JPH08101955A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an automatic vending machine capable of reducing the number of articles whose relishing period is over as much as possible and increasing sales as much as possible. CONSTITUTION: This machine is provided with a relishing period setting means 8 for setting the relishing period of the articles housed in an article column, an arithmetic means 22 for computing an average sales speed for selling out the articles housed in the article column within the relishing period based on the set relishing period and the number of the housed articles, computing a result sales speed based on the number of the sold articles and the number of selling days and comparing the computed average sales speed and result sales speed and an article replenishment display means 7 for guiding and displaying whether or not to replenish the articles based on a compared result.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine that sells products, and more specifically, sells products stored in a product column while controlling the expiration date of the expiration period that defines the period during which the beverage manufacturer can drink properly. About vending machines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an automatic vending machine of this type, a product stored in a product column is stored when the expiration date set by the expiration period setting means and the expiration date set by the expiration period setting means elapse. It is known to have a sales stop means for stopping the sale of a product. In this conventional vending machine, when the product is stored in the product column, the expiration period is set by the expiration period setting means, and when the expiration period elapses, the sales stop means is stored in the product column after the expiration period. Stop selling the item you are holding. If there are products in the product column after the expiration date, the test sales function by operating the remote controller, that is, by specifying the product column number with the remote controller, the products in the product column are continuously discharged. With this function, products whose expiration date has expired are discharged from the product column, and then new products are replenished and a new shelf life is set by the shelf life setting means.

[0003]

However, such a conventional vending machine, although it is possible to stop the sale of the product after the expiration date, replenishes the product column with an appropriate number of products. It was not possible to manage the product from the viewpoint. In other words, when replenishing merchandise, the operator must rely on experience and intuition to determine the number of merchandise to be replenished. Therefore, depending on the merchandise column, the merchandise does not sell well and it is not necessary to replenish merchandise. As a result, there has been a problem that a large amount of replenished products may be left unsold after the expiration of the shelf life. Also,
If there are unsold products in multiple product columns, even if you use the test sales function to discharge the products, you must specify the product column after checking the product column number, which is complicated. I had to work.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic vending machine which can reduce the number of expired products and increase the sales as much as possible. Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic vending machine that easily discharges products that have passed the expiration date.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an automatic vending machine according to claim 1 has a shelf life setting means for setting a shelf life of products stored in a product column, and a set shelf life and storage. Based on the number of products sold, the average sales speed for selling out the products stored in the product column within the shelf life is calculated, and the actual sales speed is calculated based on the number of sold products sold and the number of sales days. It is characterized in that it is provided with a calculating means for comparing the average selling speed and the actual selling speed, and a product replenishment displaying means for guiding and displaying whether or not the product should be replenished based on the comparison result.

A vending machine according to a second aspect is the vending machine according to the first aspect, in which the calculating means calculates the remaining period of the best-before period, and the forecast sale which can be sold in the remaining period at the calculated actual selling speed. The number of recommended products is calculated by adding the predicted number of products to the number of products to be sold, and the product supplement display means guides and displays the number of recommended products to be sold.

An automatic vending machine according to a third aspect of the present invention includes a shelf life setting means for setting a shelf life of a product stored in a product column, a judging means for judging whether or not the set shelf life has elapsed, and a judging means. The storage means that stores the column number of the product column that stores the product determined to have passed the expiration date by the means, and the product is discharged from the product columns of all the stored column numbers based on the product discharge command. It is characterized by further comprising a product discharging means.

[0008]

According to the automatic vending machine of the first aspect, the calculation means includes the products stored in the product column based on the shelf life set by the shelf life setting means and the number of products stored in the product column. The average sales speed for selling out within the shelf life is calculated, and the actual sales speed of the actually sold products is calculated based on the number of sold products sold and the number of sales days. Compare the actual sales speed. Then, the product replenishment display means displays a guide as to whether or not the product should be replenished based on the comparison result. In this way, rather than relying on experience or intuition, a guide is displayed as to whether or not to replenish the product according to the actual sales, so it is possible to add extra products to the unsold product column. Can be prevented. As a result, it is possible to reduce the number of expired products after the expiration of the expiration date as much as possible. On the other hand, products that sell well,
In other words, by replenishing a product that is not likely to run out of its shelf life, the product is prevented from being sold out.

According to another aspect of the vending machine of the present invention, the calculating means calculates the expected number of sales to be sold in the remaining period at the calculated average selling speed, and adds the estimated number of sales to the number of sold products sold. Therefore, the recommended number of products to be input is calculated. Then, the guide display means displays the recommended number of products to be introduced.
In this way, the number of products that are expected to have been sold in the remaining days until the expiration date is added to the number of products already sold, and this is displayed as the recommended number of products to be introduced, so
By replenishing an appropriate number of products in accordance with this guidance display, the products will not be sold out, the sales will not be reduced, and the number of expired products can be reduced as much as possible.

