Order combination method and device, equipment, storage medium and program product

Abstract

The invention provides an order combination method and device, equipment, a storage medium and a program product. The order combination method comprises the following steps: sorting a plurality of orders to be processed; combining the first order ranked first in the to-be-processed orders into a first batch; based on the order demand of the newly added order, updating the target material box of the first batch; and determining whether to combine one or more remaining orders to the first batch or not based on a matching result of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order demands of the remaining orders and group batch conditions, so as to process at least one order in the first batch at the same time according to the combined first batch, the remaining orders are orders except the newly added orders in the to-be-processed orders. When the orders are grouped into batches, the order requirements of the to-be-processed orders and the remaining materials in the target material boxes selected by the grouped orders are fully considered, the number of the target material boxes required by the same batch of orders is reduced, and the overall processing efficiency of the orders is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of order combination, and in particular to an order combination method, device, equipment, storage medium and program product. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of the logistics industry, the order volume of the warehousing system is increasing day by day, which puts higher requirements on the order processing efficiency of the warehousing system.

[0003] In view of the large number of pending orders received by the warehousing system, it is usually necessary to divide the pending orders into batches so as to process the orders one by one. In the related art, the pending orders are usually divided into batches only according to the time when the pending orders are issued. As a result, when processing a batch of pending orders after batching, due to the low correlation between the orders in the same batch, more material boxes may be required to meet the demand of the orders in the same batch. This not only leads to low processing efficiency of the current batch, but also affects the processing of subsequent batches, resulting in low overall order processing efficiency and failure to meet demand. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present disclosure provides an order combination method, device, equipment, storage medium and program product, which fully consider the order requirements, and combine the orders by matching the remaining materials in the target material boxes selected by the grouped batch orders with the order requirements of other orders to be processed, thereby reducing the number of target material boxes for a batch of order requirements and improving the overall order processing efficiency.

[0005] In a first aspect, the present disclosure provides an order combination method, comprising: sorting a plurality of pending orders, the pending orders being orders that have not been combined into any batch; combining the first order that is ranked first among the plurality of pending orders into the first batch, the first batch being a newly created batch; updating the target material bin of the first batch based on the order requirements of the newly added orders; the newly added orders are orders that are newly combined into the first batch, and the newly added orders include the first order; determining whether to combine one or more remaining orders into the first batch based on the matching results of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping conditions, so as to simultaneously process at least one order in the first batch according to the first batch that has been completed by the combination, the remaining orders being orders other than the newly added orders among the plurality of pending orders; wherein the remaining materials of the first batch are the difference between all materials in the target material bin of the first batch and the materials required in the orders that have been combined into the first batch.

[0006] In one possible implementation, based on the order requirements of the new orders, the target bins for the first batch are updated, including: determining multiple candidate bins based on the various types of items that are not met in the order requirements of the new orders, wherein each candidate bin stores at least one type of items of the various types of unmet items, and the various types of unmet items are items in the order requirements of the new orders that are not met by the target bins before the update; determining new bins for the first batch from the multiple candidate bins based on material information of the multiple candidate bins and demand information of the various types of unmet items; and updating the target bins for the first batch according to the new bins.

[0007] In a possible implementation, based on the material information of the candidate bins and the information on the unmet demand for each type of item, determining the first batch of newly added bins from multiple candidate bins includes: sorting the various types of unmet items in order from small to large according to the number of candidate bins corresponding to the various types of items to obtain an item sequence; taking the first-ranked item in the item sequence as the target item, and for multiple target candidate bins corresponding to the target item, determining the score of each target candidate bin based on the number of types of items stored in each target candidate bin, the number of target items stored in the target candidate bin, and the number of unmet target items; the target candidate bin is the bin that stores the target item among the candidate bins; determining the target candidate bin with the highest score as the first batch of newly added bins, deleting the items in the item sequence whose demand is met by the newly added bins, and returning to the step of taking the first-ranked item in the item sequence as the target item until the item sequence is empty.

[0008] In one possible implementation, based on the matching results of the remaining materials in the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping conditions, determining whether to combine one or more remaining orders into the first batch includes: calculating the score of each remaining order based on the matching results of the remaining materials in the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders; determining whether to combine the current remaining orders into the first batch in order of scores from high to low based on the batch grouping conditions; after combining the current remaining orders into the first batch, taking the current remaining orders as the new orders of the first batch, returning to execute the step of updating the target material boxes of the first batch based on the order requirements of the new orders, until there are no orders meeting the batch grouping conditions among the remaining orders.

[0009] In a possible implementation, the batch grouping condition is that the sum of the total demand quantities of the orders grouped into the first batch is less than or equal to the upper threshold. In a possible implementation, the upper threshold is determined based on the capacity per unit time of the storage system.

[0010] In a possible implementation, sorting the multiple pending orders includes sorting the multiple pending orders based on the time of issue and the total quantity required.

[0011] In a second aspect, the present disclosure provides an order combination device, including: an order sorting module, used to sort multiple pending orders, the pending orders are orders that have not been combined into any batch; an order combination module, used to combine the first order ranked first among the multiple pending orders into the first batch, the first batch being a newly created batch; a material box update module, used to update the target material box of the first batch based on the order requirements of the newly added orders; the newly added orders are orders newly combined into the first batch, and the newly added orders include the first order; a remaining order combination module, used to determine whether to combine one or more remaining orders into the first batch based on the matching results of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping conditions, so as to process at least one order in the first batch at the same time according to the first batch completed by the combination; wherein the remaining orders are the orders other than the newly added orders among the multiple pending orders; the remaining materials of the first batch are the difference between all the materials in the target material box of the first batch and the materials required in the orders that have been combined into the first batch.

[0012] In a third aspect, the present disclosure provides an electronic device, comprising: a processor, and a memory communicatively connected to the processor; the memory stores computer-executable instructions; the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the processor executes the method provided in the first aspect above.

[0013] In a fourth aspect, the present disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, they are used to implement the method provided in the first aspect above.

[0014] In a fifth aspect, the present disclosure provides a computer program product, including a computer program, which implements the method provided in the first aspect above when executed by a processor.

[0015] The present disclosure provides an order combination method, device, equipment, storage medium and program product. In order to reduce the number of target material boxes for the same batch of order requirements, an order combination strategy based on order requirements and material box storage materials is provided. Specifically, multiple pending orders are first sorted to execute the pending orders in order; for the pending orders ranked first, the pending orders are first combined into a newly added first batch; when there are new orders in the first batch, based on the order requirements of the new orders, the target material boxes for the first batch requirements are updated, such as adding material boxes that meet part of the order requirements of the new orders; based on the order requirements of the remaining orders, batch grouping conditions and the remaining materials in the target material boxes after meeting the orders of the first batch, it is determined whether to combine the remaining orders into the first batch to achieve further replenishment of the orders in the first batch. Batch orders are replenished by using the matching of the order requirements of the remaining orders and the remaining materials corresponding to the first batch, which improves the rationality of order combination, reduces the number of target material boxes for the next batch requirement of the same order quantity, and further improves the overall processing efficiency of the same batch of orders. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a storage system provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0018] Figure 2 A flowchart of an order combination method provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0019] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a target bin update process provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] Figure 4 For this disclosure Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the flow chart of step S203 and step S204 in the illustrated embodiment;

[0021] Figure 5 For this disclosure Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a target material box adding process in the illustrated embodiment;

[0022] Figure 6 For this disclosure Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the flow chart of step S203 and step S204 in the illustrated embodiment;

[0023] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a remaining order combination determination process provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0024] Figure 8A flowchart of another order combination method provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0025] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the structure of an order combination device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0026] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of the structure of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0027] The above drawings show clear embodiments of the present disclosure, which will be described in more detail below. These drawings and text descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way, but to illustrate the concepts of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art by referring to specific embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the drawings, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the present disclosure as detailed in the appended claims.

