KR102486991B1 - Sales and management system and method for reusable containers - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a sales and management system and method for a reusable container. The sales and management system for a reusable container comprise: a reusable container including a body for providing an inner space in which products are stored, a cover detachably coupled to the body to open and close an open upper portion of the body, a sensor module for supporting the bottom surface of the body, and including a weight sensor and a pressure sensor to measure the weight of the products stored in the body, and an IoT device for transmitting measured values obtained by the sensor module to an external device through short-distance communication; a user terminal including a user interface unit, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, and for receiving a product order of a customer through an application or a product sales homepage that supports a product order using the reusable container and recovery of the reusable container; a container management server for managing all matters related to the reusable container, including sales, delivery, recovery, cleaning, and reuse of the reusable container, and operated by a manager; and a manager terminal including a user interface unit, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, and for communicating with the container management server. The user terminal transmits the status information of the reusable container received from the IoT device to the container management server in real time. Therefore, the amount of packaging containers used can be significantly reduced.

Description

Sales management system and method of reusable containers {SALES AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REUSABLE CONTAINERS}

The present invention relates to a sales management system for reusable containers and a sales management method for reusable containers.

'Zero waste' is a principle that encourages all products to be reused and focuses on avoiding waste, which means that all products, packaging and materials are not incinerated, land that could endanger the environment or human health, It means conserving all resources through responsible production, consumption, reuse and recovery, with no emissions to the oceans or air.

Recently, as packaging or delivery services have soared, the use of disposable products has also increased exponentially. Currently, the seriousness of these environmental problems is recognized, and 'zero waste' is attracting attention.

Regarding product sales, there is zero-waste product sales, which refers to a no-package sales method in which products in a dispenser are sold in a reusable container without a packaging container. Sales of these zero-waste products enable product consumption without discarding packaging containers. Recently, some large marts in Korea have also started selling zero-waste products, and the number of stores specializing in selling zero-waste products in Korea and abroad is increasing. to be.

Although it is clear that selling zero-waste products is a direction to be pursued for environmental protection, it is currently possible to purchase offline, but there is a restriction that it is difficult to purchase online without visiting a store.

This is because the existing online product sales are made in the form of shipping containers or plastic packaging in which the product is contained, which must be packaged again in a box or plastic bag for shipping. Considering the purpose of zero waste, the current packaging method that cannot be reused This is because it is impossible to sell products online using .

In addition, depending on the type of product, containers suitable for hygiene and safety must be used according to the law, so sellers must sell products using only containers that meet the standards, cannot sell products using any container, and use materials for hygiene and safety. and a container that satisfies mechanical characteristics must be used.

In addition, the zero-waste product container should be easy to wash during the reuse process, and should have excellent durability and abrasion resistance so that damage, deformation, scratches, etc. do not occur during the washing process.

In addition, since zero-waste product containers must be reused a certain number of times, the types of products that can be used and the number of times of use must be continuously managed. It is required. In other words, in order to minimize the use of packaging containers through the sale of zero-waste products, information on the product containers is tracked from the time the packaging containers of the sold product are put into the product and sold, until it is reused several times or dozens of times before discarding. and must be managed.

However, as described above, the current sale of zero-waste products is only in the initial stage made offline, and there is no zero-waste product container that satisfies the above conditions.

In other words, now that online shopping has become commonplace, the problem with the huge amount of packaging containers caused by this is a fact that everyone is aware of. There is no way to solve this with containers and sales methods.

Therefore, in order to fundamentally solve the problem, it is necessary to develop and manufacture reusable product containers and build a management system suitable for them.

The present invention was made to solve the above conventional problems, to provide a reusable, zero-waste product container in which the history of use is managed, and to reduce the amount of packaging containers themselves to create a sustainable eco-friendly society. There is a purpose.

In addition, the present invention provides a container sales management process that can recover, wash, and recycle previously used containers at the same time as delivery, and enables such a container sales management process to prevent additional discarded packaging from occurring during the delivery process Its purpose is to provide a system.

In addition, the present invention can manage the use history of zero-waste product containers, check the remaining amount and expiration date of the product contained in the container, automatically notify the consumer when it is time to repurchase the product, and manage the container history to prevent contamination of the container. Its purpose is to prevent the situation.

