JP3177369B2 - Sorting system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sorting system used in the distribution process of commodities, and more particularly to a system used in the distribution process of commodities with a limited expiration date, such as processed foods and fresh daily foods.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In supermarkets and distribution centers for chain stores, a collection operation is performed in which a variety of products are arranged in a required number in response to a request from each store. A picking system for transporting containers for different destinations, taking out requested products from a product storage unit provided along the transport route and collecting the requested products in the containers,
There is a sorting method in which products are sorted for each destination and collected in a product storage unit for each destination provided along the transport route while each product is transported for each item. Among them, the sorting system adopting the latter method is configured as follows, for example.

[0003] That is, this sorting system
For example, a collection shelf provided with a number of pockets is provided along a product transport path for transporting products for each item, and a number indicator is provided for each pocket in the collection shelf, and the product transport path is currently transported. Items for the item
It is configured to display the number of pieces put into each pocket. Therefore, if the goods of each item conveyed on the goods conveyance path are sequentially put into each pocket by the number displayed on the number display, when the work on all the items is completed, each of the collection shelves is In the pockets, the requested products are collected by the requested number for each destination.

[0004]

By the way, for example, in the case of processed foods and fresh daily foods, in addition to the date of manufacture of the product, a date indicating a best-before period or a best-before date set by the manufacturer or the like is generally described. It has become so. When such products are arranged at the store, if there are products of the same item with different manufacturing dates, the product with the new manufacturing date will be sold first, and the product with the old manufacturing date will be stored in the store inventory. Tend to remain. In this case, the unsold product will be unsold more and more the next day, since the manufacturing date will be older. Such inventory items will be listed in stores, for example, at a reduced selling price, but if they are still unsold or returned to the manufacturer, they will eventually be disposed of as waste. As a result, not only is the economic loss increased, but also resources are wasted.

In order to cope with such a situation, it is considered that the collection work is performed in a delivery center or the like in preference to the stocked goods. For example, in the collection work using a sorting system, it is considered. Causes the following inconvenience.

[0006] That is, there is a case where the expiration date is not set uniformly for all the items, and even if the products are of the same item, some sellers set their own sales periods. Therefore, if you try to check these periods manually, you will not only put an excessive burden on the workers, but also overlook the expired products and ship them, which may damage the trust relationship with your business partners. is there.

[0007] A similar problem also occurs for a product displaying only the expiration date.

[0008] The present invention addresses the above-described problem in the case of using a sorting system to collect goods whose sale period is limited, such as processed foods and fresh daily foods, and to remove expired goods. The purpose is to prevent shipment.

[0009]

That is, the invention according to claim 1 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a first invention) stores a product in a product storage section for each destination provided along a product transport path. In a sorting system that sorts the number of ordered products while transporting, a scheduled shipping date setting unit that sets a scheduled shipping date of the product, a validity period storage unit that stores a validity period of each product, and a validity period displayed on the product. Expiration date input means for inputting a product, a product designation means for designating the product, and a shipment set by the setting means for the expiration date stored in the expiration date storage means for the product of the item designated by the designation means. The scheduled date is added, the obtained date is compared with the expiration date of the designated product input by the expiration date input means, and the collection work of the product is performed based on the context of these dates. Characterized in that a determination means for determining whether to perform.

The invention according to claim 2 of the present application (hereinafter, referred to as a second invention) is characterized in that the expiration date input means and the goods designation means in the first invention are arranged at the start end of the goods transport path. It is characterized by.

The invention according to claim 3 of the present application (hereinafter referred to as “the invention”)
A third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect of the present invention, a transport means for transporting goods is provided, and the transport means is provided with an expiration date input means and a product designation means.

[0012]

According to the above arrangement, the following operation can be obtained.

That is, in any of the first to third aspects of the present invention, for a product taken out of a storage location, the product is specified by the product specifying means, and the expiration date (for example, the Day),
The determining means compares the date obtained by adding the expiration date of the designated product to the expected shipping date with the date of the expiration date of the product, and performs the collection work of the product based on the context of the two. It is determined whether or not to perform. In that case,
Workers only need to perform simple tasks such as specifying a product or entering an expiration date, so that not only is the burden reduced compared to performing all tasks manually, but also check failures occur. Is also avoided, and shipment of expired products is prevented with high accuracy.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the expiration date input unit and the product designating unit are arranged at the starting end of the transport path in the sorting system, so that the date check for each product is collectively performed. As a result, it is possible to avoid complication of the worker's work when putting products into the product storage unit.

