US1024716A - Order-guide. - Google Patents

Description

E. J. BLISS.

ORDER GUIDE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.21,1909.

Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

m4 tFOF COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH C0,, WASHINGTON, D. C.

ELMER J. BLISS, 0F EDGARTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS.

ORDER-GUIDE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

Application filed April 21, 1909. Serial No. 491,363.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELMER J. Brass, citizen of the United States, and resident of Edgartown, county of Dukes, Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Order-Guides, of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists of a guide for ordering merchandise and is intended to pro vide a means whereby the merchant or dealer in ordering articles of merchandise having different sizes and characteristics is, so to speak, automatically warned of the danger of over-stocking on such sizes or kinds of merchandise as experience shows are but very little in demand.

The invention consists essentially in a board, card, or sheet containing an area divided into columns headed by inscriptions corresponding to the different sizes of the articles to be ordered, the different columns or different parts of the same column being provided with some characteristic distinguishing means by which the relative demand for the different kinds or sizes of articles is graphically illustrated.

For convenience I have illustrated the invention as applicable to boots and shoes but it is obvious that the principle of the invention is applicable to many other forms of merchandise.

In practise it is found, particularly in the case of shoe stores, that a very large proportion of failures in business are due to the ordering and purchasing of stock without an intelligent appreciation of the comparative demand for different styles and sizes of boots and shoes, and it is the object of the present invention to furnish the dealer with a guide constructed and arranged toautomatically warn the dealer when he is in thevery act of filling out the order sheet of the danger of giving considerable orders in those styles, sizes or kinds for which there is a relatively small demand.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a simple and convenient form embodying the said invention.

As illustrated in the drawings a suitable board, card, or sheet is provided with a ruled area divided into columns headed by inscriptions indicating the various sizes or other characteristic of the articles to be ordered.

The form illustrated is particularly applicable to boots and shoes and comprises an area divided by vertical columns, at the head of which are placed in a progressive series the numerals indicating the various sizes of the shoes. These columns are divided into vertical divisions by means of horizontal lines, the inscriptions at the left hand end thereof being arranged to show the progressive widths of the shoes to be ordered. The areas or sections formed by the intersection of the horizontal rulings with the vertical rulings may again be subdivided into sub-areas or sections adapted to contain such information in regard to stock on hand or otherwise as may be useful to the dealer in making up his order. For example, in the sub-division at the upper left hand corner of each principal square may be set down the number of pairs of shoes of the particular style on hand; in the right hand upper sub-division may be set down the number indicating the pairs of shoes of the same special style; in the lower left.

hand subdivision may be set down the number denoting the number of pairs already ordered but not delivered, while in the lower right hand sub-division which is inclosed in heavier lines than the other sub-divisions, may be set down all pairs for which it is desired to give a new order.

In order to indicate clearly the relative demand for any particular sizes and widths, the areas formed by the intesecting columns are differentiated from each other, either by different colors, shading, or otherwise, so that thedealer in filling out his order sheet in ac cordance with this guide will be apprised by the color or other distinctive peculiarity which forms the background for the different sizes and widths, of the danger of accumulating those sizes and widths which are little called for.

Now I have found by investigations covering a very large number of sales, that the sizes which would fill in the middle or central portion of the area of the order guide, generally speaking would comprise approximately 80 per cent. of the demand in certain styles of shoes; that approximately 16 per cent. of the total demand would be included in those sizes bordering upon this central area; that about three per cent. of the total demand would be represented generally speaking by the squares or sections immediately surrounding the last-mentioned group of spaces, while the corner portions generally speaking would represent only one per cent. of the total. demand. In the practise of this invention therefore I provide the central portion of the guide for those sizes and widths for which there is a steady and constant: demand with let us say a white background, while those sections or squares corresponding to the and widths for which there is a considerable, although a smaller demand may be termed with a blue background. The much smaller demand for the sizes and widths adjacent to or surrounding the blue portions of the guide are colored yellow to indicate that orders talling upon this part of the guide should be given with extreme caution in view of the small demand, while the extreme portions of the guide for which there exists an even smaller demand, may be colored red to indicate the extreme danger of orders falling on that color.

The guide may be used in various ways, all utilizing the same principle. Thus it may be termed upon a board or card and the dealer may be supplied with substantially transparent order sheets oi thin paper ruled to correspond to the guide so that when the order sheet is superimposed, the colors will show through the sheet and thus serve as a guide in .lilling out the order sheet itself. On the other hand the order sheet itself may form the guide and may be printed in colors so that in entering the quantities in the dit t'ereut spaces the dealer is auton'iatically cautioned against filling out his orders on a scale disproportionate to the demand. In this latter case the sub-division, of the squares formed by the intersecting columns forms a convenient means for keeping account ot stock on hand, stock ordered and not delivered, and other information, it being preferred to surround that one of the sub-sections which to receive the order tor new goods with a heavier line to distinguish it from the other sub-sections, so as to avoid any error that might be caused by the confusion of figures indicating say stock on hand with the figures ot' the new order to be given.

l i hile I prefer the use of ditlerent colors or shading as a means of ditl'erentiating the various columns or parts of columns from one another to indicate the relative demands for the merchandise, yet I do not confine myself to this particular means of indicating such differences, as the different sections may be distinguished from each other in various ways.

\Vhat I claim is:-

1. A guide sheet for ordering shoes or other articles, embracing a substantially ree tangular area divided into vertical and horizontal columns which intersect to term a series of mnnber-receiving spaces, one of said sets of columns being bordered by a progressive series of size-indicating inscriptions, the other set of columns which extend across the size-indicating columns being bordered by inscriptions denoting dilterent widths, the ditt'erent portions of said sheet being made with distinctive backgrminds in accordance with and indicative of the relative demand for the ditlerentsizes and widths to be ordered, substantially as described 2. A guide sheet for orocring shoes or other articles, embracing a substantially rectangular area divided into vertical and. horizontal columns intersecting to form a series of munber-receiving spaces, said number-rcceiving spaces being divided into sub-divisions or sections, one of said sets of colun'ins being bordered by a progressive series of size-indicating inscriptions, the other set of columns extending across the size-indicating columns being bordered by inscriptions dcnoting different widths, the ditlerent portions of said sheet being differently colored to accord with and indicate the relative demand for the different sizes and widths to be ordered, substantially as described.

In witness whereof, I have subscribed the above specification.

ELMER J. BLISS. In. the presence ot' T. G. NUGENT, A. E. HOLMES.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G.

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