JP2020077207A - Server device, method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a server device, a method, and a program capable of appropriately managing delivery of consumables used in an image formation device or the like.SOLUTION: In a management system having an image formation device and a management server, a communication unit 501 of a management server 106 receives a high consumption alarm indicating that a consumption amount of consumables per unit time in the image formation device exceeds a predetermined value. An alarm generation unit 513 generates, when the high consumption alarm is received, when a monitoring alarm for instructing delivery of the consumables has not been received, a pseudo alarm for instructing delivery of the consumables without receiving an instruction from a job processing device. The alarm generation unit 513 does not generate the pseudo alarm when the consumables are managed by placing one or more inventories at a customer or when the monitoring alarm has been received.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to a server device, a method and a program.

  Conventionally, a customer's image forming apparatus monitored by a management server via a network sends an alarm indicating that the degree of consumption of a specific consumable item has fallen below a certain level to the management server, and the management server receiving the alarm transmits the image. There is a service that automatically delivers consumables for replacement to a forming device. In the image forming apparatus, the mechanism (logic) used to determine whether the alarm should be transmitted uses the consumption level of consumables, or is installed at the customer site in addition to the consumption level of consumables. There may be various mechanisms such as one that uses the usage status of the image forming apparatus.

  In Patent Document 1, it is necessary to calculate the remaining number of days until a delivery instruction is issued based on the remaining amount of toner and the operating conditions of the image forming apparatus, and to replace the toner when the remaining number of days has elapsed. An image forming apparatus that issues an instruction to deliver toner to an installation location of the image forming apparatus has been disclosed.

JP, 2014-91298, A

However, as described above, in the mechanism for calculating the number of remaining days until the toner bottle becomes empty and delivering the replacement toner, if the usage status of the image forming apparatus at the customer suddenly changes, The toner may not be delivered in time. For example, when the customer's print volume is rapidly increased for some reason, it may happen that the replacement toner cannot be delivered in time if the remaining days calculated before the usage situation changes.
On the other hand, for example, when delivery of toner has already been arranged, or when a customer has a stock of replacement toner, it is required to prevent unnecessary delivery of toner as a service mechanism.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a server device capable of appropriately managing delivery of consumables used in an image forming apparatus or the like.

  A server device, which is an example of the present invention, is a server device that manages delivery of consumables used in a job processing device, and the consumption amount of the consumables per unit time in the job processing device exceeds a predetermined value. Receiving a high consumption alarm indicating that the consumable item is delivered, and a monitoring alarm for instructing the delivery of the consumable product is not received when the high consumption alarm is received, an instruction from the job processing apparatus is received. And a generating unit that generates a pseudo alarm for instructing the delivery of the consumable item without supplying the consumable item to the customer. , Or when the monitoring alarm has been received, the pseudo alarm is not generated.

  According to the server device that is an example of the present invention, it is possible to appropriately manage the delivery of consumable items used in the image forming apparatus and the like.

It is a figure showing an example of whole composition of a management system in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of a management server. It is a figure which shows the software structural example of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows the software structural example of a management server. It is a figure which shows an example of the data structure of event information. It is a flowchart explaining the transmission process of a prior delivery alarm. It is a flowchart explaining the production | generation process of a prior delivery alarm. It is a flow chart explaining transmission processing of a high consumption alarm. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of suppressing delivery delay of consumables. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of preventing duplicate delivery of consumables. (A) is a figure which shows an example of a monitoring alarm reception management table, (B) is a figure which shows an example of a high consumption alarm reception management table. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a reception process of a toner bottle empty alarm. It is a figure which shows an example of an inventory management table.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Image forming apparatuses 102a and 102b, a proxy server 103, a firewall 104, and a personal computer (PC) 105 are connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) 101 shown in FIG.

  For the sake of explanation, items common to the image forming apparatuses 102a and 102b will be described as the image forming apparatus 102. In FIG. 1, two image forming apparatuses 102 are connected to the LAN 101, and a plurality of image forming apparatuses 102 are installed under the environment of the same customer. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the number of image forming apparatuses 102 may be one or plural.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet by using a recording material such as toner or ink will be described as an example of a job processing apparatus that receives a consumable item automatically delivered by a management system. However, the job processing apparatus is not limited to the image forming apparatus, and may be, for example, an apparatus that forms a three-dimensional object using a recording material such as a forming material, a so-called 3D printer. Further, the image forming apparatus 102 may be an apparatus having a composite function such as FAX and copy.

  The Proxy Server 103 uses a protocol such as HTTP or HTTPS from the intranet 107 to allow a plurality of users to connect to the Internet 108. The Firewall 104 is installed to enhance the security of the intranet 107. The PC 105 is used by a general user at a customer site for business purposes, is configured to include hardware resources and software resources, and an OS (Operating System) included in the software resources controls execution of applications and the like. To do.

  The management server 106 is an example of a server device, and centrally manages the operating state of the image forming apparatus 102. For example, the management server 106 collects operation information of the image forming apparatus 102, detects a failure of the image forming apparatus 102, and arranges maintenance as necessary. Further, for example, the management server 106 manages the inventory status of the consumables of the image forming apparatus 102 to be managed at the customer site, and automatically arranges the delivery of the new consumables to the customer site, if necessary. .. Here, the consumables include consumable materials such as toner, ink, paper, and general molding materials, toner bottles, toner cartridges, ink tanks, ink bottles, ink cartridges, and replacement parts.

  The intranet 107 corresponds to an environment in which the image forming apparatus 102, the proxy server 103, and the firewall 104 are mutually connected via the LAN 101. In practice, a plurality of intranets 107 and the management server 106 are connected via the Internet 108 so that they can communicate with each other. The delivery system 109 is a system constructed by a sales company, and delivers consumables to customers based on various information notified from the management server 106 by e-mail or the like. In the present embodiment, a toner bottle will be described as an example of a consumable item to be delivered, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be similarly applied to other consumable items such as replacement parts.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the image forming apparatus 102.
The image forming apparatus 102 includes a CPU 201, a ROM 202, a RAM 203, a storage device 204, a network I / F 205, an internal bus 206, a device control unit 207, a printing unit 208, an input / output I / F 209, an input / output device 210, and the like. Note that CPU is an abbreviation for Central Processing Unit, ROM is an abbreviation for Read Only Memory, and RAM is an abbreviation for Random access memory.

  The CPU 201 generally controls each device via the internal bus 206. A CPU 201, a ROM 202, a RAM 203, a storage device 204, a network I / F 205, a device control unit 207, an input / output I / F 209, etc. are connected to the internal bus 206. The ROM 202 stores a program that implements the processes of the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 to 9 described later.

  The RAM 203 functions as a memory and a work area of the CPU 201. The CPU 201, together with the ROM 202 and the RAM 203, executes the above-described program execution processing, and also performs processing for recording image data in a recording medium such as the storage device 204. The storage device 204 functions as an external storage device and stores image data and the like, and can also store counter information, system information, and various logs in place of the backup RAM 203.

