JPH0855166A - Stock control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the stock control system which eliminates the need for various slips and saves the labor for stock control by securely grasping the actual number of articles in stock in a warehouse and on display racks in a store. CONSTITUTION:This stock control system is equipped with an article master file 2 which contains necessary data regarding respective articles, and further equipped with a terminal controller 1 which is connected to a POS register 4, a display rack controller 6 which is provided additionally to the display racks 10 and 29 where the articles are displayed and manages the quantities of the articles mounted on the display racks 10 and 29, and a data transmitting means which sends data forward and backward between the terminal controller 1 and display rack controller 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inventory management system that collectively manages from the purchase of goods to the delivery and sale of goods by a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in inventory management of products in a store or the like, the stock quantity is grasped from a purchase book created based on a purchase slip and a sales book created based on a sales slip, and further, a receipt slip, an output slip, and the like. It was common to do so. Further, recently, in order to computerize this inventory management, at the time of purchase, the purchase slip is keyed into the terminal device to immediately collect the purchase information at the host computer, and at the time of sale, it is sold at the POS terminal (POS register). An inventory management system, in which information is immediately collected by a host computer to manage inventory information, is becoming popular. In this case, a method of printing a barcode on a product and reading the barcode with a POS scanner to input product information is often adopted.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional inventory management system using a computer, there is a discrepancy between the actual number of purchases and the input data from the terminal device based on the purchase slip, especially at the time of purchase. There is a problem in that the theoretical (nominal) inventory quantity does not match the actual inventory quantity, and accurate inventory management cannot be performed. In addition, in the conventional system, although it is possible to grasp the total quantity of the stock, it is impossible to grasp the unevenness of the same product on each display shelf, and therefore the actual stock quantity is still checked. There is a problem in that it is very inefficient because it requires a lot of manpower and time, because it has to rely on manpower.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to automatically count the number of products actually existing in the display shelves of a warehouse and a store to reliably grasp the actual inventory quantity. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an inventory management system capable of saving labor in inventory management by eliminating various slips.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an inventory management system according to the present invention comprises (a) a product master file in which required data for each product is stored and is connected to a POS register. A terminal controller, (b) a display shelf controller attached to a display shelf for displaying products and managing the quantity of the products placed on this display shelf, and (c) a space between these terminal controllers and the display shelf controller. It is characterized by comprising a data transmission means for exchanging data.

In the product master file, it is preferable to store each data including a shelf block number and a shelf number of a display shelf, a product name of a product, a unit price and a stock quantity.

The display shelves are preferably provided in both a warehouse and a store.

The display shelf controller is a quantity detecting means for detecting the quantity of the products placed on the display shelf by measuring the weight of the products, or the length of the products placed on the display shelf. It is preferable to include a quantity detection means for detecting the quantity of the products by measuring the quantity.

Further, it is preferable that the display shelf controller is provided with display means for displaying required data. Here, it is preferable that the display means displays each data including the shelf block number and shelf number of the display shelf, the product name of the product, the unit price and the stock quantity.

Further, it is preferable to provide a terminal device for exchanging various data with the terminal controller.

[0011]

According to the present invention, data relating to the quantity of products placed on each display rack is transferred from each display rack controller to the terminal controller, and each display rack controller is controlled by this terminal controller. It In this way, it is possible to accurately and immediately grasp the number of goods in / out and the number of inventories of each display shelf, and it is possible to analyze sales data based on the number of actual inventories of each display shelf, manage goods such as inventory management, and control POS registers. You can do it.

[0012] The display shelf controller detects the quantity of the products placed on the display shelf by measuring the weight of the products, or the length of the products placed on the display shelf. If a quantity detection means for detecting the quantity of those products by measuring the height is provided, it is possible to obtain data relating to the number of those products simply by placing the products on the display shelf. It is possible to reliably grasp the actual number of products in stock.

Further, if the display shelf controller is provided with display means for displaying required data, various data such as shelf number, product name, unit price, stock quantity, etc. can be displayed on this display means. The service for can be improved.

