JP2011076385A - Stock management apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique capable of more surely and quickly disposing of commodities to be disposed of due to an expiration date. <P>SOLUTION: In a stock management master 14, information such as a scan code (commodity code), an expiration date, a selling date, and a disposal date of each commodity of which the expiration date is set is stored. A monitoring part 12 in a sever 10 periodically refers to the stock management master 14, extracts the information of commodities left as stocks and transmits a disposal check picture indicating the commodities to a client POS 20 or an HHT 30. Each commodity disposed of on the disposal check picture is notified to the server 10 by inputting the commodity on the picture. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for managing the inventory of products sold at a store, in particular, the inventory of products that have expiration dates.

  Some food items, such as foods and beverages, have expiration dates such as expiration dates or expiration dates. As is well known, the expiry date is the date (year / month / day) when it is recognized that there is a risk of lack of safety if it expires, and the expiration date is the retention of all expected quality. Is the time limit (date) that is deemed to be sufficiently possible. Since it is such a definition, it is common for products (food items) for which expiration dates have been set to be removed from the store before they expire.

  Currently, in many stores, a point-of-sale information management (POS: Point of Sale, hereinafter referred to as “POS”) system is introduced so that sales results of product sales can be tabulated.

  In this POS system, product information related to products such as product name, identification information, price, quantity, production date and time of the product is managed by the server for each product. The management is performed as a database. The product information managed in this way is updated by selling the product or adding a product to be sold. For example, the quantity is subtracted by selling the product and added by adding the product (for example, production).

  In the product for which the expiration date or the expiration date is set, information for specifying the date and time when the expiration date will be included in the product information. The identification information is usually attached to the product in the form of a barcode. Information related to sales such as sold products and their quantities is notified to the server from a POS register or the like. As a technique for updating product information together with the issuance of a label on which a barcode is formed, for example, a technique described in Patent Document 1 is known.

  Conventionally, merchandise that should not be sold due to the expiration date (hereinafter “discarded merchandise”) has been checked by a store clerk at the place where the merchandise is displayed and discarded. At the time of the disposal, for example, the terminal device (for example, HHT (portable terminal device)) reads the product identification information, and transmits the read identification information to the server so that the discarded product information is reflected in the managed product information. I was trying to let them.

  However, there is a high possibility that the target product cannot be surely discarded when the store clerk confirms the inventory (the product to be discarded). Further, it has been difficult to perform a quick operation by reading the identification information. For this reason, it is also important to be able to discard the products to be discarded more reliably and quickly.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-180426 JP 2002-74518 A JP 2003-67835 A JP 2002-140511 A

  An object of this invention is to provide the technique which enables more reliable and quick disposal of the goods which should be discarded by the expiration date.

  In one system to which the present invention is applied, information storage means for storing product information including identification information representing a product and time limit information indicating the expiration date of the product for each product, sales of the product, and production of the product , Information update means for updating the product information stored in the information storage means, and product extraction for monitoring the product information stored in the information storage means and extracting expired products that are to be discarded due to expiration of the expiration date And means for notifying the target person of the expired product extracted by the product extracting means.

  Products subject to disposal due to expiry of expiry date, that is, commodities that should not be sold due to expiry of expiry or expiring expiry Is automatically notified (presented). For this reason, the target person does not need to identify the products to be discarded from the displayed products, in other words, simply searches for the specified products from the displayed products. Can be done. Since it is not necessary to confirm whether or not each product should be discarded, the discarding operation can be performed more easily and quickly.

  When the present invention is applied, it is possible to more reliably and quickly discard a product to be discarded according to the expiration date.

