Stocking various items received at one or more distribution centers, fulfillment centers, cross-docking facilities, materials handling facilities or warehouses (which may collectively be referred to as materials handling facilities) is a time consuming process in a typical distribution system. Generally, the stocking process, or stowing process as it sometimes referred to, transports items from a receiving area and places the received items into an inventory storage area in a materials handling facility. Items are placed in storage units with enough storage capacity to hold the additional items. Determining which storage unit has capacity to hold additional items is conventionally determined manually. A human stocker must visually inspect the storage units to locate a particular storage unit with sufficient capacity for the items ready to be stocked. This process proves time intensive when stockers must search over large inventory areas.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds