JPS6226519B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is a POS terminal that processes sales information at a sales floor, and is particularly suitable for use in a gas station.
Regarding POS terminals.

In addition, in the industry, gas stations are
A POS terminal for a gas station is called a Service Station.
Sometimes called SS-POS terminal.

[Conventional technology]

The gasoline distribution industry in Japan is centered on primary petroleum distribution companies (a total of 13 companies, both ethnic and foreign-owned), each of which has its own distributors and distributors. Operated by stores or direct distributors.

SS's products are sold from measuring machines and mainly include gasoline, diesel oil, kerosene, and oil-related fuels. In addition, tires, batteries, and accessories called TBA are also sold.

The sales format of SS is cash sales, credit sales, and credit sales, but a major feature is that there are more credit sales and credit sales compared to general products. In the case of credit sales, a delivery slip is issued at the time of sale, and an invoice is issued at the end of the month. On the other hand, Motori credit is similar to general bank credit, but each Motori company issues its own card.
Since the service is operated by Motouri, it can only be used at SSs affiliated with Motouri.

Due to this type of transaction in the SS industry, the following administrative work occurs.

(1) Cash management associated with cash sales (2) Creation of invoices associated with credit sales and credit sales (3) Creation of daily accounts at the end of business and checking of weighing machine integration meters (4) Billing at the end of the month (closing date) (5) Checking for bad customers (suspended transactions, fraudulent card use, etc.) regarding credit cards and credit cards, and managing the timing of oil changes, periodic inspections, etc. for regular customers' cars. Work related to vehicle management systems.

These operations have traditionally been carried out with regard to (1).
Previously, this was done using an ECR (cash register), and for (4), EDP is progressing, such as bringing handwritten slips to a calculation center and outsourcing the processing work, or introducing in-house office computers to process them. It was. However, (2), (3), and (5) were performed manually.

If an SS-POS system is introduced, (2), (3)
By asking customers to bring their ID cards and linking weighing machines and POS,
This can be done easily and accurately from a POS terminal. In particular, omission of the main fuel and entry errors are completely prevented. Additionally, data for the host computer is collected on a cassette tape, eliminating the need for key punching from handwritten slips. Credit card and diesel card data are also sorted at the calculation center and sent to the credit center, eliminating the need for the conventional work of mailing imprint slips. Regarding (5), this can be done automatically by creating management data on the host computer, putting the data into a cassette tape on the way home, and inputting it into the POS terminal.

In other words, a POS system enables EDP (electronic data processing) for consistent business processing, from in-store operations to post-processing.

By the way, this SS-POS system conventionally has a Regarding the main fuel sales processing operation method, there are two types: a magnetic card first entry method and a magnetic card later entry method, and one of the methods is specified in each main sales specification.

In other words, the magnetic card advance payment system corresponds to a type of prepayment system, in which refueling is possible only after the card is input, and a slip is issued after refueling. Therefore, in this magnetic card input method, POS
As a terminal, a pre-processing machine is used that inputs information (name code, etc.) using a magnetic card before refueling and issues a slip at the same time as refueling is completed. Therefore, in such a preemption method, processing proceeds in the following order.

By inputting a magnetic card, customer information (name code, credit number, etc.) is read, and if normal, the corresponding refueling machine is unlocked.

At the end of refueling, the customer data and the amount of refueling are combined and a slip is automatically printed.

On the other hand, the magnetic card post-entry system corresponds to a type of post-payment system, in which refueling is possible at all times, and card input and slip issuance are performed at the same time after refueling. Therefore, in this magnetic card post-input system, a post-input processing machine is used as a POS terminal in which information is entered using a magnetic card or numeric keypad after refueling is completed. Therefore, in such a post-input method, processing proceeds in the following order.

The refueling machine lock has been released.

When refueling is finished, the refueling machine will lock and the amount of refueling will be reduced.
Loaded into POS terminal.

Customer data is read into the POS terminal using a magnetic card or key input, and a slip is issued.

The refueling machine is unlocked.

However, in reality, even in the case of early entry processing machines, the system is configured to temporarily switch to later entry processing in consideration of services for customers who have forgotten their cards. In this case, processing proceeds in the following order.

When a dummy card (specific card) is input, it is assumed that the card has been designated as a later entry and the lock on the refueling machine is released. That is, there are two types of magnetic cards; one is a card normally carried by a customer and is used for pre-order processing. The other one is
This is a card owned by the SS, and the ID code is all zeros for customers who forget their card.
Therefore, this other one is used as the dummy card.

At the end of refueling, the amount of refueling is read into the POS terminal.

The refueling machine is locked.

With key input, customer data is read into the POS terminal and a slip is issued.

Note that, in general, in the late-entry process, the name code and other customer information are input using a numeric keypad, etc., so it takes a longer time to occupy the terminal than in the first-in process.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

With conventional pre-processing machines, even if the next pre-processing process becomes necessary during post-processing for a customer who has forgotten their card, the pre-processing process continues until the ongoing post-processing process is completed. It was not possible to issue a slip. For this reason, it is impossible to give priority to advance processing that requires a short terminal-dedicated time at all, resulting in a drawback that the overall processing efficiency is reduced.