1 is a configuration diagram of a POS system to which an inventory management apparatus according to an embodiment is applied. It is a figure explaining the data structure of an inventory management master. It is a figure explaining the data structure of an expiration date management master. It is a figure explaining the data structure of a goods management master. It is a figure explaining the data structure of a disposal management master. It is a figure explaining the example of a discard confirmation screen. It is a flowchart of a label issuing process. It is a flowchart of a monitoring process. It is a flowchart of a discard object extraction process. It is a flowchart of the process which a client POS and HHT each perform by execution of a discard process and this discard process. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the computer which can apply this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a POS system to which the inventory management apparatus according to the present embodiment is applied. This POS system is introduced in a store that produces and sells products for which expiration dates are set. As shown in FIG. 1, a server 10 and a POS terminal device such as a POS register (referred to as “client POS” in FIG. 1; hereinafter referred to as “client POS”) via a LAN 1 to which an access point 2 for wireless communication is connected. And the labeler 40 can communicate with each other. Although only one client POS 20 and one HHT 30 are shown, this is to avoid confusion, and there are usually a plurality of them.

  The server 10 is installed for business operations such as product management and product sales. In order to support these operations, the inventory management master file 14, the expiration date management master file 15, the product management master file 16, and the disposal management master file 17 are managed. Each master file (hereinafter abbreviated as “master”) stores data in units of records, for example, and the following data is stored in each record. This will be specifically described with reference to the explanatory diagrams of FIGS.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the data configuration of the inventory management master 14. The inventory management master 14 is used for inventory management for each product. Each record includes an identification record number assigned to the record (indicated as “SEQNo” in the figure), a scan code (product code) that is identification information assigned to the corresponding product, the production date and time of the product, Each information of the expiration date, the sales date and time, and the disposal date and time is stored. Although not specifically shown, the inventory quantity (number) of products is also stored.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the data structure of the expiration date management master 15. The management master 15 is an example in which one product for which a expiration date is to be set for each department is produced. Each record stores information on a record number, a department code, and a consumption period (for example, time that should not be sold after production).

  A label printed with a barcode is attached to the produced product. The labeler 40 is for issuing the label, and the production time and the like can be input. When the time from product production to label application is very small relative to the consumption period, the label issue time may be regarded as production time so that the input can be performed more quickly. .

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the data configuration of the merchandise management master 16. This management master 16 is mainly for supporting product sales. Each record stores information on a record number, a scan code, and a department code. Although not specifically shown, information necessary for selling products such as product unit price and expiration date is also stored in each record.

  The stock management master 14 stores the records extracted from the records stored in the product management master 16 and unnecessary information of the records with the expiration date set is omitted. The expiration date of the record is calculated based on the consumption period specified from the expiration date management master 15 using the department code of the record. A record (product) whose consumption period cannot be specified from the department code is added with a value indicating that the expiration date does not exist.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the data structure of the discard management master 17. The management master 17 is for managing products (discarded products) that should be discarded due to reasons such as expiration of consumption. Each record stores information on record number, scan code, and discard date.

  The server 10 that manages the various masters 14 to 17 having the above-described data configuration manages the various masters 14 to 17 and periodically refers to the master management unit 11 and the inventory management master 14 that are updated as necessary. Thus, a monitoring unit 12 for specifying a product to be discarded and a communication unit 13 for performing communication via the LAN 1 are provided. The inventory management apparatus according to the present embodiment is realized on the server 10.

  The communication unit 13 transmits at least a part of the merchandise management master 16 to the client POS in response to a predetermined timing or request in order to enable merchandise sales at the client POS 20.

  The client POS 20 uses the data of the merchandise management master 16 received from the server 10 to identify the unit price of the merchandise registered, that is, for example, the bar code, and calculates the amount to be charged to the customer. When the sale of the product is completed due to the collection of the price, the sales information indicating the scan code and quantity is transmitted to the server 10 for each type of the sold product.

  This sales information is passed to the master management unit 11 via the communication unit 13. Thereby, the master management unit 11 refers to the sales information and updates the inventory management master 14, the product management master 16, and the like. In that way, the result of the product sale is immediately reflected.

  The stock management master 14 subtracts the quantity of the sold product by the number of sold products. If the quantity is 0 as a result of the subtraction, for example, the current date and time are stored in the corresponding record as the sales date and time. The record in which the sales date and time is stored is deleted, for example, at a regular update because there is no corresponding product. For the same reason, the record in which the discard date / time is stored is also subject to deletion.

