KR101184717B1 - EPC, and Distribution management system using serial area of the EPC - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention forms linkage information representing the quantity and stacking relationship between items, boxes, and pallets in the serial area of the EPC. Reduce the amount of transmission, improve the flexibility of logistics management by varying the length of the control code constituting the serial area, and identify the loading relationship and quantity of item-box-pallets using the linkage information described in the serial area. This enables logistics management without interworking with an external database such as ONS.

Description

EPC, and Distribution management system using serial area of the EPC}

The present invention relates to an EPC and a logistics management system using an EPC serial region based on the EPC.

Typically, an Electronic Product Code (EPC) is recorded on an RFID tag, and the EPC Information System (EPCIS) management system stores information about the EPC code, provides an interface for exchanging data between traders, and With data that is shared and updated. EPCIS management system records general information for production and distribution along with tag information, and records the information in EPCDS for tracking according to EPC information, and items, which are individual products, for tracking and managing recorded EPC. Each time an event occurs for the box containing the item and the pallet containing the box, information for tracking their status is recorded. Thus, in order to use the EPCIS management system, not only producers, distributors, and sellers should have an EPCIS system for accessing the EPCIS management system, but also when the event occurs, for example, when the item is produced, EPCIS It should be registered in the management system and the EPCIS management system should be aware of it and record it whenever goods are received / released from either the producer, distributor or seller. The EPCIS management system must record the EPC, time information, and event type whenever an event for a product occurs, causing a large amount of communication with the producer, distributor, and seller. In addition, when a product is loaded into a pallet or a box, the inside of the box is often not recognized by an RFID reader, so it is difficult to manage the EPC for each product. Above all, the EPC of the product is managed by a distributor. Therefore, the producer or seller is dependent on the distributor. Hereinafter, a conventional EPCIS management system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

1 conceptually illustrates the data flow of an EPCIS management system and an EPCIS.

Referring to FIG. 1, the EPCIS management system is networked with each producer, distributor, and seller of EPCIS. When the producer, distributor, and manager's EPCIS requests the logistics information inquiry, the EPCIS management system requests the logistics information according to a predetermined data format. Feedback.

As shown in FIG. 1, the EPCIS management system provides logistic information in accordance with a time when an event occurs (EPC TIME1), an event type, and a URL. This is due to the EPCIS management system operating in conjunction with the ONS (Object Naming Service), ONS provides the URL address with the logistics information to the EPCIS management system, the EPCIS management system to provide the logistics information with reference to this. It has a data processing structure for obtaining logistics information from a server or a computer.

2 is a reference diagram for an RFID recognition rate according to a conventional logistics processing method.

Referring to FIG. 2, the conventional logistics processing method has a management system that allows a plurality of single items (ITEMs) to be collected in one box and the plurality of boxes in one pallet.

The box stored in the pallet is passed through the reader when received or shipped from any one of the producers, distributors, and sellers so as to grasp the goods received and released. However, the RFID recognition rate is high for boxes adjacent to the reader among the boxes stored in the pallet, while the RFID recognition rate is reduced among the boxes stored in the pallet that do not face the pallet center, bottom, and other readers directly.

3 conceptually illustrates a logistics processing method using a distributed DB environment.

Referring to FIG. 3, a logistics processing method using a distributed DB environment is to solve a problem in which a recognition rate of an RFID tag does not reach 100% as shown in the drawing. After mapping in advance to a DB, the information is shown by producers, distributors, and sellers exchanging data through EDI (or EAI or web server).

Logistics processing method using distributed DB environment causes producers, distributors, and sellers to perform computer operations for data management whenever an event for a product occurs. For example, when any one of the producer, distributor, and seller is changed, or when an event to which the distribution stage is added may occur, a computational task that requires modification of EPC information about a product may be generated. In addition, the logistics processing method using a distributed DB environment is difficult for small and medium-sized companies or small businesses that do not have a computerized facility such as EDI (or EAI or web server) to implement a logistics processing method using a distributed DB environment.

4 conceptually illustrates a logistics processing method using an integrated database.

Referring to FIG. 4, in a logistics processing method using an integrated database, an integrated database provided on a distributor side acquires tag information on a product of a producer and manages a tag. Logistics processing method using the integrated database has a disadvantage that the producers tend to depend on the distributors, and when the producers deliver the same product to multiple distributors, duplication of tag IDs is difficult to avoid.

