INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM

1 . An information processing device comprising

one or more processors configured to:

determine, based on a plurality of pieces of rack data including first identification information of one or more kinds of products housed in each of a plurality of racks, a processing sequence of a plurality of pieces of first order data including second identification information of one or more kinds of products to be picked from at least some of the plurality of racks, and one or more racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are to be picked, for each of the plurality of pieces of first order data; and

perform hierarchical clustering that repeats processing of merging a plurality of similar or matching pieces of first order data into a cluster such that a cluster number that is a number of a plurality of clusters resulting from the hierarchical clustering becomes equal to or more than a station number that is a number of a plurality of work stations where housing containers corresponding to at least some pieces of first order data among the plurality of pieces of first order data are placed.

2 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to allocate the plurality of clusters, in order from a cluster with a largest size, to a work station in which a total size of one or more already-allocated clusters is smaller than another work station.

3 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine a plurality of pieces of first order data to be allocated to each of the plurality of work stations such that a total of a number of pieces of second order data in process and a number of pieces of first order data to be allocated among the plurality of pieces of first order data is equalized among the plurality of work stations.

4 . The device according to claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to allocate one or more first clusters included in the plurality of clusters to a work station that is processing the second order data that has a higher similarity with a plurality of pieces of first order data included in the one or more first clusters than another work station.

5 . The device according to claim 4 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to, when allocating a plurality of first clusters to one of the plurality of work stations, determine a first cluster with a higher similarity with the second order data among the plurality of first clusters to be earlier in the processing sequence.

6 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

for each of the plurality of racks, calculate a higher priority as a number of pieces of first identification information that matches the second identification information included in the plurality of pieces of first order data is greater; and

for the first order data including the second identification information that matches the first identification information included in the racks selected in order from a highest priority, determine the selected racks as the one or more racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are to be picked.

7 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to output information indicating at least one selected from: a number of times picking work is performed for each of the plurality of racks, the number of times being calculated based on a ratio of picking products assigned to the first order data from a single rack; and time for the picking work.

8 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to: generate, for the plurality of pieces of first order data, indexes each indicating one or more racks from which the products of the first identification information that matches the second identification information are to be picked among racks housing the products, based on a priority calculated for each of the plurality of racks; and determine the processing sequence using the generated indexes.

9 . The device according to claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

calculate distances between the indexes generated for the plurality of pieces of first order data; and

determine the processing sequence such that turns become closer as a calculated distance is smaller.

10 . The device according to claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the processing sequence by recursively performing expansion such that child clusters having a common parent cluster are adjacent to each other.

11 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to output output information that indicates the processing sequence and the one or more racks determined for each of the plurality of pieces of first order data.

12 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of racks are movable to the plurality of work stations.

13 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine, based on the plurality of pieces of rack data, the processing sequence and the one or more racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are picked for each of the plurality of pieces of first order data such that a ratio of picking products assigned to the plurality of pieces of first order data from a single rack is improved.

14 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors include a determination unit configured to:

determine the processing sequence, and the one or more racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are to be picked; and

execute the hierarchical clustering.

15 . An information processing method executed by an information processing device, the information processing method comprising:

determining, based on a plurality of pieces of rack data including first identification information of one or more kinds of products housed in each of a plurality of racks, a processing sequence of a plurality of pieces of first order data including second identification information of one or more kinds of products to be picked from at least some of the plurality of racks, and one or more of the racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are to be picked, for each of the plurality of pieces of first order data; and

performing hierarchical clustering that repeats processing of merging a plurality of similar or matching pieces of first order data into a cluster such that a cluster number that is a number of a plurality of clusters resulting from the hierarchical clustering becomes equal to or more than a station number that is a number of a plurality of work stations where housing containers corresponding to at least some pieces of first order data among the plurality of pieces of first order data are placed.

16 . A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium including programmed instructions, the instructions causing a computer to execute:

determining, based on a plurality of pieces of rack data including first identification information of one or more kinds of products housed in each of a plurality of racks, a processing sequence of a plurality of pieces of first order data including second identification information of one or more kinds of products to be picked from at least some of the plurality of racks, and one or more of the racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are to be picked, for each of the plurality of pieces of first order data; and

performing hierarchical clustering that repeats processing of merging a plurality of similar or matching pieces of first order data into a cluster such that a cluster number that is a number of a plurality of clusters resulting from the hierarchical clustering becomes equal to or more than a station number that is a number of a plurality of work stations where housing containers corresponding to at least some pieces of first order data among the plurality of pieces of first order data are placed.

17 . An information processing system comprising:

a transfer device;

an information processing device; and

a plurality of work stations, wherein

the transfer device transfers a plurality of racks housing products to the plurality of work stations, and

the information processing device includes a processing unit configured to:

determine, based on a plurality of pieces of rack data including first identification information of one or more kinds of products housed in each of the plurality of racks, a processing sequence of a plurality of pieces of first order data including second identification information of one or more kinds of products to be picked from at least some of the plurality of racks, and one or more racks from which the products identified by the second identification information are to be picked, for each of the plurality of pieces of first order data; and

perform hierarchical clustering that repeats processing of merging a plurality of similar or matching pieces of first order data into a cluster such that a cluster number that is a number of a plurality of clusters resulting from the hierarchical clustering becomes equal to or more than a station number that is a number of the plurality of work stations where housing containers corresponding to at least some pieces of first order data among the plurality of pieces of first order data are placed.