A sales management system for a reusable container according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a body providing an internal space in which a product is stored, a cover that is detachably coupled to the body and capable of opening and closing an upper portion of the open body, A sensor module including a weight sensor and a pressure sensor that supports the bottom surface of the body and measures the weight of a product stored inside the body, and an IoT that transmits the measured value obtained from the sensor module to an external device through short-range communication. A reusable container containing the device; A user terminal that includes a user interface unit, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, and receives a customer's product order through an application or product sales homepage that supports product ordering using the reusable container and collection of the reusable container. ; A container management server managed by a manager and managing all matters related to the reusable container, including sales, delivery, collection, cleaning, and reuse of the reusable container; And a manager terminal comprising a user interface unit, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, and communicating with the container management server, wherein the user terminal includes state information of the reusable container received from the IoT device. , and is transmitted to the container management server in real time.

In one embodiment, the container management server stores the state information of the reusable container received from the user terminal in the form of a time table and monitors the container state to determine the expected exhaustion time of the product contained in the reusable container. monitoring unit; a data analysis unit that analyzes product consumption pattern data for a specific user by analyzing the state information of the reusable container and the product order information data, and recommends a user-customized product by learning the collected data with a deep learning algorithm; a container recovery management unit for transmitting a container recovery alarm to the manager terminal when a container recovery request is received; and a container washing management unit that counts the number of washings of the reusable container and manages all matters related to washing and reuse of the reusable container.

In one embodiment, the container washing management unit determines that the reusable container is washed when the pressure sensor of the reusable container detects a pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined pressure set by the manager, and the reusable container is washed. It is desirable to count the number of washings of the vessel.

In one embodiment, the container washing management unit, when the number of times of washing the reusable container counted reaches a reusable number of a predetermined value set by the manager for each container, the time to discard the reusable container arrives It is preferable to transmit a container discard request to the manager terminal upon determining that the container has been discarded.

In one embodiment, it is preferable that the sensor module and the IoT device are detachably coupled to the lower part of the body in a laminated structure.

In one embodiment, by accommodating the body and the sensor module therein, the reusable container has a double structure of the body corresponding to the inner container and the IoT device corresponding to the outer container. Preferably, the cover has a structure that simultaneously opens and closes the opened upper part of the body and the opened upper part of the IoT device.

According to another aspect, a sales management method for a reusable container according to an embodiment of the present invention includes providing a reusable container to a product seller including a zero-waste store; Selling a product using the reusable container to a customer; monitoring the state of the reusable container in real time; recovering the reusable container used by the customer; washing the recovered reusable container; counting the number of washings of the reusable container; and determining whether the number of washings has reached a preset number of reusable containers, wherein the reusable container includes: a body providing an internal space in which a product is accommodated; a cover capable of opening and closing an upper portion of the body; A sensor module including a weight sensor and a pressure sensor for measuring the weight of a product stored in the body, and an IoT device for transmitting the measurement value obtained from the sensor module to an external device through short-range communication.

In one embodiment, the product seller is an online seller operating a product sales server, and prior to the step of recovering the reusable container used by the customer, by monitoring the state of the reusable container in real time, The method may further include determining whether the expected product exhaustion time has arrived and, as a result of the determination, when the expected product exhaustion time has arrived, transmitting an alarm to a user terminal.

In one embodiment, as a result of the determination, when the expected product exhaustion time has not arrived, determining whether the product use-by date has arrived, and when the product use-by date has arrived, an alarm is sent to the user terminal. It is desirable to monitor the condition of the reusable container again when the expiration date of the product has not arrived.

In one embodiment, the counting of the number of times of washing of the reusable container may include washing of the reusable container when the pressure sensor of the reusable container detects a pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined pressure set in advance by a manager. It is preferably made by counting the number of washings of the reusable container by determining that it is made.

