Patent Description:
Order fulfillment of orders placed over the Internet must take place within a relatively short period of time in order to be commercially competitive. The same could be said for orders received by phone, facsimile, or by the mail based on catalog or television-based merchandising. Such order fulfillment is known as E-commerce and places demands on an order fulfillment system to meet such obligations. This is compounded by the fact that E-commerce usually involves a large number of small orders (each containing as few as one item in the order) that are selected from an inventory with a large number of potential items. Inefficiencies and conflicts arise in warehouses due to the size constraints associated with warehousing and transporting items for order fulfilment, such as the amount of equipment or personnel required to carry out an order fulfilment process, the size of the equipment involved, the size of the items to be manipulated, and other factors. Additional inefficiencies and conflicts arise in sequencing orders and compiling items for orders having multiple items.

<CIT> describes a material handling system automatically each picking orders using a put wall. A controller determines whether any of more than one removable intermediate holders in a put wall that are within the reach of a first robotic arm contain one or more articles that are ready for transporting away from the put wall. The controller directs the first robotic arm to: (i) engage the selected removable intermediate holder, (ii) move the selected removable intermediate holder to an empty order container, and (iii) reorient the selected removable intermediate holder to transfer the one or more articles from the selected removable intermediate holder to the empty order container. In one or more embodiments, the articles can be placed in the put wall by conveying donor totes to an each picking robotic arm that places picked articles into an end effector of a second robotic arm. <CIT> discloses the preamble of claims <NUM> and <NUM>.

The invention is defined by the method of claim <NUM> and by the system of claim <NUM>. The present invention provides a method of item-level order fulfillment that includes storing items as inventory items in an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), such as a shuttle based three-dimensional system. The method utilizes automated robotic systems to automatedly fulfil orders. The method includes presenting individual inventory items to an automated put wall with a pick or put system, such as a cable operated platform, and retrieving an items of an order together from the order location on the automated put wall and transferring that order to a packing function. A system of item-level order fulfillment is provided including an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), a picking system, an automatic induct, and an automated put wall to fulfil orders, wherein items stored in the ASRS are retrieved, sorted into batch orders at the picking system, transferred from the picking system to the induct, and presented from the induct to the automated put wall to an order location on the automated put wall.

According to one form of the present invention, a method of item-level order fulfillment includes storing items as inventory items in an automated storage and retrieval system. The method includes retrieving individual inventory items from the ASRS, delivering those items to a batch pick operation in response to an order for one or more of those inventory items, and sorting those inventory items into order batches. The method includes delivering the order batches to an induct of an automated put wall and inducting individual items from the order batches and sorting the individual items into orders located at locations on the automated put wall corresponding to an individual order.

In one aspect of the present invention, the ASRS shuttle based three-dimensional system is preferably adapted to storing and retrieving items two-deep or three-deep on a storage rack. Inventory items are stored in receptacles and the receptacles in which the inventory items are located are retrieved and transported to the batch pick function. At the batch pick function, inventory items are sorted into order batches. The sorting of inventory items into order batches may be performed by a goods-to-person (GTP) or a goods-to-robot (GTR) system. At such GTP or GTR the inventory items retrieved for orders are sorted into batch receptacles such that each receptacle has the items for one or multiple orders in the receptacle. The order batch receptacles are routed to the induct of an automated put wall.

According to the invention, items are sorted into order batches with multiple goods-to-person or a goods-to robot systems and routed to an induct of one of a plurality of automated put walls with a routing conveyor, which may be circular to allow empty receptacles to be returned from the automated put wall to the ASRS.

According to the present invention, individual items are inducted at the induct from the order batch receptacle for sortation into orders at the automated put wall. At the induct, items are removed from order batch receptacles by a robotic arm. Optionally, order batch receptacles may be emptied manually, however, the use of a robotic arm automates and speeds up the process. Since order batch receptacles contain the items for particular orders to be sorted at that particular automated put wall, all items are removed from the receptacle and the empty receptacles can be returned to the GTP or GTR for reuse as batch receptacles.

According to another form of the present invention, a system for item-level order fulfilment includes an automated storage and retrieval system adapted to store inventory items and to retrieve those items for multiple orders and to transfer the retrieved inventory items from the automated storage and retrieval system to a receptacle at a batch order pick system, the receptacle defines a batch order of inventory items for multiple orders. The receptacle is transferred from the batch order pick system to a batch order induct configured to induct individual items from the batch order to an automated put wall. The automated put wall configured to segregate an individual item to a selected location on the automated put wall, the selected location associated with one of the multiple orders. An order retrieval system is provided and is configured to retrieve items for an order together from that order's location on the automated put wall and to transfer those items to a packing station. The orders located at selected locations on the automated put wall comprise at least one of the inventory items stored in the automated storage and retrieval system.

