JPH10105625A - Merchandise managing method for electronic commercial transaction - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To exactly and efficiently reflect listed-up merchandise to an industrial strategy by arranging merchandise on a display rack based on a merchandise display image drawing at the source of ordering receiving the merchandise, and maintaining the table of merchandise constitution and merchandise display position information in a category. SOLUTION: A computer 2, which determines the merchandise to be listed up, determines the quantity of merchandise to be ordered based on the quantity of sale and the quantity of stock and transmits it to another computer 1 arranged at a transaction company. Besides, the image drawing showing the display state of determined merchandise is transmitted to a computer 3 arranged ay a source to receive the order. The computer 3, which receives the quantity of merchandise to be ordered, allocates the stock based on merchandise information and delivers the merchandise to the source of ordering. The source of ordering, which receives the merchandise, arranges the merchandise on the display rack based on the merchandise display image drawing showing the display state of the merchandise on the display rack outputted from an output device 12. Further, the information of merchandise constitution and merchandise position information in the category maintains the table stored every time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[Technical field to which the present invention pertains] A plurality of stores, such as supermarkets and convenience stores, which are distributed and arranged, and a service provider, a maker, and a wholesaler who have a headquarters function for managing and managing them or a function equivalent to the headquarters function for product procurement The present invention relates to a merchandise management method in a supply chain of a company that supplies merchandise to a retail business like a trader. In particular, the present invention relates to a merchandise management method effective for merchandise management operations based on a sales floor, such as assortment planning, display planning, ordering, purchasing and inventory management.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Out of the business areas to which the present invention is applied, the main business is ordering from a sales floor. In general,
When ordering from the sales floor, the store clerk checks each product using the barcode of the product displayed on the display shelf, the price card attached to the shelf, or the product ledger for ordering, and enters the number of orders. doing.

A computer system that supports such an ordering operation is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-94455. The purpose of this system is to efficiently perform ordering work at a sales floor. At the time of ordering work using a mobile terminal, information on commodities to be ordered is displayed for each individual item in the order of shelf display, and the quantity is input. This is a system that performs data entry by using

[0004]

The product assortment business to which the present invention is directed has the following business process.

[0005] First, a product strategy for the entire company or the entire store is drafted. Subsequently, the strategy is broken down to formulate an assortment quantity plan for each product. Next, the order quantity is determined in consideration of the quantity plan and the stock quantity.

[0006] Further, the business to which the present invention is directed is:
It is unique in that the number of products handled at retail stores is enormous. Therefore, it is practically difficult to accurately reduce the company and store strategy such as the business process described above to the order quantity of individual products. The above-described conventional system aims at efficiently performing data entry of the determined order quantity. Strategies are not always reflected in individual products.

[0007] An object of the present invention is to provide a product management method and a system thereof that enable a product assortment strategy to be formulated for each category and reflect a corporate strategy accurately and efficiently in a product assortment. Is to do.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a merchandise management method having a man-machine interface for ensuring affinity with a worker in a sales floor and a system therefor.

[0009]

The above object is achieved as follows.

Computers arranged at each site such as retailers and suppliers include storage devices such as magnetic disk devices and optical disk devices, output devices such as display devices and printer devices, and input devices such as keyboards, touch panels, and mice. Having. The storage device stores a table indicating a relationship between information on a category, information on a product, and a display space.

[0011] The orderer inputs attribute information of commodities constituting the category, sales performance information of commodities, positions of shelves on which commodities of the category are displayed, and information of store shelves size from an input device. , The computer determines the storage area by referring to the corresponding table in the storage device. Further, information that is a guideline for ordering, that is, category strategy information is input from the input device and stored in the correspondence table in units of categories.

A computer that receives information on commodities constituting a category, information on store shelf sizes, information on display positions of categories, information on an assortment strategy of categories, and information on past sales results of commodities. Calculates an assortment of products that satisfies the category strategy to the maximum, using image information of the product, promotion information of the product, and the like. In determining the assortment, a simulation is performed by outputting image information of a product to a display.

[0013] The computer that determines the assortment product is the sales quantity,
The quantity of the product to be ordered is determined based on the stock quantity, and transmitted to another computer located at the business company. Further, an image diagram showing the display state of the determined product is transmitted to the computer arranged at the ordering source.

