Patent ID: 11905058
Assignee: WALMART APOLLO, LLC
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 16:
17. An order fulfillment system comprising a distribution center for supplying goods to a plurality of physical store locations, the order fulfillment system comprising:
a decanting station for receiving goods into the distribution center from an upstream supplier of the goods, the decanting station receiving a plurality of sub-totes of differing sizes, two or more of the plurality of sub-totes being configured to fit within a product container, goods of the same stock keeping unit (SKU) being placed in a plurality of different sized sub-totes, each sub-tote of the plurality of different sized sub-totes destined for a different physical store of the plurality of physical store locations; and
a picking workstation configured to transfer goods from product containers to order containers, goods being picked and placed into the order containers based on an order for the goods at the plurality of physical store locations, each sub-tote comprising goods of the same SKU, each sub-tote being transferred as a whole from a product container to an order container at the picking workstation, the product containers containing and transporting the sub-totes from the decanting station to the picking workstation.