JPH0560948B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a tablet inventory control method in a feeder of a tablet packaging machine.

[Conventional technology]

In order to efficiently take out and give tablets according to the symptoms of patients at hospitals, clinics, etc. in a short period of time, various types of tablets are placed in advance on shelves in multiple rows and vertically for each type. The tablets are stored in a feeder, and the required tablets are dropped from the desired feeder in response to an external command signal.The tablets are received by a packaging mechanism and packaged in sachets, which are then continuously delivered to a large number of patients. Tablet packaging machines have been used for some time.

Various types of tablet packaging machines have been developed in the past, such as those with box-shaped or cylindrical cases, but their basic configuration is generally that they are installed in multiple rows of shelves with multiple levels above and below. feeder,
It consists of a common hopper provided below the case that houses the feeder, a continuous packaging mechanism provided below it, and an electronic control device that controls the operation of each of the above-mentioned components.

A predetermined amount of necessary tablets are stored in the feeder in advance, and when a particular feeder becomes empty, the machine is temporarily stopped and the feeder is taken out and replenished.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional tablet packaging machine described above, the actual number of the various tablets stored in the feeder is not sufficiently confirmed. This can be confirmed by visual confirmation, or if the specified number of tablets are not discharged from the feeder for a certain period of time during automatic operation, a display or alarm will be issued indicating that there are no tablets in stock at the feeder, and the machine will be temporarily stopped. Then, I take out the feeder and replenish the appropriate number of tablets by eye.

For this reason, there was a problem in that even though the tablets should be given to the patient immediately, the machine had to be stopped and the patient had to wait, resulting in a loss of time until the tablets were replenished into the feeder. .

This invention was made in view of the current status of the tablet inventory control method in the feeder of the conventional tablet packaging machine, and its purpose is to use the tablets used in the packaging operation until the stock of tablets in the feeder is completely exhausted. The conventional management method, in which tablets are refilled based on the indication when a state of out-of-tablets is detected, causes a loss in that patients are forced to wait for a long time during refilling. The current stock after packaging work is calculated from the number of tablets to be used, detects feeders where the predicted number of stock is less than the set number, and replenishes the feeders with tablets using a counting scale. To provide a tablet inventory management method that appropriately manages the predicted number of tablets in stock.

[Means to solve the problem]

Therefore, in this invention, as a means to solve the above problem, data regarding tablets such as drug name, number of days, quantity, etc. is input into an electronic control device, and desired tablets are stocked by a predetermined program based on this data. In a tablet packaging machine that selects a feeder, discharges the required number of tablets from this feeder, collects them into a packaging mechanism via a hopper, and packages them. When the above data is input, the signal is used for packaging work. The number of tablets stored in each feeder is subtracted from the current number of tablets in stock in each feeder for each packaging operation to calculate the expected number of stored tablets after the packaging operation is completed, and this predicted number of tablets is set for each tablet. Detects the feeder for tablets that are below the set number, and at an appropriate timing when the number falls below the set number, the tablets to be refilled are placed on a scale that converts and displays the number of tablets from weight, calculates the number of tablets, and performs the above detection. At the same time as replenishing the feeder, the memory of the predicted number of tablets stored is rewritten using the above replenishment data, and this method is used to manage the tablet inventory of the tablet packaging machine, in which the predicted number of tablets stored in the tablet feeder is always kept at an appropriate level. .

[Effect]

In the tablet inventory management method according to the present invention configured as described above, the predicted number of tablets in stock after the completion of the packaging operation is determined from the tablet data used in the packaging operation as a pre-processing during the normal packaging operation, While repeating this packaging process, a feeder whose predicted number of warehouses has fallen below a set number is detected.

When the feeder is detected, the number of tablets to be replenished is placed on a counting scale at an appropriate timing when the number falls below the set number, the number of tablets is determined, and the tablets are replenished into the detected feeder. Then, the memory of the predicted number of tablets stored is rewritten using the replenishment data of the number of tablets. The number scale used is a scale that can convert the measured weight into the number of tablets based on data storing the unit weight of each tablet.

