Order distribution method and device for warehouse workstation

Abstract

The present application discloses an order allocation method and device for a warehousing workstation, belonging to the field of warehousing logistics technology. The method includes: obtaining the mean of the quantity of goods of the existing orders of multiple workstations to be allocated and the quantity of goods of multiple orders to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated; polling multiple workstations to be allocated, determining the current quantity of goods of the current workstation to be allocated among the multiple workstations to be allocated after the quantity of goods of each order to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated is allocated; determining the order to be allocated corresponding to the current quantity of goods with the smallest deviation from the mean of the quantity of goods as the target order to be allocated; allocating the target order to be allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, and updating the set of orders to be allocated until the preset allocation termination condition is met. The present application can improve the order processing efficiency of multiple workstations.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of warehousing logistics, and in particular to an order distribution method, device and machine-readable storage medium for a warehousing workstation. Background Art

[0002] In the intelligent warehousing logistics execution system of smart warehousing, orders are sent from the order pool to the workstation, which is used to process orders and send the processed orders to the warehouse shelves or ship them to customers. In the existing workstation order allocation method, the orders in the order pool are arranged in order, and some orders at the front are intercepted and assigned to a single workstation, or some orders are randomly selected and assigned to a single workstation. When it is necessary to consider allocating orders to multiple workstations, the technical means often used is serial allocation, that is, after allocating orders to a single workstation, the order is allocated to the next workstation. The above-mentioned order allocation method often causes the problem of low order processing efficiency in the case of multiple workstations. Summary of the invention

[0003] The purpose of the embodiments of the present application is to provide an order distribution method, device and machine-readable storage medium for a warehouse workstation, so as to solve the problem of low order processing efficiency in the case of multiple workstations in the prior art.

[0004] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the first aspect of the present application provides an order allocation method for a warehouse workstation, comprising:

[0005] Obtaining the average quantity of goods of the existing orders of multiple to-be-allocated workstations and the quantity of goods of multiple to-be-allocated orders in the to-be-allocated order set;

[0006] Polling a plurality of workstations to be allocated, determining the current quantity of goods of a current workstation to be allocated among the plurality of workstations to be allocated after the quantity of goods of each order to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated is allocated;

[0007] Determine the to-be-allocated order corresponding to the current quantity of goods with the smallest deviation between the current quantity of goods and the mean quantity of goods as the target to-be-allocated order;

[0008] Assign the target order to be assigned to the current workstation to be assigned, and update the set of orders to be assigned until the preset assignment termination condition is met.

[0009] In some embodiments of the present application, a target order to be allocated is allocated to a current workstation to be allocated, including: when there are multiple target orders to be allocated, obtaining the historical goods types of the workstation's historical picking orders, the to-be-processed goods types of existing orders of the current workstation to be allocated, and the order goods types of multiple target orders to be allocated; determining the correlation between each target order to be allocated and the existing order based on the to-be-processed goods types, the order goods types, and the historical goods types; and allocating the target order to be allocated with the highest correlation to the current workstation to be allocated.

[0010] In some embodiments of the present application, the correlation between each target order to be allocated and the existing order is determined based on the types of goods to be processed, the types of ordered goods, and the historical types of goods, including: taking the union of the types of goods to be processed and the types of ordered goods to obtain a set of goods types corresponding to each target order to be allocated; determining the number of frequent goods combination subsets in the goods type set to obtain the correlation, wherein the frequent goods combination subset is a goods combination subset in the goods type set whose appearance ratio in the historical picking orders of the workstation is greater than a preset appearance ratio threshold.

[0011] In some embodiments of the present application, before obtaining the quantity of goods of multiple orders to be allocated, the order allocation method also includes: obtaining the cut-off times corresponding to multiple existing orders and the preset priorities of the multiple existing orders; determining the comprehensive priority of the multiple existing orders based on the cut-off time and the preset priority; wherein, the comprehensive priority of the existing orders with an earlier cut-off time is higher; obtaining multiple orders to be allocated, including: obtaining multiple orders to be allocated based on the comprehensive priority and the number of workstations to be allocated.

[0012] In some embodiments of the present application, multiple orders to be allocated are obtained according to the comprehensive priority and the number of workstations to be allocated, including: according to the comprehensive priority, all existing orders within each comprehensive priority are intercepted step by step from the highest comprehensive priority; after all the existing orders of each comprehensive priority are intercepted, it is determined whether the total number of orders currently intercepted is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated; when the total number of orders currently intercepted is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated, intercepting the existing orders is stopped, and the multiple existing orders currently intercepted are used as multiple orders to be allocated; when the total number of orders currently intercepted is less than the number of workstations to be allocated, continuing to intercept all existing orders of the next comprehensive priority.

[0013] In some embodiments of the present application, the allocation termination conditions include the end of a single-round polling; in a single-round polling, each workstation to be allocated is only allocated one target order to be allocated; among multiple orders to be allocated, except for the order to be allocated with the lowest comprehensive priority, the remaining orders to be allocated need to be allocated in a single-round polling, and the number of orders to be allocated with the lowest comprehensive priority among multiple orders to be allocated is the difference between the number of multiple workstations to be allocated and the number of remaining orders to be allocated; the method also includes: each time the comprehensive priority of the order to be allocated to the current workstation to be allocated is the lowest comprehensive priority, the quantity difference is reduced by one until the quantity difference is zero.

[0014] In some embodiments of the present application, after the target order to be allocated is allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, it also includes: when the current order quantity of the current workstation to be allocated is greater than or equal to a preset order quantity threshold, removing the current workstation to be allocated from multiple workstations to be allocated; and updating the mean quantity of goods according to the current quantity of goods of the current workstation to be allocated.

