JP2003085461A - Collecting method of lent clothes - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a technical means capable of easily and surely detecting clothes to be collected due to expiration of rental period, etc., among the clothes such as uniforms and bedclothes lent to customers and collecting them without an error. SOLUTION: The lent clothes are normally washed in block at a specific cleaning factory. In this invention, the clothes are collected at a cleaning factory contracting for washing of the lent clothes. Namely, ID tags are attached to individual clothes, a computer 11 having a second reader 10 that reads the ID tags and a display screen is installed at a shipping place of laundry of the cleaning factory, pieces of management information such as rental classifications of the respective single clothes and their expiration dates of the rental period are recorded in the computer or a management computer 15, the clothes to be collected are detected by checking the pieces of management information and collection of the clothes is instructed by changing display colors of the display and making a warning sound.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for collecting clothing such as uniforms and beddings lent to a customer.
The present invention relates to a method of selecting and collecting clothing to be collected from a plurality of types of clothing lent to a large number of customers due to the expiration of the loan period or other reasons.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In some cases, work clothes and office clothes worn by company employees, bedding and towels provided to guests at hotels, clothes such as hospital sheets, etc. are purchased and used. Often, they are borrowed and used from a company or department that owns and manages those clothes (for example, a leasing department of a clothing leasing company or a clothing sales company. Hereinafter referred to as "clothing manager"). In such a case, the clothing manager needs to accurately manage a wide variety of clothing used in large customers such as companies, hotels and hospitals.

For example, when the renting period of clothes has expired, or when the specific clothes are no longer needed due to the employee leaving the office, transfer, etc., it is necessary to collect the corresponding clothes. Conventionally, clothing that has become unnecessary for lending due to the expiration of the loan period or the employee leaving the company is collected by the customer's side, returning it to the clothing manager, or the clothing manager taking it to the customer. It was being appreciated.

[0004]

However, the collection of rental clothing by the conventional method as described above has a problem that the work is troublesome, the collection takes time, and the management is complicated. In particular, clothing managers who manage a large number of clothing for a large number of customers are required to complete the loan period based on the loan agreement for each customer or type of clothing, and to lend when exchanging summer and winter clothing at the turn of the season. It was difficult to check and collect clothing, requiring a lot of manpower, and there was a problem that collection mistakes were likely to occur.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to easily and surely detect the clothes to be collected due to the expiration of the loan period, etc., from a large number of clothes loaned to a customer, without error. The challenge is to obtain technical means that can be collected.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention focuses on the fact that when lending garments as described above become dirty, they are usually washed in a batch at a specific cleaning factory and returned to the customer. By recording lending information on a computer installed in a laundry factory that undertakes laundry, and comparing the read information of the ID tag attached to each piece of clothing with the lending information, by detecting the clothing to be collected, This is a solution to the above problem.

That is, according to the method of collecting rental clothing of the present invention, an ID tag recording an identification code unique to the clothing is attached to each clothing, and the ID tag is attached to the place where the laundry is received in the rental clothing cleaning factory. A first reading device 8 for reading is installed, and a computer 11 having a second reading device 10 for reading the ID tag and a display screen is installed at a place where the laundry is shipped, and the first reading device is connected to the computer. , The computer or LAN
In the storage area of the connected management computer 15, the lending category of each single piece of clothing and the expiration date of the lending period are recorded in association with the identification code of the ID tag attached to the clothing, and the computer or the management computer stores the 1st and 2nd
Search means for detecting the corresponding data in the storage area by the read signal of the reading device, comparing means for comparing the expiration date of the retrieved data with the current date data of the computer, and when the expiration date is before the current date Is provided with display color changing means for changing the display color of the display and / or warning sound generating means for emitting a warning sound, and the display color of the display is changed when the ID tag of the washed laundry is read by the second reading means. When the washing is performed and / or the warning sound is emitted, the washed laundry is collected.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method for collecting rented clothing, further, date data to be a seasonal segment is recorded in the storage area in association with an identification code, and the seasonal segment of the data retrieved by the retrieval means is recorded. Second comparing means for comparing the current date with the current date is provided, and when the current day is out of the season classification, the display color changing means and / or the warning sound generating means changes the display color of the display and / or the warning. The sound is generated.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in each of the above methods,
Further, when the current date is recorded as the arrival date in association with the identification code read when the ID tag is read by the first reading device, and the arrival date of the data retrieved by the reading signal of the second reading device is not recorded. And the display color conversion means and / or
Alternatively, the warning sound generation means changes the display color of the display and / or generates a warning sound.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in each of the above methods,
A management computer 15 connected to a LAN is provided in a computer at a shipping place, and when an identification code and a recovery command signal are input from an input device connected to the management computer, the management computer 15 is associated with the identification code input to the storage area. Discrimination means for recording a retrieval signal and discriminating the presence / absence of the retrieval signal associated with the data retrieved by the retrieval means is provided, and when the presence of the retrieval signal is detected, the screen color changing means and / or a warning sound. The generation means is caused to change the display screen and / or generate a warning sound.

