Patent ID: 8855806

Claim:
A computing system, comprising: a memory; and one or more processors coupled to the memory, wherein the memory comprises program instructions executable by the one or more processors to: identify multiple complete shipments of a plurality of shipments stored at a storage area that are eligible to be conveyed from the storage area to a respective packing station of a plurality of different of packing stations in a materials handling facility, wherein each shipment includes one or more units to be packed together in a same package, and wherein shipments are not identified as eligible until all units to be packed together for the shipment are present in the storage area such that fewer than all shipments stored at the storage area are determined to be eligible; determine a reduced domain portion of the eligible shipments, wherein to determine the reduced domain portion, the program instructions are configured to exclude each eligible shipment for which there is not at least one available packing station having a capability to pack that shipment from the eligible shipments, wherein at least some of the plurality of different packing stations have one or more packing capabilities not provided at one or more other packing stations of the plurality of packing stations; evaluate each respective shipment of the reduced domain portion of eligible shipments according to one or more shipment-related criteria to generate a ranking of at least some of the multiple shipments, wherein shipments at the storage area that are not part of the reduced domain portion of eligible shipments are not included in the ranking; and in response to determining that a particular shipment is ranked highest relative to other shipments of the ranking, generate an instruction to convey the one or more units of that particular shipment from the storage area to a respective packing station of the one or more packing stations to be prepared for shipment from the materials handling facility.