor needed to perform an item picking process that includes picking a plurality of items from respective locations of a materials handling facility, wherein the plurality of items are scheduled to be picked during a particular time period of a picking schedule;
in response to said determining, evaluating multiple items that are not scheduled to be picked during the particular time period in order to identify candidate items that are candidates to be picked during said particular time period, wherein picking a given candidate item during said particular time period is projected to improve one or more performance metrics of said item picking process;
for each of multiple candidate items, determining that temporally advancing the picking of that item to the particular time period is expected to improve a shipping metric of a shipment including that item;
and
in response to determining that the expected shipping metric improvement of a particular candidate item is greater than the expected shipment metric improvement of one or more other candidate items, generating an instruction to pick the particular candidate item during the particular time period.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.