The computer which receives the order quantity of the product allocates the stock based on the product information and delivers the product to the order source.

The orderer, who receives the product, places the product on the display shelf based on the product display image diagram indicating the display state of the product on the display shelf output from the output device. Further, a table that stores the information on the product configuration in the category and the display position of the product is maintained each time.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, two types of the supply chain in the distribution industry will be described. The first example is a third example that integrates merchandise procurement between independent retail stores that do not perform chain operations and suppliers such as manufacturers and wholesalers, and both.
The second example is a supply chain consisting of retail stores that conduct chain operations, their headquarters, and suppliers such as manufacturers and wholesalers. It is an example.

The first example will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an apparatus configuration of this embodiment. The three computers 1, 2, and 3, which are distributed, are connected by an information communication network 4. The computer 1 includes a storage device 11, an output device 12,
An input device 13, a POS terminal 14, and a display 15 are provided. The computer 2 includes a storage device 21 and a display 22. The computer 3 includes a storage device 31 and an input device 32.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the product master table 300. The table 300 has a product code storage column 30.
1, storage columns 302, 303, 304 for storing information on the height, width, and height of the product, a storage column 305 for storing image information of the product, and a storage column 306 for information on promotion of the product. The table 300 is provided in the storage devices 21 and 31. The method of sharing the table 300 is as follows. First, the computer 3 arranged on the supplier side
The information to be stored in each storage column of the table is received from the input device 32 and stored in the storage device 31. continue,
The computer 3 transmits the stored table 300 to the computer 2 via the information communication network 4.

FIG. 4 is a table 400 showing information on display shelves addresses of stores in the storage device 11. The table 400 includes a storage area 401 for shelf position information, the height of the display shelf indicated by the area, It is composed of areas 402, 403 and 404 for storing information on width and depth. Book table 40
The information stored in “0” indicates the actual size of the display shelf indicated by the shelf address arbitrarily determined by the retail business. This table 400 is transmitted to the computer 2 using the information communication network 4 at an arbitrary timing. Therefore, at the time of ordering, the storage device 11 and the storage device 21 have the same table 400.

FIG. 5 is a table 500 showing the information on the categories held in the storage device 11, and includes a category code 501, a category name 502, and category strategy information 5.
03, a storage area 504 of the address of the shelf area where the products in the category are arranged. The number of storage fields 504 is variable.

FIG. 6 shows a table 6 included in the storage device 11.
00, which is an area for storing information indicating a display place of a product possessed by the store. The table 600 includes a storage column 601 for product codes and storage columns 602 and 60 for addresses of display shelves.
3, 604. In this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, the storage areas of the shelf addresses are stored in 602, 603, and 604.
However, it is also possible to make it variable. This table 600 is transmitted to the computer 2 using the information communication network 4 at an arbitrary timing. Therefore, at the time of ordering, the storage device 11 and the storage device 21
00.

FIG. 7 shows a table 7 included in the storage device 11.
00 is an area for storing the number of actual sales of merchandise possessed by the store in the last week. The table 700 includes a storage column 701 for a product code and a storage column 702 for a daily sales quantity.
have. Here, the storage section 702 is fixed for one week, but is not particularly fixed in practice. This table 700 is transmitted to the computer 2 using the information communication network 4 at an arbitrary timing. Therefore, at the time of ordering, the storage device 11 and the storage device 21 have the same table 700.

FIG. 8 is a table 8 of the storage device 11.
00, which is an area for storing the current theoretical stock amount of merchandise possessed by the store. The table 800 includes a storage column 801 for storing a product code and a storage column 802 for storing the current theoretical stock quantity. This table 800 is transmitted to the computer 2 using the information communication network 4 at an arbitrary timing. Therefore, at the time of ordering, the storage device 11 and the storage device 21 have the same table 800.

FIG. 9 shows a table 9 included in the storage device 21.
00, which is composed of a storage column 901 for dealing store codes, a storage column 902 for category codes, and a storage column 903 for storing information on category strategies.

