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Logistics system for automating transportation of goods

Inactive Publication Date: 2009-09-29
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE OF AMERICAN INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]As more fully described herein, the logistics management system of the invention facilitates the process of shipping goods by a shipper having a predefined set of shipping requirements via a carrier having a predefined rate structure. The system employs a multitasking operating system environment for running a plurality of computer processes substantially simultaneously. The environment has a means for interprocess communication whereby messages may be passed between the computer process. A supervisory server, running in the operating system environment, provides registration services to connect one or more computer processes to the interprocess communication mechanism. The system further employs at least one rate server, also running in the operating system environment, substantially simultaneously with the supervisory server. The rate server or servers provide access to carrier rate structure data and also provide predefined data processing services using the carrier rate structure data in response to a predefined set of request messages. The predefined data processing services include the providing of response messages based at least in part on the carrier rate structure data. More specifically, the rate server or servers have registration means for communicating with the supervisory server to invoke the registration services of the supervisory server and thereby establish a connection to the interprocess communication means. In the presently preferred embodiment there is one rate server for each carrier (e.g., U.S. Postal Service, Federal Express, United Parcel Service, etc.) and these servers are provided with a complete knowledge base of all rate structure data and shipping rules and regulations pertaining to that carrier.

Problems solved by technology

At both ends of the spectrum the systems have had a number of limitations.
The standalone mail manifesting systems are limited in that they are designed to automate only the shipping functions such as printing mailing label and mailing manifest by the shipping clerk or shipping department.
As such, the conventional standalone system was not integrated with the customer order department or with the order fulfillment and order packaging departments.
Hence, conventional standalone systems have lacked the ability to take order size, package size or time in transit into account when selecting the least cost carrier.
Large mainframe order processing systems are also limited.
Due to the complexity of mainframe computer architecture and associated software systems, it is not practical to use these solutions in the small or moderate sized business environment.
Mainframe-based systems often require years to develop and to customize for a particular organization's needs.

Method used

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Embodiment Construction

[0018]The logistics system of the invention serves as a management tool for the automated order processing, packaging, shipping and transportation of goods. The system is highly flexible and adaptable and thus the invention can be implemented in many forms. Therefore, in order to illustrate the principles of the invention an exemplary order processing, packaging and shipping operation will be illustrated and described. It will be understood that the invention provides a collection of building blocks or program objects which can be assembled in a variety of different ways to easily construct a logistics management system for practically any application.

[0019]Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary application is illustrated. In FIG. 1, a networked architecture is illustrated in which a plurality of computers are interconnected by a local area network bus 20. Of course, the number of computers and the network architecture utilized are matters of design choice. The invention is not restricte...

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PUM

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Abstract

The various transportation logistics tasks, such as order processing, order fulfillment, transportation of goods and tracking, are assigned to individual client / server objects which make up the building blocks of the computerized logistics management system. A tokenized message handling scheme allows client and server objects to share information, even where the respective data types do not match. An external processing manager provides script handling services to other client applications, allowing those applications to modify the performance of other program objects and to communicate with the outside world.

Description

[0001]This is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 128,358 entitled “Logistics System for Automating Transportation of Goods”, filed Sep. 28, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,369.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates generally to computerized systems for expediting the shipping of goods in commerce. More particularly, the invention relates to a computerized logistics system for managing and integrating various aspects of order processing, order fulfillment and goods transportation and tracking.[0003]In the past, computerized systems for expediting the shipping of goods have fallen into two rather diverse categories. At the low cost end of the spectrum have been the standalone postage meters and mail manifest systems used by small businesses to automate the package weighing and carrier manifest printing functions. At the other end of the spectrum are the mainframe computer-based systems employed by large nationwide mail order merchandisers. At both ...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): G06Q40/00G06Q10/06G06Q10/08G06Q30/02
CPCG06Q10/06311G06Q10/06315G06Q10/08G06Q10/087G06Q30/0283
Inventor NICHOLLS, PETERKINYON, ROBERTSKAISTIS, JEFFJOHNSON, STEVELOCKER, ANDYGUZIK, CHRISHOWARD, SCOTT
Owner UNITED PARCEL SERVICE OF AMERICAN INC
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