  The network I / F 205 exchanges data unidirectionally or bidirectionally with an external network device or a PC via the LAN 101. The device control unit 207 controls the printing unit 208. The printing unit 208 is, for example, an electrophotographic printing unit, and includes an exposure unit, a transfer unit, a fixing device, and the like. The input / output device 210 represents a plurality of configurations that perform input / output in the image forming apparatus 102.

  Specifically, an input (button input, etc.) from the user at the customer site is received, and a signal corresponding to the input is transmitted to the above-described processing units by the input / output I / F 209. The input / output device 210 also includes a display device (touch panel or the like) for providing necessary information to the user and accepting an operation. Further, the input / output device 210 may also include a scanning device for reading a document and receiving electronic data as an input.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the management server 106.
The management server 106 has a CPU 301, a ROM 302, a RAM 303, a storage device 304, a network I / F 305, an internal bus 306, an input / output I / F 307, an input / output device 308, and the like.

  The CPU 301 collectively controls each device via the internal bus 306. A CPU 301, a ROM 302, a RAM 303, a storage device 304, a network I / F 305, an input / output I / F 307, etc. are connected to the internal bus 306. The ROM 302 stores a program that implements the processes of the flowcharts of FIGS. 10, 11 and 13 described later.

  The RAM 303 functions as a memory and a work area of the CPU 301. The CPU 301, together with the ROM 302 and the RAM 303, executes the program execution process. The storage device 304 functions as an external storage device and stores operation information of the image forming apparatus 102 and the like, and can also store system information and various processing information instead of the backup RAM 303.

  The network I / F 305 exchanges data unidirectionally or bidirectionally with an external network device such as the image forming apparatus 102 or the PC 105 via the LAN 101. Through this exchange, the management server 106 can collect various information such as operation information from the image forming apparatus 102.

  The input / output device 308 indicates a plurality of configurations for input / output in the management server 106. Specifically, an input from the operator of the management server 106 is received from a keyboard, a pointing device, or the like, and a signal corresponding to the input is transmitted to the above-mentioned processing units by the input / output I / F 307. The input / output device 308 also includes a display device (CRT, liquid crystal display, etc.) for providing necessary information to the operator of the management server 106 and accepting operations.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration example of the image forming apparatus 102.
In FIG. 4, a software configuration that mainly executes control related to management of a toner bottle as an example of a consumable item is shown, and other configurations are omitted. The image forming apparatus 102 includes a transmission unit 401, a storage unit 402, an image forming unit 403, a state management unit 404, an operation unit 405, a display unit 406, an event management unit 407, a toner bottle management unit 408, and the like.

  The transmission unit 401 transmits, to the management server 106, information about the image forming apparatus 102 (device information), information about an event that occurred in the image forming apparatus 102 (event information), various counter information, consumable item consumption information, and the like. Specifically, the transmission unit 401 acquires the above-mentioned various information from the storage unit 402, edits the acquired information into a predetermined format, and then transmits the information to the management server 106. The device information includes identification information (serial number) of the image forming apparatus 102, network information (IP address), operation information, and the like, and any information is used for notification or the like as necessary.

  The transmission of the event information to the management server 106 is started after a communication test with the management server 106 is performed in a series of installation work for installing the image forming apparatus 102 at the customer site. The transmission unit 401 also receives various instructions transmitted from the management server 106, setting data, and the like. The above-described various data transmission / reception is performed using a protocol such as SMTP or HTTP / HTTPS.

  The storage unit 402 performs storage control such as storing and reading information in the ROM 202, the RAM 203, and the storage device 204. The storage unit 402 also stores management information necessary for managing the image forming apparatus 102. Specifically, the management information includes, for example, device configuration information such as firmware information and identification information of the image forming apparatus 102, various counter information, consumable item consumption level information, an operation history of the image forming apparatus 102, and various abnormalities. It includes history information (log data) indicating the state. Further, in the present embodiment, the storage unit 402 of the image forming apparatus 102 stores information on a pre-delivery alarm issued flag (FIG. 7) and a high consumption flag (FIG. 9) described later.

  Further, the management information includes, for example, the device information described above and information (server information) about the management server 106. The server information includes information used for communication with the management server 106, such as address information of the management server 106 that manages the image forming apparatus 102. The storage unit 402 records the various types of information described above in the ROM 202, the RAM 203, the storage device 204, and the like.

  The image forming unit 403 generates and outputs print data to be passed to the printing unit 208. The state management unit 404 performs print control of the image forming apparatus 102, management of an abnormal state, and the like, and also manages counter information and notification information. The counter information is, for example, a value obtained by counting the number of prints printed by the image forming apparatus with a sensor or the like, information indicating the degree of consumption of consumables including the degree of consumption of parts and the remaining amount of recording material (consumption degree information). ).

  The operation unit 405 is an interface that enables operation instructions to the image forming apparatus 102. The operation instruction is, for example, a print instruction or the like. The display unit 406 displays, on the input / output device 210, a UI screen such as status information of the image forming apparatus 102, consumption level information of various consumables including recording agent remaining amount information, setting information, and the like.

  The event management unit 407 manages event information when an event occurs in the image forming apparatus 102. The event information managed by the event management unit 407 includes, for example, a print job issued by the user of the image forming apparatus 102, an error (fault), status information of the image forming apparatus 102, and the like.

  For example, as the error of the image forming apparatus 102, a highly urgent error such as a hard disk error or a billing counter error, a paper jam, a toner low (a small amount of toner remaining), or a toner empty (a toner remaining amount is 0%). There is a warning level error. Further, the event management unit 407 is also notified of the event information about the event generated by the replacement of the toner bottle and the event generated by the update of the firmware through the device interface 416.

  The toner bottle management unit 408 manages attachment / detachment of a toner bottle in the image forming apparatus 102 and toner remaining amount information. The toner remaining amount information includes the remaining amount of toner in the current state of the toner bottle, and the number of days (remaining days) until it is necessary to replace the toner bottle, which is predicted based on the remaining amount of toner and the usage status of the user. .. The toner bottle management unit 408 includes a bottle detection unit 409, a remaining amount detection unit 410, a bottle ID detection unit 411, and a prediction unit 412.

  When the bottle detection unit 409 detects that the toner bottle has been replaced in the image forming apparatus 102, the bottle detection unit 409 notifies the event management unit 407 via the device interface 416 of information indicating the start or completion of the toner bottle replacement. When the toner bottle is attached, the remaining amount detection unit 410 acquires the remaining amount information of the toner in the toner bottle from a storage device such as a memory tag provided in the toner bottle, and sends it to the prediction unit 412 as an initial value of the remaining amount of toner. Send.

  The bottle ID detection unit 411 acquires the identification information of the toner bottle from a storage device such as a memory tag included in the toner bottle. The bottle ID detection unit 411 acquires toner bottle identification information (serial number) when the toner bottle is attached to the image forming apparatus 102, for example. The bottle ID detection unit 411 also transmits the acquired toner bottle identification information to the storage unit 402 via the device interface 416 and manages it. The bottle ID detection unit 411 also transmits the acquired toner bottle identification information to the event management unit 407 via the device interface 416.