  A label printed with a scan code in the form of a bar code is attached to the produced product. The labeler 40 is for issuing the label. For example, each time a label is issued, the labeler 40 notifies the server 10 of a scan code printed as a barcode on the label, the number of issued cards, a department code, and the like.

  This notification is passed to the master management unit 11 via the communication unit 13. Accordingly, the master management unit 11 updates the inventory management master 14 and the product management master 16 in response to this notification. In the inventory management master 14, the update is usually performed by adding a new record. This is because even if the same product already exists, a different scan code is assigned if the expiration date is different.

  In the labeler 40, the production time and the like can be input. When the time from product production to label application is very small relative to the consumption period, the label issue time may be regarded as production time so that the input can be performed more quickly. .

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of label issuing processing executed by the labeler 40. Here, the issuing process will be described in detail with reference to FIG. This issuance process is a process executed to issue a desired number of labels desired by the operator in accordance with an operator's instruction, and is executed at any time according to the operator's request.

  First, in step S11, various information is input and labels are issued according to the input information in accordance with an operator instruction. In the next step S 12, the scan code printed in the form of a barcode on the issued label, the number of labels printed with the barcode, the department code, etc. are transmitted to the server 10. Thereafter, the series of processing is terminated. By transmitting such information, the product management master 16 and the stock management master 14 are updated by the master management unit 11 of the server 10.

Returning to the description of the server 10.
As described above, the monitoring unit 12 refers to the inventory management master 14 updated at any time, for example, periodically, and the expiry date is earlier than the current date and time from the records in which the sales date and time or the disposal date and time are not stored. Extract the records that are. A product corresponding to the extracted record is a product to be discarded (a product to be discarded). If the record can be extracted, a discard confirmation screen showing the product indicated by the record for each type and each expiration date is created, and the screen is transmitted to a terminal device designated in advance, that is, the client POS 20 or the HHT 30. As a result, the store clerk (the person who performs the disposal work) is prompted to discard the commodity to be disposed on the disposal confirmation screen.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of the discard confirmation screen. As shown in FIG. 6, the products to be discarded are indicated by the product name, the expiration date, and the number (quantity) for each product type and each expiration date. A frame arranged on the left side of each product name is a check box. At the bottom of the screen, two buttons “Cancel” and “Send” are arranged. For this reason, the store clerk can grasp the product to be discarded from the discard confirmation screen transmitted from the server 10, and the necessity of specifying the product to be discarded from the displayed products is avoided. As a result, it is possible to more easily dispose of the product to be discarded.

  The check box is for inputting whether or not all the products corresponding to the check box have been discarded. After a check mark is displayed in one of the check boxes, when the store clerk operates the “Send” button, information indicating the product for which the check mark is displayed, for example, a scan code, is transmitted to the server 10. The master management unit 11 of the server 10 updates the inventory management master 14 and the disposal management master 17 according to the transmitted scanner code. Thereby, it is possible for the store clerk to update the necessary master without reading the barcode or the like of the product to be discarded. This also makes it possible for the store clerk to more quickly dispose of the product to be discarded.

  In FIG. 6, there are a plurality of the same product names and two product names “product A”. This is because the scan code (product code) is not the same if the expiration date is different even for the same product.

  The master management unit 11 searches the inventory management master 14 using the scan code received from the terminal device as a key, and extracts a record storing it. The extracted record stores the current date and time as the discard date and time. Similarly, the discard management master 17 searches for a record that stores the received scan code, and stores the current date and time as the discard date and time in the record that can be extracted by the search. In this way, when one or more scan codes are received, the inventory management master 14 and the discard management master 17 are updated. When the clerk operates the “Cancel” button, the scan code is not transmitted. For this reason, the masters 14 and 17 are not updated.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a computer to which the present invention is applicable. Here, referring to FIG. 11, a computer that can be used as the server 10, in other words, can be used as the server 10 by executing a program (inventory management program) having a function for realizing the above-described units 11 to 14. The configuration of the computer will be specifically described.

  The computer shown in FIG. 11 includes a CPU 61, a memory 62, an input device 63, an output device 64, an external storage device 65, a medium drive device 66, and a network connection device 67, which are connected to each other via a bus 68. It has become. The configuration shown in the figure is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this.

