358 results about "Order fulfillment" patented technology

A wrapped surgical pack (400) includes a plurality of adhesive bindings (301,302) that retain an identification device (305) against an outer wrap (201) of the wrapped surgical pack (400). The identification device (305) is capable of being read by a remote reader (801). When the wrapped surgical pack (400) is opened, the physical structure of the identification device (305) is altered, thereby allowing one or more processors operable with the remote reader (801) to detect the opening event. A system (800) using the identification device (305) can be used for order fulfillment, inventory management, location tracking, and other systems.

A method and system for providing incentive programs over a computer network is provided in which a host may provide sponsoring companies with the capability to buy prepackaged or self-built incentive programs, offer such incentive programs to consumers, provide sponsoring companies and retailers with the capability to associate prizes with incentive programs, provide sponsoring companies, retailers and consumers with convenient fulfillment of prizes, and store and manipulate databases regarding all of the foregoing.

An order-picking method includes autonomously routing a plurality of mobile robotic units in an order fulfillment facility and picking articles to or putting articles from the robotic units in the order fulfillment facility. A material-handling robotic unit that is adapted for use in an order fulfillment facility includes an autonomous mobile vehicle base and a plurality of article receptacles positioned on the base. A visual indicator associated with the receptacle facilitates picking articles to or putting articles from the robotic unit.

The present invention relates to an improved order fulfillment system. The system is provided with improved data entry system for selecting items for purchase by a customer, and an improved item collection terminal and order delivery system. The portable terminal to be used for collecting of items is provided with an audio as well as video presentation means which are used to provide assistance to the to terminal user.

Some embodiments provide a system for fully autonomous order fulfillment and inventory management within a distribution site or warehouse. The system operates by autonomous robots directly pulling customer order items from distribution site shelves or pulling individual bins from distribution site shelves and dispensing appropriate quantities of items from the bins until all items of a customer order are retrieved without human involvement. The system further involves the robots autonomously monitoring item quantities within the distribution site, identifying and autonomously responding to shortages, and organizing the items within the distribution site for most efficient order fulfillment.

A remote ordering system including a universal in-store point-of-sale (POS) system deployed to allow a remote-ordering user to customize, pay and transmit a food order to a vending merchant and to provide means for transmitting to the user a confirmation of receipt of the food order in real time together with a merchant commitment to a precise pickup time, thereby facilitating food order fulfillment immediately upon user arrival at the committed pickup time. One aspect of the invention allows a “curb-side” remotely-ordering user to notify the vending restaurant of arrival for fulfillment through a telephone call to an interactive voice response element, which then transmits an arrival notification message to the restaurant.

A system and method for enabling patrons at large venues, such as spectator venues, convention halls, or airports, which have identifiable delivery locations, to utilize hand-held, wireless communication devices to self-order food, drink, souvenir items or services from remote order fulfillment locations within the venue for delivery to the identified delivery locations. Verification of available service level is provided. Hierarchical menus can be provided for visual display or audible presentation of items or services for purchase on the devices, or for presenting other information. A delivery location identification code is provided with the order, which is acknowledged. Automatic electronic payment for the order occurs by prearranged means.

One or more images of items for an order being processed at processing station of an order fulfillment center may be captured and associated with the order. Alternatively, a short video clip may be captured of the order being packaged. An electronic notification that the order has been processed may be sent to a customer associated with the order. The electronic notification may include a reference to one or more of the captured images or video clips. The customer may use a reference included in the notification to view the captured images. The customer may view captured images to verify that the order has been correctly processed. The captured images may include images of the items being packaged for shipment and may show the shipping address on the package allowing the customer to verify that indeed it is his package in the images.

The present invention provides a system and method whereby companies can optimally resolve the conflicts with respect to product availability. Embodiments of the invention allow users to search for product availability throughout its entire supply chain network to address conflicts as they arise. In particular, the present invention creates time-phased inventory plans that meet customer requirements while minimizing inventory and maximizing profit by ensuring that a company is carrying the right inventory at the right locations. Using the present invention, companies can orchestrate the time-phased storage and flow of a given product's supply to match demand by creating an optimal inventory strategy that includes deployment plans, master production schedules, and procurement requirements.

