Patent ID: 8639591

Claim:
A materials handling facility, comprising: a plurality of docking bays, each docking bay including an entrance of the materials handling facility for receiving incoming loads; a plurality of displays, wherein each display is visible within the materials handling facility from at least one of the plurality of docking bays; and a control system configured to: for each of the plurality of docking bays, determine arrival time information for each of a plurality of incoming loads that are en route to the materials handling facility and scheduled to arrive at that docking bay, and cause at least one of the plurality of displays to display the arrival time information to indicate when the incoming loads are expected to arrive at the materials handling facility; for each of the plurality of docking bays, determine a load arrival process status for each of the plurality of incoming loads that are en route to the materials handling facility and scheduled to arrive at that docking bay, and cause at least one of the plurality of displays to display the load arrival process status; for each incoming load that has arrived at one of the plurality of docking bays, determine a receiving process status of a receiving process for receiving items into inventory in the materials handling facility, and cause at least one of the plurality of displays to display the receiving process status; based on a time at which a given load of items arrives at the materials handling facility, and a requirement that specifies the items of the given load are to be stored within an inventory storage area of the materials handling facility and ready for fulfillment of a customer order no later than a specified period of time after the load arrives at the materials handling facility: determine a quantity of time remaining until the load is expected to be stored within the inventory storage area of the materials handling facility and ready for fulfillment of a customer order; and generate within at least one of the plurality of displays, a visual indication of the determined quantity of time remaining until the load is expected to be stored within the inventory storage area of the materials handling facility and ready for fulfillment of a customer order.