The CPU 61 controls the entire computer.
The memory 62 is a memory such as a RAM that temporarily stores a program or data stored in the external storage device 65 (or the portable recording medium 70) during program execution, data update, or the like. The CPU 61 performs overall control by reading the program into the memory 62 and executing it.

  The input device 63 is an interface connected to an operation device such as a keyboard and a mouse. A user operation on the operation device is detected, and the detection result is notified to the CPU 61.

  The output device 64 is a display control device connected to, for example, a display device. The network connection device 67 is for communicating with a plurality of distribution target servers 30 and the SLB 20 via a communication network, for example. The external storage device 65 is, for example, a hard disk device. Mainly used for storing various data and programs.

The medium driving device 66 accesses a portable recording medium 70 such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk.
The inventory management program is recorded in the external storage device 65 or the recording medium 70, or is acquired by the network connection 67 via the communication network. The server 10 is realized by reading the management program into the memory 62 and executing it by the CPU 61. More specifically, for example, assuming that the inventory management program and each of the masters 14 to 17 are stored in the external storage device 65, the master management unit 11 and the monitoring unit 12 include the CPU 61, the memory 62, the external storage device 65, and The communication unit 13 is realized by the CPU 68, the memory 62, the external storage device 65, the network connection device 67, and the bus 68.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the monitoring process. This monitoring process is a process for periodically referring to the inventory management master 14 to prompt the store clerk to discard the product to be discarded and responding to the disposal of the product. The CPU 61 executes the inventory management program. Realized. The monitoring unit 12 and a part of each of the master management unit 11 and the communication unit 13 are realized by executing this monitoring process. Next, the operation of the server 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, in step S21, opening of a station, that is, business is started. After the opening of the station, the process proceeds to a processing loop of step S22 for periodically monitoring the inventory management master 14.
In this processing loop, first, a discard target extraction process for extracting a record of a discard target product from the inventory management master 14 is executed. As shown in FIG. 9, the discard target extraction process first refers to the inventory management master 14 (step S31), and then stores the sales date / time or the discard date / time from the record in which the expiration date is stored (set). This is to extract records that have not been processed. Thereby, after the extraction of the record is completed, the process proceeds to step S32.

  In step S32, it is determined whether there is a record that has expired. If a record can be extracted by executing the discard target extraction process, the determination is yes and the process proceeds to step S33. Otherwise, the determination is no and the process moves to step S34.

  In step 33, a discarding confirmation screen as shown in FIG. 6 is created and a discarding process for urging the discarding operation is executed. In the next step S34, it is determined whether to start the closing of the sales operation. If it is determined that the start of station closing has been started, the processing loop of step S22 is terminated here, and the process proceeds to step S23. If it is not determined that the station is closed, the process starts from step S31 when a predetermined time elapses or a predetermined time arrives. Thereby, regular monitoring is realized.

  In step S23, the discard target extraction process is executed again. In a succeeding step S24, it is determined whether or not there is an expired record. If the record can be extracted by executing the discard target extraction process, the determination is YES, the process proceeds to step S25, the discard process is performed again, and the monitoring process is terminated. If the record could not be extracted, the determination is no and the monitoring process ends here.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the discarding process executed as step S33 or S25 and the processes executed by the client POS 20 and the HHT 30 by executing the discarding process. Here, a flowchart of processing executed by the client POS 20 and the HHT 30 by transmission of a discard confirmation screen as shown in FIG. 6 by executing the discard processing is also shown. Accordingly, the operations of the client POS 20 and the HHT 30 will be described in detail.

  In step S <b> 41, the server 10 creates a discard confirmation screen in which information on the products to be discarded is arranged for each type of product and for each expiration date from the discarded data, that is, the extracted record. In the next step S 42, it is determined whether or not the discard data transmission target (indicated as “alarm display target” in FIG. 10) is the client POS 20. If the transmission target of the discard data is a preset store or a large store, for example, a terminal device associated with the scan code of the discard target product is used. If there is a client POS that is set in advance or is associated with any scan code of the product to be discarded, the determination is YES, and after discard data is transmitted to the client POS 20 in step S43, the process proceeds to step S44. To do. If there is no client POS 20 to be transmitted, the determination is no and the process moves to step S44.