[0015] In some embodiments of the present application, the allocation termination conditions include: a single round of polling ends; or the number of multiple workstations to be allocated is zero; or all orders to be allocated are allocated.

[0016] A second aspect of the present application provides an order allocation method for a warehouse workstation, comprising:

[0017] Obtaining the mean value of the quantity of goods in the existing orders of each workstation to be allocated in the set of workstations to be allocated and the quantity of goods in each order to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated;

[0018] Combining the workstations to be assigned and the orders to be assigned in pairs to obtain a plurality of combinations;

[0019] Determine the deviation corresponding to each combination, wherein the deviation of any combination is the deviation of the current quantity of goods corresponding to the any combination and the mean quantity of goods, and the current quantity of goods corresponding to the any combination is the current quantity of goods after the to-be-allocated workstation in the any combination is allocated the to-be-allocated order in the any combination;

[0020] Determine a target combination method with the smallest corresponding deviation from each combination method, determine the workstation to be allocated in the target combination method as the current workstation to be allocated, and determine the order to be allocated in the target combination method as the target order to be allocated;

[0021] The target order to be allocated is allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, and the set of orders to be allocated and the set of workstations to be allocated are updated until a preset allocation termination condition is met.

[0022] A third aspect of the present application provides an order allocation device for a warehouse workstation, comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; a processor configured to call the instructions from the memory and to implement the order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided according to any one of the above embodiments when executing the instructions.

[0023] A fourth aspect of the present application provides a machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being used to enable a machine to execute an order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided according to any one of the above embodiments.

[0024] Based on the above technical scheme, the order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application determines the average of the existing quantities of goods in multiple workstations to be allocated by considering the existing quantities of goods in multiple workstations to be allocated, and takes the existing quantity of goods as a benchmark, considers the degree of deviation of the current quantity of goods in the workstations to be allocated relative to the benchmark when allocating the order to be allocated to the workstations to be allocated, and selects the combination with the smallest deviation to allocate the order to be allocated to the workstations to be allocated, so that in the order allocation process, the existing quantities of goods in multiple workstations to be allocated always tend to the average of the quantities of goods used as a benchmark, and the difference in the quantities of goods between each workstation to be allocated is therefore small and fluctuates around the benchmark; therefore, the order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application can make full use of the processing capacity of each workstation, thereby improving the order processing efficiency of multiple workstations, and making the order quantity and the quantity of goods between multiple workstations similar, thereby avoiding the situation where orders are piled up in some workstations while orders are lacking in other workstations. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] The accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the present application and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the following specific implementations, they are used to explain the embodiments of the present application, but do not constitute a limitation on the embodiments of the present application. In the accompanying drawings:

[0026] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a flow chart of an order allocation method for a warehouse workstation according to an embodiment of the present application is schematically shown;

[0027] Figure 2 Schematically shows Figure 1 The specific flow chart of step S180 is shown;

[0028] Figure 3 A method for intercepting an order to be allocated according to an embodiment of the present application is schematically shown;

[0029] Figure 4A flow chart of another order allocation method for a warehouse workstation according to an embodiment of the present application is schematically shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] In order to make the purpose, technical scheme and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical scheme in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the specific implementation methods described herein are only used to illustrate and explain the embodiments of the present application, and are not used to limit the embodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative work are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0031] If there are descriptions involving "first", "second", etc. in the embodiments of the present application, the descriptions of "first", "second", etc. are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or suggesting their relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In addition, the technical solutions between the various embodiments can be combined with each other, but they must be based on the ability of ordinary technicians in the field to implement them. When the combination of technical solutions is contradictory or cannot be implemented, it should be deemed that such a combination of technical solutions does not exist and is not within the scope of protection required by this application.

[0032] In the existing allocation scheme for allocating multiple orders to workstations in a warehousing environment, multiple orders are simply allocated to multiple workstations one by one. Since the quantity of goods for each order is different, and the number of existing orders and the quantity of goods for each workstation are also different. Therefore, the above existing allocation scheme may cause an imbalance in the number of goods that multiple workstations actually need to process. The number of goods that some workstations need to process is too large, and the number of goods that other workstations need to process cannot fully utilize the cargo processing capacity of the workstation, which will cause the overall inefficiency of multiple workstations in processing the goods in the order. Based on the above observations and analysis of the prior art, an embodiment of the present application provides an order allocation method for multiple workstations in a warehousing environment that takes into account load balancing, that is, balanced distribution of goods among multiple workstations.

[0033] The order allocation method for multiple workstations in a warehousing environment provided in the embodiment of the present application can be used in two scenarios in the field of warehousing and logistics: warehousing and shelving, and outbound picking. It can be used as an allocation method for allocating orders to workstations in the WES (Warehouse Execution System) management system in smart warehousing and is executed by a processor.

[0034] Figure 1The following schematically shows a flow chart of a method for allocating orders to multiple workstations in a warehouse environment according to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 As shown, an order allocation method for multiple workstations in a warehouse environment provided in an embodiment of the present application is described by taking the order allocation method applied to a processor as an example. The order allocation method may include the following steps:

[0035] S120, obtaining the average quantity of goods of the existing orders of multiple to-be-allocated workstations and the quantity of goods of multiple to-be-allocated orders in the to-be-allocated order set;

[0036] S140, polling multiple workstations to be allocated, determining the current quantity of goods of the current workstation to be allocated among the multiple workstations to be allocated after the quantity of goods of each order to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated is allocated;

[0037] S160, determining the to-be-allocated order corresponding to the current quantity of goods with the smallest deviation between the current quantity of goods and the mean quantity of goods as the target to-be-allocated order;

[0038] S180: Allocate the target order to be allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, and update the set of orders to be allocated until a preset allocation termination condition is met.