In one aspect, the item-level order fulfilment system includes a batch order transportation router configured to transport said receptacle from said batch order pick system to the induct of the automated put wall. The batch order transportation router may include a conveyor configured to transport batch order receptacles to the induct and to transport empty receptacles back to the batch order pick system after the receptacles have been emptied at the induct.

According to the invention, the automated put wall of the item-level order fulfilment system includes a robotic pick or put system, such as a cable operated platform, configured to automatedly transfer individual items from the induct to a selected location on the automated put wall associated with an order requiring that item.

According to the invention, the order retrieval system of the item-level order fulfilment system is a robotic pick or put system, such as a cable operated platform, configured to automatedly retrieve items of one of the multiple orders together from the selected location on the automated put wall associated with that order. The pick or put system transfers that order to a packing function, such as an automatic packing system.

Optionally, the item-level order fulfilment system includes a plurality of ASRS, a plurality of batch order pick systems, a plurality of automated put walls having dedicated inducts, all coordinated to fulfil orders with individual items that may be stored in one of the plurality of ASRS and transported to one of the plurality of automated put walls. A single batch order transportation router may transport receptacles from the plurality of batch order pick systems to one of the plurality of automated put walls.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method, and a system for carrying out the method, for item-level order fulfilment that is substantially automated. The method utilizes an automated storage and retrieval system and a pick or put system to substantially automatedly fulfil an order. The ASRS may be adapted to retrieve receptacles from a rack having two-deep and three-deep receptacles. The pick or put system may include a cable operated platform to both place items to a location on an automated put wall and retrieve items of an order together from a selected location on the automated put wall. The method is capable of segregating individual items received at an induct of the automated put wall and putting that individual item to a selected location on the automated put wall without an intermediate function to remove and segregate items from a batch of items received from the ASRS.

These and other objects, advantages, purposes, and features of the present invention will become more apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings and the illustrative embodiment depicted therein, a system <NUM> and a method <NUM> of item-level order fulfillment includes an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) <NUM>, a picking system <NUM>, an induct <NUM>, and an automated put wall <NUM>. The ASRS <NUM> stores inventory items to fulfil multiple orders and retrieves the inventory items from the ASRS <NUM> that are required for an order. Picking system <NUM> picks items that are retrieved from the ASRS <NUM> and transfers them to the induct <NUM>. The induct <NUM> presents the items from the picking system <NUM> to the automated put wall <NUM>. The Automated put wall <NUM> automatedly segregates the individual items in each order to a location on the put wall <NUM> that is assigned to that order under the control of a warehouse management system (not shown) or the like. The individual items for an order are removed together from the automated put wall <NUM> and transported, such as with a conveyor <NUM> together to a packing function (not shown). The packing function preferably is an automatic packing machine. An example of an automated put wall <NUM> may be of the type disclosed in <CIT>, by Michael Khodl and Philip Puite for AUTOMATED ITEM-LEVEL ORDER FULFILLMENT.

The individual items for an order are removed together by being withdrawn from at least one bin of automated put wall <NUM> with a robotic pick or put system <NUM>. In the illustrated embodiment, robotic pick or put system <NUM> is a cable operated platform of the type disclosed in <CIT>. The cable operated platform retrieves an order from a location on the automated put wall <NUM> and forwards the order to the packing function via conveyor <NUM>. Alternatively, other types of robotic pick or put system could be used such as a robotic arm or the like.

In the illustrated embodiments, a method of item-level order fulfillment <NUM> includes storing items <NUM> as inventory items in an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) <NUM>. While a variety of ASRS are known in the art, in the illustrated embodiment, the automated storage and retrieval system <NUM> is a shuttle based three-dimensional system. Such shuttle based three-dimensional system is preferably adapted to storing and retrieving items two-deep or three-deep on a storage rack such as disclosed in commonly assigned <CIT>. In the ASRS <NUM>, disclosed in the '<NUM> patent, inventory items are stored in receptacles and the receptacles in which the inventory items are located are retrieved and delivered to a batch pick operation <NUM> in response to an order for one or more of those inventory items.

