Picking Item Scoring System for Storage Facility Traffic Bottlenecks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Storage facilities face challenges in efficiently picking physical items to fulfill requests due to factors like size mismatch between items and storage locations, weight capacity, fill capacity, and potential bottlenecks in the facility.
Innovation Solution
A system that determines the most favorable physical item to pick based on an aggregation of scores for various parameters, including size, weight, fill capacity, and potential impact on facility traffic, to optimize picking efficiency and reduce bottlenecks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If physical items are moved around in storage facilities to fulfill picking requests, then picking requests can be fulfilled, but bottlenecks and traffic congestion arise in the facility
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary scoring and evaluation of multiple candidate physical items before making the final picking decision. By pre-calculating scores based on size match, weight capacity, fill capacity, and traffic impact, the system identifies the optimal item to pick in advance, reducing last-minute decisions that cause bottlenecks
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms by evaluating the impact of picking decisions on facility traffic and bottlenecks. The scoring system considers current facility conditions and predicts how each picking option will affect overall traffic flow, allowing dynamic adjustment of picking priorities to minimize congestion
2Quantity of substance
If physical items are stored in storage locations, then storage capacity is utilized, but size mismatch between items and storage locations reduces efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by evaluating the specific match between each physical item's dimensions and the storage location's capacity. Instead of generic storage assignment, the scoring system considers the local fit of each item in its specific storage location, prioritizing items that best match the available space to maximize storage efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters by considering multiple attributes of physical items including size, weight, and fill capacity in the scoring evaluation. By dynamically evaluating these parameters against storage location characteristics, the system optimizes the matching between items and locations to improve overall storage productivity
3Quantity of substance
If multiple physical items are queued in storage locations, then storage locations are filled, but picking velocity decreases due to items being shifted or moved around
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary evaluation of the queue position and accessibility of physical items before picking decisions are made. By pre-assessing how many items need to be shifted or moved to access a target item, the system can prioritize picking items that are more accessible, thereby maintaining higher picking velocities while still utilizing filled storage locations
Data Source
AI summary
Described are systems and methods for identifying an item in a storage facility to fulfill a pick request. The method includes receiving, by a computing system, a request for a physical item of a particular type, identifying a set of available physical items of the particular type from a plurality of physical items stored in storage locations in the storage facility, determining a score for each respective available physical item based on multiple sub-scores specific to the respective available physical item, to generate a set of scores corresponding to the set of available physical items, selecting a selected physical item from among the set based on the selected physical item having a most favorable score, identifying a selected storage location of the selected physical item, and providing instructions to cause a mechanical moving system to route the selected physical item from the selected storage location to a destination picking location.