JP2006103846A - Physical distribution management system, physical distribution management device, physical distribution management method, and reading device for radio tag - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a physical distribution management system capable of managing physical distribution efficiently using a radio tag. <P>SOLUTION: This physical distribution management system is provided with a plurality of reading devices 3 for radio tag provided on a route for providing an article 4 whose physical distribution is managed and communicating within predetermined communication areas A to D for communicating with the radio tag 5 attached to the article 4 and the physical distribution management device 1 connected with each reading device 3 for radio tag through a communication network 2. The physical distribution management device 1 manages fee of use of the article 4 per article ID classified into the communication areas A to D in accounting database depending on communication area. The physical distribution management device 1 manages communication history information (communication start time, communication end time) indicating communication situation of the reading device 3 for radio tag and the radio tag 6 in communication history database depending on communication areas A to D. The physical distribution management device 1 receives a demand from a terminal unit 6 for monitoring and transmits information at least on one side of both of the fee of use of the article 4 and the communication history information to the terminal unit 6 for monitoring depending on the communication areas A to D. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a logistics management system, and more particularly to a logistics management system that manages logistics using a wireless tag.

Conventionally, by communicating with a wireless tag attached to an article to be managed (such as a pallet), the current position where the article is located is specified, and the position of the specified article is guided to the terminal device and distributed. There is a method of performing management (for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-99276 (paragraphs 0012-0016, FIG. 1)

  However, with the method disclosed in Patent Document 1, although the current position of the article is guided, the distribution route through which the article has been provided cannot be guided. In addition, when an article to be managed is also an object to be charged, the usage fee to be charged to the user of the article cannot be charged. For this reason, there has been a disadvantage that distribution management cannot be performed efficiently.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a physical distribution management system, a physical distribution management apparatus, a physical distribution management method, and a wireless tag reader capable of efficiently performing physical distribution management. Is to provide a device.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a plurality of wireless devices that are provided in a provision route of an article that is a target of physical distribution management and communicate within a predetermined communication area that can communicate with a wireless tag attached to the article. A tag reading device; and a physical distribution management device connected to each of the wireless tag reading devices via a communication network. The wireless tag reader reads the identification information of the article pre-recorded in the wireless tag through communication with the wireless tag in the communication area, and the wireless tag reading device reads the wireless tag for each of the read identification information. Stores communication history information indicating the communication status with the tag. Further, the wireless tag reading device charges the usage fee to be charged to the user of the article to which the wireless tag is attached for each of the read identification information based on a preset charging condition, For each identification information read, the charged usage fee and the stored communication history information are transmitted to the physical distribution management apparatus via the communication network. In addition, the distribution management device manages the usage fee and the communication history information for each of the identification information transmitted from the RFID tag reader that communicated in the predetermined communication area, for each communication area. Then, in response to a request from the external device, at least one of the usage fee for each of the managed identification information and the communication history information is transmitted to the external device separately from the communication area.

  According to the present invention, logistics management can be efficiently performed using a wireless tag.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a physical distribution management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the case where the distribution management of the beer barrel which is also the object of charge is performed will be described as an example.
In FIG. 1, the physical distribution management system includes a physical distribution management device 1 and a plurality of RFID tag readers 3. More specifically, the physical distribution management device 1 is connected to each wireless tag reading device 3 via a communication network 2 such as the Internet.
Each wireless tag reader 3 is installed in, for example, a beer store (hereinafter simply referred to as “store”), and has communication areas A, B, C, and D that can communicate with the wireless tag 5 described later. is doing. In addition, in a store, it becomes possible to provide the beer of a beer barrel to a customer etc. by signing a business contract with the manager (beer company etc.) of a beer barrel.

  The code | symbol 4 has shown the article | item which is an above-described beer barrel. The article 4 is provided to a store in the communication areas A to D, that is, a user of the article 4 while being attached to the wireless tag 5. An IC chip is mounted on the wireless tag 5, and an article ID unique to the article 4 (identification information of the article 4) is recorded in advance on the IC chip. In FIG. 1, only the provision route (distribution route) of one article 4 is shown, but there are actually many provision routes of a plurality of articles 4.