An object of the present invention is to manage an EPC by storing linkage information mapping between items, boxes, and pallets in an EPC in a logistics management system including an item which is an individual product, a box for storing items, and a pallet for storing boxes. The present invention provides a logistics management system using an EPC serial area that can obtain information on items, boxes, and pallets without relying on a separate database.

An object of the present invention is to form linkage information for items, boxes, and pallets in the serial area of the EPC, and to list the number and loading relationship of the items, boxes, and pallets in the serial area, thereby producing, distributing, and selling. Is to provide an EPC structure that enables logistics management through mutually agreed serial areas.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide flexibility in logistics management by varying the area of code assigned to the items, boxes, and pallets in the linkage information indicating the quantity and stacking relationship of items, boxes, and pallets. To provide a logistics management system using the EPC serial area to improve.

The above object is an electronic product code (EPC) composed of a header, a company code, a product code, and a serial area according to the EPCglobal standard according to the present invention, wherein the serial area stores an item which is an individual product and the item. And a linkage information for mapping the quantity and stacking relationship of the pallet storing the box, wherein the linkage information includes the serial area being read by a reader on either side of the producer or distributor. When the information is decoded, it is achieved by an EPC that obtains information about the item, the box, and the palette by the association information.

According to the present invention, the above object is composed of an EPCIS for performing logistics management through an EPC, and a logistics management system connected to the EPCIS network. The logistics management system refers to the number of items per box in the serial area of the EPC. A control serial number that records the value in an item serial control code that sets the total number of items per box, and up-counts the number of boxes when the number of items increases by referring to the number of boxes stored in a pallet. Record the value in, and when the number of boxes stored in the pallet exceeds the number of storages assigned to the pallet, up-count the number of the pallet to configure the EPC, thereby making the item, the box, and This is achieved by a logistics management system using an EPC serial area that forms linkage information for the pallets.

The above object is composed of a first EPC Information System (EPCIS), a second EPCIS, and a logistics management system networked with the first EPCIS and the second EPCIS to perform logistics management through an EPC, wherein the EPC is It includes a header, a company code, a product code, and a serial area according to the EPCglobal standard, wherein the serial area displays the quantity and loading relationship of an item which is an individual product, a box for storing the item, and a pallet for storing the box. The first EPCIS and the logistics management system negotiate an EPC to be assigned to the item, the box, and the pallet, and the second EPCIS is an EPC given to the item, the box, and the pallet. Water using the EPC serial region to decode any one of the linkage information of and directly obtain information about the item, the box, and the pallet. It is achieved by the control system.

As described above, the present invention generates and uses linkage information by mapping the quantity and load relationship of items, boxes, and pallets using the serial area of the EPC, and through this, data commonly used in the logistics management system using the EPC. Information about items, boxes, and pallets can be obtained without reducing the amount of transmission, and without relying on a separate database for managing EPCs, and the area of code allocated to items, boxes, and pallets in the linkage information can be varied. By doing so, the flexibility of logistics management can be improved.

1 conceptually illustrates the data flow of an EPCIS management system and an EPCIS.
2 is a reference diagram for an RFID recognition rate according to a conventional logistics processing method.
3 conceptually illustrates a logistics processing method using a distributed DB environment.
4 conceptually illustrates a logistics processing method using an integrated database.
5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a logistics management system using an EPC serial region according to the present invention.
6 is a conceptual diagram of an example of a logistics management system using an EPC serial region according to another embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a reference view for explaining the manner in which the individual numbers of the EPC according to the present invention.
8 illustrates a conceptual diagram of an EPC structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.
9 shows a reference drawing for a control management code.
10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of processing an EPC of an item and a box in a logistics management system according to the present invention.

EPC (Electronic Product Code) referred to in the present invention means an identification code assigned to uniquely identify a thing using RFID technology. EPC can be applied to tags of RFID type. The EPC may consist of 96 bits or more bits.

The EPC of the present invention is similar to the code system proposed by EPCglobal, but the serial area proposed by EPCglobal may be an area in which the linkage information for mapping the quantity and load relationship of items, boxes, and pallets is recorded in the logistics system. For code structures such as headers, vendor codes, and partitions other than the serial domain, see the EPC Tag data standard v1.5, which is distributed by EPC Global (http://www.epcglobalinc.org).

