| US 7,518,080 B2 | ||
| Just-in-time sort plan creation | ||
| Michael J. Amato, Reston, Va. (US) | ||
| Assigned to United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C. (US) | ||
| Appl. No. 10/450,465 PCT Filed Dec. 17, 2001, PCT No. PCT/US01/47717 § 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jun. 13, 2003, PCT Pub. No. WO02/48946, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 20, 2002. |
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| Claims priority of provisional application 60/255431, filed on Dec. 15, 2000. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2004/0030661 A1, Feb. 12, 2004 | ||
| Int. Cl. B07C 5/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 209—584 [209/900] | 20 Claims |
| 1. A method for sorting items for delivery where each item has a geographic code identifying the location of delivery, the
method comprising:
receiving items for delivery to a delivery point, the items being received at a receiving location;
collecting geographic codes associated with the items;
computing a number of items associated with one or more geographic codes;
accessing a desired delivery sequence for delivery points on a route, the desired delivery sequence being associated with
the one or more geographic codes;
identifying at least one delivery point on the route which did not receive an item for delivery;
generating a delivery sequence sort plan based on the desired delivery sequence and the number of items associated with the
one or more geographic codes; and
sorting the items according to the delivery sequence sort plan,
wherein the delivery sequence sort plan does not allocate a sort resource for the delivery points on the route which did not
receive an item for delivery at the receiving location.
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