Patent ID: 11948109
Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 14:
15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions, that upon execution on a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:
determining, during a time window prior to a start of a planning horizon, a demand for item transportation expected during the planning horizon;
determining, during the time window, first information about a pre-planned transportation resource available during the planning horizon, the pre-planned transportation resource associated with a pre-defined cost that is independent of usage of the pre-planned transportation resource during the planning horizon;
determining, during the time window, second information about an on-demand transportation resource, the on-demand transportation resource associated with a use cost that depends on actual use of the on-demand transportation resource;
determining, by at least executing an optimization model, (i) a first block having a time length, (ii) a first tour to transport, during the first block a first portion of the demand using the pre-planned transportation resource, (iii) a first assignment of the first block and the first tour to the pre-planned transportation resource, (iv) a second portion of the demand that is unassigned to any pre-planned transportation resource, and (v) a second assignment of an item from the second portion to a second tour and the second tour to a second block, wherein:
the optimization model is configured to perform an iterative search that combines at least two variables associated with resource information and tour information into a single variable such that the iterative search is computationally reduced and completed by the computer system before an end of the time window, an overall item transportation cost, the iterative search at least using the demand, the first information, the pre-defined cost, and the use cost as inputs and exploring variables that include candidate blocks and candidate tours per candidate block, and
the first block and the first tour are one of the candidate blocks and one the candidate tours respectively;

causing, a first computing device of the pre-planned transportation resource, to present, on a first graphical user interface, the first assignment prior to the start of the planning horizon;
determining, at a predefined time prior to the end of the time window, an update to the demand;
determining, by at least re-executing the optimization model based at least in part on the update and in which the iterative search is skipped, a change to the first tour; and
causing the first computing device to present the change to the first tour prior to a start of the first block.