Linkage information referred to in the present invention, the total number of items stored in the box, and the item serial control code indicating the order of the individual items in the total number of items, the total number of boxes stored in the pallet, and the total number of boxes The box serial control code indicating the order of individual boxes in the box, the box number given to the individual box, the pallet number information for storing the box, the lot number for the item, the control serial number for counting the box number, and the individual serial for the item. It may be configured to include a number. Here, the item serial control code, the box serial control code, and a control code for varying the code length for the box number may be further included, thereby reducing the restriction by the code length, thereby improving the flexibility of logistics management You can also

In the structure of the linkage information mentioned in the present invention, lot numbers and serial numbers of different items may not be the same. Even if the lot numbers of the same items are the same, they may be specified by the serial number indicating the order in which they are stored in the box. Thus, the same items can be uniquely identified without being duplicated.

The EPC Information System (EPCIS) mentioned in the present invention is networked with the logistics management system using the EPC serial area according to the present invention, and may be provided to each of the producers, distributors, and sellers.

The event referred to in the present invention is based on changes in the location, status (normal, damage, etc.) of the goods, the movement of the goods, the management unit of the goods (pallets, boxes, and individual items), the quantity of goods, and the management of the goods. Can mean. Thus, the event may include time information that occurred.

EPCDS (EPC Dynamic Service) referred to in the present invention stores the event information, and then, the EPC event information for the goods stored in the EPCDS is serial of the EPC at the request of the information requestor (any one of the producer, distributor, and seller) It can represent the system used for product history inquiry and real-time product information inquiry through the area.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

5 is a schematic diagram of an example of a logistics management system using an EPC serial area according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, a logistics management system using an EPC (Electronic Product Code) serial area may include a producer EPCIS 200, a distributor EPCIS 300, and a logistics management system 100. .

The producer EPCIS 200 may generate an item tag to be attached to an individual item, a box tag of a box in which the item is to be loaded, and a pallet tag to load the box. In this case, since the logistics management system using the PC serial area of the present invention includes linkage information for the item-box-palette in the serial area, the pallet tag may not be generated. The use of pallet tags is optional because the readers 150 and 310 can scan the box tags attached to the boxes instead of the pallet tags to obtain information about the pallets containing the boxes.

Therefore, the following description refers to a pallet and a pallet tag in order to describe the linking information for the item-box-palette, but no separate reference numeral is given.

The manager 10 controls the tag issuer 110 to generate the item tag 120 and the box tag 130 (the pallet tag may not be generated, which will be omitted below). Once the tag is attached, the pallet passes through the reader 150 and the outlet is identified. The producer EPCIS 200 transmits the goods release information to the logistics management system 100 when the pallet passes through the reader 150, and when the tag is generated in the tag issuer 110, information about the generated tag is also provided. The logistics management system 100 may be provided. Accordingly, the logistics management system 100 can grasp the information of the produced goods, and the entry and exit of the produced goods.

Meanwhile, the item tag 120 and the box tag 130 are composed of a header, a company code, a product code, and a serial area, that is, four areas according to a standard proposed by EPC Global. That is, the link information about the item-box and the box-palette may be recorded in the serial area. The linkage information enables the reader 150 to know the mapping information for the item-box-palette when any one of the item tag 120 and the box tag 130 is recognized by the reader 150. If it is recognized at 150, since the relevant information is obtained together, it is possible to prevent the tag information acquisition from being disturbed due to a recognition rate problem for the tag stored in the pallet or the box.

When the linkage information is included in the item tag, the linkage information may include information about the number of items stored in the box, the range of serial assigned to the item, and the box and pallet number in which the item is to be stored. In addition, when link information is included in the box tag, the link information may include the number of boxes accommodated in the pallet, the range of the number assigned to the box, and the information (for example, the pallet number) of the pallet in which the box is to be stored. If the code area allocated to the serial area is sufficient, the association information may include all mapping information for the entire item-box-palette. In this case, the serial area is preferably 96 bits or more bits proposed by EPCglobal.