On the other hand, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the expiration date input means and the product designation means are provided in the means for transporting the product. Thus, it becomes easy to restart the sorting work from any place.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

First, the overall configuration of a sorting system according to an embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. This sorting system has a meandering product transport path A for loading and transporting the same item of product on a trolley 1. A plurality (five in the example in the figure) of sorting zones B along the route A ...
B are arranged side by side, and collection shelves 2 are arranged in each of these zones B along both sides of the transport path A. A work control console 3 used for work management of the entire system is provided near the start end A ′ of the transport path A.
Is arranged.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
Are provided with a plurality of pockets 4... Over a plurality of levels, and containers 5 for collecting ordered products for each destination.
5 are placed respectively, and above each pocket 4, a loading instruction lamp 6 for instructing the loading of a product into the container 5 of the pocket 4, and a number indicator 7 for displaying the loading quantity. And a display unit 9 including a completion key 8 that is turned on when the loading is completed. A display controller 10 for controlling the operation of the display unit 9 is provided on one of the collection shelves 2 and 2 in each zone B.

Next, the control system of this sorting system will be described with reference to FIG. 3. This system is composed of a host computer 11 provided in the distribution center or the like.
And a relay 12 for managing the system in accordance with an instruction from the computer 11.
2, the work control console 3 and the display controller 10 are connected, and each display controller 10 has a display unit 9 ... 9 in each pocket 4 ... 4 of the collection shelf 2, 2 in the sorting zone B. Is connected.

Here, the work control console 3 is provided with a key input unit 3a and a display unit 3a, and is connected to a bar code scanner 13 for reading a bar code indicating a product code attached to a product, for example. Have been. And
In this embodiment, a buzzer 14 for notifying a ringing sound is connected to the work control console 3.

Next, an example of operation of the sorting system will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

That is, as preparation work for the collection work, the host computer 11 first sets expected shipping date data a as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 (step S1). In this case, when the goods after collection are scheduled to be shipped on the same day, the date on that day is converted into data and used as scheduled shipment date data a. In other words, the day is 19Y in 19XX
On the 12th of the month, the shipping date data a is, for example, “1”.
9XX1Y12 ". For example, when the next day is the scheduled shipping date, “19XX1” corresponding to the next day is used.
Y13 "is the scheduled shipment date data a.

Next, the host computer 11 searches for a product code based on the assortment data for the current work, and applies the searched product code to a table of the validity period set in advance for each item, thereby obtaining the code. The validity period “b” of the corresponding product is read out, and the validity period “b” is set as the planned shipping date data “a” set in step S1.
To generate reference date data c (steps S2 and S3). That is, for example, assuming that the scheduled shipment date data a is “19XX1Y12” and the validity period of a certain product is 4 days, the reference date data c is “19XX1Y12”.
XX1Y16 ".

Then, the host computer 11 writes the reference date data c in a predetermined area of the sorting data in step S4, and determines in step S5 whether or not all items have been completed. If all items are not finished,
Returning to step S2, the same process is executed for the next item, and if all items have been completed, the process proceeds to step S6 to transfer the final assortment data to the repeater 12. Therefore, reference date data c to which the validity period b of each product is added according to the calendar is set in the assortment data in accordance with the product code.

In this embodiment, the collection operation is performed as follows in accordance with the flowchart of FIG.

That is, the worker can use the cart 1 in FIG.
After inputting the product code of the product brought in from a predetermined storage location into the work control console 3 arranged at the start end A 'of the transport path A, the expiration date displayed on the product is input ( Steps T1 and T2). In this case, the product code is input by reading the barcode attached to the product by the barcode scanner 13. If the barcode does not exist or cannot be read, the key of the work control console 3 is used. It is input by operating the input unit 3a.

The expiration date is input by operating the key input section 3a. In this case, it is a rule to input the expiration date for each product. However, if it is considered that the lot numbers are the same and the manufacturing dates are the same, one product may be used as a representative. The printed characters of the expiration date may be optically read.

In the work control console 3, the input expiration date of the product is converted into data in the same manner as the above-mentioned scheduled shipping date to generate the expiration date data d, and also corresponds to the product code of the product. The reference date data c is fetched from the sorting data stored in the repeater 12, and the magnitude relation between the two is compared (step T3).

In this case, when the expiration date data d is larger than the reference date data c (d> c), for example, when the reference date data c is "19XX1Y16", the expiration date data d is "19XX1Y20". Is displayed on the number indicators 7... 7 of the display units 9... 9 provided on the collection shelves 2. That is, according to the data request signal transmitted from the work control console 3, the display data corresponding to the product code is transmitted from the relay 12 to each sorting zone B.
, B, and the display data is individually transferred from the controller 10 to the respective display units 9... 9 so that the number indicator 7 of the predetermined display units 9. Numerical values indicating the number of pieces to be inserted are displayed in. At the same time, the input instruction lamps 6... 6 of the respective display units 9.

