JP2003288507A - Automatic article ordering system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a company or the like to efficiently purchase articles. <P>SOLUTION: When an estimate answer can be obtained from a purchase destination, a purchase system 12 decides whether the estimate answer meets a predetermined condition. When the condition is met, the purchase system 12 automatically order the estimated article. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic article ordering system in a company or the like that performs ordering processing for a supplier to purchase an article.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a company or the like, the purchase of an article is often carried out by the department in charge of the article. In such a case, a department (person) who wishes to purchase an article prepares an article purchase slip, obtains the approval of the superior, and then sends it to the purchasing department. In the purchasing department,
In response to this purchase request, an appropriate purchase destination is selected and the article is purchased. In addition, when necessary, a purchase request is made to the purchase target, and the goods are ordered based on the estimate.

In such an article purchasing system, basically, all processing is performed by a person based on a handwritten slip. On the other hand, since the accounting process and the like are all processed by the computer, it is necessary to input the content processed by the slip into the computer.

Therefore, a system is conceivable in which computer processing also advances in the purchase of goods and a purchase goods request is input to a computer and this data is also used in accounting processing.

[0005] However, such a system is intended only to create data suitable for the accounting system of a company, and there has been no idea to efficiently purchase goods.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic article ordering system capable of efficiently purchasing articles in a company or the like.

[0007]

According to the present invention, when a purchase request for an article is received, a quotation request creation and sending means for creating a quote request for the requested article and sending it to a predetermined supplier is provided. Corresponding to the automatic quotation condition receiving means for receiving the quotation reply corresponding to the quotation request from the supplier, the judging means for judging whether the received quotation reply corresponds to the preset automatic ordering condition, and the automatic ordering condition If not, order the item after obtaining the agreement of the article purchase request department,
If the automatic ordering condition is met, the article is automatically ordered to the supplier who sent the quotation reply.

As described above, according to the present invention, an automatic order is placed when an estimate reply of a predetermined condition is obtained. Therefore, the burden on the person in charge of the purchasing department can be reduced, and the burden on the requesting department is also reduced. Furthermore, it is possible to place an order quickly without delaying the time from the estimate response to the order placement.
There are also merits such as early delivery and a margin at the supplier.

Further, it is preferable that the automatic ordering condition includes that the reply amount in the estimate reply is less than or equal to the budget amount.

Further, it is preferable that the article purchase request has a column for describing whether or not the quotation check by the purchase request department is necessary, and the automatic ordering condition includes that the quotation check is not valid. Is.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the system according to the embodiment. Requesting department terminals 10a to 10f are provided in each department in the company, and these requesting department terminals 10a to 10f are connected to each other via an intranet. A purchasing system 12 is also connected to this intranet.

The purchasing system 12 comprises, for example, various programs for purchasing goods and a server computer having various databases for purchasing. The purchasing system 12 includes a classification category storage unit 12a that stores a classification category used when purchasing an article without a part code, an order data storage unit 12b that stores past order data, and a supplier code. The storage unit is connected to the supplier master 12c to be stored, the automatic order condition storage unit 12d to store the automatic order condition, and the like.

A Web conversion system 14 is connected to the purchasing system 12 via a firewall, and various supplier terminals 16a to 16f are connected to the Web conversion server 14 via a firewall. There is. That is, the Web conversion server 14 is located between the internal Intranet and the network such as the external Internet, and acts as a DMZ server that connects the Intranet and prevents direct external access to the Intranet. Further, the Web conversion server 14 communicates with the external suppliers 16a to 16f by WML, so the data from the intranet side is XML converted and sent to the outside, and the external data is reverse XML converted and purchased. It plays a role of passing to the system 12.

The supplier terminals 16a to 16f are ordinary computer terminals at each supplier, and accept requests for quotations and product orders sent from the Web conversion server 14,
Send quotes and delivery information. The Web conversion server 16 includes a folder 1 for storing delivery notes for each supplier.
It has a storage unit such as 4a.