The appropriate timing is the timing after the predicted number of tablets in stock becomes equal to or less than the set number and after the packaging operation has been performed several times. Therefore, there is no need to stop the packaging operation immediately when the predicted number of stored tablets matches the set number, and replenishment operations can be performed at any time depending on the usage status of the tablets given to patients. ,
If this time is set at an appropriate time when the dispensing work is interrupted or after the end of the medical treatment, the patient will not have to wait for a long time.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic block diagram of a control circuit for a tablet packaging machine that implements the tablet inventory management method according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the control circuit of this tablet packaging machine includes a host computer 10, a subcomputer 20,
It consists of an electronic balance device 30 and various driving parts of a tablet packaging machine 40.

The host computer 10 includes interfaces 11 and 11' as I/O ports, a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 12, ROM 13, and RAM.
14, etc., and is equipped with a keyboard 15 and a barcode reader 16 as external input devices, and a printer 17, a CRT display (hereinafter referred to as CRT) 18, etc. as a display device. Reference numeral 19 denotes a selection switch, which may not be provided if all signals of this switch are input from the keyboard 15.
The ROM 13 contains a control program for the entire control circuit, and the RAM 14 stores external input data from the keyboard 15, barcode reader 16, electronic balance device 30, and the like.

Similarly to the host computer, the subcomputer 20 also has interfaces 21, 21' and a CPU 2.
2. Consists of ROM23, RAM24, etc., ROM2
3 has a built-in control program for controlling each driving section of the tablet packaging machine 40, and the RAM 24 stores various inputs from the host computer.

The electronic balance device 30 consists of a balance 31 and a computer that controls it.The output signal of the balance 31 is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter 32, and sent to the CPU 34 via an interface 33, and its various signals are Data is stored in RAM 36 and sent to host computer 10 via interface 33'. ROM35
stores a program for controlling the balance 31. The display 37 is a liquid crystal display or a fluorescent display tube, and displays the various data mentioned above. 38 is a tare switch, which is used for taring operation.

The tablet packaging machine 40 includes a feeder 41 provided in a case 40a, a hopper 51, and a packaging mechanism 6.
The general structure of the feeder is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and the details of the feeder are shown in FIG. 4.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the feeders 41 are arranged in multiple stages and in multiple rows in the upper half of the case 40a. The number of feeders 41 is not limited to the illustrated example and is arbitrary. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the feeder 4
1 consists of a feeder box 42 and a motor 43. The motor 43 is attached to a base member 44, and this base member is fixed to a guide wall 46 via a mounting member provided with a guide hole 45. The feeder box 42 is detachably attached to the base member, and has a tablet receptacle made of a tapered wall 47 slanting toward the center, and a tablet head 48 at the center. The tablets enter into a plurality of pockets 49 provided on the outer periphery of the tablet head 48, and are inserted into the tapered wall 4.
As the tablet head 48 rotates, the position of the opening 50 provided at one location at the lower end of the conical wall of the tablet head 48 and the pocket 49 match, each time a tablet is inserted into the opening 5.
0, is dropped through the guide hole 45 into the guide wall 46 in the direction of the arrow, and is dropped into the lower hopper 51.
, and further reaches the packaging mechanism 60.

The packaging mechanism 60 prints necessary information (for example, drug name, usage, patient name, etc.) on the packaging paper sent out from a roll 61 of packaging paper using a printer 62, and then folds the paper in half and seals the packaging paper using a heating roller 63 of a heat sealing device. During this time, the tablets dropped from the hopper 51 are enclosed and sealed to a predetermined length, and then cut into several lengths by the rotary cutter 64 of the cutting device and sent out. It is configured.
65 and 66 are motors, respectively.

The operation of the control circuit of the tablet packaging machine constructed as described above will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

First, a starting switch (not shown) is turned on to start the control circuit, and a work process is selected by an input signal from the keyboard 15. This work process includes, for example, "packaging work", "filling work", "drug registration work", etc. Of these, "drug registration work"
6 is a task of previously inputting various data for each tablet into the RAM 14 of the host computer, but since it is not directly related to the operation of the present invention, its explanation will be omitted. Furthermore, the "packaging operation" is a normal operation of a tablet packaging machine, and will be briefly explained below.

When the "packaging work" process is selected, A in Figure 5
The program marked with the mark is selected, and in step _S1 , the number of days and drug name are entered from the doctor's prescription using the keyboard 15, and in step _S2 , the predicted stock quantity N for that drug name is entered.
and the set stock quantity NI are compared. Here, the above inventory quantity is data that is entered in advance in the "drug registration work", and is determined based on experience with the frequency of use of the tablets when filling the feeder with tablets in the "filling work" described later. The minimum stock quantity of the feeder,
The numerical value is set to allow for a margin such that the predicted number of warehouses does not become 0 even if the number of warehouses exceeds this set number and is used to a certain extent.