[0039] See also Figure 4 , the embodiment of the present application provides another order allocation method for a warehouse workstation, comprising:

[0040] S410, obtaining the mean value of the quantity of goods of the existing orders of each workstation to be allocated in the set of workstations to be allocated and the quantity of goods of each order to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated;

[0041] S420, combining each to-be-allocated workstation and each to-be-allocated order in pairs to obtain a plurality of combinations;

[0042] S430, determining the deviation corresponding to each combination, wherein the deviation of any combination is the deviation between the current quantity of goods corresponding to the any combination and the mean quantity of goods, and the current quantity of goods corresponding to the any combination is the current quantity of goods after the to-be-allocated workstation in the any combination is allocated the to-be-allocated order in the any combination;

[0043] S440, determining a target combination method with the smallest deviation from each combination method, and determining the to-be-allocated workstation in the target combination method as the current to-be-allocated workstation, and determining the to-be-allocated order in the target combination method as the target to-be-allocated order;

[0044] S450: Allocate the target order to be allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, and update the set of orders to be allocated and the set of workstations to be allocated until a preset allocation termination condition is met.

[0045] It is understandable that each order to be allocated may include multiple goods, and the quantity of each kind of goods may be single or multiple. The workstation is used to receive and process the orders to be allocated. In different application scenarios, the role of the workstation is different. In the warehousing and shelving scenario, the workstation is used to count and transport the purchased goods to the warehouse shelves for storage. The workstation in this scenario is a shelving workstation, and the order to be allocated is the warehouse purchase order that needs to be shelved; in the outbound picking scenario, the workstation is used to pick and pack the goods in the warehouse and ship them to the customer. The workstation in this scenario is a picking workstation, and the order to be allocated is the customer purchase order that needs to be sent from the warehouse to the customer. The deviation between the current quantity of goods and the mean quantity of goods can be, for example, the absolute value of the difference between the current quantity of goods and the mean quantity of goods.

[0046] Specifically, the polling of multiple workstations to be allocated may be performed, for example, in a preset order of the multiple workstations to be allocated, or may be performed by randomly querying the workstations to be allocated. In the embodiment of the present application, in each round of polling, the multiple workstations to be allocated in step S140 need to be queried once; or, if multiple orders to be allocated have been allocated during a single round of polling, the current polling may be terminated or a new order to be allocated may be added to continue the current round of polling.

[0047] In some embodiments, in step S160, determining a target order to be allocated among a plurality of orders to be allocated according to the current quantity of goods and the average quantity of goods may include:

[0048] Determine the deviation of each order to be allocated based on the current quantity of goods and the mean quantity of goods;

[0049] The order to be allocated with the smallest deviation is selected as the target order to be allocated.

[0050] As an example, according to the current quantity of goods and the average quantity of goods, the deviation of each order to be allocated is determined, including:

[0051] The deviation is determined according to the following formula:

[0052]

[0053] in, is the deviation, The total goods types of the existing orders of the current workstation to be assigned. is one of the total cargo types. is the quantity of goods for each type of goods, is the quantity of goods in the existing order, is the quantity of goods to be allocated to the order, is the current quantity of goods, is the mean quantity of goods.

[0054] In some embodiments, in step S180 , the allocation termination condition may include: a single round of polling ends.

[0055] Alternatively, in some embodiments of the present application, in step S180, the allocation termination condition may include: the number of multiple workstations to be allocated is zero. In this case, the polling of the workstations to be allocated can be carried out continuously, because each time an order to be allocated is allocated to a workstation to be allocated, the number of orders and the number of goods that the workstation to be allocated needs to process will increase, so the workstation to be allocated will be fully loaded after being allocated enough orders to be allocated, so the fully loaded workstation to be allocated can be removed from the polling. If all of the multiple workstations to be allocated are removed, it means that all of the multiple workstations to be allocated are in a fully loaded state, so the polling can be stopped. Until there is a workstation that is not in a fully loaded state, that is, there is currently a workstation to be allocated, then the polling can continue (of course, when there is only one workstation to be allocated, it is only necessary to allocate the order to be allocated to this one workstation).

[0056] Alternatively, in some embodiments of the present application, in step S180, the allocation termination condition may include: all the orders to be allocated have been allocated. In this case, the polling can be terminated after all the orders to be allocated have been allocated. Whether the workstation to be allocated is in a fully loaded working state is not necessarily related to whether the polling is terminated.

[0057] The order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application considers the existing quantity of goods of multiple workstations to be allocated, thereby determining the mean quantity of existing goods of multiple workstations to be allocated, and taking the existing quantity of goods as a benchmark, considering the deviation degree of the current quantity of goods of the workstations to be allocated relative to the benchmark when allocating the order to be allocated to the workstations to be allocated, and selecting the combination with the smallest deviation degree to allocate the order to be allocated to the workstations to be allocated, so that in the order allocation process, the existing quantity of goods of multiple workstations to be allocated always tends to the mean quantity of goods as a benchmark, and the difference in the quantity of goods between each workstation to be allocated is therefore small and fluctuates around the benchmark. Therefore, the order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application can make full use of the processing capacity of each workstation, thereby improving the order processing efficiency of multiple workstations, and making the order quantity and the quantity of goods between multiple workstations similar, avoiding the situation where orders are piled up in some workstations while orders are lacking in other workstations.

[0058] In some embodiments of the present application, after allocating the target to-be-allocated order to the current to-be-allocated workstation, the method further includes:

[0059] When the current order quantity of the current workstation to be allocated is greater than or equal to a preset order quantity threshold, removing the current workstation to be allocated from the multiple workstations to be allocated;

[0060] Update the mean quantity of goods according to the current quantity of goods at the workstation to be allocated.