At batch pick function <NUM> inventory items are sorted into order batches. The sorting of inventory items into order batches is performed in the illustrated embodiment with a goods-to-person (GTP) or a goods-to-robot (GTR) system of the type disclosed in commonly assigned <CIT>.

At such GTP or GTR the inventory items retrieved for orders are sorted into batch receptacles such that each receptacle has the items for one or multiple orders in the receptacle. The order batch receptacles are routed at <NUM> to the induct of an automated put wall. In the illustrated embodiment, inventory items are sorted into order batches with multiple goods-to-person or a goods-to robot systems at <NUM> and routed at <NUM> to the induct at <NUM> of one of a plurality of automated put walls <NUM> with a routing conveyor <NUM>, which may be circular to allow empty receptacles to be returned from the automated put wall to the ASRS, as illustrated in <FIG>. Complete orders are sent to automated packing <NUM>, such as on a conveyor <NUM>.

At induct <NUM>, individual items are inducted from the order batch receptacle for the sortation into orders at the automated put wall <NUM>. Items are removed from order batch receptacles at the induct <NUM> by a robotic arm <NUM>. While it would be possible to have order batch receptacles emptied manually, the use of robotic arm <NUM> automates and speeds up the process. Since order batch receptacles contain the items for particular orders to be sorted at that particular automated put wall <NUM>, empty receptacles are returned to the GTP or GTR <NUM> for reuse as batch receptacles.

According to the invention, and in the illustrated embodiment, shown in <FIG>, a first robotic pick or put system 22a of automated put wall <NUM> delivers individual items from the induct <NUM> to selected bins in two order racks, one on either side of a center aisle (not shown). Two robotic pick or put systems 22a, 22b are provided in the embodiment illustrated in <FIG>, each capable of withdrawing the items from order bins of ones of the order racks and transferring the items of orders together to a corresponding conveyor 20a, 20b for transport to the packing function.

In another embodiment, the method of item-level order fulfillment 50a includes an automated put wall provided by a manual put wall (not shown) of the type known in the art and a robotic pick or put system <NUM>. Robotic pick or put system 22a, which may be a cable operated platform, receives individual items from an induct <NUM>, that sorts the items to a particular bin within the manual put wall. Another robotic pick or put system 22b withdraws the items for one or more order bins that together make up an order and transfers the items of the order together to a conveyor <NUM> for transport to the packing function.

In yet another embodiment, the method of item-level order fulfilment 50b uses a human operator to manually unload the bins of completed orders from a manual put wall (not shown) and provide the orders to a packing function or perform the packing function at the same time. Method of item-level order fulfillment 50b using a human operator is not as fast or efficient as method of item-level order fulfillment <NUM> or 50a but may find application where a lower rate of order fulfillment is all that is required.

Claim 1:
A method of item-level order fulfillment (<NUM>), said method comprising:
storing items (<NUM>) as inventory items in an automated storage and retrieval system (<NUM>);
retrieving inventory items from the automated storage and retrieval system (<NUM>) in response to an order for those inventory items;
sorting inventory items into order batches (<NUM>) at a batch pick function;
delivering the order batches to an induct (<NUM>) to an automated put wall (<NUM>); and inducting individual items from the order batches at the induct (<NUM>) for sortation into orders at the automated put wall (<NUM>), including removing the individual items for an order together from the automated put wall (<NUM>) and transporting those items together to a packing function, wherein the removing the individual items for an order together comprises withdrawing the items from at least one bin of the automated put wall (<NUM>) with a robotic pick or put system (<NUM>),
wherein said sorting inventory items into order batches (<NUM>) at the batch pick function is performed with goods-to-person or a goods-to robot systems and said inducting individual items from the order batches is performed at the induct (<NUM>) for sortation into orders at automated put walls (<NUM>) and wherein the delivering the order batches comprises selectively routing order batches (<NUM>) from one of the goods-to-person or goods-to-robot systems to the induct (<NUM>) of one of the automated put walls (<NUM>),
characterized in that
a first robotic pick or put system (22a) of the automated put wall (<NUM>) delivers individual items from the induct (<NUM>) to selected bins in two order racks, one on either side of a center aisle,
and wherein the first robotic pick or put system (22a) and a second robotic pick or put system (22b) are provided, each capable of withdrawing the items from order bins of ones of the order racks and transferring the items of orders together to a corresponding conveyor (20a, 20b) for transport to the packing function.