| CPC B65G 1/1373 (2013.01) [B65G 1/1376 (2013.01); B65G 1/1378 (2013.01); G06Q 10/0837 (2013.01)] | 26 Claims |
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1. A customer order fulfillment system for returning items from a customer order to one or more locations in a warehouse, the system comprising:
a return order generating subsystem for assigning returned items in a tote having one or more sub-compartments to a return cart, the return order generating sub-system including:
a map unit for storing a map having map data associated therewith that corresponds each of the returned items with the one or more locations in the warehouse,
a return cart building unit for assigning a plurality of the totes to the return cart, wherein each of the plurality of totes has identification information associated therewith and the return cart has identification information associated therewith, wherein the identification information of the plurality of totes and the return cart are correlated together,
a return order generating unit for generating a return tour for the returned items assigned to the return cart, the return tour having return instructions associated therewith, wherein the return instructions of the return tour correlate the returned items in each of the plurality of totes of the return cart to the locations in the warehouse, and
a graph generating unit for generating a value sorted tree graph by employing a value sorted tree mapping technique based at least on the map data, wherein the value sorted tree graph includes data associating one or more of the return items from the plurality of customer orders with a selected location in the warehouse, the value sorted tree graph is an associative array data type having values associated therewith, and the value sorted tree graph sorts the values in a selected order, and
an interface providing a visual representation of the tote and the associated one or more sub-compartments and providing a visual indicator of the returned items assigned to the one or more sub-compartments of the tote.
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