[0061] It can be understood that the preset order quantity threshold may be a threshold or maximum value of orders that can be processed by a workstation set manually or by the system.

[0062] By removing the current workstation to be allocated whose current order quantity is greater than or equal to the preset order quantity threshold from multiple workstations to be allocated, the current workstation to be allocated is prevented from being overloaded by continuously receiving new orders in multiple rounds of polling. The mean quantity of goods is updated according to the current quantity of goods of the current workstation to be allocated, so that the next workstation to be allocated can consider the impact of the previous allocation when selecting the order to be allocated, that is, the newly added order will change the size of the above mean quantity of goods.

[0063] Since for each workstation to be allocated, there may be multiple target orders to be allocated with the same deviation between the current quantity of goods and the mean quantity of goods. Therefore, in some embodiments of the present application, step S180 may include:

[0064] S182. When there are multiple target orders to be assigned, obtain the historical goods types of the historical picking orders of the workstation, the pending goods types of the existing orders of the current workstation to be assigned, and the order goods types of multiple target orders to be assigned;

[0065] S184, determining the relevance of each target order to be allocated and the existing orders according to the types of goods to be processed, the types of ordered goods, and the types of historical goods;

[0066] S186. Allocate the target to-be-allocated order with the highest correlation to the current to-be-allocated workstation.

[0067] It can be understood that the workstation historical picking orders refer to historical orders in which the goods are picked by the put-away workstation for putting on the shelves, or historical orders in which the picking workstation picks the goods for sending to customers. Historical picking orders can come from workstations in the same warehouse or from workstations in different warehouses. The workstation historical picking orders record the combination of goods types in historical picking orders. The correlation between the target to-be-assigned orders and the existing orders refers to the combination of the goods types of the to-be-assigned orders and the to-be-processed goods types of the existing orders to obtain a set of goods types, in which the number of subsets of various goods type combinations whose frequency of appearance in historical picking orders is higher than a certain value is obtained.

[0068] Specifically, in some embodiments, step S186 includes:

[0069] Take the union of the types of goods to be processed and the types of goods in the order to obtain the set of goods types corresponding to each target order to be allocated;

[0070] The number of frequent commodity combination subsets in the commodity type set is determined to obtain a correlation degree, wherein the frequent commodity combination subset is a commodity combination subset in the commodity type set whose appearance ratio in the historical picking orders of the workstation is greater than a preset appearance ratio threshold.

[0071] It can be understood that the workstation historical picking order may include multiple historical picking orders, and each historical picking order includes a certain type of goods. The preset occurrence ratio threshold can be set manually based on experience, or the preset occurrence ratio threshold can be set and adjusted according to the frequency of occurrence of a combination of certain types of goods in multiple historical picking orders. If the ratio of a certain combination of goods types in multiple historical picking orders is higher than the preset occurrence ratio threshold, it means that the combination of goods types appears frequently, otherwise it does not appear frequently. The goods type set includes multiple types of goods, and each type of goods is an element in the goods type set. By selecting elements in the goods type set, a goods combination subset can be obtained. Each goods combination subset corresponds to a goods combination. For example, if the goods type set includes N types of goods, then the number of goods combination subsets in the goods type set is , that is, from N types of goods, from 1 to N types of goods are selected for combination, and there are a total of K combinations. Of course, in another example, the case of selecting only one type of goods can also be excluded.

[0072] Specifically, as an example, after selecting K number of cargo combination subsets, the frequency of the cargo combination expressed by the cargo combination subset in the historical picking orders of the workstation is determined according to the cargo combination subset. If the frequency is greater than or equal to the preset occurrence ratio threshold, the cargo combination expressed by the cargo combination subset is judged to be a frequent set. The above steps are performed for each cargo combination subset to determine whether it is a frequent set, and finally the number of frequent sets in the cargo type set can be obtained, and the number of frequent sets is the correlation between the target order to be assigned and the existing orders of the workstation to be assigned.

[0073] According to the above technical scheme, it can be determined that the order allocation method for a warehousing workstation provided in the embodiment of the present application can determine the correlation between the types of goods between multiple target orders to be allocated and the existing orders of the workstation to be allocated by obtaining the order goods types of the target orders to be allocated, the types of goods to be processed of the existing orders of the workstation to be allocated, and the historical goods types of the workstation's historical picking orders, and select the target order to be allocated with the highest correlation to be allocated to the workstation to be allocated, so that during the operation of the workstation to be allocated, various goods in the existing orders are more likely to be picked out of the workstation according to the needs of a certain picking order, thereby avoiding the accumulation of specific types of goods in the workstation, and thus improving the picking efficiency of the workstation.

[0074] In order to prioritize the allocation of more important orders, the order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes, before obtaining the quantity of goods of multiple orders to be allocated:

[0075] Get the cut-off time and preset priority of multiple existing orders respectively;

[0076] Determine the comprehensive priority of multiple existing orders based on the cut-off time and the preset priority; among them, the comprehensive priority of existing orders with earlier cut-off time is higher;

[0077] Acquiring multiple orders to be assigned, including: acquiring multiple orders to be assigned according to comprehensive priorities and the number of workstations to be assigned.

[0078] It can be understood that the cut-off time refers to the time point or period when the existing orders need to be allocated, and the preset priority can be, for example, a priority set according to the importance of the order. In the case where the preset priorities of multiple existing orders are the same, the existing orders with earlier cut-off times have a higher comprehensive priority and are more likely to be selected as orders to be allocated. In addition, in some embodiments of the present application, among multiple existing orders with the same cut-off time, the existing orders with higher preset priorities have a higher comprehensive priority.