  The prediction unit 412 predicts the remaining toner amount at the present time when the toner is used by the image forming apparatus 102 performing the printing process. The predicting unit 412 calculates the predictive value of the remaining toner amount based on the dot count value of the raster data during image formation, for example. In addition, the prediction unit 412 calculates the predicted value of the remaining amount of toner based on, for example, the cumulative rotation speed of the motor that is the drive source of the movable member provided in the toner storage unit (hopper). Note that the prediction unit 412 does not particularly limit the logic for predicting the remaining toner amount.

  Further, the prediction unit 412 predicts the number of days until the toner bottle becomes empty, that is, the number of days until the toner bottle needs to be replaced (remaining days). The prediction unit 412 calculates, for example, the number of days until the toner bottle becomes empty based on the remaining toner amount at present and the usage status including the usage frequency of the user and print settings. Note that the prediction unit 412 does not specifically limit the logic for predicting the number of days until the toner bottle becomes empty.

  Hereinafter, the function of predicting the remaining toner amount and the remaining number of days in the predicting unit 412 will be referred to as a consumption degree predicting function. In the present embodiment, the remaining amount of toner and the number of days until it is necessary to replace the toner bottle are calculated by the prediction unit 412, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, some or all of this information may be acquired from an external device without being calculated by the image forming apparatus 102.

  When the toner is used in the image forming apparatus 102, the predicting unit 412 uses the toner remaining amount information, such as the remaining toner amount calculated each time and the number of days that the toner bottle may need to be replaced, as current values, and the storage unit 402 and the toner. Store in bottle storage. Hereinafter, the remaining toner amount information such as the remaining amount of toner and the number of days that the toner bottle may need to be replaced is abbreviated as the remaining toner amount information (remaining amount or remaining days).

  The prediction unit 412 also transmits the calculated toner remaining amount information (remaining amount or remaining days) to the display unit 406 via the device interface 416. The display unit 406 displays the received toner remaining amount information (remaining amount or remaining days) on the input / output device 210. The prediction unit 412 also notifies the management server 106 of the occurrence of an event indicating that the predicted toner remaining amount information (remaining amount or remaining days) has reached a predetermined threshold.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the management server 106.
The management server 106 includes a communication unit 501, a storage unit 502, a display unit 503, a command analysis unit 504, a response generation unit 505, a management unit 506, an alarm generation unit 513, and the like. The communication unit 501 communicates with the image forming apparatus 102.

  Specifically, the communication unit 501 receives device information transmitted from the image forming apparatus 102 and an event that has occurred in the image forming apparatus 102, for example, event information such as a toner bottle replacement event. Further, the communication unit 501 transmits a communication schedule instruction, various setting information, information necessary for maintenance, etc. to the image forming apparatus 102.

  The storage unit 502 performs storage control such as storing and reading information in the ROM 302, the RAM 303, and the storage device 304. The storage unit 502 stores, for example, device information, sales company information, customer information, and the like. The display unit 503 displays device information such as status information and setting information of the image forming apparatus 102 stored in the storage unit 502 on the input / output device 308 as a Web screen. A WWW server program is running on the management server 106, which allows a person in charge of the sales company or the like to browse the various information described above using a Web browser on the PC. Hereinafter, the Web screen provided by the management server 106 is called a portal site.

  The command analysis unit 504 analyzes the request (command) transmitted from the image forming apparatus 102, and reflects the analysis result in the storage unit 502, the display unit 503, and the management unit 506. The response generation unit 505 generates a response to the image forming apparatus 102 for the command analyzed by the command analysis unit 504.

  The management unit 506 manages information necessary to monitor and maintain the image forming apparatus 102. The management unit 506 includes a notification management unit 507, a sales company management unit 508, a device information management unit 509, a customer management unit 510, an event reception unit 511, and an inventory management unit 512. The notification management unit 507 specifies the content of notification and the notification destination, and generates notification information. The notification includes, for example, a notification of requesting maintenance to a system (not shown) that arranges a person in charge of a sales company that maintains the image forming apparatus 102, and a notification of requesting replenishment of consumables.

  The sales company management unit 508 manages information on a sales company that manages and maintains (supports) the image forming apparatus 102 installed in the customer environment.

The device information management unit 509 manages device information of the image forming apparatus 102 to be maintained. Information managed by the device information management unit 509 includes identification information of the image forming apparatus 102, status information such as abnormality, maintenance history, administrator information of the image forming apparatus 102, consumable item management information of the image forming apparatus 102, and event. It is a history of event information received by the receiving unit 511.
Further, in the present embodiment, the device information management unit 509 stores each data table of the monitoring alarm reception management table and the high wear alarm reception management table. The data structure of the monitoring alarm reception management table will be described later with reference to FIG. 12A, and the data structure of the high wear alarm reception management table will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The customer management unit 510 manages information on a customer (user) who installs the image forming apparatus 102. The customer information includes identification information of the image forming apparatus 102 used by the customer and information about a maintenance contract between the customer and the sales company.

  The event receiving unit 511 receives event information generated in the image forming apparatus 102 via the communication unit 501. The event information received by the event receiving unit 511 is, for example, an event information such as a toner bottle replacement event or an event indicating that the remaining toner amount information (remaining amount or remaining days) has reached a predetermined threshold value.

  In the present embodiment, the event information transmitted to the management server 106 as an event related to toner bottle replacement includes an alarm related to delivery of a new toner bottle. Specifically, since the toner remaining amount information (remaining amount, remaining days) of the toner bottle has reached a predetermined threshold value, there is a “pre-delivery alarm” that prompts the delivery of the replacement toner bottle before the toner is used up. .. The predetermined threshold value is a value indicating that the remaining amount of toner or the number of remaining days until replacement becomes small, and delivery of a new toner bottle needs to be arranged. The predetermined threshold value here can be set to an arbitrary value in consideration of the number of days required to deliver the toner bottle.

Also, the event information transmitted to the management server 106 as an event related to toner bottle replacement includes an alarm notifying that a new toner bottle has been installed and that the toner bottle has been taken out before being used up. It includes alarms for notification.
Further, the other event information includes, for example, a high consumption alarm and a toner bottle empty alarm. The high consumption alarm is an alarm indicating that there is a toner bottle whose toner consumption amount per unit time exceeds a predetermined value. The toner bottle empty alarm (hereinafter, also referred to as an empty alarm) is an alarm issued when the remaining amount detection unit 410 of the image forming apparatus 102 detects that the toner remaining amount in a specific toner bottle has reached 0%. Is.

  In this embodiment, the alarm from the image forming apparatus 102 is defined as an event to be notified or recorded, not a failure of the image forming apparatus 102. The image forming apparatus 102 can notify the management server 106 and other external systems of the various alarms described above by the transmission unit 401.