The invention includes a method of lubricants supply chain management including: storing in a web-accessible database a catalog of lubricants and prices-per-unit for same which prices-per-unit optionally decrease based on certain pre-determined cumulative volume purchases; upon receiving at a web server a request from a web-browser client, querying the database and serving the results of the query to the requesting web-browser client for display; serving an order form to the web-browser client which is configured to contain fields for order quantity and type for lubricants, delivery type preferences and delivery address entered in the web-browser client, and determining and displaying on the web-browser client a delivery price quote; receiving an order from the web-browser client for a specific type and quantity of lubricants and having a specific delivery type selected; electronically transmitting over a network the order to an order fulfillment agent; where the order fulfillment agent electronically transmits over a network the order to at least one lubricant blender; electronically transmitting over a network the order and the delivery information to a freight-handling agent; where the freight-handling agent inputs the information into a delivery optimization system which outputs a delivery schedule which includes the order, and electronically transmits over a network the order and the delivery information to at least one trucking company; and maintaining the status and all actions and communications for the order in a second web-accessible database.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for the customized and personalized design of school, team, club, class and event branded apparel and merchandise online via dealer, client-branded and business-to-business websites without minimum orders. The invention further comprises customized design ordering, order fulfillment, image text positioning, image curing, image cutting, and pixilation methods.

A technique for effecting electronic commerce using a data network is described. The data network includes a plurality of subsystems which, together, form an integrated system for receiving customer orders for selected items via a data network, fulfilling the customer orders, and delivering the ordered products to the customers. Moreover, according to a specific embodiment, the integrated nature of the system architecture of the present invention allows the on-line merchant to provide a guarantee to the customer that the ordered items will be available to be delivered to the customer at the specified delivery date, time, and location.

A method and system for agent exchange-based materials handling. According to one embodiment, a method of agent exchange-based order fulfillment may include a number of agents moving along respective paths through an inventory storage area of a materials handling facility. While moving through the inventory storage area, a portion of the number of agents may respectively select one or more of a number of items stored within the inventory storage area, where each one of the selected items is specified in a corresponding customer order or materials request. The method may also include conveying the selected items to one or more corresponding processing areas of the materials handling facility in order to fulfill the corresponding customer orders. Further, at least some of the selected items may be exchanged one or more times among the agents in the course of being conveyed to corresponding processing areas.

A mapping system receives information from a standardized order input system and maps or translate the order information into the proper format and syntax required for a vendor's receiving system. In this manner, a consumer may view and utilize a standardized ordering interface while a vendor may utilize their existing and varied order receiving systems located a various order fulfillment locations.

An order optimization system and method is disclosed. According to the system and method, a device, such as a personal digital assistant or personal computer is in communication with an establishment computer. The system includes software and hardware capable of placing, transmitting, and receiving an order, tracking the location of the device, determining and predicting the availability of limiting resources, optimally assigning resources to the order, determining whether a triggering condition is satisfied, commanding the preparation of the order, commanding notification messages, tracking limiting resource usage, tracking implements used to prepare the order, and displaying order fulfillment status.

A method and apparatus for pre-processing electronic data requests within the EDI subsystem layer and within the order fulfillment application system. An order interceptor, third-party Available To Promise (ATP) interface, pseudo-sales order workbench, and the reject acknowledgment system processes are provided within the order fulfillment application system to accomplish the pre-processing. The order interceptor performs an asynchronous availability check before a sales order is posted. The result of the ATP check is stored in an ESO, and is applied during the posting process with unique user exits. The result of the ATP check is also used to determine key information about the sales order, such as the sales organization, and division and distribution channels. The pre-processor uses business rules to determine if the ESO should be split into multiple documents for requests satisfied across multiple sales areas. The Workbench provides a customer purchase order view of the ESO that looks, feels and behaves like actual order entry screens. The Workbench also displays messages generated from the pre-processor describing why the ESO was held for review. After the condition is corrected the Workbench re-executes the ESO pre-processor. This continues until all messages are corrected or marked reviewed. The supplier can decide to either accept the request, reject the request or accept individual line items.