According to the above method of the present invention, when the ID tag attached to each laundry is read in order to sort the washed clothes by customer at the place where the laundry is shipped,
If the laundry is expired rental clothing, clothing that must be replaced according to the season classification, or clothing that the clothing manager has instructed to collect, when the ID tag is read, the display screen The operator can immediately recognize that the clothing is the clothing to be collected by the change in the display color and the warning sound, so the laundry can be collected manually or by operating an appropriate sorter in conjunction. Can be returned to the administrator.

When the ID tag is read at the shipping place and there is no change in the display screen and no warning sound is generated,
Since the clothing is the clothing that should be returned to the customer, it may be sorted according to the customer according to the data displayed on the display screen.

That is, by using the method of the present invention together with the conventional laundry management methods such as process management using ID tags and sorting management for each customer, it is mixed in many laundry. Therefore, it is possible to reliably collect the expired rented clothes and the clothes for which the collection instruction has been issued, without increasing the number of work steps.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view conceptually showing the processing of laundry including the method of the present invention. The illustrated embodiment is an example in which the cleaning company 1 has a clothing management department 2 for lending clothing and a cleaning factory 3.

The cleaning factory 3 washes the laundry collected from the plurality of customers 4 with the laundry line 6 including the washing, drying and finishing steps, and delivers the washed clothes to the customer 4 12d. An ID tag is attached to the laundry (single item of clothing) to be washed in the cleaning factory 3, and the ID tag is read by the receiving computer 9 having the first reading means 8 and the shipping computer 11 having the second reading means 10. By doing so, receipt / shipment management of single item clothing, distribution of laundry to a plurality of washing lines according to material fibers, sorting of washed clothing by customer, and the like are performed.

The receipt / shipment management of laundry using such an ID tag and the sorting of laundry by laundry line or customer are performed as follows.
Large customers, such as companies that provide employees with work and office clothes, hotels that request laundry to wash towels and sheets, hotels that request the laundry to wash sheets and patients' personal belongings. This is a conventional practice in a cleaning factory where customers are hospitals and the like. A bar code label having a bar code printed thereon and a radio chip having an identification code recorded are generally used as an ID tag attached to a piece of clothing.

The thick arrows 12a, 12b, 12 shown in FIG.
Reference numerals c and 12d show the flow of normal products that are collected from the customer and returned to the customer. On the other hand, thin arrows 13a, 1
3b and 13c show the flow of irregular products. The flow 13a described as “rewash” is a flow of clothes which is detected in the middle of the washing line and is returned to the receiving place. The flow 13b described as “repair” is a flow of clothing for repairing a button dropout or breakage and returning it to the washing line. The flow 13c described as a recovered product is a flow of the clothes collected by the clothes management department 2 due to the expiration of the lease period, the size change, or the like.

The receiving computer 9 is installed at the receiving place of the cleaning factory, and the shipping computer 11 is installed at the shipping place. The repair computer 14 is installed in a repair department in the factory and inputs a record of repair contents and charging data of repair cost to the customer. The management computer 15 is installed in the clothing management department and is used to input various data, and also inputs an instruction to collect single-piece clothing due to individual causes such as size change and employee leaving the company. These computers 9, 11, 14, 15 are connected by a LAN, and the management computer 15 is connected to another computer 9,
It has a function as a server for supplying management data and the like to 11 and 14.

The management computer 15 has a contract master,
A customer master and a product master are recorded, and a single item master having a storage item for extracting registration data of these masters (database files) in association with individual identification codes is registered.

General customer information such as customer name and address is registered in the customer master by using the customer code as a key item (item used for linking between masters), and the product code is a key item in the product master. The product name, material, maker category, washing category, and other items and laundry information are registered.

In the contract master, items such as loan category, expiration date of loan contract, collection / delivery interval, finishing category, folding category, and season category are registered with the customer code and the product code as key items. The maturity date and season classification of the loan contract are date data. For each product code for the customer code of the contract customer, the maturity date according to the contract content and, if necessary, the change date data that is the boundary of the season classification are registered.

The single item master records the data extracted from the contract master, the customer master, the item master, etc., using the identification code of the ID tag attached to the single item clothing as the main search item. The extracted items are, for example, the maturity date of the loan period of the contract master, finishing class, folding class, seasonal class, customer name of customer master, product name of product master, and washing class. Each record of the single item master corresponds to the identification code of the single item clothing, and in addition to the items extracted from each of the above masters, record items such as arrival date, shipping date, estimated delivery date, collection code for individual laundry items It has setting items, recording items for repair data, and so on.

Further, the management computer 15 issues a label ticket issuing function for issuing an ID tag attached to the laundry when new rental clothing is shipped or when new laundry is received, and search for clothing in the factory or a single item. A search function to search the number of times laundry is washed, a daily report aggregation function that aggregates received products, shipped products, collected products, etc. for each work day; size change, leaving the company, transfer to work, disposal due to damage, etc. It has a collection item registration function that individually registers the collection of single item clothing caused by it.

