Managing delivery of environmentally sensitive products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10521756-B2
Application number	US-201615173120-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 3, 2016
Priority date	Jun 3, 2016
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

A method, executed by one or more processors, includes identifying at least one product for delivery and create a shipping manifest for the at least one product. The method includes extracting from the shipping manifest, a required amount of storage space for the at least one product and one or more environmental conditions required for storage of the at least one product at the receiving location. Furthermore, the method includes identifying a storage space location for storage of the at least one product at the receiving location, wherein the identified storage space location provides the required amount of storage space and the one or more environmental conditions required for the at least one product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising: identifying, by one or more processors, at least one product for delivery; creating, by one or more processors, a shipping manifest for the at least one product; extracting, by one or more processors, from the shipping manifest, a required amount of storage space for the at least one product and one or more environmental conditions required for storage of the at least one product at a receiving location; determining, by one or more computer processors, whether a storage space location for storage of the at least one product is available at the receiving location by querying a warehouse management system, wherein the identified storage space location provides the required amount of storage space and the one or more environmental conditions required for the at least one product; responsive to determining that the storage space location for storage of the at least product is not available at the receiving location with the required amount of storage space and the one or more environmental conditions required for the at least one product, sending, by one or more computer processors, a command for storage space preparation to the warehouse management system, wherein the command includes automatically changing a size of a storage space at the storage space location by moving one or more movable thermal curtains to create the identified storage space location.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by one or more processors, the identified storage space location at the receiving location to a deliverer of the at least one product.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein providing, by one or more processors, the identified storage space location at the receiving location to the deliverer of the at least one product further comprises providing, by one or more processors, access to the identified storage space location to the deliverer at an expected arrival time for delivery of the at least one product.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more environmental conditions required for storage of the at least one product include one or more of: a required temperature, one or more humidity levels, a vibration level, and an atmosphere condition.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating, by one or more processors, the shipping manifest for the at least one product further comprises providing, by one or more processors, the shipping manifest to at least a supplier location and the receiving location.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shipping manifest includes at least one of a product name for the at least one product, a product number for the at least one product, a quantity of the at least one product for delivery, one or more shipping container sizes for the at least one product, a quantity of at least one shipping container for the at least one product in a shipment, a quantity of the at least one product in the one or more shipping container sizes, an identifier for each shipping container of the at least one product, a quantity of the at least one shipping container for the at least one product, one or more environmental conditions required for storage of the at least one product and the receiving location for the at least one product.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating, by one or more processors, a shipping manifest for the at least one product further comprises:
retrieving, by one or more processors, from a database including product specification information, one or more shipping container sizes for the least one product based on one of a product name and a product number;
retrieving, by one or more processors, from the database including product specification information, a quantity of the least one product associated with each of the one or more shipping container sizes;
identifying, by one or more processors, a number of shipping containers for the one or more shipping container sizes for the at least one product for delivery to storage based on information extracted from one of a purchase order or a shipping request identifying the at least one product for delivery to the receiving location;
determining, by one or more processors, the required amount of storage space for the at least one product, based at least in part, on the number of shipping containers and the one or more shipping container sizes of the at least one product;
receiving, by one or more processors, a shipping container identifier for each of at least one shipping containers for the at least one product wherein the shipping container identifier is one of: a radio frequency identification tag, a near field communication tag, a tag, a barcode or a wireless device included in each of the at least one shipping containers for the at least one product;
retrieving, by one or more processors, from a database including product specification information, one or more environmental conditions required for storage of the at least one product; and
recording, by one or more processors, the retrieved number of shipping containers for the one or more shipping container sizes, the required amount of storage space for the at least one product, the shipping container identifier for each of the at least one shipping containers for the at least one product, and the one or more environmental conditions required for the at least one product in the shipping manifest.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprises:
scanning, by one or more processors, each of at least one shipping container of the at least one product delivered to storage;
recording, by one or more processors, a quantity of the scanned at least one shipping containers of the at least one product delivered to storage;
extracting, by one or more processors, a quantity of the at least one shipping container for delivery to the receiving location from the shipping manifest; and
verifying, by one or more processors, whether the quantity of the scanned at least one shipping containers for the at least one product delivered to storage matches the extracted quantity of the at least one shipping container for the at least one product from the shipping manifest.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprises: in response to determining that the quantity of the scanned at least one shipping containers of the at least one product matches the extracted quantity of the at least one shipping containers from the shipping manifest, notifying, by one or more processors, at least a supplier sending the at least one product, the receiving location, and a transporter who placed the shipping container of the at least one product in the identified space of the delivery of the at least one product.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprises:
determining, by one or more processors, a location of each of at least one shipping container of the at least one product based, at least in part, on a scan of each of the at least one shipping containers delivered to storage;
recording, by one or more processors, the location of each of the scanned at least one shipping container of the at least one product delivered to storage;
comparing, by one or more processors, the location of each of the scanned at least one shipping container of the at least one product delivered to storage and the identified storage space location of the at least one product; and
verifying, by one or more processors, that the location for each of the scanned at least one shipping containers delivered to storage matches the identified storage space location of the at least one product.

11. The method of claim 10 , in response to determining that the location of at least one of the scanned at least one shipping containers delivered to storage does not match the location

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bender Michael
• Childress Rhonda L
• Eckert Kim A
• Mcnair Ryan D

Classifications

• G06Q10/0832 Primary

  Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods · CPC title