  The event receiving unit 511 stores the received event information in the device information management unit 509. Further, when receiving the advance delivery alarm, the event receiving unit 511 creates a message requesting automatic delivery of a new toner bottle, and transmits the message to the delivery system 109 of the sales company via the communication unit 501. That is, the event receiving unit 511 instructs the delivery system 109 to deliver a new toner bottle.

  As a result, a new toner bottle is automatically delivered to the user before the toner bottle replacement time comes. Therefore, it is possible to save the user the trouble of monitoring the remaining toner amount information and the like displayed on the display device of the image forming apparatus 102 and ordering a new toner bottle at an appropriate timing.

  The event receiving unit 511 also receives an acquisition request for various information from the image forming apparatus 102 to the management server 106. Upon receiving the acquisition request, the event receiving unit 511 generates a response including information required by the image forming apparatus 102 via the response generating unit 505, and transmits the response to the image forming apparatus 102 via the communication unit 501.

  The inventory management unit 512 manages, as inventory information, the inventory number of consumable items that can be used by the customer, such as parts such as toner bottles and fixing devices that can be replaced in the image forming apparatus 102, and collected toner boxes, in association with the customer information. In the present embodiment, the inventory management unit 512 stores an inventory management table which is a data table related to inventory information. The data structure of the inventory management table will be described later with reference to FIG.

In the management server 106, when the inventory management unit 512 receives a notification from the image forming apparatus 102 that the customer has replaced a consumable item and used a new consumable item from the inventory, the inventory management unit 512 updates the inventory information of the corresponding customer, that is, Subtract inventory quantity.
Further, when the stock number of consumables available to the customer decreases, the inventory management unit 512 creates a message requesting automatic delivery, and instructs the sales company or the like to deliver consumables via the communication unit 501.

The alarm generation unit 513 artificially generates event information that is normally generated by the image forming apparatus 102 and notified to the management server 106.
For example, when the alarm generation unit 513 determines that it is necessary to deliver a spare toner bottle to the customer, the alarm generation unit 513 outputs event information, which is an alternative to the advance delivery alarm generated by the image forming apparatus 102, from the event reception unit 511. Generates a pseudo when receiving an instruction. Accordingly, an alarm (hereinafter, also referred to as a pseudo alarm) for instructing the delivery of the consumable item can be generated in a pseudo manner without the event notification from the image forming apparatus 102. The details of the process related to the pseudo alarm will be described later with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the event information received by the management server 106 from the image forming apparatus 102.
In FIG. 6, a pre-delivery alarm will be described as an example of the event information transmitted from the image forming apparatus 102. That is, the event information shown in FIG. 6 is the management server when the event indicating that the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle or the number of days in which the toner bottle may need to be replaced has reached a predetermined threshold in the image forming apparatus 102. It is event information notified to 106. The other event information has the same data structure.

  The event information is generated when various events occur in the image forming apparatus 102, and is transmitted to the management server 106. The event information is described in XML format, for example, and is transmitted to the management server 106 using an encryption protocol such as HTTPS. However, the format of the event information, the communication protocol at the time of transmission, etc. are not limited to this.

  Event information indicating that the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle or the number of days in which the toner bottle needs to be replaced has reached a predetermined threshold is notified to the management server 106 as an alarm (advance delivery alarm) from the image forming apparatus 102. .. As described above, in this embodiment, the alarm from the image forming apparatus 102 is defined as an event to be notified or recorded, not a failure of the image forming apparatus 102. The alarm of the image forming apparatus 102 is not limited to the event related to the toner bottle, and includes events such as “paper out” and “staple out”.

  These events are managed by codes in the management server 106, and there is a code corresponding to each event. These codes are included in the event information as an alarm code 607 and an alarm subcode 608 described later. Hereinafter, each item included in the event information will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the event information includes device identification information 601 and alarm information 605. The device identification information 601 is information for identifying the image forming apparatus 102, and includes information such as an IP address 602, a serial number 603, and a product name 604 in this embodiment. The alarm information 605 is information indicating the content of an event that has occurred in the image forming apparatus 102, and includes an occurrence time 606, an alarm code 607, an alarm subcode 608, extended information 609, and a counter value 610.

  The occurrence time 606 indicates the time at which the event occurred, and for example, in the case of a pre-delivery alarm, the remaining toner amount predicted by the prediction unit 412 or the number of days in which the toner bottle may need to be replaced reaches a predetermined threshold value set in advance. The time at which it is detected is recorded. The alarm code 607 is a code corresponding to each of the above-mentioned events, and is coded information indicating the content of the event that has occurred in the image forming apparatus 102.

  In the present embodiment, an alarm code 607 is used to notify that an event that has occurred in the image forming apparatus 102 indicates that the remaining amount of toner or the number of days that the toner bottle needs to be replaced has reached a preset threshold value. Is specified.

  The alarm subcode 608 is coded information indicating details of the content of the event. For example, in the case of event information related to a toner bottle, the alarm subcode 608 indicates color information of toner in the toner bottle that is the target of the event. Further, for example, in the event information related to the replacement of the toner bottle, the alarm subcode 608 is subcoded and set with information such as whether a new bottle has been attached or has been taken out before being used up. May be done.

  The extended information 609 records event-specific information that cannot be expressed only by the alarm code 607 and the alarm subcode 608. For example, in the case of a pre-delivery alarm, the identification information (toner bottle ID) of the toner bottle that is the target of the event and the toner remaining amount information (remaining amount or remaining days) of the toner bottle at the time when the event occurs are recorded. As the counter value 610, the total counter value counted by the image forming apparatus 102 at the time when the event occurs is recorded.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process until the image forming apparatus 102 transmits the advance delivery alarm.
More specifically, the management server 106 sends event information (advance delivery alarm) that the image forming apparatus 102 notifies that the toner remaining amount of the toner bottle or the number of days until the toner bottle needs to be replaced reaches a predetermined threshold. Indicates the processing up to sending to.

  First, in step S <b> 701, the prediction unit 412 sets a predetermined amount of toner remaining in the toner bottle or the number of days in which the toner bottle may need to be replaced in any of the toner bottles attached to the image forming apparatus 102. Detecting that the threshold has been reached.

In step S702, the prediction unit 412 determines whether the advance delivery alarm for the toner bottle detected in step S701 has been issued. For example, the prediction unit 412 determines that the advance delivery alarm has been issued when the advance delivery alarm issued flag managed by the storage unit 402 is ON (1).
Here, the advance delivery alarm issued flag is changed from OFF (0) to ON (1) when the advance delivery alarm is issued. Further, when the bottle detection unit 409 detects that a new bottle has been loaded by the user, the pre-delivery alarm issued flag is changed from ON (1) to OFF (0).

  If the advance delivery alarm has been issued, the processing in FIG. 7 ends. This prevents duplicate pre-delivery alarms from being issued for one toner bottle. On the other hand, if the advance delivery alarm has not been issued, the process proceeds to step S703.