Therefore, according to the present invention, there is an effect of activating the use of reusable zero-waste product containers, thereby having an effect of significantly reducing the amount of packaging containers used. Furthermore, the effect of reducing the cost of producing packaging containers, the cost of disposing of used packaging containers, and carbon emissions is also expected.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that non-face-to-face (online, mobile, etc.) sales of zero-waste products are possible, and further, there is an advantage that it can be used in conjunction with a business for non-face-to-face sales of zero-waste products. In other words, product suppliers will be able to more actively sell zero-waste products, and from the point of view of consumers, there is an advantage in that they can purchase zero-waste products through online purchase even if they are not in offline stores with limited accessibility.

In addition, in the case of existing general packaging containers, product information is printed on the surface of the container or displayed by attaching a separate printout to the container. There was an inconvenience that this was necessary. However, according to the present invention, since product information contained in the container as well as container management information can be checked through the app of the user terminal, the inconvenience of separating the printed vinyl required for recycling the existing packaging container is eliminated, and the volume-rate system for non-recyclable packaging materials is eliminated. It has the advantage of reducing processing costs.

In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide user-customized services such as sales of customized capacity for each user through the collection and management of big data on the customer's product use, and the burden on the household economy can be reduced by consuming only the necessary amount on time. There is an advantage to being

In addition, according to the present invention, there is an advantage in that many consumers know about zero waste, which is still in a state where public awareness is weak, and a packaging waste reduction culture can be spread through an increase in the population participating in zero waste.

1 is a block diagram of a sales management system for reusable containers according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a configuration diagram of a reusable container according to various embodiments of the present invention.
3 is a configuration diagram of a user terminal constituting the sales management system for reusable containers according to the present invention.
4 is a configuration diagram of a container management server constituting the sales management system for reusable containers according to the present invention.
5 is a flow chart of a sales management method of a reusable container according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the container sales management method of FIG. 5 .
7 is a flow chart of a sales management method of a reusable container according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the container sales management method of FIG. 7 .

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a preferred embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this process, the thickness of lines or the size of components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity and convenience of explanation. In addition, terms to be described later are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, which may vary according to the intention or custom of a user or operator. Therefore, definitions of these terms will have to be made based on the content throughout this specification.

In this specification, a module may mean a functional and structural combination of hardware for implementing the technical idea of the present invention and software for driving the hardware. For example, the module may refer to a predetermined code and a logical unit of hardware resources for executing the predetermined code, and does not necessarily mean a physically connected code or one type of hardware according to the present invention. can be easily deduced to the average expert in the art.

The present invention relates to a sales management system and method for a zero-waste product container that is reusable and whose use history is automatically managed. refers to

In addition, throughout this specification, contents contained in a reusable container will be referred to as 'product', and a form in which the product is put in a container and sold to customers will be referred to as 'product'. Here, the product stored in the container may be, for example, detergent, cosmetics, food, etc., but is not limited thereto.

In addition, the following examples do not limit the scope of the present invention, but are presented as examples only, and there may be various embodiments implemented through the technical idea.

Sales management system for reusable containers

1 is a block diagram of a sales management system 1 for reusable containers according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, the reusable container sales management system 1 includes a reusable container 100, a user terminal 200, a container management server 300, and a manager terminal 400. Here, the user terminal 200 means a terminal used by a customer, and the manager terminal 400 means a terminal used by a manager.

The container management server 300 manages all matters related to containers, such as sales, delivery, collection, washing, and reuse of containers, and is operated by a container sales manager (hereinafter referred to as 'manager').

According to another embodiment, the reusable container sales management system 1 may further include a product sales server 500 . The product sales server 500 manages all matters related to product sales and may be operated by a product seller conducting online sales.

In addition, each component of the reusable container sales management system 1 communicates through a network. Here, the network is, for example, RF, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network, Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, 5rd Generation Partnership Project (5GPP) network, World Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) network, Internet ), LAN (Local Area Network), Wireless LAN (Wireless Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), PAN (Personal Area Network), Bluetooth network, NFC network, satellite broadcasting network, analog broadcasting network, DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) networks, etc. are included, but are not limited thereto.

Hereinafter, each component of the reusable container sales management system 1 will be described in detail.

Reusable Containers (100)

A reusable container 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2 .