  In addition, a monitoring terminal (external device) 6 is connected to the physical distribution management device 1 via a communication network 2. The monitoring terminal 6 is a personal computer, for example, and has a general configuration including an input device such as a mouse, a display device such as a computer display, a storage device such as a memory, and a processing device such as a CPU. . This monitoring terminal 6 is used, for example, by a beer barrel manager. Hereinafter, the configurations of the physical distribution management device 1 and the wireless tag reader 3 will be described in order.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the physical distribution management apparatus 1. In FIG. 2, the physical distribution management device 1 is, for example, a server device, and includes a communication interface 10, a storage device 11, and a processing device 12 that controls them. The communication interface 10 is a network interface or the like, and the storage device 11 is a memory, a hard disk, or the like.
The processing device 12 is a CPU or the like, and operates according to a physical distribution management program incorporated in the physical distribution management device 1. The above-described distribution management program may be stored in a predetermined area of the storage device 11 in advance, or may be read from a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM.

The storage device 11 includes a communication history database 111 for each communication area and a charging database 112 for each communication area. In the communication history database 111 by communication area, as shown in FIG. 3A, the communication start time (including date, time, and the same applies hereinafter) d1 and communication end time for each article ID of the article 4 described above. (Including the date and time. The same applies hereinafter.) D2 is managed separately from the communication areas A to D shown in FIG. The communication start time d1 refers to the time when communication between the wireless tag 5 and the wireless tag reader 3 starts, and the communication end time d2 refers to communication between the wireless tag 5 and the wireless tag reader 3. Refers to the finished time. Since these times d1 and d2 are specified by the RFID tag reader 3 described later, details will be described later. The communication status between each wireless tag reader 3 and the wireless tag 5 can be ascertained from the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 described above. Times d1 and d2 are referred to as communication history information.
Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, the usage fee d3 for each article ID of the article 4 is managed separately for each of the communication areas A to D shown in FIG. . The usage fee d3 is a usage fee to be imposed on the user of the article 4. Here, the usage fee of a beer barrel is assumed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the wireless tag reader 3. In FIG. 4, the wireless tag reading device 3 includes a reading unit 31, a communication status determination unit 32, and a communication history information storage unit (information storage unit) 33. The wireless tag reader 3 also includes a charging processing unit 34, a charging information storage unit (information storage unit) 35, and a transmission unit 36.
The reading unit 31 is, for example, an antenna, and reads an article ID recorded on the wireless tag 5 by communication with the wireless tag 5.
The communication status determination unit 32 determines the communication status between the wireless tag 5 and the reading unit 31 from the reading status of the article ID in the reading unit 31, and stores the communication history information indicating the result in the communication history information storage unit 33. It is like that. The communication history information is the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 shown in FIG. This will be described in detail.

First, when reading of the article ID recorded in the wireless tag 5 of the article 4 is started in the reading unit 31, the communication status determining unit 32 determines that communication with the wireless tag 5 has started, and at that time , I.e., the communication start time d <b> 1 is stored in the communication history information storage unit 33. The stored communication start time d1 is associated with the article ID read by the reading unit 31. Note that the communication history storage unit 33 is a storage device such as a memory.
When the reading of the article ID is completed in the reading unit 31, the communication status determining unit 32 determines that the communication with the wireless tag 5 has ended, and sets the time at that time, that is, the communication end time d2 for each article ID. Is stored in the communication history information storage unit 33.

Here, specific processing in the communication status determination unit 32 will be described with reference to FIGS.
For example, when the article 4 moves along the movement route shown in FIG. 5A, when the article 4 moves to the position “IN” shown in FIG. 4 is determined to have started communication with the wireless tag 5, and the time at that time is stored in the communication history information storage unit 33 as the communication start time d1. Then, when the article 4 moves to the position “OUT” shown in FIG. 5A, the communication status determination unit 32 determines that the communication with the wireless tag 5 has ended, and sets the time at that time. The communication history information storage unit 33 stores the communication end time d2. That is, the communication history information storage unit 33 stores the time when the article 4 enters and exits the communication area A.
Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 5B, when the article 4 enters and leaves the communication area A twice (see “IN” and “OUT” in FIG. 5B), the communication status determination unit 32 determines that the article 4 Each time the communication area A enters or exits, the communication start time d1 or the communication end time d2 is stored in the communication history information storage unit 33.

