Spatial partitioning of a cross-dock transportation network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025245615-A1
Application number	US-202519042466-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 31, 2025
Priority date	Jan 31, 2024
Publication date	Jul 31, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system including a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform certain operations: obtaining a distribution of transit miles for inbound loads located within a distance of each facility of multiple facilities; creating, using a partition engine, multiple spatial partitions within the distance of each facility of the multiple facilities; determining, using the partition engine, a multi-partition distance by combining multiple spatial partitions with overlapping distances; determining shipment consolidation options for the inbound loads within the multi-partition distance of the multiple facilities; and generating a transit plan corresponding to the inbound loads located within the multi-partition distance, based on the shipment consolidation options. Other embodiments are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computing instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a distribution of transit miles for inbound loads located within a distance of each facility of multiple facilities; creating, using a partition engine, multiple spatial partitions within the distance of each facility of the multiple facilities; determining, using the partition engine, a multi-partition distance by combining multiple spatial partitions with overlapping distances; determining shipment consolidation options for the inbound loads within the multi-partition distance of the multiple facilities; and generating a transit plan corresponding to the inbound loads located within the multi-partition distance, based on the shipment consolidation options.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the distribution of transit miles for the inbound loads is based on at least one of (i) vendor locations in proximity to facility locations or (ii) a list of states in which the facility locations are located.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein creating the multiple spatial partitions comprises:
identifying a base region for a facility of the multiple facilities.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein identifying the base region comprises:
determining an expandable radius of the base region to capture an area a target coverage percentage for the facility.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the target coverage percentage is a percentage that is greater than or equal to a number of covered historical loads at the facility divided by a number of total historical loads for the facility.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the covered historical loads comprise historical loads for which a vendor location is either (i) within the expandable radius of a first distance to the facility, or (ii) located in a list of states covered by the vendor location of the facility.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein, when the percentage is less than the target covered percentage, expanding the expandable radius of the first distance to the facility or adding another state to the list of states.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein determining the shipment consolidation options comprises:
adding a shipment to the inbound loads when a direct transit mileage from the vendor location to the facility exceeds a predetermined threshold.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying shipments excluded from the multiple spatial partitions.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein:
grouping the shipments so that each group covers a number of alternate facilities; and creating an alternate spatial partition for each group that covers the number of alternate facilities.

11 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
obtaining a distribution of transit miles for inbound loads located within a distance of each facility of multiple facilities; creating, using a partition engine, multiple spatial partitions within the distance of each facility of the multiple facilities; determining, using the partition engine, a multi-partition distance by combining multiple spatial partitions with overlapping distances; determining shipment consolidation options for the inbound loads within the multi-partition distance of the multiple facilities; and generating a transit plan corresponding to the inbound loads located within the multi-partition distance, based on the shipment consolidation options.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein obtaining the distribution of transit miles for the inbound loads is based on at least one of (i) vendor locations in proximity to facility locations or (ii) a list of states in which the facility locations are located.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein creating the multiple spatial partitions comprises:
identifying a base region for a facility of the multiple facilities.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein identifying the base region comprises:
determining an expandable radius of the base region to capture an area a target coverage percentage for the facility.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the target coverage percentage is a percentage that is greater than or equal to a number of covered historical loads at the facility divided by a number of total historical loads for the facility.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the covered historical loads comprise historical loads for which a vendor location is either (i) within the expandable radius of a first distance to the facility, or (ii) located in a list of states covered by the vendor location of the facility.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein, when the percentage is less than the target covered percentage, expanding the expandable radius of the first distance to the facility or adding another state to the list of states.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein determining the shipment consolidation options comprises:
adding a shipment to the inbound loads when a direct transit mileage from the vendor location to the facility exceeds a predetermined threshold.

19 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computing instructions that, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a distribution of transit miles for inbound loads located within a distance of each facility of multiple facilities; creating, using a partition engine, multiple spatial partitions within the distance of each facility of the multiple facilities; determining, using the partition engine, a multi-partition distance by combining multiple spatial partitions with overlapping distances; determining shipment consolidation options for the inbound loads within the multi-partition distance of the multiple facilities; and generating a transit plan corresponding to the inbound loads located within the multi-partition distance, based on the shipment consolidation options.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein obtaining the distribution of transit miles for the inbound loads is based on at least one of (i) vendor locations in proximity to facility locations or (ii) a list of states in which the facility locations are located.

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Zhang Liqing
• Ni Ming
• Mansouri Nadere
• Prakash Rohan
• Ji Li
• Zhang Ti
• Huang Jing
• Fu Mingang
• Lian Kunlei

Classifications

• G06Q10/08355 Primary

  Routing methods · CPC title