In step S703, the transmission unit 401 generates a pre-delivery alarm and transmits the generated pre-delivery alarm to the management server 106. The details of the processing in step S703 will be described later with reference to FIG.
In step S704, the prediction unit 412 updates the value of the advance delivery alarm issued flag managed by the storage unit 402 to ON (1), and ends the processing illustrated in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating details of the process of step S703.
In step S801, the transmission unit 401 generates data (FIG. 6) to be transmitted as a pre-delivery alarm. In the alarm code 607, an alarm code indicating that an event for notifying that the toner remaining amount information (remaining amount or remaining days) of the toner bottle targeted for the advance delivery alarm has reached a predetermined threshold value is set. ..

  In step S802, the transmission unit 401 determines the alarm subcode 608 of the data to be transmitted as the advance delivery alarm. In the alarm sub code 608, for example, color information of the toner bottle to be alarmed may be set. In this embodiment, the alarm subcode 608 is not set in the advance delivery alarm.

  In step S <b> 803, the transmission unit 401 acquires the information set in the extension information 609 from the storage unit 402. Specifically, the transmission unit 401 acquires, from the storage unit 402, the current toner remaining amount calculated by the prediction unit 412 for the toner bottle targeted for the advance delivery alarm, and the acquired toner remaining amount in the extension information 609. Set.

  In step S804, the transmission unit 401 further confirms, for the toner bottle that is the target of the advance delivery alarm, whether there is information regarding the number of days until the toner bottle may need to be replaced (remaining days information) in the storage unit 402. .. If the remaining days information is present, the process proceeds to step S805, and if the remaining days information is not present, the process proceeds to step S806.

  In step S <b> 805, the transmission unit 401 acquires the remaining days information of the toner bottle that is the target of the advance delivery alarm from the storage unit 402, and sets the information regarding the acquired days in the extended information 609. Thereafter, the processing proceeds to step S806.

  In step S806, the transmission unit 401 acquires the current total counter value managed by the state management unit 404, and sets the acquired counter value in the counter value 610. Then, the transmission unit 401 transmits the advance delivery alarm generated by setting the value of each item as described above to the management server 106. When the transmission unit 401 completes the transmission, the processing of FIG. 8 ends.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process until the image forming apparatus 102 transmits the high wear alarm.
Specifically, the prediction unit 412 of the image forming apparatus 102 manages event information (high consumption alarm) indicating that the toner bottle in which the toner consumption amount of the image forming apparatus 102 in the past 24 hours exceeds a predetermined value is detected. The processing up to transmission to the server 106 is shown.

  In the present embodiment, the image forming apparatus 102 issues a high consumption alarm and transmits the high consumption alarm to the management server 106 when there is a toner bottle whose toner consumption amount exceeds the predetermined value in the past 24 hours. .. The management server 106 that has received the high consumption alarm executes the process shown in FIG. In addition, when the customer does not store inventory of toner bottles, the management server 106 issues inventory management to the sales company to issue one or more toner bottle inventory to the sales company when the high consumption alarm is issued. Can be urged to.

  The processing illustrated in FIG. 9 is performed at regular intervals in the prediction unit 412 of the image forming apparatus 102. When the image forming apparatus 102 uses a plurality of toner bottles, the process illustrated in FIG. 9 is executed so that all toner bottles (for all colors) are sequentially determined.

  First, in step S901, the prediction unit 412 determines whether or not the high consumption flag of the image forming apparatus 102 managed by the storage unit 402 is ON (1) for the toner bottle that is the determination target of the high consumption alarm issuance.

Here, the high consumption flag is a flag for managing whether or not a high consumption alarm has been issued for each toner bottle being used in the image forming apparatus 102. When the high consumption flag is ON (1), it means that the high consumption alarm has been issued, and when the high consumption flag is OFF (0), it means that the high consumption alarm is not issued. When the image forming apparatus 102 uses a plurality of toner bottles, a high consumption flag corresponding to each toner bottle is set in the storage unit 402.
The prediction unit 412 of the image forming apparatus 102 controls not to issue the high consumption alarm for the toner bottle whose high consumption flag is ON (1).

If the high wear flag is ON (1) in step S901, the process proceeds to step S908. If the high consumption flag is OFF (0), the process proceeds to step S902.
In step S902, the prediction unit 412 calculates the toner consumption amount of the toner bottle to be determined in the past 24 hours. In the present embodiment, 24 hours is given as an example of the unit time for calculating the toner consumption amount, but the unit time for calculating the toner consumption amount can be appropriately changed.

  In step S903, the prediction unit 412 determines whether the toner consumption amount in the past 24 hours is equal to or greater than a preset threshold value. If the toner consumption amount in the past 24 hours is less than the threshold value, the process proceeds to S908. On the other hand, if the toner consumption amount in the past 24 hours is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the process proceeds to S904.

  In step S904, the prediction unit 412 notifies the transmission unit 401 and proceeds to the high consumption alarm generation processing. As a result, the transmission unit 401 generates the transmission data for the high wear alarm. At this time, the transmission unit 401 sets, in the alarm code 607, an alarm code indicating that an event has occurred in which the toner consumption amount in the past 24 hours is equal to or greater than a preset threshold value.

  In step S905, the transmission unit 401 determines the alarm subcode 608 of the data to be transmitted as the high consumption alarm. In this embodiment, the alarm subcode 608 is not set for the high consumption alarm.

  In step S906, the transmission unit 401 transmits the generated high consumption alarm to the management server 106. When the transmission unit 401 completes the transmission, the process proceeds to step S907. In step S907, the prediction unit 412 changes the high consumption flag managed by the storage unit 402 of the image forming apparatus 102 from the initial value OFF (0) to ON (1).

  In step S <b> 908, the prediction unit 412 determines whether the determination is completed for the toner bottles for all the colors being used by the image forming apparatus 102. If it is determined that the toner bottles for all colors have not been determined, the process returns to step S901, the toner bottle to be determined is changed, and the above-described processing is repeated. On the other hand, if it is determined that the toner bottles for all the colors have been determined, the process of FIG. 9 ends.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process executed on the management server 106 side for suppressing delivery delay of consumables.
In detail, the processing when the management server 106 that has received the high consumption alarm generates a pseudo alarm to suppress the delivery delay of the consumables will be described.
Here, before the description of FIG. 10, the inventory management table referred to by the management server 106 in the inventory management process will be described.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of an inventory management table for the inventory management unit 512 of the management server 106 to manage the inventory of consumables at the customer.
The inventory management table stores information indicating the number of stocks of consumables subject to inventory management at the customer when the customer has an inventory of consumables. The inventory management table shown in FIG. 14 shows an example in which the consumable item to be inventory-managed is the toner bottle of the image forming apparatus.

