Patent ID: 9213953
Filing Date: 2015-12-15
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, from user devices, online orders for one or more items of merchandise from users associated with individual ones of the user devices; defining a fulfillment network having a plurality of fulfillment resources configured to fulfill the online orders, wherein the plurality of fulfillment resources fulfill the online orders by preparing to distribute the one or more items of merchandise from individual fulfillment resources to the users; determining a share of a volume of the online orders in the fulfillment network to assign to each individual fulfillment resource of the plurality of the fulfillment resources, wherein for an individual fulfillment resource of the plurality of the fulfillment resources, the determining comprises: receiving, by a computer, a share target that defines a load balancing target for the individual fulfillment resource, wherein the share target represents a percentage of the online orders to be fulfilled by the individual fulfillment resource; calculating, by the computer, load balancing costs based at least in part on a geographical location of the users and a geographical location of the individual fulfillment resource; based at least in part on receiving the share target, performing n-dimensional calculations to determine a vector of the load balancing costs to be applied to each of the individual fulfillment resources to drive performance of each of the individual fulfillment resources to a corresponding load balancing target within a same period of time; assigning, by the computer, online orders to the individual fulfillment resource based at least in part on the load balancing costs and the vector; monitoring, by the computer, existing online order assignments to the plurality of fulfillment resources to provide performance data; and redefining, by the computer, the load balancing target based at least in part on the load balancing costs and the performance data.