Vending Machine Route Management

• US 20160162865A1
• Filed: 12/08/2015
• Published: 06/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Original Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Inventors: Crow, James J., Barrag?n Trevi?o, Alfonso Javier
• Granted Patent: US 9,613,346 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/308 using the Internet of Things
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4015 using location information
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

An embodiment includes a method executed by at least one processor comprising: determining inventories for first and second times for a first vending machine (VM); determining inventories for first and second times for a second VM; determining inventories for first and second times for a third VM; and determining a service route to visit the first and second VMs on a specific date, and to specifically avoid visiting the third VM on the specific date, in response to determining the inventories for the second times for the first, second, and third VMs. Other embodiments are described herein.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory storage medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a system to:

determine inventories for first and second times for a first vending machine (VM);

determine inventories for first and second times for a second VM;

determine inventories for first and second times for a third VM; and

determine a service route to visit the first and second VMs on a specific date, and to specifically avoid visiting the third VM on the specific date, in response to determining the inventories for the second times for the first, second, and third VMs.

2. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

determine cash balances for the first, second, and third VMs; and

determine the service route in response to determining the cash balances for the first, second, and third VMs.

3. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

determine first space-to-sales (StS) for the first VM;

determine first rate of consumption (RoC) for the first VM; and

adjust the first StS for the first VM to determine an adjusted first StS for the first VM in response to;

(a) determining the first RoC, and (b) determining the inventory for the first time for the first VM.

4. The at least one medium of claim 3 comprising instructions to:

visually display the adjusted StS; and

visually prompt a user regarding whether the user accepts the adjusted StS.

5. The at least one medium of claim 4 comprising instructions to:

determine the user accepts the adjusted StS;

visually prompt the user to adjust a plan-o-gram (PoG) for the first VM in response to determining the user accepts the adjusted StS; and

specifically avoid prompting the user to adjust the PoG for the first VM in response to determining the user does not accept the adjusted StS.

6. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

visually display the service route; and

visually prompt a user regarding whether the user accepts the service route;

determine a single quantity of a product required to restock both the first and second VMs in response to determining the inventories for the second times for the first and second VMs and further in response to determining the user accepts the service route; and

visually display the quantity of product required to restock the first and second VMs.

7. The at least one medium of claim 6 comprising instructions to:

determine quantities of products removed from an inventory of the user and replaced into an inventory of the vendor; and

determine the quantity of product required to restock the first and second VMs in response to determining quantities of products removed from the inventory of the user and replaced into the inventory of the vendor.

8. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

determine the first VM will exhaust total inventory for a product at a first exhaustion time that follows the first time for the first VM;

determine the second VM will exhaust total inventory for a product at a second exhaustion time that follows the first time for the second VM; and

determine the first exhaustion time precedes the second exhaustion time;

wherein determining the service route includes determining to visit the first VM before the second VM in response to determining the first exhaustion time precedes the second exhaustion time.

9. The at least one medium of claim 8 comprising instructions to:

determine inventories for first and second times for a fourth VM; and

determine the service route to visit the fourth VM between visiting the first and second VMs; and

determine locations for the first, second, and fourth VMs;

wherein the location of the first VM is closer to the location of the second VM than the location of the fourth VM.

10. The at least one medium of claim 9, wherein the first VM is located in a building and the third VM is located in the building.

11. The at least one medium of claim 9, wherein the first VM is located in a building and the third VM is located in another building within 1 mile of the building.

12. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the first time is for a time occurring before execution of the service route commences and the second time is for a time projected to occur during the execution of the service route.

13. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

in a first step visually prompt a user to access a digital vending record for the first VM;

in a second step visually prompt the user to withdraw financial proceeds from the first VM;

in a third step visually prompt the user to adjust a plan-o-gram (PoG) for the first VM; and

in a fourth step visually prompt the user to restock the first VM;

wherein the first, second, third, and fourth steps are to be performed in a first sequence that is to be repeated when the second VM is visited.

14. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

determine the inventories for the first and second times for the first VM before execution of the service route commences;

adjust the inventory for the second time for the first VM after the service route commences but before the first VM is restocked;

determine a quantity of a product required to restock the first VM in response to adjusting the inventory; and

visually display the quantity of product required to restock the first VM before the first VM is restocked.

15. The at least one medium of claim 1 comprising instructions to:

determine first space-to-sales (StS) for the first VM;

determine first rate of consumption (RoC) for the first VM;

determine maximum production potential for the first VM; and

adjust the first StS for the first VM to determine an adjusted first StS for the first VM in response to determining;

(a) the first RoC, (b) the inventory for the first time for the first VM, and (c) the maximum production potential.

16. A distributed computing system comprising:

a first computing node including at least one first processor and at least one machine readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on the at least one first processor, cause the first node to carry out a first method comprising;

determining inventories for first and second times for a first vending machine (VM);

determining inventories for first and second times for a second VM;

determining inventories for first and second times for a third VM;

determining a service route to visit the first and second VMs on a specific date, and to specifically avoid visiting the third VM on the specific date, in response to determining the inventories for the second times for the first, second, and third VMs;

determining first space-to-sales (StS) for the first VM;

determining first rate of consumption (RoC) for the first VM; and

adjusting the first StS for the first VM to determine an adjusted first StS for the first VM in response to;

(a) determining the first RoC, and (b) determining the inventory for the first time for the first VM;

a second computing node including at least one second processor and at least one machine readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on the at least one second processor, cause the second node to carry out a second method comprising;

visually displaying the adjusted StS; and

visually prompting a user regarding whether the user accepts the adjusted StS.

17. The system of claim 16, the second method comprising:

determining the user accepts the adjusted StS;

visually prompting the user to adjust a plan-o-gram (PoG) for the first VM in response to determining the user accepts the adjusted StS.

18. The system of claim 16:

the first method comprising;

determining the inventories for the first and second times for the first VM before execution of the service route commences;

adjusting the inventory for the second time for the first VM after the service route commences but before the first VM is restocked; and

determining a quantity of a product required to restock the first VM in response to adjusting the inventory;

the second method comprising visually displaying the quantity of product required to restock the first VM before the first VM is restocked.