Further, when a terminal device for exchanging various data with the terminal controller is provided, various instructions can be given to the terminal controller by this terminal device, and required data can be output from the terminal controller to the terminal device. Therefore, the display shelves can be managed at a position apart from the display shelves.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, specific embodiments of the inventory management system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

A system configuration diagram of an inventory management system according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. The inventory management system of this embodiment is applied to a free gift payout system in a pachinko parlor, and includes a terminal controller 1 that controls and manages the entire store (free gift exchange counter) and the freeware storage warehouse. The terminal controller 1 is provided with a product master file 2 for accumulating various data such as shelf block numbers and shelf numbers of display shelves related to each prize (product), product name, unit price, inventory quantity, and the like. A terminal 3 for inputting data or instructing various processes is connected via a communication line, and further PO
.. and a printer 5 for printing out various data are connected via a transmission line.

The terminal controller 1 also has
Display shelves 1 to be described later, which are respectively installed in stores and warehouses
Display rack controller 6, 6, attached to 0, 29
... are connected. This display shelf controller 6
Is, as shown in FIG.
PU7, non-volatile RAM8 as a storage unit, the C
And a display 9 for displaying a calculation result by the PU 7,
C by a control signal from the terminal controller 1
Controlled via PU7. On the other hand, the data calculated by the display shelf controller 6 is transferred to the terminal controller 1 via the CPU 7.

3 and 4 show examples of display shelves arranged in stores and warehouses. Display shelf 10 shown
Is a set of two sensor units 12, 1 for detecting the weight of a product placed on the article placement surface 11 of the display shelf 10.
2 is incorporated.

The sensor unit 12 has a movable piece 13 provided at one end and a fixed piece 14 provided at the other end.
And two leaf springs (elastic pieces) 15 that connect the movable piece 13 and the fixed piece 14 to each other. It is designed to form a parallelogram joint in the mechanism. An arm piece 16 as a sensor base is supported in a cantilevered manner on the inner wall of the movable piece 13 in a substantially cantilever manner, and a cylindrical permanent magnet (not shown) is provided on the upper surface of the arm piece 16. No) is attached. A hall element 17 is attached to the fixed piece 14 side so as to face the permanent magnet, and an output voltage output from the hall element 17 is stored in a control board 27 described later via an A / D converter (not shown). The data is input to the CPU 7.

The sensor units 12, 1 having such a configuration
2 is a fixing piece 14 fixed on the upper surface of the mounting base 18 of the shelf body by a bolt inserted into the sensor unit mounting hole 19.
It is fixed at the location of the mounting hole that is drilled in. A tapered lower housing 20 is fixed to the front part of the mounting base 18. After the sensor units 12, 12 are fixed to the mounting base 18, the mounting base 18 and the lower housing 20 are covered. Thus, the upper housing 21 is covered from above, and the upper housing 21 is held by the lower housing 20. In addition,
When the upper housing 21 is held by the lower housing 20, a predetermined clearance C is formed between the upper housing 21 and the mounting base 18, and the upper housing 21 is moved downward by the clearance C. It can be moved.

Further, each movable piece 1 is provided in the upper housing 21.
Protrusions 22 are provided at positions corresponding to the mounting holes of No. 3, and the projections 22 are inserted into the mounting holes of each movable piece 13 when the upper housing 21 is covered with the lower housing 20. Further, the upper housing 21 is provided with projections 23 as loading points adjacent to the projections 22, and the projections 23 are brought into contact with the upper surface of the movable piece 13 when the projections 22 are inserted into the mounting holes. . In addition, reference numeral 24 is a slip-off preventing piece attached to each rib 25, 26 integrally formed on the upper wall of the upper housing 21.

A control board 27 is provided on the lower surface of the upper wall of the lower housing 20, and the upper housing 2
The display 9 is provided in the front part of the device 1. This display 9
The display content of is visible through a window 28 formed in the upper housing 21. As the display 9, a thin display such as a liquid crystal display can be used.