The arrival computer 9 first records the factory arrival date in association with the identification code of the ID tag.
A record of the single item master is searched by the read signal of the reading device 8, and the current date of the read date is recorded in the arrival date item of the searched record. By re-reading the already read ID tag, it is possible to cancel the factory arrival of the clothing, and by referring to the arrival date data of the single item master, it is possible to issue the invoice for each customer or each item.

In order to record the factory shipping date, the shipping computer 11 searches the single item master by the read signal of the second reading device 10, and records the current reading date in the shipping date item of the searched record. If necessary, enter the scheduled delivery date in order to carry out the delivery for each customer. I
When the single item clothing that reads the D tag is a collected item or a non-arrival item, the screen color of the display screen displaying the data of the record retrieved by the read signal is changed and a warning sound is emitted to the operator. Call attention. To determine whether the item is a collected item or a non-arrival item, the date data of the maturity date item of the record of the single item master retrieved by the read signal of the second reading device 10, the date data of the change date item indicating the season classification, This is done by referring to the arrival date data. The shipping computer 11 uses the same method as the receiving computer.
A shipping slip can be issued, and a delayed product can be detected by detecting a record in which the arrival date is recorded but the shipping date is not recorded.

The repair computer 14 records the repair contents and repair date input from the input device together with the identification code of the ID tag read by the reader.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure performed by the shipping computer 11 when the second reading device 10 reads the ID tag of the washed clothes.

When the ID code of the ID tag is read by the second reading device 10, the read data is sent to the management computer to search the single item master, and the data of the searched record is displayed on the display screen. If there is a record of the arrival date in the arrival date item of the searched record, if not, the screen color of the display screen is changed from blue to yellow, and a warning sound is emitted. If there is a record of the arrival date, the current date is recorded in the shipment date item.

Next, the maturity date of the retrieved record is compared with the current date set in the computer, and if the maturity date is before the current date, the screen color of the display screen is converted from blue to yellow and a warning sound is issued. Sound. If the maturity date has not been reached, refer to the date of the seasonal classification and the current date, and if the date of the seasonal classification is before the current date, change the screen color and warn by sound in the same way as when detecting the maturity date. I do. If the current date is within the seasonal classification, refer to whether there is a recovery symbol,
If there is a recovery symbol, the screen color is changed and a warning is issued in the same manner. If neither of the above applies, no warning is given by changing the screen color or sound, so that the worker sorts by customer or product according to the data such as the customer name displayed on the display screen.

[0030]

The method of the present invention described above is used in combination with the conventional laundry management method using an ID tag to collect leased laundry items due to expiration of lease or individual circumstances. There is an effect that it can be performed easily and surely at the shipping place without requiring any special steps, and the occurrence of work errors such as omission of collection and erroneous collection can be avoided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view conceptually showing the flow of processing laundry including the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of computer processing showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

8 First reading means 9 Arrival computer 10 Second reading means 11 shipping computer 14 Repair computer 15 Management computer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06K 17/00 G06K 17/00 FL 19/00 19/00 H 19/07 Q

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An I recording a unique identification code for each individual product.
The first reading device (8) for reading the ID tag at the place where the laundry of a cleaning factory for washing clothes with a D tag is received
And a computer (11) having a second reading device (10) for reading the ID tag and a display screen is installed at a place where the laundry is shipped from the cleaning factory, and the first reading device is installed in the computer. Connect and record the loan category of each single item clothing and the expiration date of the lending period in the storage area of the computer or the management computer (15) connected to the LAN in association with the identification code of the ID tag attached to the clothing. In the computer or management computer,
Search means for detecting the corresponding data in the storage area by the read signals of the first and second reading devices, and comparing means for comparing the maturity date of the searched data with the current date data recorded in the computer. Provided are display color changing means for changing the display color of the display when the maturity date is before the current date and / or warning sound generating means for issuing a warning sound,
The washed laundry is collected when the display color of the display is changed and / or a warning sound is emitted when the ID tag of the washed laundry is read by the second reading means. , How to collect rental clothing. 2. A second comparison means is provided for recording the date data of the season division in the storage area in association with the identification code, and comparing the date of the season division of the data retrieved by the retrieval means with the current date. The display color changing means and / or the warning sound generating means change the display color of the display and / or generate the warning sound when the current day is out of the season division. How to collect rented clothing. 3. The present date is recorded as the arrival date in association with the identification code read when the ID tag is read by the first reading device, and the arrival date of the data retrieved by the reading signal of the second reading device is recorded. 3. The method for collecting rental clothing according to claim 1, wherein the display color converting means and / or the warning sound generating means changes the display color of the display and / or generates a warning sound when the display color converting means and / or the warning sound generating means are not operating. 4. A management computer connected to a LAN at a computer at a shipping place is provided, and when the identification code and the recovery instruction signal are inputted from an input device connected to the management computer, the discrimination inputted in the storage area. A discriminating means for discriminating the presence / absence of a collection signal associated with the data retrieved by the retrieval means is provided by recording the retrieval signal in association with the code, and when the presence of the collection signal is detected, the screen color changing means and the 4. The method for collecting rental clothing according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the warning sound generating means changes the display screen and / or generates a warning sound.