Patent ID: 8682473

Claim:
A method, comprising: generating a manifest in a computer system that directs a picking of a plurality of items from a plurality of inventory locations in a materials handling center in fulfillment of a plurality of orders for purchase of the items, the plurality of items being moved to a sorting station prior to sorting the plurality of items; generating in the computer system a plurality of sort bin assignments before picking the items, each sort bin assignment corresponding to a respective one of the items, each of the sort bin assignments specifying a corresponding one of a plurality of sort bins designated to coalesce together the items associated with respective ones of the orders for packing, and where each of the sort bin assignments are organized in a plurality of sets, each set comprising at least one sort bin assignment among the plurality of sort bin assignments, each of the sets being associated with a respective one of the orders; storing the sort bin assignments in a memory for use in sorting the items at the sorting station, the sorting station comprising the plurality of sort bins; sorting the items using the sort bin assignments after the items are picked from the inventory locations by, for each of the items, performing: obtaining an identifier associated with an item among the plurality of items by the computer system; looking up a respective one of the sort bin assignments associated with the item in the memory based upon the identifier; and rendering the respective one of the plurality of sort bin assignments to direct a placement of the item in a corresponding one of the sort bins; wherein generating in the computer system the plurality of sort bin assignments before picking the items further comprises separately generating the sort bin assignments for the items associated with each order, where for each order, the sort bin assignments are generated for each item in an order of priority from the largest item to the smallest item.