Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Devesh Mishra

Eric C Young

Hong Tian

Jun Zhao

Timothy Jesse Tien

Sameer Vinod Shah

Mackenzie Smith

Jason W Murray

Jeffrey B Maurer

Eric Mathew Mack

Zongyi Liu

Michael Terrance McKenna

Felix F Antony

Irina M Somin

Robert Howard Sawers

James E Bacus

Riyadth Fadhil Al-Kazily

Kevin R MacKenzie

Pierre-Francois Seri

Edward Michael Leonard

Aniket Ajit Prabhune

Ashish Agiwal

Minshu Xu

Ritesh R Garodia

Kip Christopher Larson

Techniques for generating a forecast associated with an item may be described. For example, the forecast may be generated based on simulations of supply and demand variables associated with the item over a planning horizon. The forecast may include at least one of: a labor forecast or a capacity forecast associated with inventorying units of the item in an inventory over the planning horizon. Further, real-time data associated with realizations of the supply and demand variables during the planning horizon may be monitored. At least a portion of the real-time data may be available from a management system. The management system may be configured to manage orders for the units of the item from the inventory. The forecast may be updated during the planning horizon based on the real-time data. The update may include changing the at least one of: the labor forecast or the capacity forecast.

Updating a forecast based on real-time data associated with an item

Various systems, methods, and programs embodied in computer-readable mediums are provided for determining sizes of packaging in a packaging suite and generating the new packaging. The packaging may be used, for example, in the shipping of items. Data may be received that describes bounding boxes corresponding to collections of items shipped to customers. The sizes of the packaging in the packaging suite may be determined based at least in part upon the data that describes the bounding boxes.

Optimization of packaging sizes

Disclosed are various systems, methods, and other embodiments for processing and recording defects. In one embodiment, an application is executed in a server that processes and records defects detected by a user at a receiving station client. Based on a retrieved vendor profile, the application selects an inspection sequence for a user to execute. The inspection sequence is selected based on a history of defects specified in the vendor profile. The application also determines whether supervision is needed based on the performance of the user.

Systems and methods for recording defects

Various systems, methods, and programs embodied in computer-readable mediums are provided for determining sizes of packaging in a packaging suite employed in a materials handling environment. The packaging may be used, for example, in the shipping of items from the materials handling environment to various destinations. The sizes of the packaging in the packaging suite are determined based at least in part upon the three-dimensional bounding boxes associated with packages or shipments shipped or planned to be shipped from the materials handling environment.

Disclosed are various embodiments of systems and methods for receiving shipment parcels at, for example, materials handling facilities. In some embodiments, a parcel monitoring system detects an exception for a shipment parcel. The parcel monitoring system identifies a vendor associated with the shipment parcel. In response to the exception being detected, the parcel monitoring system controls a conveyor system in accordance with an action specified by an exception handling rule for the vendor.

Systems and methods for receiving shipment parcels

Methods and systems for inventory planning are described. An inventory reduction factor for an entity, based at least in part on an estimated ability of hosted merchants to fulfill demand for an item, may be determined. An adjusted target inventory estimate may be calculated using the determined inventory reduction factor and a target inventory quantity. The hosted merchants may be merchants offering the item for sale via a sales channel through which the entity also offers the item. The hosted merchants may in some cases be merchants offering the item for sale via the entity's website.

Target inventory determination based on hosted merchants presence

Various systems, methods, and programs embodied in computer-readable mediums are provided for determining optimum sizes of packaging in a packaging suite employed in a materials handling facility. The packaging may be used, for example, in the shipping of items from the materials handling facility to various destinations. The sizes of the packaging in the packaging suite are determined based upon the shipping volumes associated with packages or shipments shipped from the materials handling facility.

Systems and methods for supply risk detection are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method includes identifying fulfillment-related features corresponding to an item to be stored in inventory. The method also includes selecting a subset of the fulfillment-related features that is correlated with a supply constraint associated with the item. For example, in some cases the correlation is based on historical supply constraint data. The method further includes building a supply risk early detection model based, at least in part, upon the subset fulfillment-related features and evaluating the model to determine a probability that a third-party vendor will suffer a shortage of the item, as well as an expected duration of the shortage. Upon evaluation of the model, the method may include creating a purchasing plan for the item that takes into account the probability of the shortage and the expected duration of the shortage.

Supply risk detection

Various embodiments of a system and method for generating a visual display indicating the status of multiple shipping loads are described. The embodiments described herein may include one or more displays and a display control component configured to control the displays. In various embodiments, the display control component may track items (e.g., freight, inventory, etc.) shipped to a materials handling facility and generate a display to visually indicate the various statuses as a graphical representation. As described in more detail herein, such a display may provide agents with greater visibility into the various processes performed in the materials handling facility. To do so, the various displays under the control of the display control component may in some embodiments be strategically located within the materials handling facility. For instance, such displays may be present in inbound and outbound docking areas in the presence of one or more agents.

System and method for generating a visual display indicating the status of multiple shipping loads

Disclosed are various embodiments of systems and methods for receiving shipment parcels at materials handling facilities. A parcel receiving system has an imaging tunnel through which shipment parcels received at a materials handling facility are passed. While a shipment parcel is passing through the imaging tunnel, a camera captures at least one image of the parcel. The parcel image is electronically analyzed to discover various tracking information and to detect various types of exceptions, such as damage to the parcel or defective tracking information. In addition, the captured image is stored in order to create a visual record of the parcel at the time of reception. This record may be used in a variety of ways, such as resolving or tracking exceptions or providing feedback to the vendor or shipment carrier. In addition, the parcel image may be viewed by a user to enable the user to detect and/or resolve an exception. Thus, the overall process of receiving parcels is facilitated, and the percentage of parcels diverted to an exception bin may be decreased.

Disclosed are various embodiments of a self healing andon system. One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a system comprising at least one server. The system further includes logic executed on the at least one server that retrieves a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory. The at least one product is stocked in a materials handling facility, and the defect history is associated with a specified time period. The at least one server extracts at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system and calculates an inventory defect rate. The at least one server imposes remedial measures if the inventory defect rate exceeds a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate.

Self healing andon system and method

A system and computer-implemented method for automatically splitting a group of items into two or more shipment sets are disclosed. A shipment splitting analyzer may be configured to determine if and how the items should be split into shipment sets dependent on the number of unique or total items, item parameters, container parameters, facility configurations, transportation constraints, and/or business policies. Items may be dequeued from the group into proposed shipment sets directed to a target container. The shipment splitting analyzer may determine which items may be shipped together dependent on a cumulative volume and/or weight of the items, a size and/or weight capacity of the target container, and/or affinity information associated with the items. Over-sized items, over-weight items, and/or large quantities of single items may be removed for exception processing prior to splitting the items into shipment sets. Shipment splitting data may be analyzed for current performance and/or operational trends.

Shipment splitting analyzer

Systems and methods for predictive drop shipping are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method may include maintaining inventory of an item that is offered for sale to customers via a webpage. A ratio may be calculated between a number of views of the webpage and a number of units of the item purchased over a first time period when a fast shipping or delivery option is available, and over a second time period when such option is not available. The method may identify the item as a candidate for drop shipping in response to the ratio being larger during the first time period than during the second time period. Upon receipt of an order, the received order may be fulfilled via drop shipping, in some cases, despite the inventory being sufficient to fulfill the order, and despite a cost of fulfillment via drop shipping being higher than fulfillment from inventory.

Growing community of inventors

Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Devesh Mishra