The inventory management table includes columns for inventory storage location, model number, device identifier, initial inventory quantity, inventory quantity to be notified, and estimated inventory quantity.
The column of "stock storage location" stores information indicating the stock storage location of the consumable item to be managed in inventory at the customer. Information indicating the model number of the consumable item to be managed is stored in the “model number” column. The column of “initial stock quantity” stores information indicating the initial stock quantity stored in the customer's stock storage location when starting inventory management of consumables (toner bottles in this case). The column of “stock quantity to be notified” stores information indicating the stock quantity at the time when the consumables of the customer become less than or equal to the safety stock quantity and a notification for prompting the sales company to replenish is issued. The column of “estimated inventory quantity” stores information indicating the estimated inventory quantity of consumables at the customer's inventory storage location at the present time.

  The estimated stock quantity is the result of subtracting from the initial stock quantity each time the management server 106 receives a notification (in the case of a toner bottle, a monitoring alarm to be described later) indicating that the customer has exchanged and used consumables from the image forming apparatus 102. Indicates the value of. The inventory storage location, model number, initial inventory quantity, and inventory quantity information to be notified are, for example, via the input / output device 308 of the management server 106 when the customer starts inventory management of consumables. It is possible to set.

  Returning to the description of FIG. First, in step S1001, when the high consumption alarm is transmitted from the transmission unit 401 of the image forming apparatus 102, the device information management unit 509 of the management server 106 receives the high consumption alarm via the communication unit 501.

In step S1002, the device information management unit 509 identifies the toner bottle corresponding to the high consumption alarm received this time, and determines whether the identified toner bottle is subject to inventory management.
In determining the inventory management target, the inventory management table (FIG. 14) managed by the inventory management unit 512 is referred to, and if information corresponding to the specified toner bottle exists in the inventory management table, it is determined to be the inventory management target. To do. If it is determined that the inventory management target is set, the processing in FIG. 10 ends.

On the other hand, if the information corresponding to the specified toner bottle does not exist in the inventory management table, it is determined that it is not the inventory management target, and the process proceeds to step S1003.
In step S1003, the device information management unit 509 determines whether the monitoring alarm for the specified toner bottle has been received from the image forming apparatus 102. In other words, the device information management unit 509 determines whether the replacement toner bottle has been delivered to the customer.

Here, the monitoring alarm will be described. The monitoring alarm is an alarm that triggers the delivery of the toner bottle by the management server 106. When the toner bottle is an inventory management target, the monitoring alarm serves as a trigger for performing inventory subtraction processing described later.
In the operation of the management server 106, the monitoring alarm can be selected by the user from the alarms prepared in advance for each image forming apparatus 102. Monitoring alarms that the user can select in the operation of the management server 106 include a toner bottle replacement completion alarm and a toner low alarm in addition to the advance delivery alarm. The toner bottle replacement completion alarm is an alarm issued by the image forming apparatus 102 upon detecting that a new toner bottle has been loaded, and is mainly used in the case of operation in which one or more inventories are placed at the customer (inventory operation). Used. The toner low alarm is a pseudo alarm issued by the management server 106 in a pseudo manner by detecting the reception of status information indicating that the toner remaining amount of a specific bottle in the image forming apparatus 102 is below a certain threshold. Is one. The toner low alarm is mainly used in the image forming apparatus 102 that does not support the advance delivery alarm and the toner bottle replacement completion alarm.

The reception of the above-mentioned monitoring alarm in the management server 106 is managed by the monitoring alarm reception management table stored in the device information management unit 509.
FIG. 12A is a diagram showing an example of the monitoring alarm reception management table. The monitoring alarm reception management table shown in FIG. 12A shows an example in which the consumable item is a toner bottle of the image forming apparatus.

The monitoring alarm reception management table includes columns for flag update date / time, toner bottle type, monitoring alarm received flag, and remaining days.
Information indicating the date and time when the monitoring alarm received flag is updated is stored in the “flag update date and time” column. The column of "toner bottle type" stores information indicating the type (color such as C, M, Y, Bk) of the toner bottle corresponding to the monitoring alarm.

  The column of “monitoring alarm received flag” stores ON (1) information of the corresponding toner bottle when the advance delivery alarm is received or the toner low alarm is issued. The column of “monitoring alarm received flag” stores information of OFF (0) when it is reset in the initial state or when a toner bottle replacement completion alarm is received and reset. The “remaining days” column stores information on the remaining days included in the remaining toner amount information when the advance delivery alarm is received.

  Returning to the description of step S1003 shown in FIG. Whether or not the monitoring alarm has been received is determined by whether or not the monitoring alarm reception flag corresponding to the specified toner bottle type is ON (1) in the monitoring alarm reception management table of FIG. When it is determined that the monitoring alarm has been received (that is, when the replacement toner bottle has been delivered to the customer), the process of FIG. 10 ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the monitoring alarm has not been received, the processing proceeds to step S1004. In step S1004, the device information management unit 509 notifies the alarm generation unit 513 and proceeds to the process of artificially generating a monitoring alarm, and instructs delivery of a replacement toner bottle.

  As a result, the alarm generation unit 513 generates the above-described toner low alarm (pseudo alarm), so that the management server 106 pseudo-generates a monitoring alarm that is normally received from the image forming apparatus 102. The issuance of the pseudo alarm is handled as one mode of receiving the monitoring alarm in the management server 106. Further, the alarm generation unit 513 transmits a message requesting the delivery of the toner bottle to the delivery system 109.

  In step S1005, the pseudo alarm issued flag is changed from OFF (0) to ON (1). This is the end of the processing shown in FIG.

The issuance of the pseudo alarm in the management server 106 is managed by the high consumption alarm reception management table stored in the device information management unit 509.
FIG. 12B is a diagram showing an example of the high wear alarm reception management table. The high consumption alarm reception management table shown in FIG. 12B shows an example in which the consumable item is a toner bottle of the image forming apparatus.

The high consumption alarm reception management table includes columns of flag update date / time, toner bottle type, high consumption alarm received flag, pseudo alarm issued flag, counter, and high consumption flag reset threshold.
Information indicating the date and time when the high consumption alarm received flag is updated is stored in the “flag update date and time” column. The column of "toner bottle type" stores information indicating the type (color such as C, M, Y, Bk) of the toner bottle corresponding to the high consumption alarm.

The column of “high consumption alarm received flag” stores information of ON (1) when the high consumption alarm is received for the corresponding toner bottle. Further, in the column of “high consumption alarm received flag”, information of OFF (0) is stored when the initial state or an instruction to reset the flag is received. The column of “pseudo alarm issued flag” stores ON (1) information about the corresponding toner bottle when the pseudo alarm is issued. Further, in the column of “pseudo alarm issued flag”, information of OFF (0) is stored when the initial state or an instruction to reset the flag is received.
The information of ON (1) in the pseudo alarm issued flag is an example of pseudo alarm management information.

  The “counter” column stores a value obtained by counting the number of times that it is determined that the number of remaining days used as a threshold for generating the advance delivery alarm falls within the actual number of days. The "high consumption flag reset threshold" column stores the threshold value of the counter when the high consumption flag is reset. The counter and the high consumption flag reset threshold are set for each toner bottle type. Details of the processing related to the counter and the high consumption flag reset threshold will be described later with reference to FIG.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process executed by the management server 106 for preventing duplicate delivery of consumables.
In detail, the processing when the management server 106 that has received the monitoring alarm (advance delivery alarm) from the image forming apparatus 102 instructs the delivery system 109 to deliver the consumable item for replacement is shown.