Returning to FIG. 4, the charging processing unit 34 charges the usage fee d <b> 3 to be charged to the user of the article 4 based on the preset charging condition based on the result determined by the communication status determining unit 32. This charging condition is a rule for charging the usage fee d3, and here, for example, it is assumed that a flat fee is included. The details of the billing process will be described in detail later with reference to FIG.
Then, the billing processing unit 34 stores the billed usage fee d3 in the billing information storage unit 35. The stored usage fee d3 is associated with the item ID. The billing information storage unit 35 is a storage device such as a memory.

  The transmission unit 36 transmits the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 for each article ID read from the communication history information storage unit 33 to the physical distribution management device 1 at a predetermined timing (for example, a preset time). In addition, the transmission unit 36 transmits the usage fee d3 for each article ID read from the charging information storage unit 35 to the physical distribution management device 1 at a predetermined timing.

[Whole process in RFID tag reader]
Next, the overall processing in the RFID tag reader 3 in the communication area A shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. Although the communication area A will be described here, the same applies to the other communication areas B to D.
FIG. 6 is a processing procedure showing overall processing in the RFID tag reader 3. Here, the case where the article 4 attached with the wireless tag 5 moves according to the moving route shown in FIG.

  First, when the article 4 moves to the position “IN” shown in FIG. 5A, the reading unit 31 shown in FIG. 4 starts reading the article ID from the wireless tag 5 of the article 4. Then, the communication status determination unit 32 determines the communication status with the wireless tag 5 and determines that communication with the wireless tag 5 has started (in the case of “start” in S10). Then, the communication status determination unit 32 stores the time, that is, the communication start time d1 in the communication history information storage unit 33 in association with the article ID read by the reading unit 31 (S11).

Next, the billing processing unit 34 performs billing processing based on preset billing conditions for the usage fee d3 to be charged to the user of the article 4 (S12). In the billing process, the flat fee included in the billing conditions is set as the usage fee d3. That is, the usage fee d3 is charged only when the article ID is read for the first time by the reading unit 31.
More specifically, the charging processing unit 34 stores the usage fee d3 for which the charging process has been performed in S12 in the charging information storage unit 35 in association with the article ID read by the reading unit 31. Thereby, it becomes possible to collect the usage fee of the article 4 for the user in the communication area A.

  Thereafter, the reading unit 31 reads the article ID at a predetermined timing until the article 4 shown in FIG. 5A moves to the position “OUT” in FIG. 32 determines that the communication determined in S10 is continuing (in the case of “continuation” in S10). When the article 4 in FIG. 5 (A) moves to the position “OUT” shown in FIG. 5 (A), the reading unit 31 cannot read the article ID, and the communication status determination unit 32 determines in S10. It is determined that the determined communication has ended (in the case of “END” in S10). Then, the communication status determination unit 32 stores the time at that time, that is, the communication end time d2 in the communication history information storage unit 33 in association with the article ID read by the reading unit 31 (S13). Thereby, it becomes possible to confirm the time when the article 4 shown in FIG. 5A was present in the communication area A.

After that, the transmitter 36 of the RFID tag reader 3 shown in FIG. 4 reads out the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 for each article ID from the communication history information storage unit 33 at a predetermined timing. The read times d1 and d2 are transmitted to the physical distribution management device 1 via the communication network 2. Further, the transmission unit 36 reads the usage fee d3 for each article ID from the billing information storage unit 35 and transmits the usage fee d3 to the physical distribution management apparatus 1 via the communication network 2.
Then, in the physical distribution management device 1 illustrated in FIG. 2, the processing device 12 receives the transmission from the transmission unit 36 of the wireless tag reader 3, and the communication start time d1 for each article ID transmitted from the transmission unit 36. And the communication end time d2 are registered in the communication history database 111 by communication area (see FIG. 3A). In addition, the processing device 12 registers the usage fee d3 for each article ID transmitted from the transmitting unit 36 in the communication area-based charging database 112 (see FIG. 3B). In this way, the communication start time d1, the communication end time d2, and the usage fee d3 in the communication area A are managed for each item ID in each of the databases 111 and 112.