According to the automatic vending machine of the third aspect, the discriminating means discriminates whether or not the expiration date of the products stored in the product column set by the expiration period setting device has elapsed, and stores the result. The means stores the column number of the product column whose expiration date has passed. Then, the product discharging means automatically discharges the products from the product columns of all the column numbers stored in the storage means. Like this,
Check the column number of the product column that has passed the expiration date,
The product discharge work of specifying the column number with a remote controller is not required, and the product can be discharged easily.

[0011]

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below. FIG. 1 is an external view of a vending machine 1 that sells a plurality of types of beverages such as canned hot coffee having a limited shelf life. The vending machine 1 includes a door 2 and a main body 3 having a plurality of product columns (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 1A, the door 2 is provided with a product display 4 on the upper front side, and in the product display 4, product selection buttons 5 corresponding to each product column 5 are provided.
It has 5 ... Further, a product take-out port 6 for taking out the product discharged from the product column is provided in the lower front portion of the door 2. Further, as shown in FIG. 1B, a display panel (commodity replenishment display means) 7 for managing the expiration date of the stored product is provided inside the door 2 and the expiration date A remote controller (experience period setting means) 8 for setting and displaying the number of sold products and managing the products is detachably provided from the door 2.

As shown in FIG. 2, the display panel 7 includes a expiration date warning lamp 9, an expiration date elapsed lamp 10, and a batch clear switch 11. When the expiration date warning lamp 9 goes at the current sales pace,
Display that there is a product column where the product may remain unsold. The expiration date elapse lamp 10 indicates that there is a product column for which the expiration period has elapsed. The collective clear switch 11 is a switch for manually resetting the set shelf life.

The main body 3 has a plurality of product columns described above inside and, as shown in FIG. 1B, product discharge ports 12, 12, 12 for discharging products.

Next, a control device for controlling the vending machine 1 such as sales control and expiration date management control will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The control device 21 includes a main control section (calculating means, discriminating means) 22. Is equipped with. The main control unit 22 includes a microcomputer (hereinafter, referred to as “CPU”) that performs various calculations, a ROM that stores an operation program of the CPU and various data, and a RAM that stores calculation results of the CPU.
And a counter circuit (storage means). ROM
Stores in advance the standard shelf life of stored products (for example, 30 days) and the number of products that can be stored (the number of fully stored products) for each product column. The counter circuit is composed of a plurality of storage counters, period counters (both are down counters), elapsed days counters, expiration date elapsed days counters, and sales number counters (all are up counters), each counting for each product column. Has been done. The number-of-stored counter uses the initially set number of stored products as an initial value to count down each sale. The period counter uses the number of days of the initially set expiry period as an initial value and counts down every day. The elapsed days counter counts the number of days elapsed from the day when the best-before period is set. The expiration date elapsed days counter counts the number of days after the expiration period. The sales counter is
Count the number of products sold. The main control unit 22
The display panel 7, the sales control unit 23 for controlling the sale and discharge of the products, and the remote controller 8 are connected to the input / output port of the.

Next, the display guidance process performed by the main control unit 22 will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, the main flow will be described. As shown in FIG. 5, initialization processing is performed when the vending machine 1 is installed (step S1). This processing mainly includes the following shelf life setting processing, product storage number setting processing, and average selling speed calculation processing.

The best-before period setting process is a process of mainly setting the best-before period days of the products stored in the product column in the period counter. In this process, the main control unit 22 causes the R
The expiration date standard data stored in the OM or the expiration date data set by remote control and control operation of the remote controller 8 is used as a period counter and RA.
It is transferred to M, stored in them, and the initial value “0” is set in the elapsed days counter.

The product storage number setting process is a process of storing the number of products stored in the product column in the RAM and setting it in the storage number counter. In this process, the main control unit 22 is stored in the ROM. The standard data of the number of full storages (the number of fulls that can be stored in the product column) or the data of the number of storages set by the remote control operation of the remote controller 8 is transferred to the storage number counter and the RAM and stored therein.

The average selling speed calculation processing is processing for calculating a selling speed (average selling speed) for uniformly selling out the products stored in the product storage column within the best-before period, and specifically, the main control unit. 22 divides the storage number stored in the RAM by the number of days of the best-before period and stores it in the RAM. For example, when the shelf life is 30 days and the number of stored containers is 60, the average selling speed is 2 cans / day.

Next, a selling speed comparison process is performed (step S2). In this process, the speed actually sold (actual sales speed) is calculated and compared with the average sales speed.
Specifically, the main control unit 22 divides the count value of the sales counter by the count value of the elapsed days counter, stores the divided actual sales speed in the RAM, and compares it with the average sales speed obtained in step S1. To do.

