JPH11120426A - Managing system of vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently manage a vending machine without constructing a POS system at each sales company by arithmetic-processing signals from stock, change and theft sensors within a controller and after then, transmitting the data to a data collecting and managing center by radio communication. SOLUTION: A control part 15 counts the stock number of merchandise of each of various kinds by information obtained by a stock sensor 10, counts the residual number of each denomination of coin by information obtained by a change sensor 11, detects the defective ejection of merchandise or change by information obtained by a fault sensors 12, detects the breakage of a locking mechanism by information obtained by a theft sensor 13, detects theft by collating the information with information obtained from the sensors 10 and 11, and detects the housing situation of an empty container housing by information obtained from an empty container quantity sensor 18 at the vending machine of beverages. In addition various kinds of information obtained by arithmetic- processing by the control part 15 is emitted from an antenna 17 as radio through a radio transmission and reception part 16.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine capable of collecting various information such as stock information and change information of a vending machine by a wireless system, and providing a quick and appropriate service based on the information. It is related to the management and operation system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, as a method of managing inventory in a beverage vending machine, a service person of each beverage sales company regularly visits vending machines installed in each sales area to check the actual sales situation. In addition, after checking the change situation, we are replenishing missing goods and change.

Recently, a POS system has become widespread in which a telephone line is connected to a vending machine to collect inventory information, change information, and the like by no-ringing communication, and to collect inventory information, change information, and the like by a PHS.

[0004]

However, in the conventional method in which a service person regularly patrols vending machines, unnecessary patrols for vending machines that have sufficient stock and do not need to be replenished, or events are not performed. As a result, vending machines in various situations, such as vending machines with empty stock, are patroled without prior information. In the case of the latter, there were cases where complaints were received from stores or the like that they did not have replacement products or did not give priority to patrols. In order to avoid such a situation, an inefficient operation system was carried out, such as overloading the service car with goods and patrol, and increasing the size of the vending machine itself. In addition, there is no prior information on complaints such as no product or no change, and no prior information on complaints regarding the processing of empty containers in a beverage vending machine, and prompt responses could not be made.

Further, in the management method using a POS system using a telephone line or a PHS, the specifications often differ for each vending machine maker or POS system construction maker, and have not been widely used. Even if the specifications are unified, a great deal of capital investment is required for each sales company to independently construct a POS system, and further a large operating and maintenance cost is required.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and enables each sales company to efficiently manage and operate without having to construct its own POS system, and to quickly and accurately perform the management based on prior information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vending machine management and operation system capable of performing various services.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in a vending machine management and operation system according to the present invention, an inventory sensor for detecting a stock status in each vending machine and a change sensor for detecting a change status are provided. A change sensor, a failure sensor for detecting a failure, and a theft sensor for detecting theft are installed. For beverage vending machines, the amount of empty containers in empty containers is detected outside the vending machine. An empty container quantity sensor to perform After the signals from the sensor group are input into the control device and subjected to arithmetic processing, the signals are transmitted by wireless communication via a nearby vending machine or relay station or directly to a data collection management center.

[0008] Since the vending machine relaying in the wireless communication is intended for vending machines of all sales companies that have introduced the vending machine management system, the transmission format and protocol of the wireless communication are used. It is necessary to unify in advance the logical specifications, physical specifications such as the shape and size of the connector, and electrical specifications such as signal level and frequency.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a control device used in the vending machine management and operation system of the present invention. In a vending machine of each sales company, an inventory sensor 10 for detecting inventory status, a change sensor 11 for detecting change status, a failure sensor 12 for detecting failure, and a theft sensor 1 for detecting theft.
3 and the like, and in the beverage vending machine, an empty container amount sensor 18 for detecting the amount of empty containers in the empty container holder is provided outside the vending machine. The signals from the sensor group are connected to the input interface 14. The input interface 14 performs signal conversion such as input insulation and input level conversion, and connects to the control unit 15. The controller 15 counts the number of items in stock for each type based on information obtained from the stock sensor 10, counts the number of remaining coins based on information obtained from the change sensor 11,
Based on the information obtained, detection of a discharge failure of a product or change is performed, and based on the information obtained from the theft sensor 13, detection of the destruction of the locking mechanism is performed, and the information is obtained from the stock sensor 10 or the change sensor 11. In the beverage vending machine, the state of accommodation of empty containers is detected based on information obtained from the empty container amount sensor 18. Further, various information obtained by the arithmetic processing by the control unit 15 is transmitted from the antenna 17 as radio waves via the wireless transmission / reception unit 16. The transmission output of the radio wave is 10-2
It has the ability to cover a zone with a radius of about 20 to 40 km at about 0 W.