Therefore, under normal operating conditions in which a certain amount of predicted warehouse stock is stored in the feeder, the predicted warehouse stock will not fall below the set stock number, and in step _S2 , the result of the comparison will be No, and the process will proceed to the next step.

In step _S3 , data on the number of doses from the prescription is further input using the keyboard 15, and when the input end key is pressed in step _S4 , the total number of doses is calculated, and in step _S5 , the predicted stock quantity is rewritten. This is because the number of tablets used when performing normal packaging in the next step _S6 matches the number specified in the input data in advance, so this data is used to estimate the expected number of tablets after use. This is something that is rewritten before the work is executed.

Regarding the packaging operation in step _S6 , as explained in the above-mentioned configuration of the packaging mechanism 60, the tablets are delivered from the hopper 51 while the packaging paper sent via the roll 61 and the printer 62 is folded in half. The work is completed by sealing the bag with a heating roller 63, cutting it into the required length with a rotary cutter 64, and discharging it from the machine. The above-mentioned packaging process is performed for each patient.

When the above-mentioned packaging process is repeated for a plurality of patients, various tablets are used, and the predicted number of tablets stored in the feeder gradually approaches the set number of tablets in stock. Then, when the predicted stock quantity of a specific feeder becomes less than the set stock quantity, as a result of the comparison in step _S2 of the above "packaging work" process, the process proceeds to step _S7 and the CRT is
18, and proceed to step _S8 . At this point, it is determined whether or not to fill that feeder. This determination is made by inputting a filling instruction or non-filling instruction from the keyboard 15.

If the above-mentioned non-filling instruction is given, return to the original process and proceed to step _S3 . This is because when the above-mentioned filling indication is displayed, the expected number of tablets in stock is less than the set stock number, but the set stock is determined with a certain amount of margin in order to avoid making patients wait for filling work. This is so that several tablets can be used.

The filling instruction in step _S8 is performed when the dispensing work is interrupted or after the end of the day's medical treatment. This eliminates the need for patients to wait for long periods of time.
When this filling instruction is given, the machine returns to the starting position and selects the work process again, and when "filling work" is selected, the process proceeds to process B.

When the filling operation process is started, in step _S10 , the tablet names of the tablets whose predicted number of stock is below the set stock number are printed on the printer 17. Referring to this printed list of tablet names, take out the original bottle (CB) corresponding to each tablet name from the storage shelf, and in step _S11 , insert the barcode displayed on the original bottle (CB) into the bar code. It is read by the code reader 16. In step _S12 , the data read by the barcode reader is checked against the data file to see if it is registered, and if it is registered, the drug code, drug name, etc. of the tablet is displayed on the CRT 18 in step _S13 .

Thereafter, the feeder 41 corresponding to the original bottle (CB) is taken out from the tablet packaging machine, the barcode displayed on the feeder 41 is read in step _S14 by the barcode reader 16, and the barcode is read in step _S15 . Verify registration. If it is not registered, an unregistered message is displayed in step _S16 and the process returns to the beginning of step _S14 .

If it has been registered, proceed to step _S17 and check the source bottle (CB) and feeder (NO). If they do not match, display a container mismatch in step _S18 and proceed to step _S14 . Back to the beginning.

If the two match, in step _S19 , various data regarding the feeder (shown in Figure 6) are called from the drug data file, and the number of full units is determined.
The predicted number N in stock is subtracted from NA, and the number NN (=NA-N) of missing tablets is displayed on the CRT ₁₈ of the host computer 10 in step S20.

The above data and the value of the number of missing tablets NN are transmitted from the host computer 10 to the electronic balance device 30.
The information is sent to the CPU 34, and in step _S21 , the number of missing tablets NN is displayed on the display 37 of this weighing device.
At step _S22 , data on the unit weight G per tablet is read into the RAM 36.

In this state, the feeder 41 is placed on the balance 31, and in step _S23 the tare switch 38 is operated to send a signal to perform a tare operation. In this case, although the tare value of each feeder is not shown in FIG. 6, the weight value of only the feeder, which was previously measured in an empty state, is registered in the data file.