[0029] The technical solution of the present invention and how the technical solution of the present invention solves the above-mentioned technical problems are described in detail below with specific embodiments. The following specific embodiments can be combined with each other, and the same or similar concepts or processes may not be repeated in some embodiments. The embodiments of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0030] During operation, the warehousing system will continuously receive outbound orders that need to be processed. By allocating boxes for outbound orders and assigning robots to carry these boxes, as well as controlling picking devices or staff to sort the materials in the boxes, the system can sort, pack and ship out the items required for the outbound orders, thereby completing the outbound orders.

[0031] For large-scale warehousing systems, the number of outbound orders per day is large. In order to improve the overall order processing efficiency, it is necessary to combine or aggregate the outbound orders received within a period of time, combine multiple outbound orders into one batch, and treat them as a whole for material box allocation, that is, allocate material boxes for the combined orders, which can reduce the number of material box allocation times and improve the outbound order processing efficiency.

[0032] In related technologies, orders are often combined based only on order creation time or order receipt time, that is, all outbound orders received within a time range, such as 5 minutes, are combined into one batch, or combined in sequence according to time until the restriction condition of the combined order is met. This combination method ignores the connection between the order requirements of each outbound order, and only combines orders based on time, which has limited improvement in the overall processing efficiency of outbound orders.

[0033] Specifically, there may be some overlap in demand between some outbound orders, or multiple types of materials may be stored in the same bin in the warehousing system. In other words, the demand for multiple items of different orders can be met by the same bin. Combining such orders can reduce the number of bins that need to be moved, thereby improving the overall processing efficiency of outbound orders.

[0034] Based on this, the disclosed embodiment provides an order combination method. In order to reduce the number of target material boxes required for the same batch of pending orders and process each pending order in an orderly manner, after the pending orders are sorted, the first-ranked pending orders are first combined into a newly created first batch. After the first batch is added with an order, the target material box of the first batch is determined based on the order demand of the newly added order to meet the order demand in the first batch; using the matching results of the remaining materials in the target material box and the remaining orders that are not combined into the first batch, some of the remaining orders are combined into the first batch until the first batch is combined and there are no remaining orders that meet the batch grouping conditions. Using the order demand of the remaining orders and the remaining materials corresponding to the first batch, the orders are combined in a certain order, so that the orders of the first batch are processed as a whole. Compared with the method of processing each order separately, the number of material boxes required is reduced, and the overall processing efficiency of the pending orders is improved.

[0035] The order combination method provided by the present disclosure can be applied to any warehousing system that needs to combine orders.

[0036] For example, Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a storage system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, such as Figure 1 As shown, the storage area of ​​the warehousing system is provided with shelves, and the shelves include multiple storage locations for storing material boxes. When executing an outbound order, the robot needs to transport the material box to the workstation so that the picking device or staff of the workstation can pick the material box to ship out the picked items. The warehousing system may also include an order receiving device, which is used to receive outbound orders, i.e., pending orders, and record the order information, processing progress, etc. of the pending orders to achieve order maintenance. The order information may include the creation time of the order, order requirements, etc. The order requirements may include multiple order lines, each of which corresponds to an item and its required quantity.

[0037] The warehousing system may also include a scheduling device, which may be any electronic device, and the scheduling device is used to batch (also called grouping or aggregation) the pending orders to realize grouping the received pending orders into different batches. The scheduling device may also be used to treat the orders in each batch as a whole and perform order allocation, specifically including allocating workstations for a batch of orders, determining the target bins required and the robots that carry the target bins, so as to process the orders in a batch at the same time.

[0038] Figure 1 The illustrated embodiment takes the order-taking device and the dispatching device as two independent devices as an example. In some embodiments, the order-taking device and the dispatching device may be integrated together to form one device, such as an operation and maintenance device.

[0039] Figure 2 The flowchart of an order combination method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. The order combination method provided by the embodiment can be executed by any device in the warehousing system with corresponding data processing capabilities, such as Figure 1 The scheduling device in the embodiment shown. Figure 2 As shown, the order combination method provided in this embodiment includes the following steps:

[0040] Step S201, sorting a plurality of pending orders, wherein the pending orders are orders that have not been combined into any batch.

[0041] Pending orders are orders received by the warehouse system that need to be processed but have not been combined into any existing batches.

[0042] The multiple pending orders may be all pending orders received by the warehousing system at the current time.

[0043] The pending orders of the warehousing system can be continuously updated. For example, after receiving an outbound order, the outbound order is cached in the order pool. When executing the order combination method, the outbound orders currently cached in the order pool are used as pending orders, and the orders are combined, and the outbound orders that have been combined into any batch are deleted from the order pool. The orders combined into the same batch can be regarded as a whole. For example, a combined order is processed by the scheduling equipment at the same time, and the workstation is allocated to the orders of the batch, and the target bins and robots for carrying the target bins are determined to complete the orders of the batch.

[0044] When sorting pending orders, you can sort them by any metric, such as order release time (or creation time), priority, order demand, etc. Order demand is used to describe the quantity of various items required for an order.

[0045] For example, the multiple pending orders may be sorted in order of order issuance time from earliest to latest. The order score of each pending order may be calculated according to one or more of order issuance time, order priority, order line quantity, and total demand quantity, and the multiple pending orders may be sorted in order of order score from high to low.

[0046] An order (including pending orders, new orders and remaining orders) may include at least one order line. An order line includes an item identifier (eg SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)) of a required item and the quantity of the item.

[0047] Optionally, the sorting of the multiple pending orders includes: sorting the multiple pending orders based on the issuance time and the total required quantity.

[0048] The time when an order is issued can be the time when the order is received or the time when the task corresponding to the order is created. The total quantity required for an order is the sum of the quantities of various items required by the order. If the order only requires one item, the total quantity required is the quantity of that item.

[0049] In the warehousing system, SKU is usually used to represent items. One order line of an order can correspond to one SKU, and different order lines are used to describe the quantity of different SKUs required for the order. The sum of the quantity of SKUs required for each order line is the total quantity required for the order.

[0050] For example, an order includes two order lines, namely SKU1:500 and SKU2:1000. That is, the order requires 500 items of SKU1 and 1000 items of SKU2 to be shipped out, and the total demand quantity of the order is 1500.

[0051] Specifically, multiple pending orders may be sorted according to the order of issuing time from early to late and total demand quantity from large to small to obtain a sorting result.