Here, in the present embodiment, each of the supplier terminals 16a to 16f logs in to the system of the Web conversion server 14 via the Internet to access their own page and receive ordering information and the like. , Receipt confirmation, delivery date reply, delivery information, etc. can be sent, and data such as acceptance record and inspection record can be received. Note that these are basically communicated in the XML format.

The processing flow at the time of estimating the purchase of goods in such a system will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when there is a purchase request for an article in a certain section, a person who wants to purchase the request section or a person who receives the request operates the request section terminals 10a to 10f to input the purchase request of the article. To do. In this case, the terminal 10a
In 10f, the article purchase program may be started up, or may be used for the article purchase program of the purchase system 12.

In any case, on the terminals 10a to 10f, a screen for purchasing an item is displayed, and an item to be purchased is input.

This purchase request is sent as a purchase request application to the purchaser in the purchasing department when the boss of the requesting department approves the request and if the requesting department agrees on the product purchase request.

For example, it is stored in a purchase request acceptance waiting folder of the purchaser in the purchase system 12. When the purchase request application arrives, the purchaser performs the processing of accepting this application and the purchase request processing such as the selection of the supplier. Then, when the business partner can be selected, a quotation request is created and supplied to the supplier terminals 16a to 16f. In the present embodiment, the XML-converted quotation is stored in the quotation request folder of the supplier page of the Web conversion system 14, and the supplier terminals 16a to 16f take out the quotation request.

At the supplier, the quotation processing is performed based on the quotation request, and the prepared quotation is sent to the purchaser. In this embodiment, by loading the quotation in the quotation folder on the corresponding supplier page of the Web conversion system 14, the quotation in which the quotation is reversely XML converted is the quotation of the purchaser of the purchasing system 12. It is stored in the receiving folder.

When the purchaser receives the quotation and has made multiple quotations (competitive quotations: competing quotations), the purchasing clerk makes a competitive valuation and decides whether or not to accept the quotations. approve. At this time, if necessary, a quotation agreement request is sent to the requesting section, and after obtaining the agreement of the requesting section, the quotation is approved.

In this way, the process of estimation at the time of requesting the purchase of goods is performed. If this quotation is approved, the order is actually delivered to that item. This will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the purchasing department places an order for the article with respect to the supplier in accordance with the approved quotation. The order includes delivery location information. The purchase order is also sent to the supplier by importing the data into the supplier terminals 16a to 16f via the Web conversion system 14 as in the case of the quote. Then, the supplier transmits confirmation of receipt of the order information (confirmation of receipt of order), confirmation of delivery date and transmission of delivery date reply. Furthermore, the delivery information is input and transmitted.

Next, a delivery note and a product slip are created, the delivery slip is transmitted, and the product slip is affixed to the delivered product and delivered to the delivery place by a truck or the like. Further, the purchasing department carries out the acceptance process when the information indicating that the goods have been delivered is transmitted from the department in charge, and transmits the acceptance record notification to the supplier. . Further, the purchasing department performs an inspection process on the delivered goods and sends an inspection result notification to the supplier. The supplier receives these acceptance results and inspection results, stores them in an internal database, and makes it possible to inquire at any time.

In this way, the processing for purchasing an article in this system is performed. When each department receives data that needs to be viewed,
It is preferable to be notified, and an email from the sender may be sent. Also,
The exchange of various data is not limited to the above example, and other methods may be used.

"Categorization and Name Identification Function of Parts without Part Code in Purchase Request Application" As described above, the purchase request application is created by the request department terminals 10a to 10f. In this purchase request application screen, product name, quantity,
Information about purchased goods such as unit, maker, unit price, desired delivery date, intended use, delivery destination information that identifies the delivery destination, supplier information that identifies the supplier, purchaser information that identifies the person in charge of the purchase request department Is entered.

