Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Including point of sale terminal or electronic cash register
Patent
1996-07-03
1999-02-09
Ramirez, Ellis B.
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Including point of sale terminal or electronic cash register
G06F 1700
Patent
active
058707158
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a logistics network and a method for controlling a logistics network. More particularly, the invention is directed to a logistics network of the type having edges and nodes by means of which acceptance, processing, and passing on of mailed articles are carried out in a temporally and locally predetermined sequence, the network including devices in order to detect discrepancies between required data, which describe the logistic network state, and measured actual data.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The letter plays an important role in daily communication. Despite the continued development of modern communication means (for example telephone, fax and e-mail), the number of letters and packages is increasing. The breakdown of the mail-office monopolies makes market orientation and thus redirection of the commercial operation of the mail services, as well, essential, in particular greater orientation to maximizing the economy of the mail services and making letter and package processing effective.
The processes for mail processing (collection, transport, processing, delivery) are subject to both systematic and random influences in terms of the dispatch arising and the processing and transport capacities. The number of mailed articles or dispatches supplied for processing is influenced, inter alia, by severe cyclic fluctuations. Transport and processing processes are subject to disturbance influences, such as failure of machines or time delays resulting from weather or other environmental influences, for example. At present, the processes are rigidly organized in the mail services, that is to say fixed time windows and fixed capacities are available for implementation of these processes. It is thus not possible, or possible only to a limited extent, to react to such influences within the mail traffic system.
In order for this organization form to comply with the quality requirements for processing of dispatches, that is to say compliance with the throughput time, ensuring safety, reliability etc., the capacities are designed to match the traffic peaks. This design is based on the upper tolerance limit of the mean dispatch quantity to be processed. The consequence of this is that nodes and edges of the mail logistics network, that is to say processing points and transport links, are overdesigned for the dispatch arisings which occur as a rule.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is thus to specify a logistics network and a method for controlling a logistics network, using which the mailed article or dispatch flow is made flexible, in such a manner that the resources which are required to carry out the processing processes are matched to the actual requirement, such that excess resources are minimized. This object can be achieved, in a logistics network of the type described at the outset, by providing a controller in order to minimize the discrepancies in a predetermined time by moving the processing of mailed articles or dispatches from one or more nodes, whose capacity is less than the required data, to one or more other nodes in such a manner that a minimal additional outlay is incurred.
The invention makes it possible to avoid bottlenecks and time delays resulting from them in dispatch processing, and to achieve control of the use of major resources throughout the entire supply area of the relevant mail service.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention is described in more detail in the following text, with reference to the drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows the network structure of a mail traffic network;
FIG. 2 shows a flowpath in a logistics network according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 2a shows the dispatch flows in a logistics network;
FIGS. 3-11 show various movement options at the upper and middle network level.
FIGS. 12A and 12B show an organizational chart for upper level input processing node capacity determination;
FIGS. 13A-13C show an organizational chart for upper level output processing node capacity determination;
FIGS.
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Belitz Beate
Berends Andreas
Eychmueller Tobias
Kreitmeier Franz
Licentia Patent-Verwaltungs-GmbH
Ramirez Ellis B.
Spencer George H.
Wood Allen
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