[0052] Multiple pending orders may be sorted first in descending order of total demand quantity, and for pending orders with the same total demand quantity, they may be sorted again in descending order of release time to obtain a sorting result.

[0053] The order score of each pending order can be calculated based on the release time and the total quantity required, and multiple pending orders can be sorted in descending order of the order score. The earlier the release time of the pending order and the larger the total quantity required, the higher the order score. For example, the order score can be a weighted average of the release time and the total quantity required, and the weight coefficient required for weighting is a configurable parameter.

[0054] By sorting orders based on the time of dispatch and the total quantity of demand, we ensure that orders with large demand and early dispatch time are batched first. Under the premise of ensuring the orderly processing of orders, we give priority to orders with large total quantity of demand, thus ensuring the processing completion time of orders with large total quantity of demand. At the same time, we reduce the number of orders in a batch and improve the efficiency of batching.

[0055] Step S202: Combining the first order in the plurality of to-be-processed orders into a first batch, where the first batch is a newly created batch.

[0056] After sorting multiple pending orders, take out the pending order ranked first in the sorting result, record it as the first order for the convenience of describing the pending orders, combine the first order into a new batch, and record it as the first batch for the convenience of describing the new batch.

[0057] The combination of a certain pending order into a batch mentioned in the present disclosure is specifically to regard the pending order as an order in the batch, so that the orders in the same batch are processed at the same time.

[0058] Step S203: updating the target material boxes of the first batch based on the order requirements of the newly added order.

[0059] The newly added orders are orders newly combined into the first batch, and the newly added orders include the first order. The target bins of the first batch are bins that meet the order requirements of the newly added orders of the first batch that have been combined into the first batch.

[0060] After a pending order is newly combined into a batch, the pending order is regarded as a new order of the batch. Since a pending order is newly added to the first batch, that is, there is a new order in the first batch, the target bin of the first batch is updated based on the order demand of the new order, so that the updated target bin meets the order demand of the orders combined into the first batch (including the new order).

[0061] For the first order (the first new order of the first batch) and each new order subsequently combined into the first batch, it is necessary to select the corresponding target material box based on the order requirements of the new orders, so as to update the target material box of the first batch.

[0062] For the first order, since the first order is the first order combined into the first batch, that is, the first newly added order of the first batch, the material box selected to meet the order demand of the first order is directly added as the target material box of the first batch.

[0063] For the new orders of the first batch except the first order, it is necessary to determine the partial order requirements of the new orders that are not met by the existing target material boxes based on the order requirements of the new orders and the existing target material boxes of the first batch, select new material boxes based on the partial order requirements, and add the selected new material boxes as the target material boxes of the first batch.

[0064] For example, Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a target bin updating process provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, such as Figure 3 As shown, at time t1, the first order O31 is combined into the first batch. The first order includes two order lines, namely SKU31:100 and SKU32:200. The target bins determined according to the first order include bin 311 and bin 312, wherein bin 311 stores 150 pieces of SKU31 and 50 pieces of SKU32, and bin 312 stores 300 pieces of SKU32. At time t2, the second newly added order, namely newly added order O32, is combined into the first batch. The newly added order O32 includes an order line, namely SKU32:500. Since the target bins of the current first batch include bins 311 and 312, the order demand of the newly added order O32 that is not met by bins 311 and 312 is 350 pieces of SKU32. Based on the unmet demand, the corresponding newly added bins are selected, namely bins 313 and 314, wherein bin 313 includes 300 pieces of SKU32, and bin 314 includes 100 pieces of SKU32 and 200 pieces of SKU33. At this time, the target bins of the first batch are updated to bins 311, 312, 313 and 314.

[0065] Optionally, based on the order requirements of the new order, the target bins of the first batch are updated, including: determining multiple candidate bins based on various types of items that are not met in the order requirements of the new order, wherein each of the candidate bins stores at least one type of items of the various types of unmet items, and the various types of unmet items are items in the order requirements of the new order that are not met by the target bins before the update; determining new bins of the first batch from the multiple candidate bins based on material information of the multiple candidate bins and demand information of the various types of unmet items; and updating the target bins of the first batch according to the new bins.

[0066] The material information of the bin (including the candidate bin and the target bin) is used to describe the quantity of items or SKUs stored in the bin.

[0067] The unsatisfied items or SKUs in the order requirements of the first batch of newly added orders specifically refer to the items or SKUs in the order requirements that are not satisfied by the existing target bins in the first batch.

[0068] For the newly added orders newly combined into the first batch, based on the order requirements of the newly added orders and the material information of the existing target bins of the first batch, the various types of items that are not satisfied with the newly added orders are determined; the bins containing at least one type of the unsatisfied items are determined as candidate bins; based on the material information of the candidate bins and the quantity of the various types of items that are not satisfied with the new order, one or more new bins that meet the various types of items that are not satisfied with the new order are determined from the candidate bins, and the one or more new bins are added as target bins of the first batch.

[0069] When determining the new material box, the combination that meets the needs of various items that are not met in the new order and the combination with the least number of material boxes can be selected as the new material box. If there are no unmet items in the new order, skip step S203 and directly execute step S204.

[0070] By taking bins containing unsatisfied items as candidate bins and selecting target bins from them, a global search for target bins is achieved, which can reduce the number of target bins in the first batch and further improve the efficiency of processing the first batch of orders.

[0071] Step S204, based on the matching results of the remaining materials in the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping conditions, determine whether to combine one or more of the remaining orders into the first batch, so as to process at least one order in the first batch at the same time according to the combined first batch.

[0072] Among them, the remaining orders are the orders among the multiple pending orders except the new order; the remaining materials of the first batch are the difference between all the materials in the target material box of the first batch and the materials required in the orders combined into the first batch.

[0073] Each time a new order is added to the first batch, and the target material box of the first batch is updated based on the order demand of the new order, the remaining inventory of all materials in the updated target material box of the first batch is counted except for the order demand that meets the orders that have been combined into the first batch.

[0074] by Figure 3 Taking the shown embodiment as an example, after order O31 is combined into the first batch and the target bins of the first batch are updated to bins 311 and 312, the remaining materials of the first batch are updated to 50 pieces of SKU31 and 150 pieces of SKU32; after the newly added order O32 is combined into the first batch and the target bins of the first batch are updated to bins 311 to 314, the remaining materials of the first batch are updated to 50 pieces of SKU31, 50 pieces of SKU32 and 200 pieces of SKU33.

[0075] For the remaining orders, you need to select the orders to be combined into the first batch from the remaining orders based on the batch grouping conditions. If there are no remaining orders that can be combined into the first batch, the first batch combination is completed, and you can create another batch, such as the second batch, and combine the order ranked first among the remaining orders into the second batch, and so on.

[0076] If there is an order in the remaining orders that meets the batch grouping condition with the order that has been combined into the first batch, the order is combined into the first batch to obtain a new added order, and the process returns to step S203.

[0077] In some scenarios, there may be multiple remaining orders that meet the batch grouping conditions with the orders that have been combined into the first batch. In order to improve the batch grouping efficiency and the quality of order combination, the remaining materials of the first batch can be matched with the order requirements of each order in the remaining orders, and the remaining orders that meet the batch grouping conditions and have the highest degree of match can be combined into the first batch as new orders for the first batch.