In the display rack 10 having such a structure, when a predetermined product is placed on the article placement surface 11, each movable piece 13 is moved through the four convex portions 23 as load points. Load is transmitted to the leaf spring 15 of the Roberval mechanism, and the movable pieces 13, 13 are displaced with the fixed pieces 14, 14 as a fulcrum to a position where the load is balanced. When the movable pieces 13, 13 are displaced in this way, the arm pieces 16, 16 provided integrally with the movable pieces 13, 13 are displaced along with the displacement, and the arm pieces 16,
The gap between the permanent magnet fixed to 16 and the Hall elements 17, 17 facing the permanent magnet changes. Therefore,
The nonvolatile RAM 8 is a map showing the relationship between the output voltage difference Vs at the end face of the Hall element 17 and the distance P between the permanent magnet and the Hall element 17 corresponding to these loads by applying known loads in advance on the article mounting surface 11. The output voltage difference V measured by referring to this map
The distance Px corresponding to x is calculated, and the weight of the product placed on the article placing surface 11 can be obtained. in this case,
When the same type of product is placed on the article placement surface 11,
By registering the weight per product in the nonvolatile RAM 8, the number of products can be grasped.

5 and 6 show other examples of display shelves arranged in stores and warehouses. Display shelf 2 in this example
The reference numeral 9 includes a detection means for detecting the length of a product placed on the article placement surface 30 of the display shelf 29.

The display shelf 29 of this example has a main body frame 31 whose upper surface is a flat article mounting surface 30 and whose lower portion is a guide rail portion, and is movable by being guided by the guide rail portion of the main body frame 31. An article pressing body 32 provided and a casing 33 attached to the body frame 31 so as to cover the lower portion of the body frame 31 are provided.

End plates 34 and 35 are attached to the front and rear edges of the body frame 31, respectively, and a rectangular stopper plate 36 is attached to the front surface of the front end plate 34.

The article pressing body 32 is provided with a moving frame 37 which is arranged so as to hold the guide rail portion from below and which is substantially U-shaped in a front view. The moving frame 37 is provided on the upper surface of a horizontal plate. The sliding member 38 made of resin to be fixed is provided. By inserting the respective end edges of the guide rail portion into the grooves provided on both sides of the slide body 38, the slide body 38 can be moved back and forth along the guide rail portion. There is. Further, two L-shaped receiving plates 39 (only one is shown in FIG. 6) in front view are attached to the lower surface of the moving frame 37, and a supporting shaft 41 of a pulley 40 is attached to these receiving plates 39. It is rotatably supported. The rear end portion of the moving frame 37 is bent downward, and the bent portion serves as a reflection plate 42.
Further, a rectangular contact plate 43 is attached to the front portion of the moving frame 37 so as to be located above the main body frame 31.

One end of a plate-shaped spiral spring 44 is fixed to the support shaft 41 of the pulley 40.
Is wound around the pulley 40, and the other end is fixed to the lower surface of the frontmost part of the upper plate of the body frame 31. Thus, as shown in FIG. 6, from the state where the moving frame 37, in other words, the contact plate 43 is at the forefront portion, the contact plate 43 is pushed rearward so that the sliding body 38 is guided along the guide rail portion. 6 is rotated, the pulley 40 is rotated clockwise in FIG. 6, and the spiral spring 44 is paid out from the pulley 40. Since the restoring force in the winding direction of the pulley 40 always acts on the spiral spring 44,
When the pressing force on the contact plate 43 is released, the moving frame 37 returns to the original position.

Further, an ultrasonic wave transmitter / receiver 45 for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to detect the distance to the reflector plate 42 is provided at a rear position of the body frame 31 facing the reflector plate 42. , This ultrasonic transceiver 4
5, a control board 46 that processes signals transmitted and received by the ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 45 is provided. Further, on the front surface of the stopper plate 36, the display 9 connected to the control board 46 and displaying various data is provided.