  Then, the distribution management device 1 also receives the article ID from each RFID tag reading device 3 for the communication start time d1, the communication end time d2, and the usage fee d3 in all the other communication areas B to D shown in FIG. And is managed in each of the databases 111 and 112. Thereby, the communication start time d1, the communication end time d2, and the usage fee d3 in all the communication areas A to D can be managed in association with the article IDs.

[Specific examples of other billing processes in the RFID tag reader]
Here, a specific example of another billing process in the RFID tag reader 3 will be described. In S12 of FIG. 6, the case where the charging processing unit 34 illustrated in FIG. 4 performs the charging process using the fixed amount charge included in the charging condition as the usage fee d3 has been described, but the following charging process is performed. It may be.

For example, the billing processing unit 34 charges the usage fee d3 according to the communication time indicated by the time difference between the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 read from the communication history information storage unit 33. In this case, the usage fee d3 is charged, for example, by adding the communication time per unit time to the flat fee included in the charging conditions. If it does in this way, it will become possible to set the usage fee d3 individually concretely paying attention to the use time of the articles | goods 4. FIG.
Further, the billing processing unit 34 charges the usage fee d3 according to the number of times the communication start time d1 stored in the communication history information storage unit 33 is stored, that is, the number of times the communication with the wireless tag 5 is newly started. Also good. In this case, for the usage fee d3, for example, a flat fee included in the charging condition is added each time. If it does in this way, it will become possible to set the usage fee d3 individually concretely paying attention to the frequency | count of utilization of the articles | goods 4. FIG.

[Search process in logistics management device]
Next, search processing in the physical distribution management apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 7 is a processing procedure showing search processing in the physical distribution management apparatus 1. Here, a case where the search for the communication start time d1, the communication end time d2, and the usage fee d3 is performed for an article ID will be described as an example, but the search is not limited thereto. For example, only the communication start time d1, only the communication end time d2, or only the usage fee d3 may be searched. Moreover, the search which combined these information may be sufficient.

  First, the monitoring terminal 6 shown in FIG. 1 accesses the physical distribution management apparatus 1 via the communication network 2, and communication history information (communication start time d1, communication end time d2) associated with the article ID to be searched and Request usage fee d3. Then, the processing device 12 of the physical distribution management device 1 shown in FIG. 2 receives the search target item ID requested from the monitoring terminal 6 (S20). Subsequently, the processing device 12 searches the communication history database 111 for each communication area for the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 for the product ID received in S20, and calculates the usage fee d3 for the product ID for each communication area. Search from 112 (S21). In the search, the processing device 12 reads the communication start time d1 and the communication end time d2 of the article ID from the communication history database 111 for each communication area separately from the communication areas A to D. Further, the processing device 12 reads the usage fee d3 of the article ID from the communication area-specific charging database 112 for each of the communication areas A to D.

  And the processing apparatus 12 transmits the search result searched by S21 to the monitoring terminal 6 via the communication network 2 (S22). The search results are the communication start time d1, the communication end time d2, and the usage fee d3 classified for each of the communication areas A to D. Thereby, in the monitoring terminal 6, the communication start time d1, the communication end time d2, and the usage fee d3 classified for each of the communication areas A to D are displayed. Therefore, the administrator can check the provision route of a certain article 4 and collect the usage fee of each user. Therefore, logistics management of the article 4 can be performed efficiently.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above. The configuration (including the data format) of the distribution management device 1 and the RFID tag reader 3 can be variously changed by a known technique. For example, the physical distribution management device 1 may perform distributed processing using a plurality of processing devices 12.
Further, the processing procedures of the physical distribution management device 1 and the RFID tag reader 3 can be variously changed by known techniques.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the physical distribution management system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the physical distribution management apparatus of FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data format of the storage device of FIG. 2, in which FIG. (A) shows a data format of a communication history database for each communication area, and FIG. is there. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the reader for RFID tags of FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the movement route of the articles | goods in the communication area of FIG. 5 is a processing procedure showing overall processing in the wireless tag reader of FIG. 4. It is a process sequence which shows the search process in the physical distribution management apparatus of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Logistics management apparatus 3 Reading apparatus for wireless tags 4 Goods 5 Wireless tags 6 Monitoring terminal 11 Storage apparatus 12 Processing apparatus 111 Communication history database according to communication area 112 Accounting database according to communication area