The reusable container 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a body 120 providing an internal space in which products are accommodated, and an upper portion of the body 120 that is detachably coupled to the body 120 and opened. It includes a cover 110 that can be opened and closed, a sensor module 130, and an IoT device 140.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, the sensor module 130 and the IoT device 140 may be detachably coupled to the lower part of the body 120 in a laminated structure, and as shown in FIG. 2B, The IoT device 140 may be manufactured in a form in which the body 120 and the sensor module 130 are accommodated therein. In this case, the reusable container 100 has a double structure of the body 120 corresponding to the inner container and the IoT device 140 corresponding to the outer container, and the cover 110 is the open body 120. It is preferable to be manufactured to simultaneously open and close the top and the open top of the IoT device 140 . To this end, it is preferable that the shape and position of the upper open portion of the body 120 and the upper open portion of the IoT device 140 correspond to each other.

The sensor module 130 includes a weight sensor, supports the bottom surface of the body 120 of the reusable container 100, and measures the weight of a product stored in the body 120. The product weight measured by the weight sensor may be acquired in real time and stored in the memory of the IoT device 140 .

In addition, the sensor module 130 may further include at least one sensor selected from a group including an acceleration sensor, a pressure sensor, and a temperature sensor.

The IoT device 140 transmits information on the reusable container 100 obtained by the sensor module 130 to the container management server 300 or the user terminal 200 . For communication with the user terminal 200, the IoT device 140 may perform short-range communication. For example, the user terminal 200 at a short distance can access the reusable container 10 in a Bluetooth manner through a Bluetooth device search function. When connected, the weight change data of the product contained in the reusable container 10 can be transmitted to and displayed on the user terminal 200 through a dedicated application downloaded in advance to the user terminal 200, and the obtained product weight change data It may be transmitted to the container management server 300.

That is, the IoT device 140 includes a communication module, and may include a power supply unit and a memory for driving the IoT device.

Next, the user terminal 200 constituting the sales management system 1 for reusable containers will be described.

User terminal 200

The user terminal 200 includes a smart phone, a mobile terminal, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a navigation terminal, a personal computer, a notebook computer, and a tablet PC ( Tablet PC), wearable device (e.g., smart watch, smart glass, HMD (Head Mounted Display)), IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) terminal, smart TV, digital broadcasting It may be various terminals such as terminals.

The user terminal 200 may be a terminal on which an application for supporting product ordering and container reuse related to the present invention is installed, and a customer may order a product using a reusable container, request container collection, or reorder a product through the corresponding application. can In addition to this, customers can check overall information related to products using reusable containers, such as product (contents) information, product ingredients, manufacturing date, origin, expiration date, and my usage pattern, through the application.

Alternatively, the customer may access the product sales homepage using the user terminal 200 without downloading a separate dedicated app, ordering products using reusable containers, requesting collection of containers, reordering products, and the like.

3 shows the configuration of such a user terminal 200 . Referring to the drawings, the user terminal 200 includes a user interface unit 210, a communication unit 220, a storage unit 230 and a control unit 240.

The user terminal 200 may transmit a product purchase request to the product sales server 400 based on user input or transmit data related to reusable containers obtained from the IoT device to the container management server 300. To this end, the user terminal 200 includes a user interface unit 210 . The user interface unit 210 is for communication between the user terminal 200 and a user (customer), and may include an input unit 212 and an output unit 214.

The input unit 212 is for receiving information from a user and may include at least one of a voice input unit, a gesture input unit, a touch input unit, and a mechanical input unit.

The output unit 214 is for generating an output related to sight, hearing, touch, and the like, and may include at least one of a display unit and a speaker.

In addition, the user interface unit 210 may further include a processor (not shown) that controls overall operations of each component of the user interface unit 210 .

In addition, the user terminal 200 may receive container-related information from the container management server 300 . The container-related information may be, for example, a notification that a product is going to be exhausted, a notification that a product use-by date has been completed, a notification that a container collection time is scheduled to arrive, and the like.

To transmit and receive data, the user terminal 200 includes a communication unit 220 . The communication unit 220 is a module for communicating with an external device. Here, the external device may be a server 300 or 400 or a base station. The communication unit 220 may include at least one of a transmission antenna, a reception antenna, a radio frequency (RF) circuit capable of implementing various communication protocols, and an RF element to perform communication.