In other words, in the first-in method, the data are processed in order from the one that finishes refueling first (that is, since there is only one printing device). Therefore, temporary post-entry processing for customers who have forgotten their cards is performed one after another without distinction. However, operations such as key input take time, and if multiple refueling machines are operating at the same time, it is not possible to issue a slip for refueling for other pre-processing processes until the post-input process for one machine is completed. This resulted in customers having to wait for a while, which led to inefficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of these shortcomings, and an object of the present invention is to provide a POS terminal for pre-processing that can give priority to pre-processing to a considerable extent and increase the overall processing capacity. do.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve such an objective, the present invention
an input device for inputting sales information; a determining/selecting means for determining whether the input sales information is first-in processing information or second-in processing information and selectively outputting the inputted sales information according to the result of the judgment; A first-in processing buffer that accumulates the selectively outputted first-in processing information, and a second-in processing buffer that accumulates the selectively outputted last-in processing information; The present invention is characterized by comprising a priority means for determining the buffer and transferring the input information of the buffer, and a processing means for processing the input information transferred from the priority means and issuing a sales slip.

[Effect]

The present invention includes a buffer for pre-input processing and a buffer for post-input processing, and selects a dedicated buffer by determining the type of input information, and processes the buffer in which information input is completed first.

That is, if a refueling slip for the first-in process is issued while the second-in process is currently being performed for a customer who has forgotten his or her card, the second-in process is temporarily interrupted. Then, pre-input information for pre-input processing (pre-input information including a pre-input code, customer code, refueling amount data, and input completion code) is input. Thereby, it is determined by the input completion code that the pre-processing buffer has completed storing the input information first. As a result, the pre-processing information input into the pre-processing buffer is processed preferentially. Thereafter, the interrupted post-entry processing operation continues.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is an input device, 2 is a discrimination/selection circuit, 3 is an input processing buffer, 4 is a post-input processing buffer, and 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
is a priority circuit, and 6 is a processing circuit. Various sales information for sales processing and invoice creation, such as customer information on a magnetic card, oil supply amount information by key input, etc., is input into the input device 1. Discrimination/selection circuit 2
determines whether the input information is pre-processing information or post-processing information by identifying a predetermined determination code included in the input information. The pre-processing information is given by inputting a card held by the customer as described above, while the post-processing information is similarly given by inputting a dummy card held by the SS as described above. If the input information is early-in processing information, it is transferred to the buffer 3 for early-in processing, and if it is late-in processing information, it is transferred to the buffer 4 for late-in processing. The transferred input information is temporarily stored in buffer 3 or buffer 4.

The priority circuit 5 monitors the progress state of information accumulation in the buffer 3 for early input processing and the buffer 4 for late input processing,
It is determined which buffer completed the accumulation of input information earlier. An example of a configuration for performing this determination is to input a predetermined code (input completion code) indicating completion of information input from the input device 1 later, and input it into the buffer 3 or buffer 4 via the determination/selection circuit 2. The accumulated code is sent to the priority circuit 5
It is determined by When the priority circuit 5 determines which one of the buffers 3 and 4 has completed storing input information first, it determines whether the processing buffer in the processing circuit 6 is empty, and if it is empty, it immediately fills the buffer with the buffer 3 or 4. If not, the input information will be transferred to it as soon as it becomes available. The processing buffer in the processing circuit 6 executes predetermined processing such as recording the transferred input information on a magnetic tape and printing out the sales slip 7.

Next, an example of processing will be briefly described.

Assume that information and data such as the amount of refueling are currently being input by key operations for post-input processing. This input data is stored in the post-processing buffer 4.

At this time, it is assumed that a slip is issued for refueling in advance processing. In this case, the information input operation for the post-input process is temporarily interrupted. Information on the pre-input process is then input using the input device 1. This information includes pre-processing code, customer code, refueling amount data,
This information has an input completion code and is stored in the pre-processing buffer 3. In the pre-processing buffer 3, it is determined that the storage of input information has been completed by inputting the input completion code. As a result, the pre-processing information inputted into the pre-processing buffer 3 is preferentially processed through the priority circuit 5 and the processing circuit 6, and a sales slip 7 related thereto is issued. Thereafter, the interrupted post-input processing operation is continued, and the refueling amount data is input by key operation. Finally, by inputting an input completion code indicating that the post-input processing input has been completed, it is determined that the input operation in the post-input processing buffer 4 has been completed, and the post-input processing is then passed through the priority circuit 5 and the processing circuit 6. A sales slip 7 related to processing is issued. Although the POS terminal of the present invention is used at a gas station as an example, the present invention can be applied to a general POS terminal that uses both first-in processing and last-in processing.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention includes a first-in processing buffer for accumulating first-in processing information and a second-in processing buffer for accumulating later-in processing information, and the input information is either first-in processing or late-in processing. The configuration is such that it determines if there is a dedicated buffer, selects a dedicated buffer, stores it, and prioritizes processing from the buffer that has completed storing information input first, giving considerable priority to pre-processing that requires less terminal occupation time. and can be processed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 1...Input device, 2...Discrimination/selection circuit, 3...
...Buffer for pre-processing, 4...Buffer for post-processing, 5...Priority circuit, 6...Processing circuit, 7...Sales slip.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An input device 1 for inputting sales information, determining whether the input sales information is first-in processing information or second-in processing information, and selectively outputting according to the judgment result. a first-in processing buffer 3 for accumulating the selectively outputted first-in processing information; a last-in processing buffer 4 for accumulating the selectively outputted last-in processing information; A priority means 5 that determines which input information has completed storage first and transfers the input information of the buffer; and a process that processes the input information transferred from this priority means and issues a sales slip 7. A POS terminal characterized by comprising means 6 and.