Then, a sorting process is performed by the operator (step T5). That is, while the worker transports the product along the transport path A by the cart 1, the worker displays the number displayed on the number indicator 7 in the container 5 of the pocket 4 where the insertion instruction lamp 6 is lit. The products are sequentially loaded from the cart 1 by one, and when the loading operation in all the sorting zones B... B is completed, the processing for the products is terminated.

Then, it is determined whether or not the collection work has been completed for all the items, and if not completed, the above-described work is executed for the next product, and if completed, the collection work is completed. (Step T6).

On the other hand, when the expiration date data d is smaller than the reference date data c (d <c), for example, the reference date data c
Is "19XX1Y16" and the expiration date data d indicates "19XX1Y14", a predetermined error process is performed, the buzzer 14 is sounded, and a predetermined error is displayed on the display unit 3b of the work control console 3. A message is displayed (step T7). At the same time, the error signal is transferred from the work control console 3 to the repeater 12, and the repeater 12 receiving this signal stops outputting the display data. Therefore, the input number is not displayed on the number indicator 7 of the display unit 9 provided in each of the collection shelves 2.

Next, it is determined whether or not the item is in stock. If the item is in stock, the collection operation for the replenished product is performed again. Then, the process proceeds to step T6, where it is determined whether or not the collection work has been completed for all items, and if completed, the collection work is terminated.

In this way, for a product whose expiration date arrives before the date obtained by adding the number of days of the effective period provided for each item to the scheduled shipping date expires, the transport route A
Is not performed on the collection containers 5... 5 in each pocket 4... 4 of the collection shelves 2. Will be done. In addition, since it is only necessary to input the expiration date of the product at the time of inputting the product code at the time of the collection work, there is no excessive burden on the operator.

In this embodiment, the product code and the expiration date are entered from the work control console 3 arranged at the start end B of the transport path A, so that the date of each product is checked. Since the operations are performed in a lump, it is possible to avoid complication of the operation at the time of putting products into the pockets 4... 4 of the collection shelf 2.

A data terminal device having a display unit and a key input unit may be mounted on a cart for transporting goods, and a bar code scanner or a buzzer may be connected to the data terminal device. In this case, even if additional replenishment is necessary due to, for example, a shortage of goods during transportation, it becomes easy to restart the sorting operation from an arbitrary location.

[0037]

As described above, according to the sorting system of the present invention, for a product taken out of a storage location, the product is specified by the product specifying means, and the expiration date (for example, , Expiration date), the determining means compares the date obtained by adding the expiration date of the designated product to the expected shipping date with the expiration date of the product, and determines the relationship between the two. It is determined whether or not the collection work of the product is performed based on the.
In such a case, the worker only needs to perform a simple operation such as specifying a product or inputting an expiration date and the like.
Not only is the burden reduced as compared to the case where all the operations are performed manually, but also the checking failure is avoided, and the shipment of expired products is prevented with high accuracy.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the expiration date input means and the product designation means are arranged at the start end of the transport path in the sorting system, so that the date check for each product is performed collectively. In other words, it is possible to avoid complication of the work when putting the product into the product storage unit.

On the other hand, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the expiration date input means and the product designation means are provided in the means for transporting the product, so that, for example, when the product runs short during transportation, additional replenishment is required. Even in such a case, it becomes easy to restart the sorting work from an arbitrary place.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic layout diagram of a sorting system.

FIG. 2 is a partial front view showing a configuration of a collection shelf in the system.

FIG. 3 is a control system diagram of the system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a preparation operation according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a collection operation according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 cart 2 collection shelf 3 work console 3a key input section 3b display section 7 number display 9 display unit 11 host computer 12 repeater 13 bar code scanner 14 buzzer A transport path A 'start point of transport path

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65G 1/00-1/20

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sorting system in which products are conveyed to a merchandise storage unit for each destination provided along a merchandise conveyance route and sorted by the number of orders received.
Scheduled shipment date setting means for setting the scheduled shipment date of the product, expiration date storage means for storing the expiration date of each product, expiration date inputting means for inputting the expiration date displayed on the product, and specifying the product Commodity designation means, and the expiration date stored in the expiration date storage means of the commodity of the item designated by the designation means are added to the expected shipping date set by the setting means, and the obtained date and the expiration date are added. Determining means for comparing the expiration date of the designated product input by the input means with the expiration date of the specified product and determining whether or not to perform the collection work of the product based on the context of these dates; A sorting system. 2. An expiration date input means and a product designation means,
The sorting system according to claim 1, wherein the sorting system is arranged at a start end of a product transport path. 3. The sorting system according to claim 1, further comprising a transportation means for transporting the goods, wherein the transportation means is provided with an expiration date input means and a goods designation means.