An automated order fulfillment system and automated method for fulfilling orders includes a donor-handling system having at least two donor buffers and a recipient-handling system having at least one recipient buffer. An item-handling system includes a vision system and an item manipulator. The vision system has a field of view encompassing the at least two donor receptacle buffers. A control causes the vision system to scan items in a donor receptacle at one of the donor buffers to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle. The control causes the manipulator to pick an item from a donor receptacle at the other of the donor buffers under guidance of the vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data of items in that donor receptacle.

One or more images of items for an order being processed at processing station of an order fulfillment center may be captured and associated with the order. Alternatively, a short video clip may be captured of the order being packaged. An electronic notification that the order has been processed may be sent to a customer associated with the order. The electronic notification may include a reference to one or more of the captured images or video clips. The customer may use a reference included in the notification to view the captured images. The customer may view captured images to verify that the order has been correctly processed. The captured images may include images of the items being packaged for shipment and may show the shipping address on the package allowing the customer to verify that indeed it is his package in the images.

A method is provided for supply chain modeling by a supply chain entity within a supply chain including a plurality of supply chain entities. The method may include obtaining an order fulfillment requirement for a product from a downstream supply chain entity and identifying one or more representative subsystems of the product. The method may also include determining a supply capacity and an inventory requirement for the supply chain entity with respect to the one or more representative subsystems and calculating an inventory cost for the supply chain entity based on the inventory requirement with respect to the one or more representative subsystems.

A fulfillment services provider may offer export services to merchants, including generation of required export documentation; calculation, collection, and remittance of customs duties; and transportation via an international carrier. Such export services may be offered through a registration service, and may be integrated with other fulfillment services provided to registered merchants (e.g., domestic order fulfillment and / or warehousing of inventory), or may be offered to merchants that do not receive other fulfillment services from the provider. Export services may be provided to merchants who certify that all registered or specified items may be legally exported to all (or specified) international destinations, or the provider may verify compliance to export regulations on behalf of registered merchants. The provider may assume the role of Principal Party in Interest for registered merchants or the merchants may retain this role. Registration and provision of export services may be implemented in one or more software modules.

A system includes a first mobile drive unit and a second mobile drive unit. The system also includes a first inventory holder, a second inventory holder, and a third inventory holder. An inventory station includes a first location and a second location and the inventory station operable to receive a first inventory item from the first inventory holder at the first location. The first inventory holder transported by the first mobile drive unit. The inventory station also operable to receive a second inventory item from the second inventory holder at the first location. The second inventory holder transported by the second mobile drive unit. The inventory station also operable to receive a third inventory item from the third inventory holder at the second location. The third inventory holder is fixed at the second location while the inventory station receives the first and second inventory item.

A system and method for enabling patrons at large-scale events at confined venues utilizes conventional or special hand-held, wireless communication devices to self-order food, drink and souvenir items from remote order fulfillment locations within the venue for delivery to the patrons' seats. Hierarchical menus are provided for display of items for purchase on the devices. Patrons transmit a seat identification code with the order, which is acknowledged, and send a confirmation code upon receipt of order delivery, which causes automatic electronic payment for the order by prearranged means.

A store mobile cloud application system executes a retail store purchasing system having plurality of barcode scanners and scan guns integrated with a mobile tablet device carried by employees. The mobile tablet device is rotatably attached to a base housing directly below it connected by a base mount universal receiver with rotatable coupling. The Main PCB has an EEPROM controlling operations of the USB devices including the scanner and an MSR. The mobile tablet device has mobile applications which allow wireless communication with a POS store systems server and the corporate ERP system, and also commands the EEPROM. Scanned data involving a product to be purchased is received by the mobile tablet device and sent wirelessly to the POS store systems server to obtain product data. The allocation of inventory sold, but not available in the store, are processed real-time through the corporate ERP system and available for review chain-wide.

The order entry and visibility system according to the present invention is a combination of network technologies that make it possible for a first user, typically a purchaser, to enter product orders electronically, communicate such to a second user, typically a supplier and provide for the second user to generate completed shipping labels upon fulfillment of at least a portion of the order. The system provides advantages for both the first user, purchaser and second user, supplier. The purchasers of products are provided a means of entering product orders via a network application and have immediate access to order and shipment status via the network application. The supplier of the product accesses the network application to process the order and generate a completed shipping label upon the fulfillment of the order.

