The present invention automates the process of receiving transportation documentation and producing advance loading manifests therefrom to optimize load planning and dynamic product shipment and delivery control. Methods provide for receipt of the transportation documentation, initial preparation, and transmission of the documentation from on board a vehicle or while the vehicle is in transit. A remote processor receives the documentation, stores the documentation and feeds the documentation to a load planning software for generation of advance loading manifests from the remote processor and receive them on demand. Further, a mobile data transmission device is provided for use by a driver to communicate transportation documentation, and vehicle information to the remote processor, and, in some applications, can receive instructions for en route alterations of package pickup or delivery.
This application is a continuation-in-part of United States patent application Ser. No. 09/283,032 filed Apr. 1, 1999, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. United States patent application Ser. No. 09/283,032 claims the benefit of United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/080,365 filed Apr. 1, 1998.
A system and method comprising RF tags, RFID readers, voice input devices, and voice recognition software may capture even characteristics associated with a workflow. Workflow characteristics, such as JobId, OperatorID, StationId and EventId may be stored in RF tags and may be captured along with a timestamp, when brought together in the close proximity of a RFID reader. Next node information may be captured to construct detailed workflow diagrams based upon captured data. Quantity information, as well as other information, may be entered verbally and converted to computer readable form using voice recognition software.
The present invention is a method and system for building and improving inventory load configurations, and displaying the built load configurations to allow review of the load configurations. One embodiment of the invention comprises designating a portion of the inventory as priority units, creating a current destination seed list, creating a current inventory seed list, selecting a current seed destination from the current destination seed list, building a current load by selecting a current seed unit from the current inventory seed list, adding priority units to be delivered to the current seed destination and then saving the developed load configuration as one of the plurality of load configurations. A system according to the present invention comprises a computer; software running on the computer for building the loads from an inventory at a terminal; and an inventory distribution graphical user interface (gui), generated by the software on a display, for viewing inventory distribution information.
A computer-implemented method for routing shipments according to criticality includes accessing an initial solution to an optimization problem of routing multiple shipments to multiple locations using multiple vehicles, the initial solution including multiple loads such that each shipment is routed within exactly one load and a global cost across all loads is minimized, the initial solution being generated independent of the criticality of the shipments. Into each of one or more critical loads in a current solution, one or more non-critical shipments are inserted that are within a neighborhood of the critical load, a critical load being a load containing at least one critical shipment. One or more local search operations are executed to improve the initial solution, the operations including at least one of: (a) splitting each of one or more selected critical loads in a current solution into two new critical loads; (b) for each of one or more selected critical load pairs in a current solution, move a sequence of stops from one critical load in the pair to the other critical load in the pair and/or swap two sequences of stops between the critical loads in the pair; and (c) for each of one or more selected critical loads in a current solution that are indirect critical loads having at least one in-transit stop, break up the indirect critical load into a plurality of new direct critical loads having no in-transit stops and execute operation (b) on each of one or more selected critical load pairs, each selected critical load pair including at least one new direct critical load.
A logistics node receives a purchase order from a customer. The logistics node selects an appropriate carrier to transport products specified in the purchase order and conveys shipping instructions to the selected carrier. The logistics node also coordinates the shipment by interacting with a source node (associated with a supplier of the products) and a destination node (associated with the recipient of the products). According to one exemplary feature, the logistics node provides an interface that permits users involved in the distribution chain to track the status of the shipments without having to enter tracking codes that are unique to individual carriers. According to another exemplary feature, the interface allows a user to access multiple "levels" of information regarding a shipment, including information pertaining to an individual product within a shipment containing multiple products. According to another exemplary feature, the interface allows a user to change the priority status associated with particular products that have already been presented for shipment. According to another exemplary feature, the interface provides different "views" for use by different respective users. Each of the views provides a corresponding different set of tools for use in interacting with the freight managing service.
A computer-implemented centralized article routing and tracking system and method for optimally routing an article through a network of processing stations. The system and method generate an optimal route based on variable factors such as weather, traffic, and available equipment and can re-calculate said route at every stop based on updated information. The system and method permits tracking of an article regardless of whether the article has been consolidated with other articles or not.