When the pallet passes through the distributor's reader 310, the distributor's reader 310 obtains linkage information of the item (or box or pallet) stored through the tag attached to the item or the box, and the distributor EPCIS 300 The obtained linked information may be provided to the logistics management system 100. In this case, the distributor EPCIS 300 may obtain the linkage information by decoding the serial region of the EPC acquired by the reader 310, and thus may determine the quantity and loading relationship of items, boxes, and pallets. Therefore, unlike the conventional EPC-based logistics management system, there is an advantage that can immediately grasp information on the item (or box, pallet) without relying on a separate external server for managing the EPC.

In the past, the reader 310 reads the EPC, and then transmits the EPC to a separate external server that manages the EPC, such as ONS (Object Naming Service) to request information about an item (or box or pallet). This entails a process in which information requested for inquiry from an external server (eg, ONS) is fed back to the producer EPCIS 200 or the distributor EPCIS 300. Moreover, the existing EPC-based logistics management system uses pallets, boxes, Alternatively, when an event occurs in an item, linkage information indicating an interrelationship is not provided, and therefore, the event should be notified for each item, whereas in the logistics management system using the EPC serial area of the present invention, the reader 310 When reading the item tag 120 or the box tag 130, it is possible to process the occurrence of the event by sending a single read tag to the logistics management system 100. Therefore, logistics It can be seen that the amount of data transmitted between the management system 100 and the producer EPCIS 200 or the distributor EPCIS 300 is greatly reduced compared to the existing EPC-based logistics management system.

On the other hand, the tag shown in Figure 5 may not be attached. Since the EPC of the present invention includes linkage information in the box tag 130, the pallet tag is represented without the use of the pallet tag, and the loading relationship and the quantity of items, boxes, and pallets are also expressed through the box tag 130. May be omitted.

Logistics management system according to the present invention is the distribution relationship of the item-box-pallet immediately upon obtaining the linking information of the mutually agreed serial area through the reader (for example, 150, 310) from the distributor, seller, or producer And quantity can be identified. According to these characteristics, small and medium-sized companies and small businesses that are difficult to build their own computer equipment and systems can manage the identification and entry of logistics information without having to establish an EPCIS for inquiring EPC.

In addition, the logistics management system 100 may obtain the EPC attached to any one of an item and a box to determine their movement path and location. That is, since the logistics management system 100 can grasp the information of the item by using the linkage information included in the item tag or the box tag, the data is compared with the conventional logistics management method in which information on each item must be transmitted when an event occurs. The amount of transmission is greatly reduced. If the number of items is very large, the increase in the amount of data affects the processing time of the logistics management system, but the logistics management system using the EPC serial area according to the present invention can handle this by using the linkage information. Even if an event occurs in an item, the time required for logistics management can be greatly reduced.

Events generated by items (or boxes or pallets) should be reported to the logistics management system 100 for logistics management at every occurrence. Whenever an event occurs, product information for each item should be reported to the logistics management system 100 in proportion to the number of items. The distributor EPCIS 300 or the producer EPCIS 200 must report to the logistics management system 100. The amount of data to do may increase.

If it is assumed that 1000 items are stored in one box and an event has occurred in the box, the conventional logistics management system has information about each of the 1000 items in the producer EPCIS 200 or the distributor EPCIS 300. Should be provided. However, the logistics management system using the EPC serial area according to the present invention may process this by one data transmission using the linkage information included in the serial area. For example, in the serial area, the number of items stored in the box (1000), information about the first serial and the last serial (0 to 999) given to the item may be recorded, and linkage information included in the box tag may be recorded. By sending it to the logistics management system 100 once it can be processed at once. Similarly, the linkage information may be stored in the serial area of the pallet tag or the item tag, and the linkage information may be read from the reader (for example, reference numeral 310) and quickly provided to the logistics management system 100 at once.

Although not shown in FIG. 5, the distributor EPCIS 300 may be connected to one or more sellers, and when the seller has a separate EPCIS, the seller's EPCIS (not shown) may be networked to the logistics management system 100. Of course, it is possible to provide the EPC of the product by connecting.

6 is a conceptual diagram of an example of a logistics management system using an EPC serial region according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the logistics management system using the EPC serial region according to the embodiment includes a producer terminal 11, a logistics management system 100, a distributor EPCIS 300, and an intermediary server 400. Can be.