In the display rack 29 having such a structure,
When the products are placed on the article mounting surface 30, the products are sandwiched and held between the contact plate 43 of the article pressing body 32 and the stopper plate 36 of the main body frame 31. Then, for example, when at least one product at the forefront portion is extracted from these products, at the same time as this extraction, the elastic force of the spiral spring 44 pushes and moves the entire remaining product toward the stopper plate 36. Then, these remaining products are again sandwiched between the contact plate 43 and the stopper plate 36 and held. In this way, the contact plate 43 of the article pressing body 32 can be operated only by extracting the article on the article placing surface 30.
Will sequentially move forward by a length corresponding to the number of the extracted products. At this time, the ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 45
The time from when the ultrasonic wave is transmitted to when the ultrasonic wave is reflected by the reflector 42 and received is measured, and the distance between the ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 45 and the reflector 42 is controlled based on this time and the speed of sound. It is calculated by the CPU 7 in the board 46. The distance calculated in this way and the nonvolatile R
The number of products placed on the article placement surface 30 is calculated from the data of the prescribed length per item stored in the AM 8.

In the display shelf 29, the article mounting surface 30
As a means for detecting the length of the above product, the ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 45 and the reflector 42 described above are used, and there are also the following modes. A laser or infrared ray is used instead of the ultrasonic wave, and a transmitter for transmitting either the ultrasonic wave, the laser or the infrared ray is provided on the body frame 31 side.
A receiver for receiving either ultrasonic waves, laser or infrared rays is provided on the moving frame 37 side so as to face the transmitter, and an encoder is attached to a support shaft 41 of a pulley 40 by a pulse signal generated by the encoder. What is to be detected, a resistor is provided on the guide rail part for guiding the moving frame 37, and a potentiometer is provided for detecting a change in the resistance value of this resistor, a magnetic plate is provided on the guide rail part for guiding the moving frame 37, A read head is provided to read the position information recorded on this magnetic plate.

In the present embodiment, since the display shelves 10 and 29 having the function of detecting the quantity of products are arranged in the store and the warehouse as described above, the products actually existing on these display shelves 10 and 29 are not displayed. It becomes possible to collectively manage the inventory quantity by the terminal controller 1.

Each of the display shelves 1 configured as described above
The number of products placed on the article placement surfaces 11 and 30 of the display shelves 10 and 29 is displayed on the display 9 of 0 and 29 as well as the shelf block numbers and shelf numbers of the display shelves 10 and 29. The data such as the product name and unit price of the product, and the data of the number of pachinko balls or coins that can be exchanged for the product are successively displayed. Therefore, it is possible to improve the service to the customer by this display, and if the product is managed based on the display, it is possible to solve the problem such as the shortage of the product on the display shelf.

Next, the operation of the system at each stage of purchasing (warehouse entry), warehouse exit, counter shelf entry and counter shelf exit will be described.

At the time of purchasing the purchased product, the data of the supplier is input from the terminal 3 and transmitted to the terminal controller 1, and then the purchased product is arranged on the display shelves 10, 29 of the warehouse according to the product type. Then, the quantity of the products arranged on the display shelves 10, 29 is automatically calculated by the display shelf controller 6 and input to the terminal controller 1. Further, the number of products for each display shelf 10 and 29 is the number of the display shelf 1
It is displayed on the display 9 attached to 0 and 29. In this way, the number of documents on the basis of the conventional purchase slip (the number of purchases nominally) and the actual number of purchases are checked. In other words, a purchase slip based on the exact purchase number of the actually put-in goods is created.

Warehousing Warehousing When a product is warehousing, the terminal 3 issues an instruction for warehousing, and then the products on the display shelves 10, 29 are taken out. Then, the quantity of products on the display shelves 10, 29 is automatically calculated by the display shelf controller 6 as in the case of warehousing, and the data relating to the number of products taken out for each product is taken into the terminal controller 1. In this way, the delivery quantity can be accurately grasped without creating a delivery slip.