  In step S1101, when the monitoring alarm is transmitted from the transmitting unit 401 of the image forming apparatus 102, the event receiving unit 511 of the management server 106 receives the monitoring alarm via the communication unit 501. Then, in step S1102, the event reception unit 511 saves the received monitoring alarm information in the event information history of the device information management unit 509.

In step S1103, the device information management unit 509 refers to the alarm code 607 of the monitoring alarm received this time, and determines whether the toner bottle targeted by the monitoring alarm is the inventory management target.
In determining the inventory management target, the inventory management table (FIG. 14) managed by the inventory management unit 512 is referred to, and if the information corresponding to the toner bottle of the monitoring alarm exists in the inventory management table, it is determined to be the inventory management target. to decide. If it is determined that the inventory management target is set, the process proceeds to step S1108 described below.

On the other hand, if the information corresponding to the toner bottle of the monitoring alarm does not exist in the inventory management table, it is determined that it is not the inventory management target, and the process proceeds to step S1104.
In step S1104, the event receiving unit 511 has received the high consumption alarm from the image forming apparatus 102 for the toner bottle of the monitoring alarm (that is, the toner consumption amount per 24 hours exceeds the predetermined value). Or)). For example, the event receiving unit 511 refers to the high consumption alarm received flag of the high consumption alarm reception management table shown in FIG. 12B, and the high consumption alarm received flag corresponding to the toner bottle type is ON (1). If so, it is determined that the high wear alarm has been received.
If it is determined that the high consumption alarm is the received toner bottle, the process proceeds to step S1105. On the other hand, when it is determined that the high consumption alarm is not the received toner bottle, the process proceeds to step S1107 described later.

  In step S1105, the event receiving unit 511 issues a stock setting recommendation notification. The inventory setting recommendation notification is a message for urging the person in charge at the sales company to switch the toner bottles that are not subject to inventory management to inventory operation. The inventory setting recommendation notification is transmitted to the delivery system 109 via the communication unit 501. As a result, when the toner bottle for which the high consumption alarm has been issued is operated by the customer without inventory, it is possible to notify the person in charge of the sales company and switch the toner bottle to inventory operation. Thereafter, the processing proceeds to step S1106.

In step S1106, the event receiving unit 511 determines whether the above-described pseudo alarm has been issued for the toner bottle.
For example, the event receiving unit 511 refers to the pseudo alarm received flag of the high consumption alarm reception management table shown in FIG. 12B, and the pseudo alarm received flag corresponding to the toner bottle type is ON (1). For example, it is determined that the pseudo alarm has been issued. When it is determined that the pseudo alarm for the toner bottle has been issued, the processing in FIG. 11 ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1106 that the pseudo alarm for the toner bottle has not been issued, the process proceeds to step S1107.
In step S1107, the communication unit 501 transmits a message requesting the delivery of the toner bottle to the delivery system 109. Then, the process of FIG. 11 is completed.

  In step S1108, the inventory management unit 512 performs inventory subtraction processing. For example, the inventory management unit 512 identifies the toner bottle to be subtracted from the inventory management table shown in FIG. 14 based on the device identification information 601 included in the received monitoring alarm and the toner color information included in the alarm subcode 608. To do. Then, the inventory management unit 512 subtracts 1 from the estimated inventory quantity of the toner bottle to be subtracted in the inventory management table. Thereafter, the processing proceeds to step S1109.

  In step S1109, the inventory management unit 512 determines whether the inventory quantity of the customer of the toner bottle after the subtraction processing is less than or equal to the delivery threshold value. For example, the inventory management unit 512 refers to the inventory management table illustrated in FIG. 14, and when the estimated inventory quantity of the toner bottle is equal to or less than the inventory quantity to be notified, determines that the inventory quantity is equal to or less than the delivery threshold value. It should be noted that as the delivery threshold value, a value different from the number of stocks to be notified stored in the stock management table may be used.

  If it is determined that the inventory quantity of the customer is not less than the delivery threshold value, the processing of FIG. 11 ends. On the other hand, if it is determined that the inventory quantity of the customer is less than or equal to the delivery threshold, the process proceeds to step S1107. That is, when it is determined that the customer's inventory quantity is less than or equal to the delivery threshold value after the subtraction processing, a message requesting delivery of the toner bottle is transmitted to the delivery system 109.

  In this way, when the management server 106 receives a monitoring alarm from the image forming apparatus 102, the management server 106 identifies the type (color) of the target toner bottle from the received monitoring alarm. Then, the management server 106 determines whether a pseudo alarm has been issued to the toner bottle in the process of step S1004 (that is, whether the replacement toner bottle has been delivered). When it is determined that the pseudo alarm has not been issued for the toner bottle, the management server 106 transmits a message requesting the delivery of the replacement bottle to the delivery system 109. When it is determined that the pseudo alarm has been issued, the management server 106 controls the delivery system 109 not to send the above message. As a result, duplicate delivery instructions for replacement toner bottles for the same toner bottle are suppressed.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a toner bottle empty alarm reception process executed on the management server 106 side.
More specifically, the process when the management server 106 that has received the above-described toner bottle empty alarm (empty alarm) from the image forming apparatus 102 generates an instruction to reset the high consumption flag according to the usage status of the toner bottle. Indicates.

  In step S 1301, when the empty alarm is transmitted from the transmission unit 401 of the image forming apparatus 102, the event reception unit 511 of the management server 106 receives the empty alarm via the communication unit 501. Then, in step S1302, the event receiving unit 511 saves the received empty alarm information in the event information history of the device information management unit 509.

In step S1303, the event receiving unit 511 determines whether the high consumption alarm has been received from the image forming apparatus 102 for the empty alarm toner bottle. For example, the event receiving unit 511 refers to the high consumption alarm received flag of the high consumption alarm reception management table shown in FIG. 12B, and the high consumption alarm received flag corresponding to the toner bottle type is ON (1). If so, it is determined that the high wear alarm has been received.
If it is determined that the high consumption alarm is the received toner bottle, the process proceeds to step S1304. On the other hand, if it is determined that the high consumption alarm is not the received toner bottle, the process returns to step S1301.

  In step S1304, the event receiving unit 511 compares the number of remaining days used as a generation threshold when generating the advance delivery alarm with the actual number of days, and determines whether the advance delivery alarm generation threshold (the number of remaining days) is equal to or less than the actual number of days. To judge. The actual number of days is an example of the actual period until the consumable item is actually consumed. The above-mentioned generation threshold value is the number of remaining days acquired from the advance delivery alarm that the management server 106 received last from the image forming apparatus 102 and managed by the monitoring alarm reception management table of FIG. The above-mentioned actual number of days is the period required from the last reception of the advance delivery alarm from the image forming apparatus 102 by the management server 106 to the reception of the current empty alarm. As described above, in step S1304, it is determined whether the remaining period of the consumable item is equal to or less than the actual period from the generation of the monitoring alarm to the actual consumption of the consumable item.