The communication unit 220 may include at least one of a short-distance communication unit 221, a location information unit 222, an optical communication unit 223, a broadcast transmission/reception unit 224, and an Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) communication unit 225.

Here, the short-distance communication unit 221 is a unit for short-distance communication. The short-range communication unit 221 includes Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Infrared Data Association (IrDA), Ultra Wideband (UWB), ZigBee, Near Field Communication (NFC), and Wireless-Fi (Wi-Fi). Local communication may be supported using at least one of Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Direct, and Wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB) technologies.

In addition, the user terminal 200 may include the storage unit 230 to store various data related to product purchase using a reusable container, such as product purchase information and container-related information. The storage unit 230 includes a flash memory, a hard disk, a secure digital card (SD card), a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and a web storage (web). storage) may be implemented as any one or more storage media.

In addition, the user terminal 200 further includes a control unit 240 for controlling overall operations of each unit within the user terminal 200 . The controller 240 includes application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, and controllers. It may be implemented as at least one of (controllers), micro-controllers, and microprocessors.

Next, the container management server 300 constituting the sales management system 1 for reusable containers will be described.

Container management server (300)

In the container management server 300, container information matching the unique number of the reusable container 100 including the IoT device 140 and product information contained in the container are stored. Such information may include details such as the product name, type of product, expiration date of the product, when the container was made, shelf life of the container, number of possible reuses per container, number of times the container has been reused, container distribution history, and the like.

In addition, the container management server 300 may receive product weight information in a reusable container from the user terminal 200 in real time. Thus, whenever the amount of product contained in the reusable container 100 changes, that is, whenever a specific user runs out of the product in the container, the amount and time may be stored in the form of a time table.

In addition, the container management server 300 may predict an expected exhaustion time of a product purchased by a specific user using the received weight data. In addition, the container management server 300 may analyze product consumption data for a specific user. In addition, the container management server 300 may transmit product expected exhaustion time information, product repurchase time information, container collection time information, etc. to the user terminal 200 or the manager terminal 400 .

Specifically, referring to FIG. 4 , the container management server 300 includes a container state monitoring unit 310, a data analysis unit 320, a container recovery management unit 330, and a container washing management unit 340.

The container state monitoring unit 310 monitors the container state in real time, such as storing product weight information provided from the user terminal 200 in the form of a time table. In addition, the container state monitoring unit 310 may predict an expected exhaustion time of products contained in a reusable container using the collected information. For example, when the amount of product remaining in the reusable container becomes less than a predetermined value preset by the container manager, an alarm may be sent to the manager terminal 400 .

The data analysis unit 320 analyzes product consumption data for a specific user by analyzing data at a specific time point using product and container information provided from the user terminal 200 .

In addition, the data analysis unit 320 may perform statistical analysis on information such as the type of product used by a specific user during a predetermined period and the amount of product used, and transmit the data to a dedicated application of the user terminal 200 or an administrator terminal.

In addition, the data analysis unit 320 may extract data for a specific purpose by analyzing big data collected from reusable containers each having a unique number assigned thereto. To this end, the data analysis unit 320 may recommend products customized to the user by learning product information purchased by the user through a deep learning algorithm.

For example, if the product contained in a reusable container is detergent, the detergent usage of a specific user during a certain period is greater than the average user's detergent usage during a certain period of the big data analysis result collected by the manager, data The analysis unit 320 predicts that the user will need a large-capacity product, and may recommend a large-capacity product to the corresponding user.

Next, when a container recovery request is received from the user, the container recovery management unit 330 transmits a container recovery alarm to the manager terminal 400 . Upon receiving the container collection alarm, the manager collects the containers and cleans them for reuse.

On the other hand, if there is no request for container collection from the user, but the expected product exhaustion time has arrived according to the results analyzed by the data analysis unit 320, an alarm asking whether to collect the container is sent to the user terminal 200, so that the user can You can decide whether or not to return it.

Containers recovered by the manager are washed, sterilized, and reused (re-supplied to product sellers), and the container cleaning management unit 340 manages all matters related to washing and reuse of reusable containers.