At this time, some of the purchased articles have a part code in order to make a regular purchase, and some parts do not have a part code. There is something. In a manufacturing factory, parts used in the manufacturing process usually have a part code, and other articles often do not have a part code.

On the input screen of the purchase request application, as shown in FIG. 4, there is a field of "category category", and a button beside it is used to select "category category" and "category category code". The input assistance screen is displayed. In this input assistance screen, it is divided into categories by "category category".
"Category category middle category", "Category category minor category"
The information of the classification master is displayed in the order of and can be selected. The classification category is stored in the classification category storage unit 12a of the purchasing system.

That is, first, a list of major categories is displayed,
By selecting one (for example, A: preprocess material), the middle classification is displayed as a pull-down menu. Then, by selecting one of them (for example, 01: wafer), the small classification is displayed in the adjacent window,
By selecting one of them (for example, 001: Si wafer), the classification category is selected. As a result, A01001 is automatically selected as the classification category code.

The selection result is also displayed on the application screen. As classification categories, major classification A: preprocess material, middle classification 0
1: Wafer, small classification 001: Si wafer is displayed, and A01001 is also displayed as a classification category code.

In this way, the classification category and the classification code are assigned to the articles to which the part code is not assigned. In particular, according to the present embodiment, the purchase application creator automatically selects the category category code for the purchased article by selecting the category category. Therefore, in the purchasing system, it is possible to systematically manage an article having no part code by using the classification category code as a key. That is, the article name often differs depending on the person or manufacturer, and the same article often becomes different when the database is created based on the article name. By using the classification categories as in the present embodiment, the name identification function that unifies the article names is exerted.

Further, by storing the purchase destination, purchase price, etc. of the actually purchased article as the purchase data of the article and making it a database, the article data of the same category in the past can always be obtained (for example, at the time of purchase application). You can estimate the price, etc. by referring to. In addition, if a company with factories located in various parts of Japan or in foreign countries adopts such a system and stores the product purchase data in a database, each purchasing department can use the classification category as a key to purchase other products from other factories. It is possible to refer to the purchase amount in the purchasing department of the above, and it is possible to select a supplier having a low purchase unit price, and it is possible to obtain a cost reduction effect.

[Reuse of Past Order Data] Normally, when applying for a purchase request, all the required items must be input, and the input operation is complicated.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the past order data stored in the order data storage unit 12b can be reused. Note that past data is not entered in the desired delivery date field in the purchase request application.

First, a "reuse" button is displayed in the purchase request application screen. When this button is selected, the reuse search screen is displayed. On this screen for reusable search, classification category, product name, supplier, delivery date, etc. can be entered, and a search can be performed by partially matching each category. Then, the search results are displayed in a list as a selection screen. Then, by selecting the desired one from the list of search results, the items corresponding to the input items on the purchase application screen are extracted from the selected order data,
It is automatically entered in the corresponding field. The input screen is
As shown in FIG. 5, a confirmation screen is displayed, and a "reuse" button and a "close" button are displayed on this screen. Here, by selecting the "close" button, the screen returns to the previous selection screen. This allows the selection to be easily redone in case of mistake.

On the other hand, when the "reuse button" is selected, the reuse correction screen is displayed, and the necessary items are
You can make corrections and enter purchase request applications using past order data.

[Attachment of Manufacturing Drawing to Quotation Request] Depending on the article to be purchased, it is necessary to refer to the manufacturing drawing or the like. In the past, manufacturing drawings and the like were sent to the request for quotation by separate fax or mail.

In this embodiment, the Web conversion system 14
And the supplier terminals 16a to 16f, with the drawing data attached, can be exchanged. That is, it is possible to attach a drawing to the request for quote. The attached drawing data is in a data format that can be modified by the supplier. Therefore, if the supplier corrects the drawing, it is corrected. Also, the drawing can be attached to the estimate reply. Therefore, the supplier can attach the corrected drawing to the quotation reply and send it.