[0079] Specifically, according to the comprehensive priorities and the number of workstations to be allocated, obtaining multiple orders to be allocated may include: selecting the same number of comprehensive priorities as the number of workstations to be allocated, and selecting corresponding existing orders as orders to be allocated according to the selected comprehensive priorities. Of course, a certain number of comprehensive priorities may also be selected according to the number of workstations to be allocated and a preset number interval. For example, if the number of workstations to be allocated is 5, then the number of comprehensive priorities selected accordingly may be, for example, 3 to 8, and the comprehensive priorities are selected from high to low, for example, the first comprehensive priority value is the 8th comprehensive priority.

[0080] Therefore, the order allocation method for a warehousing workstation provided in an embodiment of the present application can achieve priority allocation of more important existing orders, and the importance of existing orders can be determined by the cut-off time and the manually set preset priority, thereby reflecting the importance of each existing order in the actual warehousing logistics process.

[0081] In addition, see Figure 3 In some embodiments of the present application, obtaining multiple orders to be allocated according to the comprehensive priority and the number of workstations to be allocated may include:

[0082] According to the comprehensive priority, all existing orders within each comprehensive priority level are intercepted step by step starting from the highest comprehensive priority level;

[0083] After all existing orders of each comprehensive priority level have been intercepted, it is determined whether the total number of currently intercepted orders is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated;

[0084] When the total number of currently intercepted orders is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated, stop intercepting existing orders and use the currently intercepted multiple existing orders as multiple orders to be allocated;

[0085] When the total number of orders currently intercepted is less than the number of workstations to be allocated, continue to intercept all existing orders of the next comprehensive priority level.

[0086] Understandably, combined Figure 3 The process can determine that the number of orders to be allocated finally obtained must be greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated.

[0087] Specifically, in step S320, starting from the highest comprehensive priority, all existing orders within the highest comprehensive priority are intercepted. Then, the first judgment is performed through step 340. If the number of existing orders currently intercepted, that is, the total number of orders currently intercepted is less than the number of workstations to be allocated, then step S360 is performed to continue to extract all orders within the next comprehensive priority. After step S360 is completed, step S340 is executed again, and the cycle is repeated until the total number of orders currently intercepted is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated, then step S380 is executed to stop intercepting, and the currently intercepted existing orders are used as orders to be allocated.

[0088] According to the above-mentioned technical solution for intercepting the orders to be allocated, it can be known that in the above-mentioned embodiment, if the number of orders to be allocated is exactly equal to the number of workstations to be allocated, then after a single round of polling of multiple workstations to be allocated, all the orders to be allocated are allocated. If the number of orders to be allocated is greater than the number of workstations to be allocated, then after a single round of polling of multiple workstations to be allocated, some orders to be allocated will remain unallocated, and the remaining unallocated orders to be allocated can be allocated in the next round of polling. The above-mentioned interception method of the orders to be allocated can also ensure that the existing orders with a higher comprehensive priority can be intercepted as orders to be allocated. Therefore, the order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application not only takes into account the selection of existing orders with a higher comprehensive priority as orders to be allocated, but also takes into account the cargo quantity status of each workstation to be allocated during the order allocation period, so that the cargo quantity of each workstation to be allocated is close to the average level, thereby giving priority to the allocation of existing orders with a higher comprehensive priority, and improving the overall work efficiency of multiple workstations.

[0089] Furthermore, when the number of to-be-allocated orders is greater than the to-be-allocated workstations, if each to-be-allocated workstation only allocates one order in a single round of polling, some to-be-allocated orders will remain unallocated after the single round of polling ends.

[0090] In order to allow the orders with higher priority among multiple orders to be allocated to be allocated first in a single round of polling, in some embodiments, the order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided in the embodiments of the present application includes allocation constraints:

[0091] The allocation termination condition of step S180 is the end of a single round of polling;

[0092] In a single round of polling, each workstation to be assigned is assigned only one target order to be assigned;

[0093] Among multiple orders to be allocated, except for the order to be allocated with the lowest comprehensive priority, the remaining orders to be allocated need to be allocated in a single round of polling;

[0094] The quantity of the to-be-allocated orders with the lowest comprehensive priority that need to be allocated among the multiple to-be-allocated orders is the difference between the quantity of the multiple to-be-allocated workstations and the quantity of the remaining to-be-allocated orders.

[0095] The order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided in the embodiment of the present application further includes:

[0096] In each case where the comprehensive priority of the to-be-allocated order allocated to the current to-be-allocated workstation is the lowest comprehensive priority, the quantity difference is reduced by one until the quantity difference is zero.

[0097] It is understood that the number of orders to be allocated is greater than the number of workstations to be allocated, and the orders to be allocated are obtained by Figure 3 Therefore, if the orders to be assigned cover M comprehensive priorities, then the number of workstations to be assigned minus the number of (M-1) comprehensive priorities excluding the lowest comprehensive priority is the number of orders to be assigned at the lowest comprehensive priority (e.g., the Mth comprehensive priority).

[0098] Specifically, each time an order of the lowest comprehensive priority is allocated to the workstation to be allocated, the quantity difference is reduced by one until the quantity difference is reduced to 0, and the orders to be allocated in the lowest comprehensive priority have been allocated.

[0099] Therefore, through the above allocation method, no matter what the allocation order of the orders to be allocated is in a single round of polling, it can be guaranteed that there are a certain number of workstations to be allocated to receive all orders to be allocated except the lowest comprehensive priority, so that in a single round of polling, all the orders to be allocated with higher comprehensive priority are allocated, and only part of the orders to be allocated with the lowest comprehensive priority are allocated.