FIG. 10 is a table 100 for storing sales information of products stored in the storage device 21. Table 10
0 is a category code storage column 101, a product code storage column 102, and a product sales record information storage column 103.
And a storage column 104 of the current theoretical stock amount of the product.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment. The processing method in the computer 1, the computer 2, and the computer 3 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Step 201: Creation of various tables in the retail business In this step, the above tables 400, 600, 70
An example of creating 0 and 800 will be described.

The table 400 stores the height, width, and depth of the information on the position of the display shelf at the store in one record by the input device 13. Incidentally, the shelf address 401
Shall be attached to a unit obtained by further dividing one display shelf.

Similarly, the table 600 is stored in each of the storage columns 602, 603, and 604 by the input device 13.

The table 700 is an area for storing the number of actual sales of merchandise possessed by the store in the last week. The computer 1 reads the daily sales quantity from the POS terminal 14 into the storage column 702 and creates the table 700. I do.

The theoretical stock information stored in the theoretical stock storage column 802 in the table 800 is a difference between the theoretical stock amount before the update and the daily sales performance received by the POS terminal 14.

Of course, when goods are received and inspected, the information stored in the storage column 802 is overwritten and updated using the input device 13 or an inventory management system or an inspection system owned by each company, for example. . Similarly, the initial input is stored in the storage section 802 using the input device 13 or the like.

Step 202: Definition of a category in the retail business.

Here, the category refers to a consolidation of commodities when the retail business makes a product strategy, and it is difficult for the retailer to focus on the viewpoint of consumers. That is, it can be considered that it is a unit of one corner of the product display shelf. The concept of a category is a key point in the present invention.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a screen output by the computer 1 on the display 15 for defining the relationship between the product display state of the counter and the category. On the output screen 1100, an input area 1101 of the store code and an image 1 of the display shelf are displayed.
102, a category identification code input area 1103,
Category name input area 1104, button 110 for prompting display of a selection menu for defining category strategy
5 is displayed. A shelf image output area 1102 is a button group 11021 that divides the shelf and displays each address.
It is composed of

In step 202, the input device 100 is used to input data into the input areas 1001, 1003 and 1004.
As for the area 1002, a button displaying an address corresponding to the shelf position displaying the category commodity group input to the areas 1003 and 1004 is selected from the button group 1002, and pressed by the input device 13. Subsequently, the input device 13 presses a button 1005 to input a strategy for the category. When the button 1005 is pressed, the display 15 outputs a screen 1200.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a display area 1200 of a button group for setting a category strategy. Region 120
Reference numeral 0 denotes a button group 1201 displaying a strategy. To determine the category strategy, the button group 120
The user presses the button 1 using the option input device 13.

Input area 1103 When a category code is input, storage area 5 of category table 500
01 is stored. Information input to the area 1104 is stored in the storage area 502. The information selected and pressed from the button group 1201 is stored in the storage area 503. Further, information on the button selected and pressed from the button group 1102 is sequentially stored in the storage area 504. These series of processes are stored on the same record in the table 500.

Step 203: Transmission of order information in the retail business.
Is transmitted to the distributed computers 2 via the information communication network 4.

Step 204: Order Information Accepted by Service Provider In step 203, the computer 2 receives the information stored in the table 500 received from the computer 1 via the information communication network 4 and stores it in the storage device 21. I do.

At the same time, the computer 2 receives the sales record information and the stock information from the computer 1 via the information communication network 4 and stores them in the storage columns 103 and 104 in the table 100.

Step 205: Determining Assorted Products This step 205 is composed of the following three sub-steps. (1) The computer 2 creates a current shelf image of the store. (2) Determine the product configuration based on the category strategy. (3) Create a display image of a new product. Hereinafter, the three sub-steps will be described.

(1) Creation of Current Shelf Image First, the merchandise display is performed by using the shelf address stored in the shelf address storage column 504 of the same record as the category code stored in the storage column 501 of the category table 500 as a key. The storage columns 602 and 603 of the table 600,
From 604, a matching record is extracted. This operation is repeated by the number of storage areas of the shelf address in the table 500, and the matching product code is stored in the storage column 102 of the table 100.