That is, in the purchase application screen, there is a button of "attach drawing", and when this button is selected, the folder display screen of the terminal is displayed, and by selecting a file on that screen, the drawing is applied to the purchase application. Can be attached. Therefore, even in the quotation request form, you can
The conversion server 14 provides the quotation request form to the vendor so that the vendor can obtain the drawing together with the quotation request form. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, there is a "attach drawing" button on the screen for creating a request for quotation in the purchasing department.
By selecting this, the drawing can be attached in the same manner. Further, the screen for creating a quotation reply sheet at the supplier also has a button for "attach drawing", and by selecting this button, a drawing can be attached in the same manner.

In the case of competitive quotation, the same quotation request form is sent to a plurality of suppliers. In this case, select sending the request for quotation in bulk. Then, on that screen, a plurality of suppliers are selected and the quotation request form is collectively sent. In this case, the attached drawings are also sent to each supplier.

[Automatic ordering function] When the purchasing department receives the quotation reply sheet, the purchaser presents the quotation reply sheet to the requesting department as described above, and upon agreement of the requesting department. Then, approve the quotation and start ordering work.

However, in the present embodiment, when a certain condition is met, the purchasing system 12 automatically orders the article from the supplier who has received the quotation reply. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, when there is a quotation response to the quotation request of the purchasing system 12 (S11), it is determined whether or not all the replies have been received from the vendor who has requested the quotation (S1).
2). When all the answers are obtained, it is determined whether or not the automatic ordering condition is satisfied (S13). Note that this condition is stored in the automatic order condition storage unit 12d.

The conditions for automatic ordering are (i) a predetermined amount of money (for example, 100,000 yen) or less, (ii) whether the requesting department does not request a quotation response check, (iii) whether it is a competitive quotation, or (iv). ) Is the budget unit price less than the response unit price, or (v)
Determine whether comments are attached to the quotation response from the supplier. Then, if YES for all of these (i) to (v), the purchasing system 12 automatically performs the ordering process (S14). If the result of this determination is NO, the order is placed manually (S15).

By making such an automatic order, the burden on the person in charge of the purchasing department can be reduced, and the burden on the requesting department can also be reduced. Furthermore, there is also an advantage that an early order can be made without delaying the time from the reply to the quotation to the order, which enables early delivery and a margin at the supplier.

"Batch transmission of delivery slips and batch printout" Normally, when a delivery slip for an ordered article is delivered, it is created and transmitted one by one, and the content thereof is printed. However, in the case of this procedure, it is necessary to perform the work of transmitting and printing the delivery slip at every glance. Further, it takes a certain amount of time for data transmission in transmission work and printing work. Particularly, in the present embodiment, this work is a work performed by logging in to the web conversion system 14 via the network by the supplier terminals 16a to 16f, and is a work that takes a relatively long time.

In view of this, the present embodiment has a function of, for example, delivering one day's worth of deliveries and transmitting them all at once. For example, it is possible to send and print a delivery note for 10 deliveries in one operation.

On the delivery slip creation screen, there is a "collective delivery note" button. When the "Batch delivery note" button is selected at the stage of creating the delivery note, a batch delivery note list screen is displayed. The batch delivery note list screen is a list of delivery notes for each supplier, and all items for a predetermined period are displayed in a list. In this list, for each delivered item,
There are columns for shipping date, estimated delivery date, quantity, status, deletion, print selection, etc. Here, the status indicates transmitted or not transmitted. For deletion, a check box is displayed only for those that have not been sent, and by checking here, the corresponding delivery note can be deleted. Also, by checking the print column, the corresponding delivery note is printed.

A folder selection field is displayed above this list. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, there is a ↓ button, and by selecting this button, folders A to Z can be selected. Then, when a folder is selected, a delivery note list screen for the selected folder is displayed. This is because the purchasing system 12 and the Web conversion system 14 recognize external suppliers on a company-by-company basis. However, in reality, each supplier often has different departments, and may be located in different geographical locations. In such a case, at each supplier,
There is a request to send and print a delivery note separately for each department. That is, at least in the case of batch transmission,
I want to send a delivery note only for my department.

