METHOD FOR COST EFFICIENT FULFILLMENT

摘要

A computer-implemented method includes receiving a list of items in a purchase order and accessing inventories of items available at each location. The functioning of the computer is improved by reducing the number of combinations of locations and items that must be considered to find a combination of locations and items that provides a lowest total fulfillment cost through steps that begin with identifying all combinations of the items in the list of items. For each combination, a location that can ship that combination at a lowest fulfillment cost is identified. A fulfillment superset is selected that is formed from one or more combinations, provides all of the items in the list of items and has a lowest total fulfillment cost.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for improving the functioning of a computer, the method comprising:
receiving a list of items in a purchase order; accessing inventories of items available at each of a plurality of locations; improving the functioning of the computer by reducing the number of combinations of locations and items that must be considered to find a combination of locations and items that provides a lowest total fulfillment cost through steps comprising:
identifying all combinations of the items in the list of items;for each combination, identifying from the inventories which location can ship that combination at a lowest fulfillment cost for the combination;identifying all fulfillment supersets that can be formed from the combinations, where each fulfillment superset provides all of the items in the list of items and has a total fulfillment cost that is the sum of the lowest fulfillment costs for the combinations used to form the fulfillment superset; andselecting one fulfillment superset from all fulfillment supersets so that the selected fulfillment superset has the lowest total fulfillment cost among all of the fulfillment supersets.