Patent ID: 8340812

Claim:
A system, comprising: a processor circuit having a processor and a memory; a plurality of shipping volumes stored in the memory, each shipping volume comprising a three-dimensional bounding box around at least one item; a packaging suite manager stored in the memory and executable by the processor; the packaging suite manager being configured to determine a plurality of sizes of packaging in a packaging suite employed in a materials handling facility based upon the shipping volumes, the packaging in the packaging suite being used for a plurality of shipments; the packing suite manager determining the plurality of sizes of packaging in the packaging suite by calculating the plurality of sizes based upon the shipping volumes, a maximum number of sizes of packaging specified for the packaging suite, a plurality of possible packaging sizes in the packaging suite using a P-median solver; wherein each of the shipping volumes are associated with a corresponding at least one item shipped in a package from the materials handling facility to a plurality of customers over a predefined period of time, or with a plurality of items to be shipped from the materials handling facility to a plurality of customers in the future; and the packaging suite manager being further configured to periodically generate an order for the packaging in the packaging suite after the determination of the sizes of packaging in the packaging suite.