Patent ID: 8527325

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving information associated with a materials handling process that includes handling a plurality of units, wherein the information indicates, for each unit of said plurality of units: a respective pre-handling time period indicating a period of time between a handling message time for that unit and a handling message time for a previously-handled unit, wherein said pre-handling time period represents a labor expenditure for either the unit or the previously-handled unit; and a respective post-handling time period indicating a period of time between a handling message time for that unit and a handling message time for a subsequently-handled unit, wherein said post-handling time period represents a labor expenditure for either the unit or the subsequently-handled unit; wherein said plurality of units includes units of different classifications; determining a measure of variability of the pre-handling time periods associated with the units of a given classification of said different classifications; determining a measure of variability of the post-handling time periods associated with each unit of the given classification; determining, by one or more computing devices, that either the measure of variability of the pre-handling time periods or the measure of variability of the post-handling time periods is less than the other; and based on said determining, indicating, by one or more computing devices, either that the pre-handling time periods or that the post-handling time periods, associated with the lesser measure of variability, are representative of quantities of labor expended to process the units of said given classification in accordance with the materials handling process.