Method and device for monitoring flows of goods
First Claim
1. A method for monitoring article flows in a distribution network, wherein the distribution network comprises a plurality of article positions and paths connecting the article positions, and wherein the positions and or the paths reached by an article are recorded in a data base, said method comprising the following steps determining, for at least a part of the paths and/or article positions, how often the article has run through a given path or has reached a given article position, respectively, for determining an event count for the article attributed to the corresponding path or article position, respectively, checking the event counts of an article by means of a checking rule, and issuing a warning upon non-fulfilment of the rule.
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Abstract
In the present method, the flow of articles through a distribution network with article positions (P1, P2, . . . ) and paths connecting the article positions is monitored. The movements of each article are recorded in a data base (2). For each article, event counts are determined, which indicate how often it runs through a given path or arrives at a given article position. The event counts are tested for certain criteria and a warning is issued if the criteria are not fulfilled. This procedure allows, depending on the criteria, to locate grey market activities, inefficiencies or defective articles.
9 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring article flows in a distribution network, wherein the distribution network comprises a plurality of article positions and paths connecting the article positions, and wherein the positions and or the paths reached by an article are recorded in a data base, said method comprising the following steps
determining, for at least a part of the paths and/or article positions, how often the article has run through a given path or has reached a given article position, respectively, for determining an event count for the article attributed to the corresponding path or article position, respectively, checking the event counts of an article by means of a checking rule, and issuing a warning upon non-fulfilment of the rule.
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11. A method for monitoring article flows in a distribution network, wherein the distribution network comprises a plurality of article positions and paths connecting the article positions, said method comprising the steps of
recording the article positions and or the paths reached by an article in a data base, determining, for at least a part of the paths and/or article positions, how often the article has run through a given path or has reached a given article position, respectively, for determining an event count for the article attributed to the corresponding path or article position, respectively, checking the event counts of an article by means of a checking rule, and issuing a warning upon non-fulfilment of the rule.
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12. A method for monitoring article flows in a distribution network, wherein the distribution network comprises a plurality of article positions and paths connecting the article positions, said method comprising the steps of
recording the article positions and or the paths reached by an article in a data base, determining, for at least a part of the paths and/or article positions, how often the article has run through a given path or has reached a given article position, respectively, for determining an event count for the article attributed to the corresponding path or article position, respectively, checking the event counts against predefined maximally allowable event counts for at least a part of the paths and/or article positions, and issuing a warning if at least one event count of an article exceeds the corresponding maximally allowable event count.
Specification