Also, the container washing management unit 340 may count the number of times the reusable container 100 is washed.

Specifically, as described above, the reusable container 100 includes the sensor module 130, and the sensor module 130 includes a pressure sensor.

The cleaning of the reusable container 100 is performed by spraying water pressurized to a predetermined pressure or higher into the reusable container 100 in the washing chamber, and thus, when the pressure sensor detects a pressure higher than the predetermined pressure, the container is washed. The manager 340 may determine that the reusable container 10 is being washed.

Furthermore, the manager can increase the accuracy of counting the number of washings by controlling on/off of the pressure sensor. For example, when a manager releases a container, that is, when providing it to a customer or product seller, the pressure sensor is turned off, and the pressure sensor is turned on only when an empty container is retrieved from the customer and cleaned by the manager. can be controlled with

In addition, when the number of washing reusable containers counted by the container washing management unit 340 reaches the number of reusable containers set for each container, the container washing management unit 340 determines that the container disposal time has arrived and sends the container to the manager terminal. A discard request can be sent.

In the same way as above, it is possible to record the number of times of use and washing of the reusable container using the unique number of the IoT device of the reusable container, and systematic life management such as securing the safety of the container and confirming the disposal time is possible using this. It happens.

Administrator terminal (400)

Since the configuration of the manager terminal 400 is substantially the same as that of the aforementioned user terminal 200, a description thereof will be omitted.

The manager may access the container management server 300 using the manager terminal 400 and check data received from the container management server 300 . For example, the manager terminal 400 may display information about when products are expected to be exhausted, information about when to repurchase products, information on when to collect containers, and the like, received from the container management server 300 .

Next, a sales management method of a reusable container according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described.

How to manage sales of reusable containers

A sales management method of a reusable container will be described separately in the case where the product seller is an offline seller such as a zero-waste store and in the case of an online seller.

First, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6 , a case in which the product seller is an offline seller will be described.

Referring to FIG. 5 , a flowchart of a sales management method of a reusable container when a product seller is a zero-waste store is shown.

First, the container sales manager provides a reusable container to the product seller (S100). In this case, the product seller is an offline seller such as a zero-waste store.

As mentioned above, in zero-waste stores, customers can buy products directly in reusable containers.

After selling the product to the customer (S110), the container management server 300 monitors the state of the reusable container 100 in real time (S120).

As described above, since the reusable container 100 according to the present invention includes the sensor module 130 and the IoT device 140, the sensor module 130 acquires the reusable container information in real time at the user terminal. It can be transmitted to (200) and the container management server (300). Here, the reusable container information includes weight change data of the product contained in the reusable container.

Customers who have purchased a product will return the reusable container 100 to the product seller when the product is exhausted.

When the used reusable container is returned to the product seller, the container sales manager collects the reusable container (S150) and cleans it (S160). Here, washing is a concept that includes not only cleaning in a dictionary sense, but also sterilization and drying.

When the washing is completed, the container management server 300 counts the number of washings of the reusable container (S170).

As described above, the cleaning of the reusable container 100 is performed by spraying water pressurized to a predetermined pressure or higher in the washing chamber into the reusable container 100, and the reusable container 100 includes a pressure sensor and IoT. Since it includes a device, when the pressure sensor of the reusable container detects a pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined pressure, the container management server 300 may determine that the reusable container 10 has been cleaned.

After counting the number of washings of the reusable container (S170), it is determined whether the number of washings has reached the number of reusable containers (S180). Here, the number of reusable times may be different for each container and product, and may be initially set by a manager.

When the number of times of washing of a reusable container reaches the number of reusable times, it is determined that the life of the container is over and discarding the container is determined. Resupply to the seller of the product.

Through the above process, a cycle from sale of the reusable container 100 to collection, washing, and resupply is performed, and a schematic diagram thereof is shown in FIG. 6 .

Next, a case where the product seller is an online seller will be described.

Referring to FIG. 7 , a flow chart of a sales management method of a reusable container 100 when a product seller sells a product online is shown.

The container sales manager provides a reusable container to the product seller (S100), the product seller sells the product to the customer (S110), and monitors the reusable container status (S120), the product seller sells the product offline Since it is the same as the case, the description thereof is omitted.