After producing an individual item, the producer creates an item tag to attach to the individual item, and a box tag of the box in which the individual item is to be loaded. The producer terminal 11 controls the tag issuer 111 to generate the item tag 121 and the box tag 131, and provides the generated tag for the item and the box to the mediation server 400. Subsequently, when the product is shipped from the reader 151, the mediation server 400 provides the mediation server 400 so that the mediation server 400 can obtain information about the product. In this case, the producer notifies the tag and the event using the producer terminal 11, so that the logistics can be performed for the goods without having a separate EPCIS. If the producer wants to check the history of the shipped item (or box or pallet) after the goods are shipped, the mediation server 400 may request a history inquiry, and the mediation server 400 may provide information on the requested history. You can feedback.

When the goods are released from the producer terminal 11, the mediation server 400 notifies the distributor EPCIS 300 of the release of the item (or box or pallet, to be omitted later), after which the item is the reader 310 After passing through, the distributor EPCIS 300 notifies the EPCDS 500 of the item receipt. That is, the logistics management system using the EPC serial area according to the present embodiment, the conventional logistics management system reads the information from the tag attached to the item every time the event occurs to notify the mediation server 400 or EPCDS 500 It can be seen that the amount of data transmission is very small compared to. In addition, the producer does not need to build a separate EPCIS, it is possible to perform the logistics management only by having a terminal capable of data communication with the mediation server (400).

In this embodiment,

1) The producer notifies the tag information of items, boxes, and pallets through the producer terminal 11 and whether the goods are released,

2) the mediation server 400 notifies the distributor EPCIS (300) whether or not the shipment,

3) The distributor EPCIS 300 may simply process an event for a product according to a procedure of notifying the EPCDS 500 when a product is received.

This embodiment also includes linkage information in the serial region of the EPC composed of 96 bits or more bits, as described above with reference to FIG. 5.

Accordingly, the reader 310 may acquire linkage information through one of the box tag 131 and the item tag 121, and may use the obtained linkage information to provide product information to the intermediary server 400 at a time. Can transmit

The mediation server 400 is network-connected with the EPCDS 500, and provides the tag information, the goods receipt information, and the goods issue information provided by the producer to the EPCDS 500, and thereafter, the producer terminal 11 or the distributor EPCIS. When the 300 requests a history inquiry, the EPCDS 500 may obtain and provide history information. The intermediary server 400 may provide a web interface for the producer terminal 11 so that the producer may inquire and use the history of the product even without the EPCIS.

Similarly, since the distributor EPCIS 300 may also use a web interface provided by the mediation server 400, the distributor EPCIS 300 may be replaced by a conventional terminal capable of network connection with the mediation server 400.

As such, the mediation server 400 allows a producer, a distributor, or a seller associated with a distributor to use an EPC-based system to operate an EPC-based logistics management system.

FIG. 7 shows a reference drawing for explaining how individual numbers of an EPC according to the present invention correspond to boxes and pallets.

Referring to FIG. 7, the EPC mentioned in the present invention may have a length of 96 BIT or more than 96 BIT. If the EPC has a length of 96 BIT, only mapping information for pallets and box tags can be displayed due to the limitation of the area allocated to the serial area. However, if the EPC has a length of more than 96 BIT, the number of digits of the serial area is not limited. Linking information including mapping information with all item tags, and mapping information with box tags of all boxes accommodated in the palette may be included. In FIG. 7, the EPC may be configured according to a tree structure. A plurality of boxes accommodated in a pallet and items stored in each box may be managed as a tree structure, and the number system assigned to the items, boxes, and pallets is mapped to one number toward the top of the tree structure as shown. Can be.

For example, assuming that there are four items to be stored per box, and to be stored in two boxes, a serial number of A000001 to A000008 is assigned to each item, the serial numbers of A000001 to A000004 are individual numbers assigned to the box (B000002). The serial numbers of A000005 to A000008 correspond to the remaining boxes (individual number B000001). In addition, the serial numbers B000001 and B000002 assigned to the two boxes may correspond to one pallet number C000001.

8 illustrates a conceptual diagram of an EPC structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the EPC may be largely divided into a header, a company code, a product code, and a serial area.