[0078] The degree of match between the remaining materials and the order requirements can be determined based on the overlapping part of the remaining materials and the order requirements, that is, based on the part of the order requirements satisfied by the remaining materials. The higher the proportion of the number of satisfied items, the higher the degree of match.

[0079] Assuming that the matching degree ranges from 0 to 1, a matching degree of 1 between the order demand of a remaining order and the remaining materials indicates that the remaining materials can fully meet the order demand.

[0080] Exemplarily, Table 1 is an order demand table for each remaining order. The remaining orders include orders 11 to 13. The order demands of orders 11 to 13 are shown in Table 1. Taking order 11 as an example, its order demand is 100 pieces of SKU11. If the remaining materials of the first batch are: 50 pieces of SKU11, 150 pieces of SKU12 and 30 pieces of SKU13. Assuming that the matching degree is the ratio of the number of items to the total number of order requirements, the matching degrees of orders 11 to 13 and the remaining materials are: 0.5, 1 and 0.9 respectively, and order 12 can be combined into the first batch. Assuming that the matching degree is the ratio of the number of items to the total number of SKUs in the remaining materials, the matching degrees of orders 11 to 13 and the remaining materials are: 0.2174, 0.4348 and 0.7826 respectively, and order 13 can be combined into the first batch.

[0081] Table 1 Order demand table for remaining orders

[0082] SKU11 SKU12 SKU13 Order 11 100 none none Order 12 50 100 none Order 13 none 150 50

[0083] The order combination method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure provides an order combination strategy based on order requirements and materials stored in the material boxes in order to reduce the number of target material boxes for the same batch of order requirements. Specifically, firstly, multiple pending orders are sorted to execute the pending orders in order; for the pending orders ranked first, the pending orders are first combined into a newly added first batch; when there are new orders in the first batch, based on the order requirements of the new orders, the target material boxes for the first batch requirements are updated, such as adding material boxes that meet part of the order requirements of the new orders; based on the order requirements of the remaining orders, the batch grouping conditions, and the remaining materials in the target material boxes after meeting the orders of the first batch, it is determined whether to combine the remaining orders into the first batch to achieve further replenishment of the orders in the first batch. Batch orders are replenished by using the matching of the order requirements of the remaining orders and the remaining materials corresponding to the first batch, which improves the rationality of order combination, reduces the number of target material boxes for the next batch requirement of the same order quantity, and further improves the overall processing efficiency of the same batch of orders.

[0084] Optionally, the batch grouping condition is that the sum of the total quantity of all orders combined into one batch (including the first batch) is less than or equal to the upper threshold. The total quantity of the order is the sum of the quantity of each type of item required by the order. The upper threshold can be a fixed value or a configurable parameter.

[0085] By setting the upper threshold of the group batch, the task volume of different batches is balanced, avoiding a large difference in the task volume between batches, which would cause some workstations to have a large workload and some workstations to have a small workload, thereby leading to a waste of various system resources.

[0086] Optionally, the upper threshold in the batch group condition is determined based on the production capacity per unit time of the storage system.

[0087] The unit time can be any duration, such as 1 hour, 10 minutes, etc.

[0088] The capacity per unit time of the storage system can be determined in advance based on the order processing situation of the storage system in the past. The capacity per unit time of the storage system is used to describe the average level of the number of items that the storage system can complete in a unit time.

[0089] Exemplarily, the upper limit threshold may be equal to the production capacity of the storage system per unit time, or the product of the production capacity and a coefficient, and the coefficient may be slightly greater than 1, such as 1.1, 1.2, etc.

[0090] Batching can be performed with unit time as a cycle, that is, the order combination method is executed once every unit time to obtain a batch of orders, so that the orders of the batch can be processed simultaneously.

[0091] The production capacity of the warehousing system is used to determine the upper limit of the tasks for each batch of combined orders. On the premise of balancing the tasks of different batches, the task volume of each batch is matched with the capacity of the warehousing system, further improving the utilization rate of the warehousing system's transportation capacity.

[0092] In some embodiments, the batch condition may also limit the total quantity of orders in a batch, for example, the total quantity of orders in a batch is less than or equal to a quantity threshold. The quantity threshold may be a fixed value, such as 50, 100, etc., or may be a configurable parameter.

[0093] Exemplarily, the batch grouping condition may be: the total quantity of orders grouped into a batch is less than or equal to a quantity threshold, such as 50, and the total quantity of orders required for a batch is less than or equal to an upper threshold, such as 500. That is, when the total quantity of orders in a batch reaches 50, or the total quantity of orders required for a batch reaches 500, the batch is grouped, and another batch is created, and the order ranked first among the pending orders is grouped into the newly created batch, and so on, the pending orders are continuously grouped into batches to achieve the division into different batches.

[0094] In some embodiments, after a newly added order is combined into the first batch, it is possible to first determine whether there are orders in the remaining orders that can be combined into the first batch based on the batch grouping conditions. If not, there is no need to execute step S203 and it is directly determined that the first batch combination is completed.

[0095] Take the batch grouping condition that the sum of the total demand quantity of all orders combined into one batch is less than or equal to the upper limit threshold as an example. After combining a newly added order into the first batch, update the total demand quantity of the first batch, calculate the difference between the upper limit threshold and the total demand quantity after the first batch is updated, and determine whether there are orders with a total demand quantity less than or equal to the difference in the remaining orders; if not, it means that there are no orders in the remaining orders that can be combined into the first batch, then it is determined that the first batch combination is completed, and there is no need to execute step S203 to update the first batch target bin, and directly return to step S201 or step S202 to combine the first-ranked order in the pending orders that have not been combined into any batch into a new batch.

[0096] In other embodiments, in order to improve the efficiency of task allocation for the same batch of combined orders, after determining that there are no orders in the remaining orders that can be combined into the first batch, step S203 can still be executed to allocate target bins for the first batch, so that when processing the orders of the first batch, the target bins of the first batch are moved by robots to realize the picking and delivery of items required for each order in the first batch, so as to complete each order in the first batch.

[0097] Figure 4For this disclosure Figure 2 The flowchart of step S203 and step S204 in the embodiment shown in FIG. Figure 4 As shown, step S203 and step S204 may specifically include the following steps:

[0098] Step S401, determining a plurality of candidate material boxes based on various types of items that are not satisfied in the order requirements of the newly added order.

[0099] Each of the candidate material boxes stores at least one type of items among the various types of unsatisfied items, and the various types of unsatisfied items are items in the order requirements of the new order that are not satisfied by the target material box before the update.

[0100] Based on the material information of the existing target bins of the first batch and the difference between the total order demand of the orders combined into the first batch, various items that are not satisfied in the order demand of the orders newly combined into the first batch can be determined.

[0101] After the first order is combined into the first batch, since the number of target bins in the first batch is 0 at this time, the various items that are not satisfied by the first order include the various items required by the first order. For the various items required by the first order, bins containing any one or more categories of items in the first order in the bins stored in the storage system are determined as candidate bins, and after determining the target bin that meets the order requirements of the first order in subsequent steps, the remaining materials of the first batch are updated based on the difference between the material information of the target bin and the order requirements of the first order.

