Order Preparation Control for Just-in-Time Pickup Scheduling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated storage and retrieval systems face challenges in managing floor space utilization and maintaining temperature-controlled environments for goods awaiting pickup, especially in facilities with limited space, due to the accumulation of prepared orders when pickup entities are delayed.
Innovation Solution
A method and control system that ranks orders based on estimated pickup times and priorities, preparing and delivering goods to a pick-up point just in time to optimize space usage and ensure temperature-controlled storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If orders are prepared as soon as received, then order fulfillment speed is improved, but floor space accumulation at pick-up point increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by ranking orders and estimating preparation times before actual picking begins. The control system calculates optimal start times for each order based on pick-up entity schedules, allowing the system to prepare orders just-in-time rather than immediately upon receipt, thus avoiding premature accumulation at the pick-up point while maintaining fulfillment speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts order preparation timing based on real-time factors including pick-up entity availability, traffic conditions, and order priorities. The ranking and estimated preparation times are continuously updated, allowing the system to flexibly optimize when each order should be prepared and delivered to the pick-up point, balancing speed requirements with space constraints.
2Productivity
If multiple orders are prepared simultaneously, then overall system productivity is improved, but temperature-controlled storage capacity is exceeded
Solution Approach 1:
The control system performs preliminary calculation of preparation times and pick-up schedules before initiating order processing. By estimating when each order will be ready and when the pick-up entity will arrive, the system can sequence order preparation to ensure continuous flow into temperature-controlled storage without exceeding its capacity, while maintaining high system throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from pick-up entity schedules and current storage status to continuously adjust order preparation timing. The control system monitors how quickly orders are being picked up and adjusts the preparation rate accordingly, ensuring that temperature-controlled storage capacity is utilized efficiently without being exceeded, while maintaining optimal productivity.
Data Source
AI summary
A control system controls an automated storage and retrieval system to perform a method including receiving a plurality of orders in an order list; allocating each order to one of a plurality of pick-up entities; ranking the plurality of orders in the order list according to time received; estimating, for each order, a preparation time for preparing and delivering the order to a pick-up point for pick-up by the allocated pick-up entity; estimating, for each order, a pick-up time at which the allocated pick-up entity will be ready to pick up the order based on information about the allocated pick-up entity; comparing, for each order, the estimated preparation time and the estimated pick-up time; updating the ranking of the orders in the order list so that each order will be delivered at the pick-up point at a time within a predetermined time interval overlapping the estimated pick-up time of the allocated pick-up entity; and controlling the automated storage and retrieval system for preparing and delivering the orders of goods at the pick-up point according to the updated ranking of orders in the order list.