[0100] The following is an example of the order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided in an embodiment of the present application, combined with an application scenario.

[0101] Taking the warehousing and shelving scenario as an example, the processor executes the order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application as an example. First, it is necessary to clarify the selection range of the workstations to be allocated and the orders to be allocated. The processor selects and determines the warehouse number, the allocation scenario (for example, warehousing and shelving), the priority rules, and the constraint rules. Among them, the warehouse number and the allocation scenario are used to define the selection range of the workstations to be allocated and the orders to be allocated; the priority rules may include a preset priority and an order cut-off time, and the order priority is manually input and added in advance; the order cut-off time is the second priority, and orders with an earlier cut-off time are allocated first. Constraint rules include: minimizing the deviation between the current quantity of goods at the workstation to be allocated and the mean quantity of goods at all workstations to be allocated, and maximizing the correlation between the order to be allocated and the existing orders of the workstation to be allocated.

[0102] The processor also needs to obtain the original basic data related to the existing orders and workstations in the selected warehouse, including: workstation information table, order information table, and online task detail table. The workstation information table mainly includes the number, type, maximum number of operation orders, whether it is enabled, etc. of each workstation. The order information table, as shown in Table 1 below, mainly includes attribute information such as the order number, goods type, goods quantity, preset priority, and cut-off time. A row in the table represents a detail line of an order, corresponding to a type of goods (SKU). The online task detail table is used to record the status of each detail line of the order assigned to the workstation.

[0103] Table 1 Order information table

[0104]

[0105] After obtaining the warehouse number, allocation scenario, priority rules, constraint rules, and the above-mentioned original basic data, data preprocessing is performed. First, the original basic data range is preliminarily screened according to the warehouse number and allocation scenario, and the workstations, orders, and online task lists corresponding to the warehouse and corresponding scenarios are screened.

[0106] Secondly, the order information table is aggregated to generate a comprehensive order information table as shown in Table 2 below. The order number is used as the primary key to uniquely identify each order.

[0107] Table 2 Order comprehensive information table

[0108]

[0109] Specifically, for each order's multiple detail lines, the SKUs involved are summarized into a list, and the corresponding quantities are also converted into a list; all detail lines of the same order share the same cut-off time and preset priority. These attributes are directly extracted from the detail lines and saved in the order comprehensive information table to ensure data consistency and accuracy.

[0110] Improve the readability and analysis efficiency of order information through data integration. After sorting the orders according to the priority rule, add the priority index identifier as the index of the comprehensive priority, and obtain the order comprehensive information table with the priority index identifier as shown in Table 3. Orders with the same priority index have the same comprehensive priority.

[0111] Table 3 Comprehensive information table of orders with priority index identification

[0112]

[0113] Then, get the workstation information table A list of workstations to be assigned , initialize the key-value dictionary of workstations and allocatable order balances , read the maximum number of operable orders for each workstation , parse the online task list and obtain the number of online operation orders for each workstation , No. The number of orders to be assigned to each workstation The existing orders for a single workstation to be allocated include each type of goods, record the current load (quantity of each type of goods) of each workstation to be assigned, , Representative Consider only the current orders and initialize the calculation of the load average of multiple workstations to be assigned .

[0114] To ensure the flexibility of warehouse operation, each workstation is independent and can be opened or closed according to the task situation. Therefore, the allocation of pending orders to pending workstations mainly includes initial allocation and ongoing supplementary allocation. During initial allocation, the number of orders allocated to a single pending workstation is the maximum number of operable orders of the pending workstation. Each time a shelf enters a workstation, it will operate (put on the shelves or pick) a variety of goods. One operation may complete a single or multiple orders. The number of workstations to be assigned each time is uncertain, and the number of orders that need to be assigned to a single workstation to be assigned varies.

[0115] To ensure that each order has the timeliness corresponding to its priority, the order processing time points are patrolled in chronological order. When the input parameter enables the limited allocation relationship, the existing orders that meet the limited requirements can only be allocated to the corresponding workstations. The key-value pair dictionary of the workstation and the remaining amount of allocable orders is cycled to determine the workstation to be allocated at each processing time point, and the orders to be allocated are allocated to the workstations to be allocated according to the priority constraints.

[0116] Count the number of workstations to be assigned at the current order processing time , decision variables Describes the workstation at the time of the current order processing Do you need to allocate orders? If the workstation If an order needs to be allocated, 1, otherwise zero. Calculate the average quantity of goods to be allocated to multiple workstations This is equivalent to obtaining the quantity of goods and the average quantity of goods of existing orders of multiple workstations to be assigned.

[0117] Then, the set of orders to be allocated is obtained from the order comprehensive information table with priority index (representing comprehensive priority). , which includes the pending orders that need to be allocated in this round of polling.

[0118] Specifically, obtaining a set of orders to be allocated includes the following steps:

[0119] Initialize the cumulative number of orders to be allocated , incrementally record the cumulative number of orders to be allocated by comprehensive priority , initialize the priority index value , and a list of priority index values .

[0120] Cycle judgment Is it greater than If satisfied, the loop will be exited and the next step will be entered; if not satisfied, the priority index value will be Number of orders , added to , the updated Add to ,Will Updated to after, Add 1.

[0121] Determine whether it spans multiple priority index values. Priority index value, the set of orders to be assigned at the current order processing time Need to include All orders with priority index values, and the first All orders corresponding to the priority index value need to be allocated. The number of orders that can be selected in the priority index value is . According to the set of orders to be allocated Multiple orders to be allocated and their quantities can be specified.

[0122] Then poll the workstations to be allocated, allocate the orders to the workstations to be allocated, and check whether the preset allocation termination conditions are met after each allocation. If not, continue to allocate.