  If it is determined that the advance delivery alarm generation threshold is equal to or less than the actual number of days, the process proceeds to step S1305. In step S1305, the event receiving unit 511 increments the counter of the toner bottle managed by the high consumption alarm reception management table of FIG. 12B by 1. As a result, the number of times it is determined that the number of remaining days, which is the threshold for generating the advance delivery alarm, is within the actual number of days is counted. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S1306.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the advance delivery alarm generation threshold is not less than or equal to the actual number of days, the process proceeds to step S1310. In step S1310, the event receiving unit 511 resets the counter of the toner bottle managed in the high consumption alarm reception management table of FIG. 12B to 0. After that, the process returns to step S1301.

In step S1306, the event receiving unit 511 determines whether the value of the counter is equal to or larger than a preset threshold value. For example, the threshold used in step S1306 is the high consumption flag reset threshold of the toner bottle managed by the high consumption alarm reception management table of FIG.
If it is determined that the counter value is not greater than or equal to the threshold value, the process returns to step S1301. On the other hand, if it is determined that the counter value is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the process proceeds to step S1307.

  In step S1307, the event receiving unit 511 issues a stockless recommendation notification. The inventory-less recommendation notification is a message for urging the person in charge at the sales company to switch the toner bottle from the inventory operation to the inventory-less operation (that is, the operation in which the toner bottle is not placed in the customer's inventory). .. The inventory-less recommendation notification is transmitted to the delivery system 109 via the notification management unit 507 and the communication unit 501.

In step S1308, the communication unit 501 transmits, to the image forming apparatus 102, an instruction to change the high wear flag turned ON (1) in step S907 to OFF (0). As a result, in the process shown in FIG. 9, the image forming apparatus 102 releases the high consumption alarm from the issued state, so that the high consumption alarm can be generated again.
In step S1309, the event receiving unit 511 changes the high wear alarm reception completion flag managed in FIG. 12B from ON (1) to OFF (0). Then, the process of FIG. 13 is completed.

  In this way, when the management server 106 receives an empty alarm from the image forming apparatus 102 that has already received the high wear alarm, the management server 106 performs the following processing. First, the management server 106 compares the advance delivery alarm generation threshold (the number of remaining days) with the actual number of days (the period from the issuance of the advance delivery alarm to the issuance of the empty alarm), and the remaining threshold that is the advance delivery alarm is generated. Determine whether the number of days is within the actual number of days. As a result, in the image forming apparatus 102 that has issued the high consumption alarm in the past, the usage status of the user is changed, and it is determined whether the toner consumption amount has reached a level at which the prediction unit 412 of the image forming apparatus 102 can predict the remaining amount. ..

  When the management server 106 determines that the advance delivery alarm generation threshold value (remaining days) of the toner bottles of the same color is continuously within a predetermined number of times, the management server 106 informs the person in charge of the sales company of the stock. Issue a recommendation notification. The inventory-less recommendation notification is a notification for promoting switching of the toner bottle to the inventory-less operation. Further, the management server 106 transmits an instruction to reset the high wear flag to the image forming apparatus 102. As a result, in the image forming apparatus 102 that has issued the high consumption alarm in the past, the sales company can understand that the toner consumption amount has reached a level at which the remaining amount can be predicted by the prediction unit 412 of the image forming apparatus 102, and the inventory can be reduced. It is possible to return to operation.

  If the usage status of the user changes after resetting the high consumption flag and a toner bottle whose toner consumption amount per 24 hours exceeds a predetermined value is detected, a high consumption alarm is generated in the image forming apparatus 102. It becomes possible to do.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention supplies a program that implements one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or apparatus read and execute the program. It can also be realized by the processing. It can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

  Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist thereof.

Claims (10)

A server device that manages delivery of consumables used by a job processing device,
Receiving means for receiving a high consumption alarm indicating that the consumption amount of the consumables per unit time in the job processing apparatus exceeds a predetermined value,
When the monitoring alarm for instructing the delivery of the consumables is not received when the high consumption alarm is received, a pseudo alarm for instructing the delivery of the consumables is received without receiving the instruction of the job processing apparatus. Generating means for generating,
The generating unit does not generate the pseudo alarm when the consumable item is managed by the operation of placing one or more inventories at the customer or when the monitoring alarm has been received. Server device. The server device generates pseudo alarm management information indicating that the pseudo alarm is generated when the pseudo alarm is generated, and the pseudo alarm management information is generated when the monitoring alarm is received from the job processing device. The server device according to claim 1, wherein when there is information, the delivery of the consumable item is not instructed. When the server device receives the monitoring alarm from the job processing device, if the consumable item is not managed by the operation of placing one or more inventories at the customer's place, and the pseudo alarm management information is present. The server device according to claim 2, wherein the server device does not instruct delivery of the consumable item. When the server device receives the monitoring alarm from the job processing device for the consumable item that has received the high consumption alarm, the server device externally issues a notification prompting the customer to switch to an operation of placing one or more inventories. It transmits, The server apparatus as described in any one of Claim 1 thru | or 3 characterized by the above-mentioned. The server device sets a remaining period of the consumable item used as a threshold value when the job processing device generates the monitoring alarm, and an actual period from generation of the monitoring alarm to actual consumption of the consumable item. In comparison, when the remaining period is less than or equal to the actual period, the notification for urging the consumable item that has received the high consumption alarm to switch to an operation in which the customer does not have inventory is transmitted to the outside. The server device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The server device sets a remaining period of the consumable item used as a threshold value when the job processing device generates the monitoring alarm, and an actual period from the generation of the monitoring alarm to the actual consumption of the consumable item. In comparison, when the remaining period is less than or equal to the actual period, an instruction to cancel the state in which the high wear alarm is issued is transmitted to the job processing apparatus. The server device according to any one of 1. The server device according to claim 1, wherein the consumable item is any one of a toner bottle, a toner cartridge, an ink tank, an ink bottle, and an ink cartridge. 8. The job processing apparatus is an apparatus that forms an image on a sheet using a recording material, or an apparatus that forms a three-dimensional object using a recording material. The server device according to 1 above. A method in a server device for managing delivery of consumables used in a job processing device, comprising:
A receiving step of receiving a high consumption alarm indicating that the consumption amount of the consumable item per unit time in the job processing apparatus exceeds a predetermined value,
When the monitoring alarm for instructing the delivery of the consumables is not received when the high consumption alarm is received, a pseudo alarm for instructing the delivery of the consumables is received without receiving the instruction of the job processing apparatus. And a generation step for generating,
In the generating step, the pseudo alarm is not generated when the consumable item is managed by an operation of placing one or more inventories at a customer or when the monitoring alarm has been received. Method in a server device.   A program for causing a computer to function as each unit according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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