By monitoring the reusable container state (S130), the container management server predicts the expected product exhaustion time using the collected data and determines whether the expected product exhaustion time has arrived (S130a). As a result of the determination, when the expected product exhaustion time has arrived (YES), an alarm is transmitted to the user terminal 200 (S140).

Even if the expected product exhaustion time has not arrived (NO), it is determined whether the product use-by date has arrived (S130b), and when the product use-by date has arrived, an alarm is sent to the user terminal (S140). On the other hand, if the expiration date of the product has not arrived, it returns to the step of monitoring the reusable container state (S120).

In the above embodiment, it has been described that the step of determining whether the product use-by date has arrived (S130b) is performed after the step of determining whether the expected product exhaustion time has arrived (S130a), but the order of the two steps is not limited thereto, When the product use-by date arrives ahead of the expected product use-by date, after the step of determining whether the product use-by date has arrived (S130b), the step of determining whether the product use-by date has arrived (130a) may be performed.

After the alarm is transmitted to the user terminal 200 (S140), the user may request the collection of the reusable container 100 using the user terminal 200 in response to the alarm. If there is a user's request for container recovery, the manager collects the container requested for collection (S150) and cleans it (S160).

The washing step 160, the washing count counting step S170, and the step of determining whether the number of washing reaches the reusable count step S180 are the same as when the product seller sells the product offline, so descriptions thereof are omitted. .

A schematic diagram of the sales management method of such a reusable container is shown in FIG. 8 .

The embodiments described above may be implemented as hardware components, software components, and/or a combination of hardware components and software components. For example, the devices, methods and components described in the embodiments may include, for example, a processor, a controller, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, a field programmable gate (FPGA). array), programmable logic units (PLUs), microprocessors, or any other device capable of executing and responding to instructions. A processing device may run an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications running on the operating system. A processing device may also access, store, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to execution of software. For convenience of understanding, there are cases in which one processing device is used, but those skilled in the art will understand that the processing device includes a plurality of processing elements and/or a plurality of types of processing elements. It can be seen that it can include. For example, a processing device may include a plurality of processors or a processor and a controller. Also, other processing configurations are possible, such as parallel processors.

The method according to the embodiment may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer means and recorded on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. Program commands recorded on the medium may be specially designed and configured for the embodiment or may be known and usable to those skilled in computer software. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tapes, optical media such as CDROMs and DVDs, and magnetic media such as floptical disks. Optical media (magneto-optical media) and ROM (ROM), RAM (RAM), flash memory, and the like are included hardware devices specially configured to store and execute program instructions. Examples of program instructions include high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter, as well as machine language codes such as those produced by a compiler. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the embodiments, and vice versa. [0184] Software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of these, and may independently or in combination configure a processing device to operate as desired ( collectively) to command processing units. Software and/or data may be any tangible machine, component, physical device, virtual equipment, computer storage medium or It can be permanently or temporarily embodied in a device, or in a signal wave being transmitted. The software may be distributed on networked computer systems and stored or executed in a distributed manner. Software and data may be stored on one or more computer readable media.

As described above, although the embodiments have been described with limited drawings, those skilled in the art can apply various technical modifications and variations based on the above. For example, the described techniques may be performed in an order different from the method described, and/or components of the described system, structure, device, circuit, etc. may be combined or combined in a different form than the method described, or other components may be used. Or even if it is replaced or substituted by equivalents, appropriate results can be achieved. Therefore, other implementations, other embodiments, and equivalents of the claims are within the scope of the following claims.

