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EP-3857480-B1 - SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED MERGING OF SPLIT DELIVERIES TO A SINGLE CUSTOMER

EP3857480B1EP 3857480 B1EP3857480 B1EP 3857480B1EP-3857480-B1

Inventors

  • MINH, HYUN SIK EUGENE
  • KIM, YOO SUK
  • REHN, Erik

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20200921

Claims (9)

  1. A computer implemented method (500) for delivery wave scheduling, comprising: receiving (501), from a remote system, order information (703) comprising a plurality of products (711,721) and associated identifiers; determining (502) a fulfillment center and a first delivery wave (712), from a plurality of delivery waves (712,722), for a first product (711) of the plurality of products (711,712), based on the associated identifier and the remote system; storing (503) the first delivery wave (712) in association with the first product (711) in a database; determining (504) a fulfillment center and a second delivery wave (722), from the plurality of delivery waves (712,722), for a second product (721) of the plurality of products (711,721), based on the associated identifier and the remote system, the second delivery wave (722) being different from the first delivery wave (712); storing (505) the second delivery wave (722) in association with the second product (721) in the database; characterised by : determining (506) that the first delivery wave (712) is associated with an earlier time period than the second delivery wave (722), and responsive thereto: modifying (611) the database to associate the first product (711) with the second delivery wave (722); preventing (634) a scan event from insertion into a database of completed scan events when the scan event occurs during a time period associated with the first delivery wave (712) and not associated with the second delivery wave (722), the scan event comprising an identifier for the first product (711), by: receiving (631), from a mobile device, the scan event comprising an identifier of the first product (711); intercepting a data packet including information indicating the scan event occurred, wherein the data packet is sent to the database upon completion of the scan event; and deleting the data packet.
  2. The method (500) of claim 1, wherein the fulfillment center associated with the first product (711) and the fulfillment center associated with the second product (721) are different.
  3. The method (500) of claim 2, wherein the order information comprises two customer orders, having the first product (711) in the first customer order and the second product (721) in the second customer order.
  4. The method (500) of claim 1, wherein the steps further comprise: forwarding (621) a second set of computer instructions to a printing device, the second set of computer instructions configured to cause the printing device to print a label listing the information associated with the second wave (722).
  5. The method (500) of claim 1, wherein each wave occurs during a period of time comprising a plurality of waves, and the steps further comprise determining that the first delivery wave (712) and the second delivery wave (722) occur during the same period of time.
  6. The method (500) of claim 1, wherein the steps further comprise: determining a region associated with the remote system information; and determining a fulfillment center from a set of fulfillment centers associated with the determined region.
  7. The method (500) of claim 1, wherein determining the fulfillment center comprises: storing in a database a plurality of previous electronic requests and associated fulfillment centers; dividing the previous electronic requests in a training dataset and a validation dataset, the training dataset having more requests than the validation dataset; generating a predictive model based on the training data set associating request information and fulfillment centers; validating the predictive model using the validation dataset; and determining the fulfillment center by applying the predictive model to the electronic request.
  8. The method (500) of claim 1, wherein determining the fulfillment center comprises comparing a schedule of wave deliveries of a product with the average travel time of the product through each fulfillment center in the plurality of fulfillment centers.
  9. A computerized system (113) for delivery wave scheduling, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method in accordance with any preceding claim.

Description

Technical Field The present disclosure generally relates to computerized systems and methods for automatic rescheduling of package delivery. In particular, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to inventive and unconventional systems that analyze electronic order information through a logistics management system based on a collection of data from multiple subsystems to determine when split deliveries can be consolidated into a single delivery, and automatically rescheduling the deliveries upon such determination. Background With the advancement and proliferation of computer technology, online shopping, also known as e-commerce, has become one of the major avenues of commerce. Consumers and businesses are purchasing goods from online vendors more frequently than ever, and the number of transactions and sales revenue are projected to grow year-over-year at a staggering rate. As the scope and volume of e-commerce continue to grow, both the number of different products available online and the average number of purchases made in a given period are also growing exponentially. For example, the number of different products sold by one popular online retailer is said to have reached more than 600 million products, and the number of packages shipped per day by the same retailer, 1.6 million. Each online purchase, by nature, requires a delivery of the purchased goods to its intended recipient. Each online purchase or order typically comprises of one or more goods, wherein the one or more goods can be packaged into one or more packages, each with its own promised delivery date. A typical order may be processed via steps such as: receiving, from a customer, an order for one or more goods; retrieving the one or more goods from an inventory; packaging the one or more goods into one or more packages; and delivering the one or more packages to the intended recipient before the promised delivery date. The promised delivery date may be set by the retailer itself or a shipping courier, or a specific date may be requested by the customer, which then may be assigned as the promised delivery date. An ideal system of order processing would deliver each package to the intended recipient by the promised delivery date without failure. Order processing systems, in some cases, may operate using a "wave process," where products are scheduled to be delivered to a specified area during one or more waves in a given time period. For example, wave deliveries may include a first wave of packages around a specific area (e.g., a route comprising sub-routes) at one time a day, and then a second wave of packages to the same area later in the day. This process may be used as an alternative to a "shift process," where products are delivered in one or more shifts in different areas (e.g., two shifts cover two halves of a specified area). A "wave process" may offer certain advantages over a "shift process." For example, a "wave process" may provide excellent area coverage and may enable deliveries to certain areas where delivery would otherwise be unavailable. However, since the "wave process" may cover the same area multiple times in a day, utilizing this process may result in delivering products to the same location multiple times a day when only one delivery is necessary, greatly increasing costs. Currently existing computerized order processing systems include a varying degree of automation and complexity in implementing the steps described above. With increasing number of different goods and orders, however, aggravated by the fact that the orders need to go through a complex network of subsystems and that some orders have complicating factors such as a partial return, current systems are problematic in that they are incapable of or largely inefficient at determining when multiple deliveries to the same recipient can be consolidated into one in order to reduce costs (i.e., every package in the order is delivered to the intended recipient in a single wave rather than multiple waves). US 2016/342932 discloses a collective delivery system for delivering a plurality of packages collected by a plurality of different delivery companies from one or more shipping sources to a single predetermined delivery destination. In the disclosed system, a first delivery control unit sets first delivery information to be associated with each of the packages such that the package is delivered from the shipping source thereof to a predetermined place different from the single delivery destination. A second delivery control unit sets second delivery information to be associated with each of the packages such that a single delivery company collectively delivers from the predetermined place to the single delivery destination. The first delivery control means then changes the delivery destination included in the first delivery information from the single delivery destination to the predetermined place. There is a need for improved methods and systems for the autom