JP7493289B1 - How to manage emergency supplies - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for managing emergency supplies that is advantageous for both local governments and emergency supply sales companies. The method for managing emergency supplies stockpiled by local governments includes a control unit of a server terminal that checks the stockpile expiration date of the emergency supply item, and when the current date passes the stockpile expiration date, updates status information regarding the stockpile and transmits a status change message to the company terminal and the local government terminal. [Selected Figure] Figure 7

Description

This invention relates primarily to a method for managing stockpiles for local governments.

In preparation for natural disasters and other emergencies, local governments are required to stockpile large quantities of expensive supplies based on estimated damage. To do this, they must not only secure storage space for the supplies, but also manage the stockpiles' inventory, consider how to make effective use of supplies approaching their expiration date, and dispose of expired supplies at cost.

As an example of a method for managing stockpiles, Patent Document 1 lists a technology that issues an alarm to notify users when it is time to replace disaster prevention kits based on their expiration date or expiry date.

JP 2010-108466 A

However, the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 is focused on notifying people when it is time to replace their disaster prevention kits, and does not take into consideration the compatibility between the commercial value of the stockpiled goods and the value of stockpiling them. On the other hand, there is a need from companies that manufacture or sell stockpiled goods to have them purchased periodically, whereas local governments currently purchase stockpiled goods in bulk, and there is also a need from local governments, as mentioned above, to be freed from the effort of disposing of stockpiled goods and to make effective use of them.

Therefore, in consideration of the above issues and needs, the present invention aims to provide a method for managing stockpiles that benefits both local governments and stockpile supply companies.

In one aspect of the present invention, a method for managing stockpiles of emergency supplies stored by a local government includes a control unit of a server terminal that checks the stockpile expiration date of the emergency supplies and updates status information regarding the stockpile when the current date has passed the stockpile expiration date.

The present invention provides a method for managing stockpiles that benefits both local governments and stockpile supply companies.

1 is a block diagram showing a management system for stockpiles according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the server terminal 100 of FIG. 1 . FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the corporate terminal 200 of FIG. 1 . FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of company data stored in the server 100. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of local government data stored in the server 100. FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of data management of stockpiles. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process related to a stockpile management method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. Note that the embodiment described below does not unduly limit the content of the present invention described in the claims. Furthermore, not all of the components shown in the embodiment are necessarily essential components of the present invention.

<Configuration>
1 is a block diagram showing a system for managing emergency supplies according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This system 1 is composed of, for example, a server terminal 100 that manages emergency supplies provided (manufactured and/or sold) by one or more corporate terminals, a corporate terminal 200 of a company that manufactures or sells emergency supplies, and a local government terminal 300 that purchases and stores emergency supplies. For convenience of explanation, each terminal is described as being a single terminal or a specific number of terminals, but the number of each terminal is not limited.

The server terminal 100, the enterprise terminal 200, and the local government terminal 300 are each connected via a network NW1. The network NW is composed of the Internet, an intranet, a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), etc.

The server terminal 100 may be, for example, a general-purpose computer such as a workstation or a personal computer, or may be logically realized by cloud computing.

The corporate terminal 200 and the local government terminal 300 are, for example, information processing devices such as personal computers and tablet terminals, but may also be configured as smartphones, mobile phones, PDAs, etc.

Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of the server terminal 100 in Figure 1. The server terminal 100 includes a communication unit 110, a storage unit 120, and a control unit 130.

The communication unit 110 is a communication interface for communicating with the user terminal 200 via the network NW1, and communication is performed according to a communication protocol such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).

The memory unit 120 stores programs for executing various control processes and functions in the control unit 130, input data, etc., and is composed of a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), etc. The memory unit 120 also has a company data storage unit 121 that stores various data related to companies that manufacture and/or sell stockpiles, and a local government data storage unit 122 that stores various data related to local governments that purchase stockpiles from companies and stockpile them. Note that a database (not shown) that stores various data may be constructed outside the memory unit 120 or the server terminal 100.

The control unit 130 controls the overall operation of the server terminal 100 by executing the programs stored in the memory unit 120, and is composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), etc. The functions of the control unit 130 include an information reception unit 131 that receives instructions and information from each terminal, and an information processing unit 132 that refers to and processes various data related to the company and the local government. The information reception unit 131, the user information processing unit 132, and the script information processing unit 133 are started by the programs stored in the memory unit 120 and executed by the server terminal 100, which is a computer (electronic calculator).