One embodiment of the present invention described above is only exemplary, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. . Therefore, it will be well understood that the present invention is not limited to the forms mentioned in the detailed description above. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical spirit of the appended claims. It is also to be understood that the present invention includes all modifications, equivalents and alternatives within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

1: Reusable container sales management system
100: reusable container
200: user terminal
300: container management server
400: product sales server
110: cover
120: body
130: sensor module
140: IoT device
210: user interface unit
212: input unit
214: output unit
220: Communication Department
230: storage unit
240: control unit
310: container condition monitoring unit
320: data analysis unit
330: container recovery management unit
340: container washing management unit

Claims (10)

A body providing an internal space in which products are accommodated, a cover that is detachably coupled to the body and can open and close the upper part of the opened body, supports the lower surface of the body and reduces the weight of the product stored inside the body. A reusable container including a sensor module including a weight sensor and a pressure sensor for measuring, and an IoT device for transmitting the measurement value obtained from the sensor module to an external device through short-range communication;
A user terminal that includes a user interface unit, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, and receives a customer's product order through an application or product sales homepage that supports product ordering using the reusable container and collection of the reusable container. ;
A container management server managed by a manager and managing all matters related to the reusable container, including sales, delivery, collection, cleaning, and reuse of the reusable container; and
A manager terminal comprising a user interface unit, a communication unit, a storage unit and a control unit, and communicating with the container management server; includes,
The user terminal transmits the state information of the reusable container received from the IoT device to the container management server in real time,

The container management server,
a container state monitoring unit that stores and monitors the state information of the reusable container received from the user terminal in the form of a time table, and determines an expected exhaustion time of the product contained in the reusable container;
a data analysis unit that analyzes product consumption pattern data for a specific user by analyzing the state information of the reusable container and the product order information data, and recommends a user-customized product by learning the collected data with a deep learning algorithm;
a container recovery management unit for transmitting a container recovery alarm to the manager terminal when a container recovery request is received; and
A sales management system for reusable containers comprising a container washing management unit that counts the number of times the reusable container is washed and manages all matters related to washing and reuse of the reusable container.
delete The method of claim 1, wherein the container washing management unit,
When the pressure sensor of the reusable container detects a pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined pressure set by the manager, it is determined that the reusable container is cleaned and the number of washings of the reusable container is counted. sales management system.
The method of claim 3, wherein the container washing management unit,
When the counted number of washings of the reusable container reaches the reusable number of a predetermined value set by the manager for each container, it is determined that the discard time of the reusable container has arrived and a container discard request is sent to the manager terminal Sending, reusable container sales management system.
According to claim 1,
The sensor module and the IoT device are coupled in a detachable form to the lower part of the body in a laminated structure, a sales management system of a reusable container.
According to claim 1,
By accommodating the body and the sensor module inside the IoT device, the reusable container has a double structure of the body corresponding to the inner container and the IoT device corresponding to the outer container,
The cover is a structure that simultaneously opens and closes the upper part of the opened body and the upper part of the IoT device that is opened, a sales management system for a reusable container.
A sales management method for reusable containers made in a sales management system for reusable containers,
providing reusable containers to product sellers, including zero-waste stores;
Selling a product using the reusable container to a customer;
monitoring the state of the reusable container in real time;
recovering the reusable container used by the customer;
washing the recovered reusable container;
counting the number of washings of the reusable container;
Determining whether the number of washings has reached a preset number of reusable times; includes,
The reusable container includes a body providing an internal space in which a product is accommodated, a cover capable of opening and closing an upper portion of the body, and a weight sensor and a pressure sensor for measuring the weight of a product stored inside the body. A sales management method for a reusable container comprising a sensor module and an IoT device that transmits a measurement value obtained from the sensor module to an external device through short-range communication.
The method of claim 7, wherein the product seller is an online seller operating a product sales server,
Prior to the step of recovering the reusable container used by the customer,
Monitoring the state of the reusable container in real time to determine whether the expected product exhaustion time has arrived;
As a result of the determination, when the expected product exhaustion time has arrived, further comprising the step of transmitting an alarm to a user terminal, sales management method of a reusable container.
According to claim 8,
As a result of the determination, if the expected product exhaustion time has not arrived, performing a step of determining whether the product use-by date has arrived,
When the product use-by date has arrived, an alarm is sent to the user terminal, and when the product use-by date has not arrived, monitoring the state of the reusable container again, a sales management method of a reusable container.
According to any one of claims 7 to 9,
Counting the number of washings of the reusable container,
When the pressure sensor of the reusable container detects a pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined pressure set in advance by the manager, it is determined that the reusable container is cleaned and the number of washings of the reusable container is counted. Reusable container sales management method.

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