Novi, Michigan, USA: Lineage is celebrating being issued with its 100th patent which it says “underscores the company’s commitment to leading-edge solutions in the food supply chain”.
“Our patent philosophy is rooted in a relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence,” said Sudarsan Thattai, chief information and transformation officer at Lineage.
“Lineage’s 100 patents are remarkable achievements that highlight the solution-oriented mindset and dedication our team exhibits every day. Our commitment to innovation drives us to continually develop technologies that not only enhance efficiency but advance our ability to reduce the environmental impact of our supply chain operations.”
Lineage’s 100th patent features a proprietary solution for optimizing pick pallet build operations and sequencing. Known as “Lego”, this innovation solves the problem of which outbound order line lands on which pallet and in which order. Existing warehouse management systems can make these decisions but are often inefficient – warehouse workers drive more than needed to put a certain amount of product on more pallets than necessary.
Lego can identify the shortest route to collect outbound goods for orders being built by human operators or robots to minimise unnecessary travel distances. Lego also determines the ideal placement of items on multi-SKU outbound pallets, increasing the average number of cases per pallet. Fitting the same quantity of goods on fewer pallets reduces the overall number of pallets needed, resulting in fewer trucks on the road
Lego works with Lineage’s other technology and innovations to streamline operations. The algorithm is being deployed at select sites and is part of the LinOS system, which receives customer and carrier information in real time to prioritise and coordinate the thousands of tasks Lineage handles each day.
Lineage aims to expand the company’s patent portfolio, focusing on areas that drive automation, efficiency, energy management and sustainability.