[0102] After combining the subsequent orders into the first batch, that is, obtaining the new orders of the first batch excluding the first order, the various items that are not satisfied with the new order can be determined based on the current remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the new order, and so on. By continuously updating the remaining materials of the first batch, the amount of calculation required to determine the various items that are not satisfied in the order requirements of the new order is reduced.

[0103] Step S402 , sorting the various types of unsatisfied items in order of the number of candidate material boxes corresponding to the various types of unsatisfied items from small to large, to obtain an item sequence.

[0104] The candidate bin corresponding to the item stores the item, or the material information of the candidate bin corresponding to the item includes the item and the quantity of the item is not 0. The items in the item sequence are the items whose first batch of newly added orders are not satisfied by the first batch of existing target bins.

[0105] After determining the candidate bins for each type of item for the newly added order that is not satisfied by the existing target bins of the first batch, it is also necessary to sort the items so as to determine the target bins corresponding to each type of item in turn.

[0106] In order to improve the efficiency of determining the target bin, the target bin may be allocated preferentially to the items with a small number of corresponding candidate bins.

[0107] Specifically, the various items of the newly added orders that are not satisfied by the target containers in the first batch are sorted in order of the corresponding candidate containers from small to large, and an item sequence is obtained. Then, the target containers in the first batch are updated through a cyclic iteration process, as shown in the subsequent steps S403 to S406.

[0108] Step S403: The first item in the item sequence is used as the target item. In the loop iteration process, the first item in the item sequence in this iteration is used as the target item.

[0109] Step S404, for the multiple target candidate bins corresponding to the target item, based on the number of types of items stored in each target candidate bin, the number of the target items stored in the target candidate bin, and the number of unsatisfied target items, determine the score of each target candidate bin. The target candidate bin is a bin in the candidate bins that stores the target item.

[0110] Step S405 , determining that the target candidate bin with the highest score is a newly added bin of the first batch, updating the target bin of the first batch according to the newly added bin, and deleting the items in the item sequence whose requirements are satisfied by the newly added bin.

[0111] Specifically, the newly added material box may be determined as the first batch of newly added target material boxes.

[0112] Step S406, determine whether the items in the item sequence are empty; if not, return to step S403; if so, execute step S407.

[0113] Step S407, based on the matching results of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping conditions, determine whether to combine one or more remaining orders into the first batch, until the first batch combination is completed.

[0114] After the first batch is combined, the orders in the first batch are processed simultaneously according to the first batch that is combined. The first batch combination is completed specifically when there is no order in the remaining orders that meets the batch combination condition with the first batch.

[0115] After a target object is determined, it is necessary to calculate a score for a candidate bin containing the target object, namely a target candidate bin, and determine the target candidate bin with the highest score as a new bin.

[0116] If there is only one target candidate bin corresponding to the target item, step S404 does not need to be executed, and the target candidate bin is directly determined as the first batch of newly added bins (ie, the newly added target bin), and the items in the item sequence whose requirements are satisfied by the newly added bin are deleted.

[0117] After the first batch of newly added target bins, it is necessary to delete the items in the item sequence that are satisfied by the existing target bins in the first batch (including the newly added bins) in order to traverse the unsatisfied items in the item sequence until all items in the order requirements of the newly added order are satisfied, that is, the items in the item sequence are empty.

[0118] The greater the number of types of items stored in a target candidate bin and the greater the number of target items stored in the target candidate bin, the higher the score of the target candidate bin.

[0119] In some embodiments, the score of the target candidate bin may be positively correlated with the difference between the number of target items stored in the target candidate bin and the number of unsatisfied target items (ie, the number of target items that are not satisfied by existing target bins).

[0120] For example, the score of the target candidate bin may be: k1×(the number of target items stored in the target candidate bin-the number of target items that are not satisfied)+k2×(the number of types of items stored in the target candidate bin-1), where k1 and k2 are known coefficients. If there are multiple target candidate bins with the highest score, any one of them may be selected as the new bin.

[0121] For example, Figure 5 For this disclosure Figure 4 The schematic diagram of the target material box adding process in the embodiment shown is as follows: Figure 5 As shown, the order requirements of the newly added order O4 that are not met by the existing target bins in the first batch are: SKU41:20 and SKU42:50, so SKU41 and SKU42 are the items that are not met by the newly added order O4. The bins containing SKU41 or SKU42 in the storage system include bins 411 to 418, and the material information of each bin is as follows: Figure 5As shown, taking bin 416 as an example, its material information indicates that 100 pieces of SKU 41 and 50 pieces of SKU 42 are stored in bin 412. It can be seen that the bins containing SKU 41 include bins 411 to 416, and the bins containing SKU 42 include bins 415 to 418. Then the item sequence is: SKU42, SKU41; take SKU42 as the target item, assume that k1 and k2 are both 1, and calculate the scores of bins 415 to 418 as: 51, 1, 151 and 100, respectively. Then determine bin 417 as a newly added bin. Since bin 417 meets the previously unmet demand of SKU42 in the newly added order O4, SKU42 is deleted from the item sequence. Take SKU41 as the next target item, and calculate the scores of bins 411 to 416 as: 130, 30, 130, 80, 81 and 81, respectively. Then bin 411 or bin 413 can be selected as the newly added bin. Since SKU41 is satisfied and the item sequence is empty, jump to the aforementioned step S407 to determine whether to combine the remaining orders into the first batch.

[0122] In this embodiment, through a cyclic iterative process, the corresponding new material boxes are gradually determined for the material boxes with fewer target items, thereby reducing the calculation complexity; at the same time, through the calculation of the candidate material box scores, the material boxes with high matching degree with the item demand and storing more types of items are used as new material boxes, so that the target material boxes in the batch can match the needs of more orders. Without increasing the number of target material boxes, the number of orders in the batch is increased, which is equivalent to reducing the number of target material boxes required for orders in a batch, thereby improving the order processing efficiency; by traversing each unmet item, the situation of missing some item requirements of the new order is avoided, thereby improving the comprehensiveness of the target material box search.

[0123] Figure 6 For this disclosure Figure 2 The flowchart of step S203 and step S204 in the embodiment shown in FIG. Figure 6 As shown, step S203 and step S204 may specifically include the following steps:

[0124] Step S601: based on the order requirements of the newly added order, update the target material boxes of the first batch.

[0125] Step S602: Calculate the score of each remaining order based on the matching result between the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders.

[0126] For each remaining order, the score of the remaining order is calculated based on the order demand of the remaining order and the matching result of the remaining materials of the first batch.

[0127] The specific amount can be determined based on the order demand of the remaining order and the remaining materials of the first batch, and the matching degree between the two can be used to determine the score of the remaining order. The score of the remaining order is positively correlated with the matching degree.

[0128] Exemplarily, the score of the remaining order may be equal to the quantity of the remaining materials in the first batch that matches the order demand of the remaining order.

[0129] For example, if the order demand for a remaining order is 50 pairs of socks and 10 pairs of shoes, and the remaining materials in the first batch are 20 pairs of socks and 50 pairs of shoes, the score of the remaining order is 30, and the corresponding calculation formula is: 20+10.

