| CPC G06Q 10/0832 (2013.01) [B65G 1/137 (2013.01); B65G 1/1373 (2013.01); B65G 57/00 (2013.01); G06F 16/24578 (2019.01); G06Q 10/08345 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0207 (2013.01); Y10S 414/116 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |
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1. A method performed by a host server for managing a shipment of a plurality of products to an online customer, comprising:
obtaining a request for a packing instruction from a user via a user interface or server database, wherein the request comprises: weight information, dimension information of the plurality of products, custom-container machine information,
wherein the custom-container machine information comprises an allowable set of container dimensions the custom-container machine can construct;
obtaining, from the computer database, a rate table from a computer database including shipping rate information related to one or more shipping carriers;
ranking the plurality of products based on at least one of their weight information and dimension information to generate a first ranking list;
determining, based on the first ranking list and the custom-container machine information, a plurality of layout configurations for packing the plurality of products into at least one container selected from the one or more containers, wherein the available one or more containers is based on the custom-container machine information and wherein determining each of the plurality of layout configurations comprises:
picking a product on top of the first ranking list,
retrieving, from a database, rules related to: existing products already assigned for packing, the product, the container, and the rate table,
determining whether a container is found in the second ranking list to satisfy the rules,
when the container is found in the second ranking list to satisfy the rules, assigning the product to a location within the container for packing,
when no container is found in the second ranking list to satisfy the rules,
ranking a plurality of new containers to generate a third ranking list,
opening a new container that has a lowest cost-per-item among the third ranking list, and
assigning the product to a location within the new container for packing,
updating information of the product, the container, the second ranking list, and the layout configuration,
updating the first ranking list by removing the product from the first ranking list, and
iterating the above steps until no product is left in the first ranking list;
selecting a layout configuration from the plurality of layout configurations based at least partially on the rate table, wherein the selected layout configuration minimizes a cost of shipping the plurality of products;
providing a packing instruction based on the selected layout configuration to the custom container machine;
assigning the product to a location within the container for packing;
updating the first ranking list by removing the product from the first ranking list;
working remotely in concert with the remote server to generate a visual illustration of the selected layout configuration;
providing the visual illustration as a packing instruction to the user via the user interface, wherein the plurality of products shown in the visual illustration are sorted in an ascending order of face depth in three dimensional projection; and
when the online shopper adds, removes or modifies a product in the online shopping cart,
updating the plurality of layout configurations for packing an updated plurality of products based on a user input that triggers at least one of the following actions on the user interface: breaking apart items in a container, changing a size of a container, altering a dimensional weight associated with a container, or adding a condition for packing the updated plurality of products,
updating the selected layout configuration based on the updated plurality of layout configurations,
generating an updated visual illustration based on the updated layout configuration, and
providing the updated visual illustration as an updated packing instruction.
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