  In steps S44 and S45, processing similar to that in steps S42 and S43 is executed. Thereby, the discard data is transmitted to the HHT 30 to be transmitted. If NO is determined in step S44 or the process of step S45 is executed, the process proceeds to step S46.

  The client POS to which the discard data has been transmitted receives the discard data in step S51. In step S52, an alarm display for notifying that the discard data has been received is displayed on the display device. If the store clerk (operator) instructs display of the discard data, the process proceeds to step S53, and the discard data, that is, the discard confirmation screen is displayed on the display device.

  The displayed discard display screen is deleted by operating the “Send” or “Cancel” button. Therefore, in step S54, it is determined which button has been operated while executing a process according to the operation of the store clerk. As a result, when the clerk operates the “Send” button, it is determined that the process proceeds to step S55, and the data (scan code) of the product to be discarded with the check mark input is sent to the server 10 as discarded data. Send. With this transmission, a series of processing by receiving the discard data is completed. When the “cancel” button is operated by the store clerk, it is determined to that effect, and this series of processing ends here.

  In the HHT 30 to which the discard data is transmitted, the same processing as steps S51 to S55 in the client POS 20 is executed as steps S61 to S65. Therefore, detailed description is omitted.

Returning to the description of the server 10.
In step S46, the discard management master 17 is updated in response to reception of discarded data from the client POS 20 or the HHT 30. In the next step S47, the inventory management master 14 is updated. After the update, this discarding process is terminated.

  The store clerk does not always display the discard data transmitted from the server 10 immediately. A certain amount of time is required for the disposal of the product to be discarded. For this reason, the process flowcharts shown in each of the client POS 20 and the HHT 30 extract the process executed by receiving the discard data and show an example of the flow for convenience. Similarly, in the discarding process executed by the server 10, the update of each master 14 and 17 in steps S46 and S47 cannot specify in advance when to receive the discarded data. For example, the received discarded data is saved. This is done after a certain period of time has passed since the discard data was transmitted.

  In the present embodiment, various masters 14 to 17 are used for inventory management, but the number of masters to be used and the data structure thereof are not particularly limited. That is, as long as necessary information can be managed, the form and storage location for storing the information may be arbitrarily determined. The same applies to the presentation of the product to be discarded and the designation (input) of the product to be discarded.

1 LAN
2 Access Point 10 Server 11 Master Management Unit 12 Monitoring Unit 13 Communication Unit 14 Inventory Management Master File 15 Expiration Date Management Master File 16 Product Management Master File 17 Disposal Management Master File 20 POS Terminal Device (Client POS)
30 HHT (portable terminal device)
40 Labeler

Claims (4)

In an inventory management device that manages the inventory of products to be sold,
Information storage means for storing, in the product unit, product information including identification information representing the product and time limit information indicating the expiration date of the product;
Information update means for updating the product information stored in the information storage means by selling the product and producing the product;
Product information stored in the information storage means, product extraction means for extracting consumption expired products to be discarded due to expiration of the expiration date;
A notification means for notifying the target person of the expired product extracted by the product extraction means;
An inventory management apparatus comprising: The product extraction means extracts the expired product for each type of product and for each expiration date,
The notification means notifies the expiration date of the product of the type and the number of the products for each type of the product with a different expiration date.
The inventory management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: The information updating means is specified by the identification information received from the terminal device when notifying the consumption expired product by transmitting information including identification information representing the consumption expired product to the target terminal device. Updating the product information stored in the information storage means,
The inventory management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: In a computer used as an inventory management device that manages the inventory of products to be sold,
Information for updating product information including identification information indicating the product and time limit information indicating the expiration date of the product stored in the information storage unit by selling the product and producing the product. Update function,
A product extraction function for monitoring product information stored in the information storage means, and extracting a product whose expiration date is to be discarded when the expiration date expires;
A notification function for notifying the target person of expired products extracted by the product extraction function;
A program to realize