After the tare operation, the feeder 41 is placed on the balance 31 and the original bottle (CB) is placed on the feeder 41.
The appropriate amount of tablets are poured into the container. The net weight of the poured tablet is measured with a balance 31, and sent to the CPU 34 via the A/D converter 32.
The tablet 1 stored in the RAM 36 in step _S24
The CPU 34 converts the data of unit weight G per tablet into number data.

In step _S25 , this number of poured tablets N' is subtracted from the number of missing tablets NN, and the difference is the number of missing tablets.
N'' is calculated and displayed in step _S26 , and tablets are continuously poured while observing changes in N'' visually on the display 37.

In step _S27 , it is determined whether N'' has become 0, and when N'' has become 0, the pouring operation is stopped.
Then, when the full feeder 41 is lowered from the balance 31, the loaded weight of the balance 31 becomes negative. When the "weight negative" state of the balance 31 is detected in step _S28 , the number of poured tablets N' is summed up based on the signal and the number of filled tablets M is determined in step S28.
Show in S ₂₉ . Furthermore, in step _S30 , the filling number M is added to the previous predicted number N of warehouses, and the data is rewritten to a new predicted number N of warehouses, and the work is completed.

In the above-described embodiment, when the balance 31 measures the number of tablets to be replenished in the "filling operation" process, the feeder 41 is placed directly on the balance 31. Instead, the number of tablets may be measured by placing the tablets to be replenished in a light measuring container.

Also, when replenishing tablets to the feeder 41 that has been detected to be below the set number, the display will subtract from the display of the missing number NN, which is the difference between the full number NA and the predicted number N, until the display becomes 0. However, regarding this display method, it is also possible to adopt a method of adding and displaying an increase in the number of tablets to be replenished, or a variety of other display methods.

〔effect〕

As explained in detail above, in this invention, when data on tablets to be given to patients is input, the predicted number of tablets in stock after the completion of the packaging operation is determined for each normal packaging operation based on that data. When the predicted number of stock is less than the set number, the feeder is detected, the tablets to be replenished at an appropriate timing are placed on a counting scale, the number of tablets is calculated, the tablets are replenished into the feeder, and the tablets are predicted based on the replenishment data. Since we managed the predicted number of tablets in the tablet feeder appropriately by rewriting the memory of storage number data, if we set the above appropriate timing when dispensing work is interrupted or after the end of treatment, the tablet packaging machine will start operating. This has the advantage that it is possible to eliminate inconveniences such as sudden stops due to running out of tablets, making patients wait for a long time to replenish the feeder with tablets, and confusion in the tablet delivery work.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic block diagram of the control circuit of a tablet packaging machine that implements the tablet inventory management method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially sectional front view of the tablet packaging machine, and FIG. A cross-sectional view seen from the line -,
FIG. 4 is a detailed sectional view of the feeder, FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the operation of the tablet packaging machine, and FIG. 6 is a list showing the contents of drug data files registered in the RAM of the host computer. 10...Host computer, 15...Keyboard, 17...Printer, 18...CRT, 20
...Subcomputer, 30...Electronic balance device,
31... Balance, 34... CPU, 37... Display,
38...Tare switch, 40...Tablet packaging machine, 4
1... Feeder, 51... Hopper, 60... Packaging mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Data related to tablets such as drug name, number of days, quantity, etc. are input into the electronic control device, and based on this data, a feeder that stores the desired tablets is selected according to a predetermined program, and the required number of tablets is discharged from this feeder. Then, in a tablet packaging machine that collects the tablets into a packaging mechanism via a hopper and packages them, when the above data is input, the number of tablets to be used in the packaging operation is determined in each feeder for each packaging operation. The predicted number of stored tablets after the completion of the packaging operation is calculated in advance by subtracting it from the current number of tablets in stock. At the same time, the feeder of tablets where the predicted number of stored tablets is less than the set number determined for each tablet is detected, and At an appropriate timing when the number of tablets falls below the number, place the tablets to be replenished on a scale that converts and displays the number of tablets from weight, calculates the number of tablets, replenishes the detected feeder, and calculates the number of tablets based on the replenishment data. A tablet inventory management method for a tablet packaging machine, characterized by rewriting the memory of predicted warehouse quantity data, thereby always managing the predicted warehouse quantity of a tablet feeder at an appropriate amount.