Therefore, by using a folder for each department in one supplier, the work for each department can be performed.

Next to the folder selection field, "To folder"
There is a button, and when the user's own folder is selected and displayed, by selecting this "to folder", the created unsent folder is stored in the selected folder. This will also display the contents of that folder.

In this way, the supplier can sequentially store the undelivered delivery note in its own folder for each department.

When the delivery notes are collectively transmitted, the supplier selects the undelivered package delivery statement list screen and selects his / her folder on the screen. As a result, the list of undelivered delivery notes in the folder is displayed. Then, in this state, by selecting both the print button and the send button, the displayed delivery note is batch-transmitted and batch-printed, and the corresponding delivery note disappears from the list.

In this way, the delivery note is collectively transmitted and collectively printed. By performing the work collectively, the instruction operation only needs to be performed once, and since the data transmission is performed continuously, there is an advantage that the total time can be shortened. It is also possible to prepare a delivery note for one day, confirm the shipment of the article, and then send the delivery note in a batch, which can improve the efficiency of work at the supplier.

[Tierization of Supplier Master] As described above,
In many cases, the supplier's company has multiple departments. If only one company has different departments,
There is no problem in the system of the company that purchases goods. However, if the supplier adopts a company system or the like and externally each department is independent, a plurality of user IDs are required. On the other hand, if a completely different user ID is assigned, it is recognized as a different company, and it becomes impossible to distinguish it from other companies. That is, one supplier is registered as a plurality of different companies, and management of the purchase record and the like becomes complicated.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, in the supplier master, the code of the supplier is hierarchized, and each department can be recognized separately while recognizing that it is one company. I did it. That is, the supplier code is specified by the parent code (for example, parent code A001: ABC).
Co., Ltd., specify the department name with the child code (child code L0
1: XX Company, L02: YY Company). Then, the user ID itself is assigned to each department.

As a result, ordering, delivery management, etc.
It is possible to handle each user based on the user ID for each department that is acting externally, and to summarize the data for each supplier in statistics such as purchase results.

[0059]

As described above, according to the present invention, an automatic order is placed when an estimate reply of a predetermined condition is obtained. Therefore, the burden on the person in charge of the purchasing department can be reduced,
Furthermore, the burden on the required department is also reduced. Further, there is an advantage that an order can be placed earlier without delaying the time from the reply to the quotation to the ordering, which allows early delivery and a margin at the supplier.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation at the time of requesting and responding to an estimate.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation at the time of ordering / delivery.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a classification category selection screen.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a screen for reusing order data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a screen for attaching a drawing to a quotation request.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an automatic ordering process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a folder selection screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing hierarchization of a supplier master.

[Explanation of symbols]

10a to 10f Purchasing department terminal, 12 Purchasing system,
14 Web conversion system, 16a to 16f Supplier terminals.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. When an article purchase request is received, a quotation request creation / sending means for creating a quotation request for the requested article and sending it to a predetermined supplier, and the quotation request from the supplier. A quotation reply receiving means for receiving the corresponding quotation reply, a judging means for judging whether the received quotation reply meets the preset automatic ordering condition, and an article purchase request when the quotation reply does not correspond to the automatic ordering condition. If you order the goods after obtaining the agreement of the department and if the conditions for automatic ordering are met, you can automatically order the goods to the supplier who sent the quotation reply. Ordering system. 2. The automatic ordering system according to claim 1, wherein the automatic ordering condition includes that the reply amount in the estimate reply is less than or equal to the budget amount. 3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the article purchase request includes a column for indicating whether or not the purchase request department needs to check the quotation, and the automatic ordering condition does not include the quotation check. An automatic ordering system for goods that is included.