Patent ID: 11922388
Assignee: WALMART APOLLO, LLC
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B  F  Y | IPC B  F  G

Claim 10:
11. An energy-efficient method of producing and vending ice, the method comprising:
providing an ice-making device configured to manufacture ice and a reservoir coupled to the ice-making device and configured to store the ice manufactured by the ice-making device;
determining, using a control circuit associated with the ice-making device, a beginning ice inventory at a first time;
determining, using the control circuit, an ice manufacturing quantity based on the beginning ice inventory, a predicted ice demand for a first period, and a manufacturing capacity of the ice-making device, wherein the predicted ice demand is a function of at least one of a historical factor, a weather factor, a customer social event factor, and a public social event factor; and
automatically producing an amount of ice using the ice-making device, wherein the amount of ice produced is consistent with the determined ice manufacturing quantity.