Next, using the product code stored in the corresponding storage section 601 as a key, the product master table 3
00, the corresponding record is extracted, and the image information of the product stored in the storage section 305 is extracted.
It is displayed in the upper display area indicated by the shelf address of the product. The above operation is repeated by the number of products belonging to one category, and an image of the display shelf is displayed on the display 22. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a display 1 on the display 22.
It is a display image of a category. It is composed of a display area 1300 for one category, a display area 1301 indicated by shelf addresses constituting the category, and an area 1302 for displaying an image of a product.

(2) Determination of Intra-Category Product Configuration In this sub-step, the category strategy information stored in the storage column 503 of the table 500 received in step 204 and the past strategy stored in the storage area 103 of the table 100 The product is reconfigured based on the sales performance information of.

Using the shelf address stored in the storage section 504 of the table 500 as a key, information on the size of the shelf stored in the storage sections 402, 403, and 404 of the shelf table 400 is extracted. Next, the computer 2 arranges the products based on the category strategy and the past sales results.
At this time, the computer 2 determines the optimal arrangement based on the product size information stored in the storage columns 302, 303, and 304 of the product master table 300 and the supplier-side promotion information stored in the storage column 305. Perform a simulation. The logic for reflecting the simulation and the category strategy is realized by using a statistical method generally used conventionally or a knowledge database. As a tool for performing simulations,
General distribution software such as a shelf layout simulation may be used.

(3) New Product Display Image Calculator 2 uses the product code optimally selected based on the category strategy as a key, and
Is displayed on the display 22 in the same manner as in step (1). The display format is the same as the format in FIG.

Step 206: Transmission of Product Display Image The computer 2 transmits the display image created in the previous step to the computer 1 via the information communication network 4.

Step 207: Accepting Product Display Image In Step 206, Calculator 1 accepts the information transmitted from Calculator 2.

Step 208: Product display image evaluation Calculator 1 outputs the image information received in step 208 through the output device 12. An order clerk in the retail business, or a computer system called an automatic evaluation program, makes an evaluation with respect thereto. In the present embodiment, a method such as a reference at the time of evaluation and a configuration of an automatic evaluation program are omitted.

As a result of the evaluation, if it is necessary to place an order again, the process returns to step 201 and the above process is repeated. On the other hand, if the evaluation result is good, step 20
9 is transferred.

Step 209: Determining the Order Quantity of the Service Provider The difference between the product configuration determined in step 205 and the stock quantity in the category display in the current retail business is set as the order quantity to the supplier. Furthermore, in order to improve accuracy, it is possible to predict the lead time until delivery and use the difference as the number of orders.

Step 210: Send Order to Supplier The order merchandise and quantity determined in step 209 are sent to the supplier. The computer 2 sends the identification code of the product to be ordered and the order quantity to the distributed computer 3 to the information communication network 4.
To send over.

Step 211: Acceptance of order data on the supplier side The computer 3 accepts order data from the computer 2 in step 210.

Step 212: Allocation and Delivery of Ordered Items on the Supplier Side The computer 3 arranged on the supplier side relies on the information received in step 211 to store the relevant products in a manner such as an inventory management system or a production management system. Is allocated in conjunction with a basic business system. Further, a process for delivering the allocated product to the retail business is performed. The allocation system here is built independently by each company, and does not depart from the essence of the present invention, so a detailed description is omitted. Examples of delivery systems include not only direct delivery to retailers, but also via service providers,
A third-party method or a method using a distribution center in a retail business can be considered.

Step 213: Delivery to retail business, store display, and table maintenance In step 212, the retail business displays the delivered products on a store shelf. At that time, in step 207, the person in charge at the store receives information on the product display image that has been received from the service provider in step 208 and passed the evaluation in step 208, based on the image information output from the output device 12 or the display 15. And display the goods on a display shelf.

Further, in this step, the computer 1
Reflects the product shelf layout configuration after arrival in the category table 500 and the product display table 600.

A second example will be described.

FIG. 14 shows an apparatus configuration of this example. The three computers 4, 5, and 6, which are distributed, are connected by an information communication network 7. The computer 4 includes a POS terminal 41 and an output device 4
2 is provided. The computer 5 includes a storage device 51, a display 52, and an input device 53.

The computer 6 has a storage device 61, an input device 62
Is provided.