[0130] Exemplarily, the score of the remaining order may be between 0 and 1, and the score of the remaining order may be the proportion of the remaining materials in the first batch that match the order demand of the remaining order.

[0131] For example, if the order demand for a remaining order is 30 pairs of socks and 10 pairs of shoes, and the remaining materials in the first batch are 20 pairs of socks and 30 pairs of shoes, the score of the remaining order is 0.6, and the corresponding calculation formula is: (20+10) / (20+30).

[0132] Step S603, in descending order of scores, based on the batch grouping conditions, determine in turn whether to group the current remaining orders into the first batch.

[0133] Step S604, after combining the current remaining orders into the first batch, use the current remaining orders as the newly added orders of the first batch, and return to execute step S601 until there are no orders in the remaining orders that meet the batch grouping conditions.

[0134] After obtaining the scores of each remaining order, sort the remaining orders in descending order to obtain the remaining order sequence; first, for the remaining order ranked first, determine whether to combine the remaining order into the first batch based on the batch grouping condition; if so, combine the remaining order into the first batch, take the remaining order ranked first as the new order, and return to step S601; if not, continue to determine whether the remaining order can be combined into the first batch for the next remaining order in the remaining order sequence, until a remaining order that can be combined into the first batch is found or the remaining order sequence is traversed. If there is no next remaining order, that is, the remaining order sequence has been traversed and there is no remaining order that can be combined into the first batch, then the first batch is combined. Create another batch, such as the second batch, return to step S201, re-sort the current pending orders in the warehousing system, and combine the pending order ranked first into the second batch, and so on.

[0135] Taking the batch grouping condition as: the sum of the total demand quantity of the orders combined into one batch is less than or equal to the upper threshold as an example, based on the batch grouping condition, determine whether to combine the remaining orders into the first batch, specifically: if the sum of the total demand quantity of the remaining orders and the total demand quantity of the first batch is less than or equal to the upper threshold in the batch grouping condition, then combine the remaining orders into the first batch; if the sum of the total demand quantity of the remaining orders and the total demand quantity of the first batch is greater than the upper threshold in the batch grouping condition, then the remaining orders cannot be combined into the first batch, and the next remaining order in the remaining order sequence is selected. If there is no next remaining order, the first batch is combined. The total demand quantity of the first batch is the sum of the total demand quantities of the orders that have been combined into the first batch.

[0136] Taking the batch grouping condition as: the sum of the total demand quantities of the orders combined into one batch is less than or equal to the upper threshold, and the total quantity of the orders combined into one batch is less than or equal to the quantity threshold as an example, based on the batch grouping condition, determine whether to combine the remaining orders into the first batch, specifically: if the total quantity of the orders combined into the first batch is less than the quantity threshold, and the sum of the total demand quantities of the remaining orders and the total demand quantities of the first batch is less than or equal to the upper threshold in the batch grouping condition, then combine the remaining orders into the first batch; if the total quantity of the orders combined into the first batch reaches the quantity threshold, or the sum of the total demand quantities of the remaining orders and the total demand quantities of the first batch is greater than the upper threshold in the batch grouping condition, then the remaining orders cannot be combined into the first batch. The total demand quantity of the first batch is the sum of the total demand quantities of the orders that have been combined into the first batch.

[0137] After combining a newly added order into the first batch, the total quantity required for the first batch and the total quantity of the orders combined into the first batch can be updated (specifically, the total quantity plus 1). If the total quantity of the updated orders reaches the quantity threshold, there is no need to execute step S601, and the first batch is directly determined to be completed. If the total quantity of the updated orders does not reach the quantity threshold, step S601 and subsequent steps are executed to update the target bins of the first batch and determine the orders combined into the first batch from the remaining orders.

[0138] For example, Figure 7 A schematic diagram of the remaining order combination determination process provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, such as Figure 7 As shown in the figure, the total demand quantity of the first batch is 850, and the remaining materials are: 100 pieces of SKU71, 23 pieces of SKU72 and 35 pieces of SKU73. The remaining orders include orders 71 to 75, and the order requirements of each remaining order are as follows: Figure 7As shown. Taking the score of the remaining orders as the number of remaining materials in the first batch that matches the order requirements of the remaining orders as an example, the scores of orders 71 to 75 are 73, 80, 53, 33 and 35, respectively. Then, in order of scores from high to low, it is determined whether there are remaining orders that can be combined into the first batch in each remaining order. That is, it is determined in turn whether orders 72, 71, 73, 75 and 74 can be combined into the first batch, until a remaining order that can be combined into the first batch is obtained, or it is determined that there are no remaining orders that can be combined into the first batch. Assuming that the upper threshold is 1000, first for order 72, the total demand quantity of order 72 is 80. Since the batch grouping condition is established, that is, 80+850≤1000, order 72 is combined into the first batch. Assuming that the total demand quantity of order 72 is greater than 150, the next remaining order, that is, order 71, is selected, and so on.

[0139] In this embodiment, by calculating the remaining order scores, it is possible to preferentially combine the remaining orders with a high degree of match between order requirements and the remaining materials of the first batch into the first batch, thereby reducing the target number of material boxes for batch requirements. At the same time, through the designed remaining order traversal process, a global search for combinable orders is achieved, thereby improving the rationality of order combination. In order to avoid excessive differences in task volumes between different batches, batch grouping conditions are introduced, and the determination of the end of batch combination is realized, so that orders with appropriate quantities and appropriate task volumes are combined for different batches, thereby improving the overall efficiency of processing orders in different batches.

[0140] Figure 8 A flowchart of another order combination method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is shown as follows: Figure 8 As shown, the order combination method mainly includes the following steps:

[0141] Step S801, obtaining multiple pending orders and sorting them based on scores.

[0142] The score of an order may be determined based on the total quantity required for the order.

[0143] Step S802: Combine the to-be-processed orders ranked first into a newly created batch to obtain a newly added order in the newly created batch.

[0144] Step S803, constructing an index of unsatisfied SKUs and candidate bins for the newly added order.

[0145] The newly added order unsatisfied SKU refers to the SKU of the newly added order that is not satisfied by the existing target bins of the newly created batch, that is, the aforementioned unsatisfied items.

[0146] The indexing of the unsatisfied SKU and the candidate bin specifically refers to establishing an index between the unsatisfied SKU and the candidate bin containing the unsatisfied SKU.

[0147] Step S804: sort the unsatisfied SKUs in ascending order according to the number of candidate bins corresponding to the unsatisfied SKUs.

[0148] That is, the unsatisfied SKUs are sorted in order from small to large in the number of candidate bins with unsatisfied SKU indexes.

[0149] Step S805 , for the first ranked unsatisfied SKU, if it corresponds to one target candidate bin, the newly added bin of the new batch is the target candidate bin; if it corresponds to multiple target candidate bins, the newly added bin is the target candidate bin with the highest score.