The information receiving unit 131 receives information from the corporate terminal 200, the local government terminal 300, etc. via the communication unit 110. For example, information about stockpiled items is received from the corporate terminal 200.

The information processing unit 132 refers to various data related to the enterprise terminal 200 and the municipality terminal 300 (e.g., enterprise data 1000 and municipality data 2000 described below) and performs predetermined processing.

The control unit 130 may also have a screen generation unit (not shown), which generates screen information to be displayed via the user interface of the enterprise terminal 200 and the local government terminal 300 as requested. For example, the control unit 130 generates a user interface by using image and text data (not shown) stored in the memory unit 120 as material and arranging various images and text in predetermined areas of the user interface based on predetermined layout rules. Processing related to the image generation unit may also be executed by a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

Figure 3 is a functional block diagram showing the corporate terminal 200 of Figure 1. The corporate terminal 200 includes a communication unit 210, a display operation unit 220, a storage unit 230, and a control unit 240.

The communication unit 210 is a communication interface for communicating with the server terminal 100 via the network NW, and communication is performed according to a communication protocol such as TCP/IP.

The display operation unit 220 is a user interface used by corporate users to input instructions and display text, images, etc. according to input data from the control unit 240, and is composed of a display, keyboard, and mouse if the user terminal 200 is configured as a personal computer, and is composed of a touch panel, etc. if the corporate terminal 200 is configured as a smartphone or tablet terminal. This display operation unit 220 is started up by a control program stored in the memory unit 230 and executed by the corporate terminal 200, which is a computer (electronic calculator).

The storage unit 230 stores programs for executing various control processes and functions in the control unit 240, input data, etc., and is composed of RAM, ROM, etc. The storage unit 230 also temporarily stores the contents of communication with the server terminal 100.

The control unit 240 controls the overall operation of the corporate terminal 200 by executing the programs stored in the memory unit 230, and is composed of a CPU, GPU, etc.

Figure 4 shows an example of company data stored in the server terminal 100.

The company data 1000 shown in FIG. 4 stores various data related to companies that manufacture and/or sell stockpiles. For ease of explanation, FIG. 4 shows an example of one company (e.g., a company identified by company ID "10001" corresponding to the company related to the company terminal 200), but information on multiple companies can be stored. The various data related to the company can include, but is not limited to, basic data on the company (e.g., company name, address, contact information (email address, phone number), etc.), stockpiled product data managed by the company (e.g., stockpiled product ID, product name, quantity, manufacturing date, stockpiling (best before (consumption)) expiration date, sales price, storage location, etc.), and local government information to which the company provides stockpiled products (e.g., local government ID, local government name, stockpiled product ID, quantity, storage location, status information).

Figure 5 shows an example of local government data stored in the server terminal 100.

The local government data 2000 shown in FIG. 5 stores various data related to the local government that purchases and stockpiles emergency supplies from companies. For ease of explanation, FIG. 5 shows an example of one local government (e.g., a local government identified by local government ID "20001" corresponding to the local government related to the local government terminal 300), but information on multiple local governments can be stored. The various data related to the local government can include, but is not limited to, basic data related to the local government (e.g., local government name, address, contact information (email address, phone number), etc.) and data on emergency supplies stockpiled by the local government (e.g., emergency supply ID, product name, quantity, storage location, status information, etc.).

Figure 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of data management for the stockpiles described in Figures 4 and 5.

As shown in FIG. 6(a), the stockpiled product (product "A" in this example) can be managed in association with status information of "sale", "stockpiling" or "disposal" for each of multiple periods (period 1: one year from the manufacturing cost, period 2: two to nine years from the manufacturing date, period 3: ten years from the manufacturing date) that make up the period from the manufacturing date (April 2024 in this example) to the best-before (consumption) date (April 2024 in this example). In addition, the storage location and/or quantity of the stockpiled product at the start and end of each period can be set. In this example, since the stockpiling date of the stockpiled product is the same as the best-before (consumption) date, the stockpiled product will be discarded after the stockpiling date.