[0123] When allocating orders, first determine the set of orders to be allocated If there is only one order to be assigned, the order to be assigned will be directly assigned to the current workstation to be assigned. Figure 1 The steps S140 and S160 shown perform the following steps:

[0124] Get the current workstation to be assigned after polling Quantity of goods , calculate the set of allocated orders After each order to be allocated is assigned to the current workstation to be allocated, the average quantity of goods The order with the smallest deviation is assigned to the current workstation. ,in The quantity of goods to be allocated to the order.

[0125] If there is only one target order to be assigned, the order will be directly assigned to the current workstation. If there are multiple target orders to be assigned, the following will be executed: Figure 2 Steps S182 to S186 shown in the figure calculate the current workstation to be assigned The correlation between the types of goods to be processed of the existing goods and the types of goods of the above-mentioned multiple target orders to be allocated is calculated. The orders to be allocated with higher correlation are selected and allocated to the current workstation to be allocated. The specific process example of determining the correlation is as follows:

[0126] The Apriori algorithm is used to mine the historical picking orders of the workstation. The correlation between the target order to be assigned and the cargo types of the current workstation to be assigned is analyzed by calculating the support degree, and the number of frequent cargo combination subsets is obtained.

[0127]

[0128] Refers to the historical picking orders of the workstation The order quantity, Refers to historical picking orders Includes a subset of cargo combinations The order quantity is When the cargo combination subset is the frequent commodity combination subset, where Is a subset of cargo combinations The support of is the preset occurrence ratio threshold.

[0129] The calculation formula for the correlation between the target order to be allocated and the type of goods to be allocated to the workstation is:

[0130]

[0131] Relevance is the number of frequent commodity combination subsets of the target to-be-allocated orders. It is a subset of the set of goods types obtained by taking the union of the types of goods to be processed at the workstation to be assigned and the types of goods of the target order to be assigned.

[0132] After allocating a to-be-allocated order to the current to-be-allocated workstation according to the relevance and the average quantity of goods, determine the current to-be-allocated workstation The priority index value of the allocated pending order, if , then the priority index value is The number of pending orders that need to be allocated Minus one. , explain The number of pending orders that need to be allocated within the priority index value range has been fully allocated, and the sub-collection is updated , delete the All pending orders with priority index value.

[0133] The current workstation to be assigned The assigned target order is added to the online task list, and the status of the currently assigned target order in the order information table is updated to "assigned". Allocable order balance Subtract one, and update the quantity of goods corresponding to the current workstation to be allocated. Then check whether the preset allocation termination condition is met. If not, continue to poll the workstation to be allocated, and select the target order to be allocated from the remaining orders to be allocated according to the above process and allocate it to the next workstation to be allocated.

[0134] If a single round of polling ends and all workstations to be allocated have been allocated their respective target orders to be allocated, then the allocation termination condition is determined to be met. The number of workstations to be allocated at the current order processing time can then be re-counted. , and prepare for the next round of polling and order allocation according to the above process.

[0135] In addition, after each allocation is completed, the allocation results can be stored as data. The storage form may include an allocation result detail table that describes the allocation relationship between workstations and orders; update the online task detail table, associate the detail lines of the target orders to be allocated to the workstations to be allocated, and then add them to the online task detail table; update the order information table to update the status of the allocated orders.

[0136] In summary, the order allocation method for warehousing workstations provided in the embodiment of the present application is based on the polling mechanism and the comprehensive priority of the order, takes into account the allocation order of the comprehensive priority, and takes into account the balance of the quantity of goods between multiple workstations to be allocated, and the correlation between the orders to be allocated and the types of goods between the workstations to be allocated, to perform order allocation. This improves the rationality of order allocation, provides support for subsequent workstations to hit the shelves, and improves the overall efficiency of warehousing work.

[0137] The embodiment of the present application also provides an order distribution device for a warehouse workstation, comprising a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store instructions; and the processor is configured to call instructions from the memory and implement the order distribution method for a warehouse workstation provided in accordance with any of the above embodiments when executing the instructions.

[0138] An embodiment of the present application also provides a machine-readable storage medium, on which instructions are stored, and the instructions are used to enable a machine to execute the order allocation method for a warehouse workstation provided in any of the above embodiments.

[0139] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, systems or computer program products. Therefore, the present application may take the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, the present application may take the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program codes.

[0140] The present application is described with reference to the flowcharts and / or block diagrams of the methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that each process and / or block in the flowchart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of processes and / or blocks in the flowchart and / or block diagram, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device generate instructions for implementing the processes in the flowchart and / or block diagram. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A device that provides the functions specified in a block or multiple blocks.

[0141] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture comprising an instruction device, which implements the process Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A function specified in one or more boxes.

[0142] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions for implementing the process in the computer or other programmable device. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps for the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0143] In a typical configuration, a computing device includes one or more processors (CPU), input / output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

[0144] The memory may include non-permanent memory in a computer-readable medium, random access memory (RAM) and / or non-volatile memory in the form of read-only memory (ROM) or flash RAM. The memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

[0145] Computer readable media include permanent and non-permanent, removable and non-removable media that can be implemented by any method or technology to store information. Information can be computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Examples of computer storage media include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), other types of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any other non-transmission media that can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. As defined herein, computer readable media does not include temporary computer readable media (transitory media), such as modulated data signals and carrier waves.

[0146] It should also be noted that the terms "include", "comprises" or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, commodity or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, commodity or device. In the absence of more restrictions, the elements defined by the sentence "comprises a ..." do not exclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, commodity or device including the elements.