[0150] The first ranked unsatisfied SKU is taken as the target SKU (or target item). If the target item corresponds to only one bin, that is, there is only one target candidate bin, then the target candidate bin is determined as the target bin; if the target item corresponds to multiple target candidate bins, the scores of the target candidate bins are calculated, and the target candidate bin with the highest score is determined as the target bin. The scores of the target candidate bins can be calculated by referring to the method provided in the above embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

[0151] Step S806, deleting the SKUs that are satisfied by the newly added material box among the unsatisfied SKUs;

[0152] Step S807, determine whether there is an unsatisfied SKU, if so, return to step S805; if not, execute step S808.

[0153] Step S808, determine the remaining materials of the newly created batch, match the remaining materials with the remaining orders one by one, determine the scores of the remaining orders, sort the remaining orders according to the scores, and obtain the remaining order sequence.

[0154] The method for determining the scores of the remaining orders can be carried out by referring to the method provided in the aforementioned embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

[0155] Step S809, taking out the remaining order ranked first in the remaining order sequence. Step S810, judging whether the remaining order can be combined into a new batch based on the batch grouping condition; if so, returning to step S803; if not, executing step S811.

[0156] Step S811, determine whether the remaining order sequence is empty; if not, return to step S809; if so, execute step S812.

[0157] Step S812, after the new batch is combined, determine whether there are pending orders that have not been combined into any batch; if so, return to step S801 to combine the pending orders ranked first into a new batch, and repeat subsequent steps to implement the combination of the new batch orders; if not, that is, all pending orders are combined into one batch, then the process ends.

[0158] For example, taking multiple pending orders including orders 81 to 83 as an example, the order requirements of orders 81 to 83 are as follows: order 81 requires 10 pieces of SKU81, 5 pieces of SKU82 and 10 pieces of SKU83; order 82 requires 2 pieces of SKU81, 5 pieces of SKU83 and 5 pieces of SKU85; order 83 requires 5 pieces of SKU82, 5 pieces of SKU84 and 5 pieces of SKU86, and the batch grouping condition is: the total number of batch requirements is ≤ 50. The material information of the bins 81 to 85 in the storage system that contain one or more items of SKU81 to SKU86 is shown in Table 3.

[0159] Table 3 Material list of bins 81 to 85

[0160]

[0161] Based on the above order combination method, first calculate the scores of orders 81 to 83. Take the order score as the total quantity of order demand as an example, then orders 81 to 83 are 25 points, 12 points and 15 points respectively. Orders with the same score can be sorted from early to late according to the time of issuance. The order sorting result is order 81, order 83, order 82. Then combine the first-ranked order 81 into a new batch, such as batch 1. Based on the bins corresponding to each SKU in order 81, SKU81: bin 81, bin 82, bin 84 and bin 85, SKU82: bin 81 to bin 85, SKU83: bin 81 and bin 82. SKU83 has the least number of bins. SKU83 is selected as the target item. The scores of bins 81 and 82 corresponding to SKU83 are calculated, which are 3 (10–10+4 -1) and -2 (5–10+4-1) points respectively. Bin 81 is selected as the target bin for batch 1. In addition to meeting the requirements of SKU83 in order 81, bin 81 also meets the requirements of SKU81 and SKU82 in order 81. That is, there is no unsatisfied SKU in order 81. The remaining material after the order requirements of order 81 are met by bin 81 is SKU86. 5 pieces, and match them with the remaining orders, i.e., order 82 and order 83, to obtain the matching degree of order 82 and order 83 with the remaining materials, such as the matching score. The matching score can be the sum of the quantity of the remaining materials and the SKU requirements of the remaining orders. Based on this, it can be seen that the matching scores of order 82 and order 83 are 0 and 5 points respectively. Then, it is judged whether order 83 and order 81 meet the batch grouping conditions. If they meet, order 83 is combined with order 81, that is, order 83 is combined into batch 1. Since the total demand quantity of the remaining orders, i.e., order 82, is 12, the total demand quantity of batch 1 is the sum of the total demand quantities of order 81 and order 83, i.e., 40 (25+15), 12+40>50, that is, there is no order in the remaining orders that can be combined into batch 1, and batch 1 is combined. Create another batch, such as batch 2, and combine order 82 into batch 2. From then on, the batch grouping of orders 81 to 83 is completed, and two batches, i.e., batch 1 and batch 2, are obtained.

[0162] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the structure of an order combination device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. Fig. 9 As shown, the order combination device 900 provided in this embodiment includes: an order sorting module 910, an order combination module 920, a material box updating module 930 and a remaining order combination module 940.

[0163] The order sorting module 910 is used to sort multiple pending orders, where the pending orders are orders that have not been combined into any batch; the order combination module 920 is used to combine the first order ranked first among the multiple pending orders into the first batch, where the first batch is a newly created batch; the material box update module 930 is used to update the target material box of the first batch based on the order requirements of the newly added orders; the newly added orders are orders newly combined into the first batch, and the newly added orders include the first order; the remaining order combination module 940 is used to determine whether to combine one or more remaining orders into the first batch based on the matching results of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping conditions, so as to process at least one order in the first batch at the same time according to the first batch completed by the combination; wherein the remaining orders are the orders among the multiple pending orders except the newly added orders; the remaining materials of the first batch are the difference between all the materials in the target material box of the first batch and the materials required in the orders that have been combined into the first batch.

[0164] Optionally, the material box update module 930 includes: a candidate material box determination unit, which is used to determine multiple candidate material boxes based on various types of unmet items in the order requirements of the new order, wherein each candidate material box stores at least one type of items of the various types of unmet items, and the various types of unmet items are items in the order requirements of the new order that are not met by the target material box before the update; a new material box determination unit, which is used to determine the first batch of new material boxes from multiple candidate material boxes based on the material information of the multiple candidate material boxes and the demand information of the various types of unmet items; a target material box update unit, which is used to update the first batch of target material boxes according to the new material boxes.

[0165] Optionally, a target bin addition unit is specifically used to: sort the various types of unsatisfied items in order from small to large according to the number of candidate bins corresponding to the various types of unsatisfied items to obtain an item sequence; take the first-ranked item in the item sequence as the target item, and for multiple target candidate bins corresponding to the target item, determine the score of each target candidate bin based on the number of types of items stored in each target candidate bin, the number of target items stored in the target candidate bin, and the number of unsatisfied target items; the target candidate bin is the bin in which the target item is stored among the candidate bins; determine the target candidate bin with the highest score as the first batch of newly added bins, delete the items in the item sequence whose requirements are met by the newly added bins, and return to the step of taking the first-ranked item in the item sequence as the target item until the item sequence is empty.

[0166] Optionally, the remaining order combination module 940 includes: an order score calculation unit, which is used to calculate the score of each remaining order based on the matching result of the remaining materials in the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders; a batch determination unit, which is used to determine whether to combine the current remaining orders into the first batch in order from high to low scores based on the batch conditions; a batch unit, which is used to, after combining the current remaining orders into the first batch, take the current remaining orders as the new orders of the first batch, return to execute the order requirements based on the new orders, and update the target material boxes of the first batch, until there are no orders that meet the batch conditions in the remaining orders.

[0167] Optionally, the batch grouping condition is that the total demand quantity of the orders grouped into the first batch is less than or equal to the upper threshold. Optionally, the upper threshold is determined based on the capacity per unit time of the storage system.