As shown in FIG. 6(b), the stockpiled product (product "A" in this example) can be managed in association with status information of "sale", "stockpiling" or "resale" for each of a number of periods (period 1: one year from the manufacturing cost, period 2: two to five years from the manufacturing date, period 3: five years from the manufacturing date) that make up the period from the manufacturing date (April 2024 in this example) to the best-before (consumption) date (April 2024 in this example). In addition, the storage location and/or quantity of the stockpiled product at the start and end of each period can be set. In this example, since the stockpiling date of the stockpiled product is before the best-before (consumption) date, the stockpiled product will be sold (re-sold) by the company in the period after the stockpiling date.

<Processing flow>
With reference to Fig. 7, a process flow of a stockpiling item management method executed by the system 1 of this embodiment will be described. A flowchart illustrating an example of a process related to a stockpiling item management method according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As a premise, the server terminal 100 receives information about a company that manufactures and/or sells stockpiles (e.g., company name, address, contact information (email address, telephone number), etc.) from each of the company terminal 200 and the local government terminal 300, and information about a local government that purchases stockpiles from the company and stores them (e.g., local government name, address, contact information (email address, telephone number), etc.).

First, in the process of step SQ101, the information receiving unit 131 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 receives information about the stockpiled goods from the corporate terminal 200 of the company that manufactures and/or sells the stockpiled goods via the communication unit 110, and accepts the stockpiled goods registration. Examples of the information about the stockpiled goods include the stockpiled goods ID, product name, quantity, manufacturing date, stockpiling (best before (consumption)) expiration date, sales price, storage location, etc. In the process of step SQ102, the information processing unit 132 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 stores the received information about the stockpiled goods in the corporate data storage unit 121 of the memory unit 120 as corporate data 1000. When the stockpiled goods are registered, the registered stockpiled goods are sold to the local government.

Sales of stockpiled goods may be made to the local government terminal 300 via a stockpiled goods sales platform provided by the server terminal 100, or directly from the corporate terminal 200, or may be made to the local government offline by the business operator operating the server terminal 100 or the corporate terminal 200 directly. At this time, the server terminal 100 or the corporate terminal 200 can refer to a stockpiled goods sales price table (not shown) stored in the server terminal 100 or the corporate terminal 200 for the sales price of the stockpiled goods sold by the company. At this time, the local government can purchase the stockpiled goods at a price lower than the list price, expecting that the stockpiled goods will be returned to the company after a certain period of time has passed, or can enter into a contract with the company for a low-cost subscription and periodically replace the stockpiled goods according to the stockpiling period of the stockpiled goods. For example, a local government may enter into a contract to purchase "one year's supply of tickets to secure 150,000 meals of emergency food" from a business operator every year, and instead of spending 15 million yen to purchase 150,000 meals of emergency food that normally costs 100 yen per meal, the contract may purchase the food for 750,000 yen per year. Alternatively, the local government may purchase emergency food at a discount of 5% of the retail price, and pay an additional fee (the remaining 14.25 million yen) when the emergency food is actually used. Next, in the process of step SQ103, the information receiving unit 131 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 receives a purchase request for emergency food from the local government terminal 300 that wishes to purchase emergency food via the communication unit 110. When the purchase request is received, a specified purchase process is executed, and the purchase of emergency food by the local government is completed.

When the stockpiled goods are sold to the local government, in step SQ104, the information processing unit 132 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 updates the company data 1000 in the company data storage unit 121 of the memory unit 120 and the local government data 2000 in the local government data storage unit 122. Specifically, the information processing unit 132 stores the local government data (local government ID, local government name, stockpiled goods ID, quantity, storage location, status) managed by the company data 1000 as the recipient of the stockpiled goods, and the information on the stockpiled goods quantity and storage location as well as the status information is updated from "sale" to "stockpiled". At this time, the storage location can be a facility managed by the local government, or it can be a facility managed by the company, assuming that the stockpiled goods will be resold later, and on the condition that the location is a place where the local government can immediately access the stockpiled goods in the event of an emergency.