A detailed description will be given with reference to FIG. This figure is a diagram showing the concept of average selling speed, where the horizontal axis is the elapsed time from when the products are stored in the product column, and the vertical axis is the number of products stored in the product column (the number of stored products, the number of stored products). The value of the counter). The straight line indicated by the solid line indicates the average number of items stored in the item storage column when the items continue to sell at the average selling speed. In this case, the average number of stored items is represented by the following formula: (number of stored items)-(number of stored items / experience period) x (value of elapsed days counter). In this figure, the area above the solid line is an area where the actual sales speed is slower than the average sales speed, and the area below the solid line is an area where the actual sales speed is faster than the average sales speed. As can be seen from this figure, whether or not the actual sales speed is faster than the average sales speed can also be determined by comparing the count value of the storage number counter with the average storage number at that time.

When the actual selling speed is slower than the average selling speed (step S3), the expiration date warning lamp lighting process is performed (step S4). In this process, the main controller 22
However, when there is even one product column whose actual sales speed is slower than the average sales speed, the expiration date warning lamp 9 is turned on. As a result, it is displayed that there is a poorly selling product column that may have its expiration date expired.

Next, the main controller 22 checks whether or not the count value of each period counter is "0" (step S5). When at least one of the count values is "0", the expiration date elapsed lamp 10 is turned on (step S6). In other words, in these processes, it is checked (determined) whether or not the expiration date has passed for all of the plurality of product columns, and if there is even one product column that has passed, the product column The column number is stored in the RAM, and the shelf life elapsed lamp 10 is turned on to display the caution.

Next, the main controller 22 carries out a stored number counter process (step S7) and a period counter process (step S8). In the storage number counter process, every time there is a sale, the count value of the storage number counter corresponding to the sold product is counted down. 1 in the period counter processing
The count value of the period counter is counted down each time the day has elapsed. Then, after the expiration of the expiry period, the count value of the expiry period elapsed days counter is up-counted every one day.

With the above, the main flow is ended (step S9), the process returns to step S2, and this main flow is repeated.

Next, the remote control process will be described with reference to FIG. This process is a process executed by the main control unit 22 when an operation is performed on the remote controller 8.

When either the expiration date warning lamp 9 or the expiration date elapsed lamp 10 is lit, the remote controller 8 is operated and a column display command is output from the remote controller 8 (step S1).
1) The column number of the product column whose actual sales speed is slower than the average sales speed and the column number of the product column whose shelf life has passed are displayed on the display unit 8a of the remote controller 8.
(Step S12). As a result, the administrator of the vending machine or the like can immediately know the product column that does not sell well and the product column that has passed the expiration date.

Next, the main control unit 22 checks whether or not there is a column number designation command for knowing the details of the sales status of each product column (step S13). When there is a column number designation command, it is determined whether or not the count value of the period counter corresponding to the product column of that column number is "0" (step S14).

When the count value is "0", that is, when the expiration period has elapsed, the expiration period elapsed display processing is performed (step S15). In this process, the display unit 8a of the remote controller 8 displays the number of products sold within the best-before period and how many days have passed since the best-before period (count value of the best-before period elapsed days counter). Next, the recommended input number display process is performed (step S16). This process is a process to display how many products should be put into the specified product column, and the recommended number of products (the number of crystal products) is past sales record (count value of sales counter) It is calculated based on the selling speed and the remaining period of the best-before period. Specifically, the recommended input quantity is the following formula: (count value of sales quantity counter) + (actual sales speed) x
(The number of days obtained by subtracting the count value of the elapsed days counter from the number of days of the best-fit period stored in the RAM). That is, in this process, a value obtained by adding the actual sales number up to now to the sales number that would have been sold if the products were sold at the actual sales speed until the expiration date was obtained as the recommended input number. If the recommended number of inputs is larger than the number of full storage, the number of full storage is the recommended number of inputs. The recommended number of inputs means a number that is expected to be reduced as much as possible by replenishing this number of products, and at the same time, sales will not be prevented and sales will not drop.

In step S14 described above, if the count value of the period counter is not "0", that is, if the expiration period has not elapsed, display processing within the expiration period is performed (step S17). In this process, the number of products sold within the best-before period (count value of the sales number counter), the remaining period until the best-before date, and the product availability approval guide are displayed. Here, the product introduction approval / disapproval guidance is based on the comparison result compared in step S2 described above, when the actual sales speed is slower than the average sales speed, the lamp of the product selection button 5 is made to blink, and when it is fast, Illuminates the lamp of the product selection button 5 to guide whether or not the product can be inserted. As a result, when the selling speed is slow, it is possible to prevent the introduction of products, and as a result, it is possible to prevent the number of unsold products from increasing after the expiration of the shelf life.