[0168] Optionally, the order sorting module 910 is specifically used to sort multiple pending orders based on the issuance time and the total required quantity.

[0169] An order combination device 900 provided in this embodiment can execute the order combination method provided in any of the above embodiments. The implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described in detail in this embodiment.

[0170] Fig.10 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig.10 As shown, the electronic device 1000 provided in this embodiment includes: a processor 1001, and a memory 1002 communicatively connected to the processor 1001; the memory 1002 stores computer execution instructions, and the processor 1001 executes the computer execution instructions stored in the memory 1002 to implement the order combination method provided in any embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0171] The specific implementation process of the processor 1001 can be found in the above method embodiment, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, so this embodiment will not be repeated here.

[0172] Optionally, the electronic device 1000 further includes a communication component, through which the electronic device communicates with other devices such as a robot, an order-taking device, etc. The order-taking device is a device responsible for receiving and managing orders processed by an agent. The processor 1001, the memory 1002, and the communication component are connected via a bus.

[0173] In the above embodiments, it should be understood that the processor may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in the invention may be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware processor, or may be executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

[0174] The memory may include a high-speed memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), and may also include a non-volatile memory (Non-volatile Memory, NVM), such as at least one disk storage.

[0175] The communication component of the electronic device 1000 can send wireless signals (for example, wifi signals or radio signals such as 4G / 5G) to the robot, and can also receive wireless signals sent by the robot.

[0176] The bus may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, the bus in the drawings of the present disclosure is not limited to only one bus or one type of bus.

[0177] The present disclosure also provides a computer program product, including a computer program, which implements the above method when executed by a processor.

[0178] The present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-executable instructions are stored. When a processor executes the computer-executable instructions, the above method is implemented.

[0179] The above-mentioned readable storage medium can be implemented by any type of volatile or non-volatile storage device or a combination thereof, such as static random access memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, magnetic disk or optical disk. The readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a general or special-purpose computer.

[0180] An exemplary readable storage medium is coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the readable storage medium and write information to the readable storage medium. Of course, the readable storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the readable storage medium can be located in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Of course, the processor and the readable storage medium can also exist in the device as discrete components.

[0181] The division of units is only a logical function division, and there may be other divisions in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0182] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0183] The functional units in the various embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0184] If the function is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present disclosure, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the various embodiments of the present disclosure. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, ROM, random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes.

[0185] Those skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of implementing the above-mentioned method embodiments can be completed by hardware related to program instructions. The aforementioned program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When the program is executed, the steps of the above-mentioned method embodiments are executed; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: ROM, RAM, disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes.

[0186] Finally, it should be noted that those skilled in the art will readily conceive of other embodiments of the present disclosure after considering the specification and practicing the invention disclosed herein. The present disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the present disclosure, which follow the general principles of the present disclosure and include common knowledge or customary technical means in the art that are not disclosed in the present disclosure, are not limited to the precise structures described above and shown in the drawings, and may be modified and changed in various ways without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. An order combination method, characterized in that: include: sorting a plurality of pending orders, wherein the pending orders are orders that have not been grouped into any batch; Combining the first order ranked first among the multiple pending orders into the first batch, where the first batch is a newly created batch; Based on the order requirements of the newly added order, update the target bins of the first batch; The newly added order is an order newly combined into the first batch, and the newly added order includes the first order; Based on the matching result of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping condition, determine whether to combine one or more of the remaining orders into the first batch, so as to simultaneously process at least one order in the first batch according to the combined completed first batch; Among them, the remaining orders are the orders among the multiple pending orders except the new order; the remaining materials of the first batch are the difference between all the materials in the target material box of the first batch and the materials required in the orders combined into the first batch.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The updating of the target material boxes of the first batch based on the order requirements of the newly added orders includes: Based on the various types of items that are not satisfied in the order requirements of the newly added order, a plurality of candidate bins are determined, wherein each of the candidate bins stores at least one type of item of the various types of items that are not satisfied, and the various types of items that are not satisfied are items in the order requirements of the newly added order that are not satisfied by the target bin before the update; Determine, from the plurality of candidate material boxes, a newly added material box for the first batch based on the material information of the plurality of candidate material boxes and the unmet demand information of the various items; The target material box of the first batch is updated according to the newly added material box.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The determining, based on the material information of the candidate material boxes and the unsatisfied demand information of various items, the first batch of newly added material boxes from the multiple candidate material boxes includes: Sorting the various types of unsatisfied items in order of the number of candidate bins corresponding to the various types of unsatisfied items from small to large to obtain an item sequence; The first item in the item sequence is taken as the target item. For a plurality of target candidate bins corresponding to the target item, a score of each target candidate bin is determined based on the number of types of items stored in each target candidate bin, the number of the target items stored in the target candidate bin, and the number of target items that have not been satisfied; the target candidate bin is a bin in which the target item is stored among the candidate bins; Determine the target candidate bin with the highest score as the newly added bin of the first batch, delete the items in the item sequence whose requirements are satisfied by the newly added bin, and return to the step of taking the first item in the item sequence as the target item until the items in the item sequence are empty.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The determining whether to combine one or more of the remaining orders into the first batch based on the matching result of the remaining materials of the first batch with the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch grouping condition comprises: Based on the matching results of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders, calculating the score of each remaining order; In descending order of scores, based on the batch grouping condition, determining in sequence whether to group the current remaining orders into the first batch; After combining the current remaining orders into the first batch, taking the current remaining orders as the new orders of the first batch, return to execute the order requirements based on the new orders and update the target material boxes of the first batch until there are no orders in the remaining orders that meet the batch grouping conditions.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The batch grouping condition is that the sum of the total demand quantities of the orders combined into the first batch is less than or equal to an upper limit threshold.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The upper limit threshold is determined based on the production capacity per unit time of the storage system.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The step of sorting the multiple pending orders comprises: The multiple pending orders are sorted based on the issuing time and the total required quantity.

8. An order combination device, characterized in that: include: An order sorting module, used to sort a plurality of pending orders, wherein the pending orders are orders that have not been grouped into any batch; An order combination module, used for combining the first order in the plurality of to-be-processed orders into a first batch, where the first batch is a newly created batch; A material box updating module, used for updating the target material boxes of the first batch based on the order requirements of the newly added orders; The newly added order is an order newly combined into the first batch, and the newly added order includes the first order; a remaining order combination module, configured to determine whether to combine one or more remaining orders into the first batch based on the matching result of the remaining materials of the first batch and the order requirements of the remaining orders and the batch combination condition, so as to simultaneously process at least one order in the first batch according to the combined first batch; Among them, the remaining orders are the orders among the multiple pending orders except the new order; the remaining materials of the first batch are the difference between all the materials in the target material box of the first batch and the materials required in the orders combined into the first batch.

9. An electronic device, comprising: A processor, and a memory communicatively connected to the processor; The memory stores computer-executable instructions; The processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium stores computer-executable instructions, which are used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 when executed by a processor.

11. A computer program product, characterized in that The method comprises a computer program, which implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 when the computer program is executed by a processor.

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