A wireless put-to-light order fulfillment system capable of being retrofitted and integrated into existing inventory management databases. In an exemplary embodiment, alert devices are placed on job order totes, and each alert device is associated with the host system's database software using an alert interface software. The lights on the job order totes inform pickers where to put the recently picked inventory item, reducing job errors and increasing picking efficiency.

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions are provided for deploying and instantiating multiple instances of applications in automated data centers using an application deployment template. A first mechanism is provided to deploy multiple instances of applications using an application deployment plan template. The first mechanism uses deployment parameter sets to generate corresponding deployment plans based on the deployment template. A second mechanism is provided to instantiate multiple instances of applications using deployment plan templates. A service catalog that is exposed to consumers for selection of catalog items is built on top of the second mechanism. During the cataloging and order fulfillment process, the second mechanism instantiates multiple instances of applications using the generated deployment plans and an application model to deploy multiple application instances. An existing order may also be modified or terminated responsive to a user request or service term expiration.

A management system brokers, between a seller and a buyer, at least a portion of the seller's inventory of advertisement impressions that the seller can render within a web page of internet traffic. The management system comprises a traffic block definition tool adapted to define traffic block parameters for at least two discrete traffic blocks of the advertisement placement. The traffic block parameters for each discrete traffic block comprise a volume parameter and a duration parameter. A sales management tool is adapted to associate advertisement content and a buyer compensation parameter to each salable event. An order fulfillment system: i) directs placement of highest yielding advertisement content if, for each discrete traffic block, a delivered volume of sales events is higher than its minimum fulfillment threshold; and ii) if, for any discrete traffic block, delivered volume of saleable events lower than its minimum fulfillment threshold, directs placement of the advertisement content associated with that discrete traffic block.

The present disclosure describes a dynamic queueing and management system. The system utilizes the desired completion time in determining where to place new orders into the queue of orders to be fulfilled. If the desired completion time changes, the position of the corresponding order is adjusted within the queue. In some embodiments, the desired completion time is determined based on the location of the customer, either within the store or en route to the store. The queueing and management system may also separate the order input function from the order fulfillment and delivery functions. This may optimize each part of the process and allow faster service.

A method for implementing a computer-based product purchase and fulfillment club is disclosed, comprising the steps of designating one or more geographic club member areas; associating with each such club member area one or more consumer members who reside within the club member area and who must agree to pay a membership fee to the club; associating with each such club member area one or more buyer members who must be prepared to work within the club member area and who must agree to pay a membership fee to the club; associating with each such club member area one or more retailer members who must offer products for sale within the club member area and who must agree to pay a membership fee to the club; providing means through an electronic communications network for the consumer members, buyer members and retailer members to access a club web site specific to the club member area and to interact with the club web site; providing means through an electronic communications network for the consumer members, buyer members and retailer members to each access an individual member web page located on the club web site and personalized using parameters specific to each such consumer member, buyer member and retailer member; providing means through software programming for the retailer members to offer one or more products for sale on the club web site to the consumer members; providing means through software programming for the consumer members to purchase products offered for sale on the club web site; providing means through software programming for the buyer members to be notified of purchases made by the consumer members and to offer to the retailer members to fulfill the purchases; and fulfilling the purchases by having the buyer members buy the products from the retailer members, deliver the products to the consumer members to a location within the club member area within approximately thirty (30) minutes of the purchase, and collect a payment from the consumer members.

Some embodiments provide a system for fully autonomous order fulfillment and inventory management within a distribution site or warehouse. The system operates by autonomous robots directly pulling customer order items from distribution site shelves or pulling individual bins from distribution site shelves and dispensing appropriate quantities of items from the bins until all items of a customer order are retrieved without human involvement. The system further involves the robots autonomously monitoring item quantities within the distribution site, identifying and autonomously responding to shortages, and organizing the items within the distribution site for most efficient order fulfillment.