A method, implemented at a computer system that includes at least one processor (102, 402), for managing and producing containers (112, 116) within an operational environment (111, 201), the method comprising: generating an organizational database structure that maintains equipment information associated with at least one container that is part of the operational environment, wherein the at least one container is configured to receive packable items and wherein the organizational database structure includes information indicating which of a plurality of packable items are associated with the at least one container, wherein the organizational database structure further stores physical operational environment factors indicating current conditions in the operational environment, at least one of the physical operational environment factors being based on sensor data from one or more sensors placed throughout the operational environment; accessing the equipment information of the generated organizational database structure to identify one or more of the physical operational environment factors that affect which containers are to be currently produced within the operational environment; evaluating the one or more of the physical operational environment factors to determine which containers are to be produced at an equipment production machine (114, 407) and the order to produce the containers based on the current conditions in the operational environment; and inducing the containers that are determined to be produced into the operational environment, including physically creating the containers in the determined order by the equipment production machine, wherein the operational environment includes one or more shelves with aisles between the one or more shelves, and one or more carts (203, 301, 410) that are repositionable within the aisles wherein the containers are placed on slots of a cart in the order they are produced and wherein the order in which the containers are produced by the equipment production machine is optimized based on feedback data including feedback data from one or more of the carts or feedback data from one or more of the shelves, the feedback data comprising sensor measurements of the one or more sensors used to identify which packable items are currently located in a zone of the operational environment and real-time feedback data indicating the current location of each cart within the operational environment. generating an organizational database structure that maintains equipment information associated with at least one container that is part of the operational environment, wherein the at least one container is configured to receive packable items and wherein the organizational database structure includes information indicating which of a plurality of packable items are associated with the at least one container, wherein the organizational database structure further stores physical operational environment factors indicating current conditions in the operational environment, at least one of the physical operational environment factors being based on sensor data from one or more sensors placed throughout the operational environment; accessing the equipment information of the generated organizational database structure to identify one or more of the physical operational environment factors that affect which containers are to be currently produced within the operational environment; evaluating the one or more of the physical operational environment factors to determine which containers are to be produced at an equipment production machine (114, 407) and the order to produce the containers based on the current conditions in the operational environment; and inducing the containers that are determined to be produced into the operational environment, including physically creating the containers in the determined order by the equipment production machine, wherein the operational environment includes one or more shelves with aisles between the one or more shelves, and one or more carts (203, 301, 410) that are repositionable within the aisles wherein the containers are placed on slots of a cart in the order they are produced and wherein the order in which the containers are produced by the equipment production machine is optimized based on feedback data including feedback data from one or more of the carts or feedback data from one or more of the shelves, the feedback data comprising sensor measurements of the one or more sensors used to identify which packable items are currently located in a zone of the operational environment and real-time feedback data indicating the current location of each cart within the operational environment.