The header may typically have a length of 8 bits and may include information about the type of EPC, the structure of the code, and the overall length of the code. Types of EPCs mentioned in the present invention may be classified into GID, SGTIN, SSCC, SG_N, GRAL, GIAL, GDTI, and USDOD according to their length and structure.

The header may include a filter and a partition. The filter can define the length of the serial region constituting the EPC, and the partition can be used as an identifier that distinguishes the vendor code from the header.

The business code is a unique identifier given to the business and may be composed of letters, numbers, and a combination thereof. The serial area is an area including linkage information according to the present invention. The linkage information includes an item serial control code (S1), a box serial control code (S2), a box number (S3), a pallet number (S4), and a lot number ( S5), control serial number S7, and serial number S7.

The item serial control code S1 indicates the order of the individual items in the total quantity of the items stored in the box, and the total quantity of the items. The item serial control code may consist of a pair of numeric strings, one for the total number of items and the other for the order in the total number. For example, if the total number of items accommodated in the box is 100, and the seventh item is indicated, the item serial control code S1 may be expressed as "10007", which represents the seventh item among the 100 items. Can be.

The box serial control code S2 indicates the total number of boxes to be stored in the pallet and the order of the individual boxes. The box serial control code S2 may also be configured as a pair of numeric strings similarly to the item serial control code S1 described above.

The box number S3 represents a number assigned to an individual box to be stored in a pallet, and the pallet number S4 represents a number assigned to a pallet for storing a box.

The lot number S5 is a unique number assigned to each item and may be expressed by numbers, letters, and combinations thereof.

The control serial number S6 is an up-counted number each time the number of boxes containing an item is added, and the value may be +1 when the producer changes the production lot to avoid duplication of EPC.

The serial number S7 indicates the order in which the items are stored in the box.

For example, when 100 items are stored per box, the serial number S7 may allocate one of 0 to 99 for each item. Here, the control serial number S6 may be linked to the serial number S7 and its value may be determined.

For example, if there are more than 100 items, the number of items that can be stored in one box is exceeded, and thus an additional box is required. In this case, the value of the control serial number S6 must be increased by one, and the control serial number is increased. When the value of the number S6 is increased by one, the items exceeding 100 items must be given a serial number S7 of 0 to 99 again.

Therefore, even in the same item, since the lot number and serial number and control serial number assigned to the items cannot be the same, the item can be uniquely identified without being duplicated with other items.

The serial region mentioned in the present invention may not include the domain identifier presented in EPCglobal. This is because the EPC according to the present invention is not a domain-based logistics management system but a logistics management system using linked information, which is the most distinguished part from the EPC structure proposed by EPCglobal.

On the other hand, the control serial number S7 can express the quantity relationship between the item, the box, and the pallet.

For example, assuming that 30 items are stored in one box, it can be seen that 30 items correspond to one box. At this time, the control serial number may be set to "1", and if one more box needs to be added, it may be set to "2", indicating that the quantity relationship is defined.

Through the example presented below, the item serial control code S1, the control serial number S6, and the serial number S7 may be described in the following manner to express a quantity relationship.

Assuming S1, S6, and S7 are 30/1/0,

1) 30/1/0: 30 items are stored in one box, and this item indicates that the item is the first item among the items stored in the box.

2) 30/1/29: 30 items are stored in one box, and this item represents the last item among the items stored in the box.

here,

Reference numeral 30d1 denotes a header,

Reference numeral 30d2 denotes a filter value,

Reference numeral 30d3 denotes a partition,

Reference numeral 30d4 represents a company prefix,

Reference numeral 30d5 denotes an item reference. For definition, refer to the EPC Tag data standard v1.5 distributed by EPC Global (http://www.epcglobalinc.org).

9 shows a reference drawing for a control management code.

The control management code is included in the serial area and represents a code for setting the size of the code area to be allocated to each of the areas S1 to S7 according to the number of items, boxes, and pallets. In FIG. 9, when the control management code is set to 00, the code lengths of S3, S6, and S7 are allocated 8, 20, and 8 bits, respectively, but when the control management code is set to 01, You can see that the code lengths are assigned 9, 18, and 9 bits, respectively. The control management code shown in FIG. 9 is just an example, and four (00, 01, 10, 11) code values that can be represented by the control management code may be assigned differently to the lengths of S3, S6, and S7. .