[0147] The above are only embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. For those skilled in the art, the present application may have various changes and variations. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included within the scope of the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. An order allocation method for a warehouse workstation, characterized in that: include: Obtaining the average quantity of goods of the existing orders of multiple to-be-allocated workstations and the quantity of goods of multiple to-be-allocated orders in the to-be-allocated order set; Polling the plurality of workstations to be allocated, and determining the current quantity of goods of the current workstation to be allocated among the plurality of workstations to be allocated after the quantity of goods of each order to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated is allocated; Determine the to-be-allocated order corresponding to the current cargo quantity with the smallest deviation between the current cargo quantities and the cargo quantity mean as the target to-be-allocated order; The target order to be allocated is allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, and the set of orders to be allocated is updated until a preset allocation termination condition is met.

2. The order allocation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step of allocating the target order to be allocated to the current workstation to be allocated comprises: In the case that there are multiple target orders to be allocated, obtaining the historical goods types of the historical picking orders of the workstation, the to-be-processed goods types of the existing orders of the current workstation to be allocated, and the order goods types of the multiple target orders to be allocated; Determine the relevance between each of the target orders to be allocated and the existing orders according to the types of goods to be processed, the types of goods in the order, and the types of historical goods; The target to-be-allocated order with the highest correlation degree is allocated to the current to-be-allocated workstation.

3. The order allocation method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The determining, according to the type of goods to be processed, the type of goods in the order, and the type of goods in the history, the correlation between each target order to be allocated and the existing order comprises: Taking the union of the types of goods to be processed and the types of goods in the order, to obtain a set of goods types corresponding to each of the target orders to be allocated; The number of frequent commodity combination subsets in the commodity type set is determined to obtain the association degree, wherein the frequent commodity combination subset is a commodity combination subset in the commodity type set whose appearance ratio in the historical picking orders of the workstation is greater than a preset appearance ratio threshold.

4. The order allocation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Before obtaining the quantity of goods of the multiple orders to be allocated, the order allocation method further includes: Obtain cut-off times corresponding to multiple existing orders and preset priorities of the multiple existing orders; Determine the comprehensive priority of the multiple existing orders according to the cut-off time and the preset priority; wherein the comprehensive priority of the existing orders with earlier cut-off time is higher; The obtaining of multiple orders to be allocated comprises: The multiple orders to be allocated are obtained according to the comprehensive priority and the number of the workstations to be allocated.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The step of acquiring the plurality of orders to be allocated according to the comprehensive priority and the number of the workstations to be allocated comprises: According to the comprehensive priorities, all the existing orders within the comprehensive priorities are intercepted level by level starting from the highest comprehensive priority; After all the existing orders of each comprehensive priority level have been intercepted, determining whether the total number of currently intercepted orders is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated; When the total number of currently intercepted orders is greater than or equal to the number of workstations to be allocated, stop intercepting existing orders and use the multiple currently intercepted existing orders as the multiple orders to be allocated; When the total number of orders currently intercepted is less than the number of workstations to be allocated, continue to intercept all the existing orders of the next comprehensive priority level.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The allocation termination conditions include the end of a single round of polling; in a single round of polling, each of the to-be-allocated workstations is only allocated one of the target to-be-allocated orders; in the case where the remaining to-be-allocated orders except the to-be-allocated order with the lowest comprehensive priority among the multiple to-be-allocated orders need to be allocated in a single round of polling, the number of the to-be-allocated orders with the lowest comprehensive priority that need to be allocated among the multiple to-be-allocated orders is the difference between the number of the multiple to-be-allocated workstations and the number of the remaining to-be-allocated orders; The method further comprises: In each case where the comprehensive priority of the to-be-allocated order allocated to the current to-be-allocated workstation is the lowest comprehensive priority, the quantity difference is reduced by one until the quantity difference is zero.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that After allocating the target order to be allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, the method further includes: When the current order quantity of the current workstation to be allocated is greater than or equal to a preset order quantity threshold, removing the current workstation to be allocated from the multiple workstations to be allocated; The mean value of the quantity of goods is updated according to the current quantity of goods at the current workstation to be allocated.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 or 7, characterized in that: The allocation termination conditions include: The single round of polling ends; Alternatively, the number of the plurality of workstations to be allocated is zero; Alternatively, all the orders to be allocated have been allocated.

9. An order distribution method for a warehouse workstation, characterized in that: include: Obtaining the average quantity of goods of the existing orders of multiple workstations to be allocated in the set of workstations to be allocated and the quantity of goods of multiple orders to be allocated in the set of orders to be allocated; Combining each to-be-allocated workstation in the to-be-allocated workstation set and each to-be-allocated order in the to-be-allocated order set in pairs to obtain a plurality of combinations; Determine the deviation corresponding to each combination, wherein the deviation of any combination is the deviation of the current quantity of goods corresponding to the any combination and the mean quantity of goods, and the current quantity of goods corresponding to the any combination is the current quantity of goods after the to-be-allocated workstation in the any combination is allocated the to-be-allocated order in the any combination; Determine a target combination method with the smallest corresponding deviation from each combination method, determine the workstation to be allocated in the target combination method as the current workstation to be allocated, and determine the order to be allocated in the target combination method as the target order to be allocated; The target order to be allocated is allocated to the current workstation to be allocated, and the set of orders to be allocated and the set of workstations to be allocated are updated until a preset allocation termination condition is met.

10. An order distribution device for a warehouse workstation, characterized in that: include: a memory configured to store instructions; A processor is configured to call the instructions from the memory and implement the order allocation method for a warehouse workstation according to any one of claims 1 to 9 when executing the instructions.

11. A machine-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The machine-readable storage medium stores instructions for causing a machine to execute the order allocating method for a warehouse workstation according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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