In addition, the above-described system is incorporated into each vending machine maker at the time of new production, and also in each existing vending machine, a mounting attachment of various sensors, an input / output connector, and the like are provided. By preparing, it can be attached.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of a vending machine management and operation system according to the present invention, taking a beverage vending machine as an example. First, in a state where vending machines of each beverage sales company scattered in a specific sales area, for example, vending machines A and vending machines 2 are mixed, a traveling route or a data collection management center 3 is used. Address (equipment number, route number) is assigned to each vending machine according to the distance, and a communication route is set. At this time, A vending machine 1
It is not necessary to distinguish between the vending machine 2 and the vending machine 2. Further, when the distance between the vending machines is long in the communication route, a relay station 8 may be provided in the middle, or in the case of an isolated vending machine, an individual communication route may be set.

The data collection and management center 3 performs polling communication for each communication route set in advance to access each vending machine, and obtains each of the above-mentioned stock information, change information, failure information, stolen information, empty container quantity information, and the like. Get information. Further, the obtained information is stored in a database of the host computer.

The host computer of the data collection and management center 3 analyzes the various data stored in the database for each beverage sales company, so that the sales information of the day, the replenishment information of the goods and change of the next day, and the future. Information on the best sellers can be obtained. The information obtained in this way is transmitted to each beverage sales company, for example, a beverage sales company A by telephone line or polling communication as described above.
4 and the beverage sales company B5.

Since the stock information and change information are provided before the start of business every day, it is possible to efficiently make a sales plan based on the information, such as the tour route of the day and the type and quantity of products loaded in the service car. Can be. For this reason,
Vending machines that do not need to be patroled do not need to be removed from the patrol route on the day, do not need to load excess products into the service car, and there is no need to increase the number of large machines that require large installation space and consume large amounts of power.

[0015] Further, since the failure information and theft information are sequentially provided at the time of occurrence in addition to the polling communication, based on the information, it is possible to wirelessly contact a service car traveling around the area or directly to a security company. By contacting them, you can take quick action and prevent accidents.

[0016]

As described above, by employing the vending machine management and operation system of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. Since the data collection and management center provides the best selling information, stock information, and change information for each vending machine before the start of business every day, the type and quantity of products loaded on the tour route or service car of the day based on the information And other business plans can be made efficiently. Since the data collection and management center provides failure information, theft information, and empty container quantity information for each vending machine sequentially, the information can be used to contact the service car or security company to quickly respond and prevent accidents. . The data collection and management center provides the above-mentioned stock information, change information, failure information, theft information, and empty container quantity information for beverage vending machines for each sales company and for each business area. There is no need for each sales company to build its own POS system. Therefore, only the cost for purchasing the provided information is required, and the cost can be greatly reduced. The management and operation system of the vending machine is applicable to vending machines other than beverages, such as cigarettes. In addition to data collection at the data collection and management center, vending machines for cigarettes and alcoholic beverages can control sales hours and control internal lighting during the day and night.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an embodiment of a vending machine management and operation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a control device used in the vending machine management and operation system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vending machine of company A 2 Vending machine of forest B 3 Data collection management center 4 Beverage sales company A 5 Beverage sales company B 6 Service car of A company 7 Service car of B company 8 Relay station 9 Telephone line 10 Inventory sensor 11 Change sensor 12 Failure sensor 13 Theft sensor 14 Input interface 15 Control unit 16 Wireless transmission / reception unit 17 Antenna 18 Empty container amount sensor

Claims (3)

[Claims] An inventory sensor for detecting inventory status, a change sensor for detecting change status, a failure sensor for detecting failure, and a theft sensor for detecting theft are installed in a vending machine. In the vending machine for beverages, outside the vending machine, an empty container amount sensor for detecting the amount of empty containers accommodated in empty container containers is installed,
It has a function of calculating and processing information obtained from the sensor group by the control unit and transmitting the information to the data collection management center via vending machines and relay stations of each sales company by wireless communication or directly. , Vending machine management and operation system. 2. The wireless communication according to claim 1, wherein the logical specification, the physical specification, and the electrical specification are unified, and the wireless communication can be applied to a vending machine of any sales company. , Vending machine management and operation system. 3. The data collection and management center according to claim 1, wherein information collected from each vending machine is analyzed for each sales company, and sales information on the day, replenishment information of goods and change on the next day, and further in the future. 2. The vending machine management according to claim 1, wherein each sales company can provide quick and accurate service without providing a POS system by itself by successively providing the selling information of the vending machines. Management system.