Dynamic Pick Path Re-routing for Shorted Products
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional solutions for autonomous vehicles in warehouses fail to dynamically re-route pick paths effectively when products are shorted, leading to delays and missed deadlines, especially when handling multiple orders with varying priorities and deadlines.
Innovation Solution
An analytics server dynamically recalculates completion scores and re-routes the pick path by considering the likelihood of completing orders, priorities, deadlines, and current positions, allowing for frequent minor adjustments to seek alternate pick locations or proceed with shorted orders, incorporating substitute products and alternate locations based on weighted scores.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the picker attempts to cure the shorted product by picking the product at an alternate pick location, then the shorted product may be resolved, but the additional time to pick from the alternate location causes delays in fulfilling other orders and may cause those orders to miss deadlines
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically determines whether to re-route to an alternate pick location by computing completion scores that reflect current warehouse conditions, order priorities, and time constraints. This dynamic decision-making replaces static predetermined rules with adaptive real-time analysis that balances the need to cure shorted products against the risk of delaying other orders
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of route selection by computing different completion scores for the current pick path versus a revised pick path that includes alternate locations. The decision to re-route is based on comparing these scores, allowing the system to optimize for either product completion or time efficiency depending on which path yields the higher overall completion score
2Reliability
If the computer directs the picker to multiple alternate pick locations to resolve a short, then the shorted product may be cured, but the extensive re-routing causes significant delays and reduces overall productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by attempting to cure only the most critical shorted products rather than all shorted products. By computing completion scores that reflect the impact of each short on overall order fulfillment, the system selectively re-routes to alternate locations only when the benefit of curing that specific short outweighs the productivity cost of the re-routing required
3Ease of operation
If the computer uses static predetermined rules to handle shorted products, then the system is simple to operate, but it cannot adequately address how to resolve shorts when orders have different priorities and deadlines
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback by computing completion scores that reflect current warehouse conditions, order priorities, deadlines, and the picker's position. This feedback loop allows the system to adapt its routing decisions to the specific context of each shorted product incident, considering the relative importance of different orders and the potential impact of re-routing on overall fulfillment performance
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are systems and methods for dynamically re-routing a pick path to an alternate pick location in response to identifying a shorted product at a pick location. The dynamic decision to re-route an autonomous vehicle is based on completion scores representing a likelihood of completing order in an autonomous vehicle, a maximum remaining time, an additional pick time, and order priorities. Based on various weights for factors of the orders, a system may re-route the autonomous vehicle to fulfill a shorted order at an alternate location when no orders have a high likelihood of completion, the additional pick time associated with re-routing the autonomous vehicle to the alternate pick location is less than the maximum remaining time for each order on the autonomous vehicle, and/or none of the orders on the autonomous vehicle have a higher priority than the shorted order.