Cross-dock management system, method and apparatus
Disclosed herein is a cross-dock management system comprises: a plurality of movable platforms configured to hold one or more pallets or parcels; at least one barcode or RFID tag positioned on each of said movable platforms, pallets, or parcels, wherein the barcode readers are configured to read the barcodes and RFID readers are configured to read the RFID tags. The data scanned by the barcode readers and RFID readers is stored in a local warehouse database and is used to determine an optimized placement and load for each movable platform in the warehouse.
1. A method of performing cross-dock operations using a cross-dock management system, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of inbound trailers and a plurality of outbound trailers at a cross-dock,
wherein the cross-dock comprises a plurality of separated spaces;
conveying a movable platform from at least one inbound trailer of the plurality of trailers to a separated space of the plurality of separated spaces using a conveyance vehicle,
wherein a plurality of pieces of cargo are arranged on the movable platform,
wherein the movable platform and the plurality of separated spaces are assigned at least one unique identifier;
executing a plurality of ordered move instructions for moving the pieces of cargo using the at least one conveyance vehicle,
wherein the ordered move instructions are calculated in advance by an initial optimization server;
using a reader to read the unique identifiers during execution of the ordered move instructions; and
conveying the movable platform to an outbound trailer of the plurality of outbound trailers.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a dimensioner performs the steps of:
monitoring piecewise loading and unloading of the pieces of cargo onto the movable platform; and
verifying that dimensions of the movable platform do not exceed a predefined size limit.
3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
wherein, if it is determined that the predefined size limited has been exceeded for the movable platform, a real-time instruction server:
calculates one or more corrected move instructions; and
transmits the one or more corrected move instructions to the conveyance vehicle.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein an RFID array verifies that the ordered move instructions have been performed accurately.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reader is used to verify that ordered move instructions assigned to the conveyance vehicle are performed correctly.
6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
calculating, in real time, new moves if it is determined that one of the ordered move instructions has been performed incorrectly.
7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the conveyance vehicle is automated.
8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the unique identifiers are barcodes.
9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the unique identifiers are RFID tags.
10. The method accord to claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring a weight of the movable platform using a scale under the movable platform at the separated space.
11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring a weight distribution of the movable platform utilizing a pressure sensing device at the separated space.
12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ordered movie instructions minimize empty carries by the conveyance vehicle.
13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of separated spaces are arranged in a grid pattern.