When the local government has stockpiled emergency supplies for a certain period of time, in step SQ105, the information processing unit 132 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 refers to the stockpiling data in the stored company data 1000 or local government data 2000 and refers to the stockpiling deadline of the emergency supplies. If the stockpiling deadline is set to a date and time before the best-before (consumption) deadline (for example, six months before the best-before (consumption) deadline), the best-before (consumption) deadline or its date and time is referenced. If the pre-set date and time before the best-before (consumption) deadline of the emergency supplies (for example, six months before the best-before (consumption) deadline) has not arrived, the local government continues to stockpile the emergency supplies, and if the pre-set date and time before the best-before (consumption) deadline (for example, six months before the best-before (consumption) deadline) has arrived, the local government returns the emergency supplies to the company that sells the emergency supplies. At that time, the information processing unit 132 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 updates the company data 1000 in the company data storage unit 121 of the memory unit 120 and the local government data 2000 in the local government data storage unit 122. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6B, the status information is updated from "stockpiling" to "resale" along with information on the quantity and storage location of the stockpiled goods. When the stockpiled goods are stored in a facility (warehouse, etc.) managed by the company, the stockpiled goods can be stored as is without updating the storage location. As the process of step SQ107, the information processing unit 132 of the control unit 130 of the server terminal 100 can transmit information to the company terminal 200 and the local government terminal 300 that the status has been updated (switched). This allows the company that manufactures and/or sells stockpiled goods to sell the stockpiled goods that the company has stockpiled to other businesses. At this time, as in the above, the information is sent to the local government terminal 300 via the stockpile product sales platform provided by the server terminal 100, or directly from the company terminal 200, or it can be sent to the local government offline by the operator who operates the server terminal 100 or the company terminal 200 directly. At this time, the server terminal 100 or the company terminal 200 can refer to a stockpile product sales price table (not shown) stored in the server terminal 100 or the company terminal 200 for the sales price of the stockpile products sold by the company. When reselling, the company can set a sales price according to the time until the expiration date, and in particular, by referring to a price table set according to the remaining time until the expiration date, it can also sell to a third party at a lower price than the price at which it was sold to the local government.

As described above, with this embodiment, local governments can purchase stockpiled goods at low prices through subscriptions or the like, on the premise that the stockpiled goods will be returned to companies when their stockpiling expiration date (a date and time a certain period of time before the best-before (consumption) expiration date) arrives. This frees local governments from the burden of waste disposal that they were previously forced to bear, and companies can earn profits that they could not obtain in the past by reselling stockpiled goods returned by local governments.

Although the embodiments of the invention have been described above, they can be implemented in various other forms and can be implemented with various omissions, substitutions, and modifications. These embodiments and modifications, as well as those with omissions, substitutions, and modifications, are included within the technical scope of the claims and their equivalents. For example, this embodiment can be applied by having the company terminal 200 directly manage the company data 1000 and the local government data 2000 managed by the server terminal 100, so that the company terminal 200 alone can manage transactions of stockpiled goods between companies and (one or more) local governments without going through the server terminal 100, and the recipients of stockpiled goods are not limited to local governments, but can also be replaced with companies or individuals, and this embodiment can also be applied.

1 System 100 Server terminal, 110 Communication unit, 120 Storage unit, 130 Control unit, 200 Company terminal, 300 Local government terminal, NW1 Network

Claims (4)

A method for managing stockpiles of supplies stored by a local government, comprising the steps of:
The control unit of the server terminal
receiving information for identifying the stockpile and information regarding a stockpile expiration date of the stockpile from a company terminal of a company that sells the stockpile;
storing the received information for identifying the stockpiled goods and the stockpiling deadline of the stockpiled goods together with the identification information of the company as company data in a storage unit of the server terminal;
Accepting a purchase request for the stockpiled goods from a local government terminal of the local government, and executing a purchase process for the stockpiled goods;
As the company data, information for identifying a local government is stored in association with data on stockpiled items purchased by the local government , and status information indicating any one of the statuses of the stockpiled items (sale, stockpiling, resale, and disposal) is stored in the storage unit as status information indicating stockpiling instead of status information indicating sales;
Refer to the stockpile expiration date of the stockpile stored in the memory unit,
when the current date has passed the stockpiling deadline and the stockpiling deadline of the stockpiled item is prior to the expiration date or best before date of the stockpiled item, the status information is updated from status information indicating the stockpiling to status information indicating that the company is able to resell the stockpiled item to a third party, and stored in the memory unit. 2. The method of claim 1 ,
The control unit of the server terminal
The method further comprising storing a storage location of the stockpile as the company data. 3. The method of claim 2,
The control unit of the server terminal
The method includes updating the storage location of the stockpiled goods from a location managed by the local government to a location managed by the company in conjunction with updating the status information from a stockpiled status to an updated status. 2. The method of claim 1 ,
The control unit of the server terminal
When the status information is updated, a notification that the status information has been updated is transmitted to the enterprise terminal and the local government terminal.