10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of processing an EPC of an item and a box in a logistics management system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 10, the logistics management system 100 records an EPC type, a filter value, a partition, a company prefix, and an item reference in an EPC area (header) of an item EPC (S601), and performs initialization. At this time, the filter value is set to 1 (S602) and the palette number is set to 0 (S603). Next, the logistics management system 100 obtains a lot number assigned to the item through the producer EPCIS 200 (S604), and records the obtained lot number in the EPC (S605).

Next, the logistics management system 100 obtains the tag information most recently issued through the producer EPCIS 200 (S606), and increases the value of the control serial number recorded in the obtained tag information (S607). . When the control serial number of the obtained tag information is 0, the logistics management system 100 sets the control serial number to 1 and displays the number of boxes to store the item to be +1 count later.

Next, the logistics management system 100 inquires how many items are stored per box through the producer EPCIS 200 to obtain item information per box (S608), and records this in the item serial control code (S1). (S609). Subsequently, information about the number of boxes accommodated per pallet is obtained through the producer EPCIS 200 (S610), and the box serial control code S2 is recorded (S611). Next, the logistics management system 100 increases the code value of the box serial control code S2 by referring to the control serial number S6, and indicates that there is one box to store the item.

Next, when the box tag is not additionally issued, the logistics management system 100 counts up one serial number (S614), displays the first item to be stored in the box, and proceeds to issue the tag (S615). Next, the logistics management system 100 determines whether the value recorded in the serial number S7 is smaller than the total number of items to be stored in the box. If the value recorded in the serial number S7 is smaller than the total number of items to be stored in the box, this indicates that the number of items to be stored in the box is short, which means that an item tag should be issued.

Therefore, until the value recorded in the serial number S7 coincides with the total number of items to be stored in the box, the value of the serial number S8 is increased by one, and the tag is issued. Inquire the producer EPCIS 200 and if there is an item to be further produced, the process proceeds to step S612 and up-counts the value of the box number S3 by one. That is, the box tag is further issued.

On the other hand, if it is necessary to issue a box tag in step S613, the serial region of the EPC is encoded according to the process of S618 ~ S623. At this time, except that the filter value is set to 2 at step S619 to indicate the box tag issuance, the processes of S618 to S628 are the same as S601 to S611, so the process of S618 to S628 is replaced with the description of the steps of S601 to S611. And, duplicate descriptions will be omitted.

In operation S628, the logistics management system 100 obtains information on the number of boxes stored per pallet through the producer EPCIS 200 (S627) and records the box serial control code (S2) (S628). Next, the logistics management system 100 sets the pallet number S4 value initialized in step S620 to 1 to indicate that there is one pallet to store the box. Issuing a box tag means that the pallet where the box should be stored must also be added.

Next, the logistics management system 100 determines whether the pallet number S4 is smaller than the maximum value (S630), and when the pallet number S4 is smaller than the maximum value to be issued, the logistics management system 100 determines the value of the serial number S7. Increase one (S631). In this case, the serial number S7 may be assigned to the box rather than the item. That is, the serial number S7 mentioned in steps S618 to S623 may define a relationship between the box and the pallet. If the pallet number S4 is less than or equal to the maximum value, it means that more boxes should be mapped to the pallet, so that the logistics management system 100 increases the value of the serial number S7 by one (S631) and the serial number ( After the value of S7 is increased by one, it is again determined whether the value of the serial number S7 is smaller than the box serial control code S2 (S632). As a result of the determination, the process proceeds to step S631 while issuing a tag while increasing the serial number S7 one by one (S615). If so, exit. In this case, if there are more boxes to be produced, the flow proceeds to step S632.

Here, although the subject of the EPC record has been described with reference to the logistics management system 100, the mediation server 300 or the distributor EPCIS 200 described with reference to FIG. 6 may perform this.