Counter shelving shelves 1 shelves at counters in stores
In order to store the goods in the stores 0 and 29, the terminal 3 is instructed to store the goods in the counter in the same manner as described above, and then the products are arranged on the display shelves 10 and 29 of the counter for each product type. Then, the quantity of the products arranged on the display shelves 10, 29 is automatically calculated by the display shelf controller 6 and input to the terminal controller 1. Also, each display shelf 1
The number of products for each 0, 29 is displayed on the display 9 attached to the display shelf 10, 29. In this way, the number of products in the actual display shelves 10, 29 of the counter is checked.
It is also possible to check the difference between the number of warehouse deliveries and the number of counter shelves.

Counter Shelving Goods The number of shipping shelves is checked in the same manner as described above when the goods are discharged from the display shelves 10, 29 of the counter. In addition, regarding the product actually provided to the customer, the data at the time of transaction is collected in the terminal controller 1 via the POS register 4.

According to the stock management system of this embodiment, the stock quantity and stock difference of each product at the warehouse and the store counter can be displayed on the display of the terminal 3 or the display of the display 9 for each time zone. It is also possible to give a warning when inventory differences occur. Further, it is possible to know the take-out situation and the return situation of the products from the display shelves 10, 29 at another place apart from the display shelves 10, 29. Therefore, it is possible to always grasp the accurate actual inventory quantity, and there is no need to manually check the inventory quantity after the store is closed, which greatly contributes to labor saving. Moreover, since the actual stock quantity can be constantly checked, there is an effect that the goods on the display shelf can be prevented from being stolen.

In the present embodiment, the display 9 of the display shelves 10 and 29 installed at the store counter can display additional product information such as commercials in addition to the above-mentioned various data.

Although the present embodiment has been described as being applied to the premium payout system in a pachinko parlor, the stock management system of the present invention is also applied to other stock management systems such as a product management system in a supermarket or a retail store. be able to.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to know the condition of taking out and returning the merchandise from the display shelves at another place apart from the display shelves of the warehouse and the store. Since it is possible to always grasp the accurate actual inventory quantity, it is possible to save labor in inventory management by eliminating various slips.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an inventory management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a display rack controller in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view showing an example of a display rack in this embodiment.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another example of the display shelf in the present embodiment.

6 is a cross-sectional view of the display rack of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Terminal Controller 2 Product Master File 3 Terminal 4 POS Register 6 Display Shelf Controller 7 CPU 8 Nonvolatile RAM 9 Display 10, 29 Display Shelf 12 Sensor Unit 17 Hall Element 27,46 Control Board 42 Reflector 45 Ultrasonic Transceiver

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A terminal controller having: (a) a product master file in which required data for each product is stored and connected to a POS register; and (b) attached to a display shelf for displaying the product, on the display shelf. An inventory management system comprising: a display shelf controller for managing the quantity of products placed on the display shelf; and (c) a data transmission means for exchanging data between the terminal controller and the display shelf controller. 2. The inventory according to claim 1, wherein the product master file stores each data including a shelf block number and a shelf number of a display shelf, a product name of a product, a unit price and a stock quantity. Management system. 3. The inventory management system according to claim 1, wherein the display shelves are provided in both a warehouse and a store. 4. The display rack controller comprises quantity detection means for detecting the quantity of products placed on the display rack by measuring the weight of the products. The inventory management system according to any one of 3 above. 5. The display shelf controller comprises quantity detection means for detecting the quantity of the products placed on the display shelf by measuring the length of the products. The inventory management system according to any one of 1 to 3. 6. The display rack controller comprises display means for displaying required data.
Or the inventory management system described in 5. 7. The inventory management according to claim 6, wherein the display means displays each data including a shelf block number and a shelf number of a display shelf, a product name of a product, a unit price and a stock quantity. system. 8. The inventory management system according to claim 1, further comprising a terminal for exchanging various data with the terminal controller.