Patent ID: 6881916

Claim:
A method of sequencing objects in trays located at tray locations of bin sections, comprising the steps of: pre-assigning a direction to tray locations, where each of the tray locations provides space for trays; providing an unassigned designation to at least one tray location of the tray locations, the at least one tray location providing tray space such that placement of objects therein remain in sequence; placing the objects into the trays of the tray locations with the direction corresponding to assigned directions of the objects; determining whether there are additional objects requiring placement which correspond to the direction and, if so, assigning the direction to an unassigned tray location based on pre-defined rules and placing the objects in the trays of the subsequently assigned tray locations; moving all of the trays with the objects to a feeder in sequential order based on the direction associated with each moved tray; reassigning the direction in a sequential order to the tray locations based on a number of trays required to hold the objects; placing the objects into the trays of the tray locations with the reassigned direction corresponding to the directions of the objects; and transporting the trays with the objects to a loading area in a sequential order corresponding to the reassigned direction.