100: logistics management system 200: producer EPCIS
300: Distributor EPCIS 400: Mediation Server
500: EPCDS

Claims (16)

In the EPC (Electrical Product Code), which consists of a header, a vendor code, a product code, and a serial field according to the EPCglobal standard,
The serial region,
And linkage information for mapping an item which is an individual product, a box for storing the item, and a quantity and a loading relationship of a pallet for storing the box,
The link information,
When the serial region is read by a reader of either one of a producer and a distributor, and the linkage information is decoded, information about the item, the box, and the pallet is obtained by the linkage information. EPC. The method of claim 1,
The link information,
And an item serial control code, a box serial control code, and a pallet serial control code defining the number of items, the number of boxes, and the number of pallets, respectively. The method of claim 1,
The link information,
Includes mapping information about the number of boxes and the number of boxes that the item is accommodated,
EPC, characterized in that for mapping the number of boxes, and the number of pallets in which the box is housed. The method of claim 1,
The serial region,
An item serial control code for indicating a total quantity of items stored in the box and an order of individual items in the total quantity of the items;
A box serial control code indicating a total quantity of boxes accommodated in the pallet and an order of individual boxes in the total quantity of boxes;
A box number assigned to the individual box;
A pallet number of a pallet for storing the box;
A lot number for the item;
A control serial number for counting the box number; And
EPC comprising a; serial number for the item. The method of claim 4, wherein
The serial region,
And a control code for varying a code length for the item serial control code, the box serial control code, and the box number. The method of claim 4, wherein
The serial region,
The lot number assigned to the item is an EPC, characterized in that it is identified without being duplicated with other items by a serial number indicating the order in which the item is loaded into the box. EPCIS that performs logistics management through EPC, and a logistics management system connected to the EPCIS network,
The logistics management system is in the serial area of the EPC,
Record the value in the item serial control code that sets the total number of items per box by referring to the number of items per box, and increase the number of boxes when the number of items increases by referring to the number of boxes stored in the pallet. The value is recorded in a control serial number to count, and when the number of boxes stored in the pallet exceeds the number of storage allocated to the pallet, the EPC is configured by up-counting the number of the pallet, thereby making the item And forming linkage information for the box and the pallet.
The method of claim 7, wherein
The logistics management system,
And a lot number of the item, a number of items stored in the box, and information about a box stored in the pallet through the EPCIS. The method of claim 7, wherein
The logistics management system,
Determine the number of pallets through the EPCIS, determine whether the identified number corresponds to the maximum number of boxes,
And determining that the number of pallets is increased by one when the maximum number of boxes to be stored in the pallet is less than the maximum number of boxes to be stored in the pallet. The method of claim 7, wherein
The logistics management system,
When the additional production of the item occurs, the logistics management system using the EPC serial area, characterized in that for increasing the value of the box serial control code. The method of claim 7, wherein
The logistics management system,
When the further production of the box occurs, up-count the value of the pallet number, characterized in that the logistics management system using the EPC serial area. A first EPC Information System (EPCIS), a second EPCIS, and a logistics management system networked with the first EPCIS and the second EPCIS to perform logistics management through an EPC,
The EPC includes a header, a company code, a product code, and a serial area according to the EPCglobal standard, wherein the serial area includes a quantity of goods and an item of an individual product, a box for storing the item, and a pallet for storing the box. Contains linkage information indicating a relationship,
The first EPCIS and the logistics management system negotiate an EPC to be assigned to the item, the box, and the pallet,
The second EPCIS decodes any one of the linkage information of the EPC provided to the item, the box, and the pallet to directly obtain information on the item, the box, and the pallet. Logistics management system.
The method of claim 12,
The first EPCIS,
Any one of a producer EPCIS and a distributor EPCIS, and the second EPCIS is the other one, characterized in that the logistics management system using the EPC serial area. The method of claim 13,
The EPC,
When decoded by any one of the first EPCIS, the second EPCIS, and the logistics management system, information about the item, the box, and the pallet is directly obtained without relying on an external server for managing the EPC. Logistics management system using the serial area of the EPC, characterized in that. The method of claim 12,
The logistics management system,
When an event occurs for any one of the item, the box, and the pallet, link information is obtained from a tag for any one of the item, the box, and the pallet, and the item, the box is based on the link information. And obtaining information on the pallet.
16. The method of claim 15,
The event,
For any one of the item, the box, and the pallet,
Logistics management system using EPC serial area, characterized in that it is one of position, condition (normal, damage, etc.), goods receipt and release, management unit (pallets, boxes, and individual items), quantity, and changes to the management entity.

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