Claims (7)

A plurality of RFID tag readers that communicate with each other in a predetermined communication area that is provided on a distribution route of an article that is subject to distribution management and that can communicate with the RFID tag attached to the article, and for each of the RFID tags A logistics management system comprising a logistics management device connected to a reading device via a communication network,
The wireless tag reader is
Communication history information indicating the communication status with the wireless tag for each of the read identification information, by reading the identification information of the article recorded in advance in the wireless tag by communication with the wireless tag in the communication area And save
For each of the read identification information, charge a usage fee to be charged to the user of the article to which the wireless tag is attached based on a preset charging condition,
For each of the read identification information, the charged usage fee and the stored communication history information are transmitted to the physical distribution management device via the communication network,
The physical distribution management device
Managing the usage fee and the communication history information for each of the identification information transmitted from the RFID tag reader that has performed communication within the predetermined communication area, separately from the communication area;
In response to a request from an external device, at least one of the usage fee or the communication history information for each managed identification information is transmitted to the external device separately from the communication area. . The wireless tag reader is
The physical distribution management system according to claim 1, wherein the usage fee is charged only when the identification information of the article is read for the first time. The communication history information includes a communication start time when communication with the wireless tag is started and a communication end time when communication is ended.
The wireless tag reader is
2. The usage fee is charged according to a communication time indicated by a time difference between a communication start time and a communication end time included in the communication history information when charging the usage fee. The logistics management system described in. The wireless tag reader is
2. The physical distribution management system according to claim 1, wherein when the usage fee is charged, the usage fee is charged according to the number of times communication with the wireless tag is newly started. A wireless tag reader provided in a provision route of an article to be subject to physical distribution management and communicating within a predetermined communication area with a wireless tag attached to the article,
A reading unit that reads identification information of the article recorded in advance in the wireless tag by communication with the wireless tag in the communication area;
From the reading status in the reading unit, a communication status determination unit that determines the communication status with the wireless tag,
A charging processing unit that charges a usage fee to be charged to a user of the article to which the wireless tag is attached for each identification information read by the reading unit, based on a preset charging condition;
An information storage unit that stores communication history information indicating the communication status determined by the communication status determination unit and the usage fee charged by the charging processing unit for each identification information read by the reading unit. When,
A wireless communication system comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit the communication history information and the usage fee for each identification information stored in the information storage unit to the physical distribution management device via the communication network. Tag reader. 6. The usage fee and the communication history information for each of the identification information transmitted from the transmission unit of the wireless tag reader according to claim 5 are managed separately for each communication area in which the wireless tag reader communicates. A storage device to
A processing device that receives a request from an external device and transmits at least one of the usage fee or the communication history information associated with the identification information read from the storage device to the external device separately from the communication area; A logistics management device characterized by comprising: A plurality of RFID tag readers that communicate with each other in a predetermined communication area that is provided on a distribution route of an article that is subject to distribution management and that can communicate with the RFID tag attached to the article, and for each of the RFID tags A logistics management method in a logistics management system comprising a logistics management device connected to a reader via a communication network,
The wireless tag reader is
Reading the identification information of the article pre-recorded in the wireless tag by communication with the wireless tag in the communication area;
For each of the read identification information, storing communication history information indicating a communication status with the wireless tag;
For each of the read identification information, charging a usage fee to be charged to a user of the article to which the wireless tag is attached based on a preset charging condition;
Transmitting the charged usage fee and the stored communication history information to the physical distribution management device via the communication network for each of the read identification information,
The physical distribution management device
Managing the usage fee and the communication history information for each of the identification information transmitted from the RFID tag reader that performs communication in the predetermined communication area separately for the communication area;
Receiving a request from an external device, and transmitting at least one of the usage fee for each of the managed identification information and the communication history information to the external device separately from the communication area. Logistics management method.

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