In this embodiment, the computer 4 is located at a retail store, the computer 5 is located at a retail headquarters, and the computer 6 is located at a supplier.

Since the structure of the table used in this embodiment is basically the same as that of the first embodiment, the table numbers are the same as those of the first embodiment. However, since the computers that store the tables are slightly different, the relationships are described below.

The table 300 is shared by the storage devices 61 and 51. Table 400, Table 500, Table 600, Table 700, Table 800, Table 9
00 and the table 100 are stored in the storage device 51.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment. With reference to this figure, a processing method in the computer 4, the computer 5, and the computer 6 in the present embodiment will be described.

Step 1501: Creation of various tables in the headquarters of the retail business The processing of this step is the same as that of Step 2 in the first embodiment.
Since it is the same processing as 01, it can be easily analogized. Therefore, the description of the processing is omitted. The creation of the table 700 will be described in the following steps.

Step 1502: Definition of category in retail headquarters In this step, computer 5 performs the same processing as the operation of computer 1 in step 202 described above. Since the example of the screen displayed on the display 52 is the same as that of the above-described 1100, the description of the processing is omitted.

Step 1503: Transmission of Sales Information from Store In this step, the past sales information collected by the POS terminal 41 connected to the computer 4 is transmitted to the computer 5 via the information communication line 7.

Step 1504: Acceptance of Sales Information The computer 5 stores the sales information accepted in the above step 1503 in the storage section 702 of the table 700.

Step 1505: Determining Assorted Products In this step, step 205 in the first embodiment is performed.
Performs the same processing as that performed by the computer 2 in the computer 5
Therefore, the description is omitted.

Step 1506: Transmission of commodity display image The computer 5 transmits the commodity display image created in the previous step 1505 to the computer 4 via the information communication network 7.

Step 1507: Accepting Product Display Image at Store The computer 4 accepts the transmitted information in step 1506 and outputs it by the output device 42.

Step 1508: Determination of Order Quantity The difference between the product configuration determined in step 1505 and the stock quantity of the product in the category at the current store is set as the order quantity to the sharer. Furthermore, in order to improve accuracy, it is possible to predict the lead time until delivery and use the difference as the number of orders.

Step 1509: Transmission of order to supplier The order product and quantity determined in step 1509 are transmitted to the supplier. The computer 5 sends the distributed computer 6 to
The identification code of the product to be ordered and the order quantity are transmitted via the information communication network 7.

Step 1510: Accepting Order Data on the Supplier Side The operation of this step is the same as the operation of the above-described step 211, and therefore, the description is omitted.

Step 1511: Allocation and Delivery of Ordered Items on the Supplier Side The operation in this step is the same as the operation in step 212 described above, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Step 1512: Delivery to Store The merchandise delivered in Step 1511 is displayed on the display shelf of the store. At this time, the storefront delivery operator performs the above step 1
Display work is performed using the display image information output in 503.

[0079]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily realize a product lineup that efficiently and accurately reflects a corporate strategy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an apparatus configuration diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a product master table.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a shelf dimension table.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a category table.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a product display position table.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a sales record table.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a stock amount table of a product.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a store-specific category strategy table.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a sales result and inventory amount table of a displayed product.

FIG. 11 is an output screen when a category is defined.

FIG. 12 is an output screen when a category strategy is selected.

FIG. 13 is an output screen of the display status of a product.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Retail computer 2 Service provider computer 3 Supplier computer 4 Communication network 11 Retail storage device 21 Service provider storage device 31 Supplier storage device

Claims (2)

[Claims] In a product assortment method for ordering a product using a plurality of computers arranged in a distributed manner, a computer arranged on a site of an orderer side includes a table showing a relationship between the product and an arrangement state on a display shelf. A table showing sales history information of a product, a table showing a category that captures a set of a plurality of products in a unit called a category and a relationship belonging to the category, and a table storing a strategy of the category,
Product management method to place orders by category. 2. A computer system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of computers arranged in a distributed manner include a table indicating an actual display state in a store, a table indicating a size of a product, and a table storing image information of the product. The product management method according to claim 1, wherein the image of the display state of the product, which is output to an output device connected to a computer, is used as a user interface.