Next, it is checked whether or not there is a product discharge command (step S18), and if there is a product discharge command, product discharge processing is performed (step S19). In the product discharge process, all products in all product columns for which the expiration date has passed are discharged to the product outlet 6. Specifically, the main control unit 22 outputs the column number data of the product column corresponding to the period counter whose count value is “0” to the sales control unit 23, and the sales control unit 23 presses the product selection button 5. When the product is sold, the normal selling operation of selling the product is repeated, and all the products for which the expiration date has passed are discharged through the product outlet 12.
Discharge to the product outlet 6. This makes it possible to easily discharge the products for which the expiration date has passed. In the product discharge process, after discharging the product, clear the period counter and the storage number counter, and then set the initial value,
The count values of the elapsed days counter, the expiration date elapsed days counter, and the sales counter are set to "0".

Next, it is checked whether or not a product has been loaded (step S20), and when it has been loaded, a product loading process is performed (step S21). In the product loading process, the loaded products are counted by a sensor (not shown), the count value is added to the count value of the storage number counter, and the added counter value is stored in the RAM.
After that, the count value of the sales counter is set to "0".

Next, it is checked whether or not there is a batch clear command from the batch clear switch 11 (step S
22) If there is, the count value of all the period counters is set to the initial value again, and the remote control process is ended (step S24).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the product is replenished, it is displayed by the expiration date warning lamp 9 whether or not there is a product column that is likely to pass the expiration date, and the remote controller 8 indicates the expiration date. It is possible to easily identify the product column that stores such products, so you do not put extra products in the product column that is not selling well, and as a result, The number can be kept as low as possible. At the same time, it is possible to prevent the product from being sold out and prevent the sales from dropping.

When the various counters are set and reset, the sales speed comparison process (step S2) of the main routine is performed based on the new count value, and as a result, the expiration date warning lamp lighting process (step S4).
However, it will be done closer to the sales record.
For this reason, it is possible to more accurately display the product replenishment availability guide and the recommended input number guide.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the comparison between the average sales speed and the actual sales speed, the estimated sales quantity when the average sales are made may be compared with the count value of the sales quantity counter, or the average sales speed is estimated to be the average sales day. May be compared with the actual average sales number actually sold in one day.

Further, in the present embodiment, the recommended number of products to be inserted is displayed when the product is sold out within the expiration period, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be displayed during the expiration period. In this case, when the stored products are left as they are, the count value of the storage counter may be subtracted from the recommended input product number. Of course, when the product is discharged, the recommended number of products to be put in represented by the formula shown in the embodiment can be applied as it is.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, since it is displayed whether or not to replenish a product according to the actual sales, a product column that is not well sold is supplemented with an extra product. As a result, it is possible to reduce the number of expired products after the expiration of the shelf life as much as possible, prevent the product from being sold out, and prevent the sales from dropping. Further, the recommended display number of products calculated by the calculation means is displayed by the guide display means, so that the number of expired products can be reduced as much as possible without reducing the sales of the products. Further, it is not necessary to confirm the column numbers of the product columns whose shelf life has passed and specify the column numbers with a remote controller or the like, which eliminates the need for the product discharge work, and the products can be discharged easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (a) is a front view of a vending machine according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 1 (b) is an external view of the vending machine according to the present embodiment when a door is opened. is there.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a display panel of the vending machine according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an average sales number.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a main flow of a main controller according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a remote control process of a main controller according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 8 Remote controller 9 Expiration date warning lamp 22 Main control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A shelf life setting means for setting a shelf life of a product stored in a product column, and a product stored in the product column based on the set shelf life and the number of stored products. Calculating an average selling speed to sell out inside, calculating the actual selling speed based on the number of sold products sold and the number of sales days, and comparing the calculated average selling speed with the actual selling speed, An automatic vending machine, comprising: a product replenishment display means for displaying, based on a comparison result, whether or not to replenish a product. 2. The calculating means calculates the remaining period of the best-before period, calculates the estimated number of sales that can be sold in the remaining period at the calculated actual sales speed, and calculates the estimated sales to the number of sold products. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the number of recommended input products is calculated by adding up the numbers, and the product supplement display means guides and displays the calculated number of recommended input products. 3. A shelf life setting means for setting a shelf life of a product stored in a product column, a judgment means for judging whether or not the set shelf life has passed, and a judgment means for passing the shelf life. Storage means for storing the column number of the product column that stores the determined product, and product discharge means for discharging the product from the product columns of all the stored column numbers based on the product discharge command. Vending machine characterized by further comprising.