Electronic Apparatus Prioritizing Operation Cells by Shipment Date

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

In item delivery services, there is a need to quickly and accurately deliver fresh items while maintaining their freshness, requiring a technology to provide associated information to operators in fulfillment centers to reduce lead time and ensure timely delivery.

Innovation Solution

An electronic apparatus and method that identifies operation cells with completed item sorting, prioritizes them based on scheduled shipment dates, sorting completion times, or the number of items, and updates information in real-time to guide packing operators, ensuring efficient and timely packing and delivery.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If item sorting is completed for multiple operation cells, then the quantity of sorted items increases, but the lead time for packing and delivery increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequantity of sorted itemsVSAvoidlead time

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary prioritization of operation cells based on scheduled shipment dates before the packing process begins. By pre-identifying which operation cells have the most urgent shipping deadlines and displaying them in priority order, the system enables packing operators to immediately focus on time-critical items, thereby reducing lead time while maintaining high quantity processing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The display information is dynamically updated based on changing priorities. As packing operators complete items, the system recalculates and reorders the display of operation cells to reflect new priority conditions, ensuring that the most time-sensitive items remain prominently visible throughout the packing process, thus optimizing both throughput and delivery timing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

2Ease of operation

If packing operators process all operation cells equally, then the distribution of work is uniform, but delivery deadlines may be missed for urgent items

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuniformity of work distributionVSAvoiddelivery deadline adherence

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different processing priorities to different operation cells based on their specific characteristics, particularly scheduled shipment dates. Instead of uniform treatment, operation cells with urgent deadlines are visually distinguished and positioned prominently in the display, guiding operators to allocate more attention and resources to time-critical items while maintaining systematic work distribution

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously monitors the completion status of item sorting and updates the display information in real-time. This feedback mechanism allows the system to dynamically adjust the prioritization display based on current operational status, ensuring that urgent items are consistently identified and addressed, thereby improving delivery deadline adherence while maintaining operational clarity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Loss of information

If the system displays information for all operation cells, then complete information is provided, but the packing operator cannot quickly identify priority items

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of informationVSAvoidspeed of identifying priority items

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the display information to present operation cells in distinct priority groups or levels. By dividing the complete set of operation cells into prioritized segments (e.g., most urgent, moderately urgent, less urgent), the system maintains completeness of information while enabling operators to quickly scan and identify priority items through visual differentiation and structured presentation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system pre-processes and organizes operation cell information before presentation to operators. By calculating priorities based on scheduled shipment dates and pre-arranging the display order beforehand, the system eliminates the need for operators to manually analyze and sort through all information, thus maintaining complete information availability while dramatically improving the speed of priority identification

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS11813645B2Electronic apparatus and information providing method thereof

Publication Date: 2023.11.14 COUPANG CORP

AI summary

Provided is an information providing method of an electronic apparatus. The information providing method includes identifying an operation target set including a plurality of operation cells, identifying at least one operation cell for which item sorting is completed among the plurality of operation cells included in the operation target set, and displaying information on or regarding an operation cell selected based on priority order information from among the identified at least one operation cell.