Patent ID: 7243074
Filing Date: 2007-07-10
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of maintaining an electronic manifest for tracking and predicting a capacity utilization of a goods delivery system, the goods delivery system having at least one delivery agent and at least one delivery zone comprising a geographic area comprising at least one zip group having at least one zip code, each delivery agent having at least one delivery vehicle comprising a plurality of delivery vehicle slots, each delivery vehicle slot defined as a portion of one of the delivery vehicles used to deliver a good, the goods delivery system providing a respective first potential delivery date for approval by a buyer, a respective order, and a number of delivery vehicle slots the respective order will fill, said method of maintaining an electronic manifest for tracking and predicting the capacity utilization comprising the steps of: defining a delivery agent capacity utilization matrix for each delivery agent for a specific delivery zone, the delivery agent capacity utilization matrix comprises a number of delivery vehicle slots that the delivery agent has for use in the specific delivery zone, including a number of delivery vehicle slots for each zip group in the specific delivery zone, a total number of delivery vehicle slots in the specific delivery zone defining a zone delivery capacity of the delivery agent; determining a respective zone maximum number of delivery vehicle slots and a respective number of used delivery vehicle slots for a specified period of time within the specific delivery zone, the respective zone maximum number of delivery vehicle slots defined by the sum of the zone delivery capacity of each delivery agent in the specific delivery zone; determining whether the respective order can be shipped on the respective first potential delivery date based on a number of available delivery vehicle slots, wherein said respective number of available delivery vehicle slots is equal to said respective zone maximum number of delivery vehicle slots minus said respective number of used delivery vehicle slots; returning a respective date that the respective order can be delivered based on the respective number of available delivery vehicle slots on the respective date for approval by the buyer; updating the delivery agent capacity utilization matrix for the specified period in the electronic manifest after the respective order has been included within said respective number of used delivery vehicle slots; calculating a zone workload signal for the delivery date approved by the buyer, the zone workload signal corresponding to a workload value for the delivery date approved by the buyer, the workload value equals (the respective number of used delivery vehicle slots including slots filled from the respective order approved by the buyer)/(the respective zone maximum number of delivery vehicle slots); setting a capacity flag for each delivery date in the electronic manifest by comparing a sum of workload values to a predetermined over capacity value for said delivery date, the sum of workload values equals a sum of a plurality of workload values corresponding to a predetermined number of preceding delivery dates that immediately precede said delivery date, said setting a capacity flag comprising: predicting the capacity utilization of the goods delivery system for a time frame based on the workload value for each delivery date of a predetermined number of days preceding the time frame; and storing the predicted capacity utilization of the goods delivery system for the time frame in the electronic manifest.