Assigning warehouse resources to an inbound truck to maximize warehouse throughput

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11488076-B2
Application number	US-201916684508-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2019
Priority date	Nov 14, 2019
Publication date	Nov 1, 2022
Grant date	Nov 1, 2022

Abstract

In general, the subject matter described in this disclosure can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for routing items in a warehouse. A computing system receives a request to assign an inbound truck to a transport bay and determines an available subset of unloading paths, by removing any unloading path directed from a transport bay or inbound storage area that is currently occupied/assigned. The computing system determines an available subset of loading paths, by removing any loading path directed to a transport bay or outbound staging area that is currently occupied/assigned. The computing system identifies multiple available path combinations that each include an unloading path from the available subset of unloading paths and a loading path from the available subset of loading paths. The computing system determines a selected path combination based on the selected path combination having a most favorable score.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for routing items in a warehouse, comprising:
receiving, by a computing system, a request to assign an inbound truck arriving at the warehouse to a transport bay from among multiple transport bays at the warehouse that are structured to dock trucks;
accessing, by the computing system, information that identifies a collection of unloading paths in the warehouse, the unloading paths being directed from the multiple transport bays to multiple inbound storage areas in the warehouse, the multiple inbound storage areas being areas in the warehouse that are arranged to temporarily store physical items unloaded from trucks docked at various of the transport bays;
determining, by the computing system, an available subset of unloading paths from among the collection of unloading paths, by removing from the collection of unloading paths:
(i) any unloading path directed from a transport bay, of the multiple transport bays, that is currently occupied by a truck, and
(ii) any path directed to an inbound storage area, of the multiple inbound storage areas, to which a truck at any of the multiple transport bays is assigned;

accessing, by the computing system, information that identifies a collection of loading paths in the warehouse, the loading paths being directed from multiple outbound staging areas in the warehouse to the multiple transport bays, the multiple outbound staging areas being areas in the warehouse that are arranged to stage physical items that are to be loaded onto trucks docked at various of the transport bays;
determining, by the computing system, an available subset of loading paths from among the collection of loading paths, by removing from the collection of loading paths:
(i) any loading path directed to a transport bay, of the multiple transport bays, that is currently occupied by a truck, and
(ii) any loading path directed from an outbound staging area, of the multiple outbound staging areas, to which a truck at any of the multiple transport bays is assigned;

identifying, by the computing system, multiple available path combinations that each include an unloading path from the available subset of unloading paths and a loading path from the available subset of loading paths that each use a same transport bay;
identifying, by the computing system, a score for each available path combination of the multiple available path combinations, based on a score for the unloading path of the respective available path combination and a score for the loading path of the respective available path combination;
determining, by the computing system, a selected path combination from among the multiple available path combinations, based on the selected path combination having a most favorable score from among scores of the multiple available path combinations;
outputting, by the computing system, assignment information that assigns the inbound truck to: (a) a selected transport bay used by the selected path combination, (b) an unloading path of the selected path combination that is directed from the selected transport bay to a selected inbound storage area, and (c) a selected loading path of the selected path combination that is directed from a selected outbound staging area to the selected transport bay;
automatically operating, based on the assignment information, an automated conveyor system to transport physical items to at least one of the selected transport bay, along the unloading path of the selected path combination, or along the selected loading path of the selected path combination;
automatically operating, based on the assignment information, an automated shuttling system to transfer physical items at the selected inbound storage area based in part on the unloading path of the selected path combination; and
automatically operating, based on the assignment information, the automated shuttling system to transfer physical items at the selected outbound staging area based in part on the selected loading path of the selected path combination.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing system for each currently-docked truck of multiple trucks currently docked at a respective transport bay of the multiple transport bays, an unloading path assigned to the respective truck from among the collection of unloading paths and a loading path assigned to the respective truck from among the collection of unloading paths, and wherein:
determining the available subset of unloading paths includes:
(a) removing from the collection of unloading paths any unloading path that crosses an unloading path that is assigned to any currently-docked truck, and
(b) removing from the collection of unloading paths any unloading path that crosses a loading path that is assigned to any currently-docked truck; and

determining the available subset of loading paths includes:
(a) removing from the collection of loading paths any loading path that crosses an unloading path that is assigned to any currently-docked truck, and
(b) removing from the collection of loading paths any loading path that crosses a loading path that is assigned to any currently-docked truck.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing system, one or more transport bays of the multiple transport bays that have been designated as being out of service, and wherein:
determining the available subset of unloading paths includes removing from the collection of unloading paths any unloading path that is directed from any of the one or more transport bays that have been designated as being out of service; and
determining the available subset of loading paths includes removing from the collection of loading paths any loading path that is directed to any of the one or more transport bays that have been designated as being out of service.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the computing system, a score for each unloading path in the collection of unloading paths, based on a physical distance or time length of the respective unloading path; and
generating, by the computing system, a score for each loading path in the collection of loading paths, based on a physical distance or time length of the respective loading path.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the computing system generates the score for each unloading path in the collection of unloading paths and generates the score for each loading path in the collection of loading paths before the computing system receives the request to assign the inbound truck arriving at the warehouse to a transport bay.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the score for each available path combination of the multiple available path combinations includes weighting the score for the unloading path of the respective path combination differently than the score for the loading path of the respective path combination.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing system, multiple to-be-unloaded physical items that are to be unloaded from the inbound truck; and
determining, by the computing system, a collection of candidate put paths by identifying, for each combination of a to-be-unloaded physical item of the multiple to-be-unloaded physical items and each inbound storage area to which an unloading path in the available subset of unloading paths is directed, a put path that is directed from the respective inbound storage area to a location at which the respective to-be-unloaded physical item is to be stored in the warehouse, wherein:
identifying the multiple available path combinations in

Assignees

• Lineage Logistics Llc

Inventors

• Walet Daniel
• Wintz Daniel Thomas

Classifications

• G06Q10/06313

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06Q10/047 Primary

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title

• G06Q50/28

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q10/08

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title