Dynamic item-space allocation and retrieval

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to staging manufactured items and provide a method, system and computer program product for staging items in a manufacturing environment. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for staging items in a manufacturing environment can be provided. The method can include defining attributes of staging locations in a distribution area of the manufacturing environment, defining a set of staging strategies for use in the distribution area of the manufacturing environment, receiving a manufactured item in the distribution area and obtaining characteristics of the manufactured item, comparing the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item to the set of staging strategies to select the staging strategy to apply to the manufactured item and applying the selected staging strategy to the manufactured item to assign the manufactured item to storage in one of the staging locations in the distribution area based on matching the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item to the defined attributes of the one of the staging locations. The method can further include the retrieval of the manufactured item from the staging location at the appropriate time to allow for subsequent processing or shipment, and may include multiple iterations of the staging-retrieval process as required by the particular implementation.