INVENTORY CONTROL DEVICE

• US 3,784,802 A
• Filed: 07/14/1971
• Issued: 01/08/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hiroshi Ishizawa, Masataro Imai, Takehiko Kanbayashi
• Original Assignee: Hiroshi Ishizawa, Masataro Imai, Takehiko Kanbayashi
• Inventors: Imai, Masataro, Ishizawa, Hiroshi, Kanbayashi, Takehiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Botz, Eugene G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malzahn, David H.
• Application Number:
  US05/162,586
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 235/168,176,92AC
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A comparatively small electronic inventory control device for indicating the current stocks of goods, individually or in succession. The item numbers of the goods are selectively entered by push-button switches. New information for updating the stocks is entered by the same switches. Numerals for item number and the information are differentiated by separate manual switch means. A rotary memory means having addresses corresponding to the item numbers of the goods is used for storing and updating the stock information of the goods.

Claims

1. An inventory control device which comprises in combination, a keyboard having 10 manually operable switches for selectively entering decimal numerals zero to nine in succession;

a coder coupled for receiving and converting the decimal numeral from the keyboard into binary signals, said binary signals being control output signals and contents outpuT signals, a function setter coupled to receive binary signals and having manually operable switches for selecting a mode of operation, said switches consisting of an operation-starting key switch, an item number reading push-button switch, an information-adding push-button switch, an information-subtracting push-button switch, an erasing push-button switch, and a successive reading push-button switch, a function register coupled to convert output signals from the function setter into a continuous signal, an indicator means, an indicator scanner connecting said function register and the indicator means, an I/O register coupled to the indicator scanner and the coder, a rotary memory means having addresses for storing stock data of goods in accordance with given item numbers representative of the goods, a magnetic head means coupled to the I/O register for reading from and writing in the stock data relative selected addresses of the memory means, said indicator means indicating the item number of a selected good along with the stock information thereof received from said memory means.

2. An inventory control device which comprises in combination, a keyboard having ten decimal number push-button switches for entering a decimal number word, a coder coupled for receiving the decimal number from said keyboard with means for converting same to a corresponding binary number word, a memory unit having a non-volatile memory means with a reader-writer head, said non-volatile memory means having a number of memory locations, an address counter having means indicating a then read/writeable memory location, a read/write circuit including the read/write head, an I/O register coupled to said coder and said read/write circuit for temporarily storing information therefrom, a code register counter coupled to said I/O register for storing an item number from said I/O register representative of the address of a memory location, a coincidence circuit coupled to said code register counter and said address counter for detecting coincidence of the contents of said code register counter and said address counter to trigger said read/write circuit, an adder-subtractor coupled to said I/O register and said read/write circuit with means for effecting addition/subtraction of the contents of said I/O register with respect to information read out by said read/write circuit and means for returning the combined result to said read/write circuit through said I/O register, a function setter including at least three command generating switches for generation of an item number-reading command, an information-adding command, and an information-subtracting command, a function register coupled to said function setter for storing the command generated by said function setter, an indicator scanner coupled to said code register counter and said I/O register, an indicator unit coupled to said indicator scanner and having a first display station for displaying the item number stored in said code register counter, a second display station for displaying the contents of said I/O register representative of an incoming, outgoing, or current stock quantity, and a control logic circuit responsive to command stored in said function register for controlling the device, whereby in response to iten number-reading command, the entered number is treated as the item number in question and the contents of the memory location identified by that item number displayed;

in response to the information-adding command the entered number is treated as the incoming quantity and the contents of the then addressed memory location is incremented by that incoming quantity; and

in response to the information-subtracting command, the entered number is treated as the outgoing quantity and the contents of the then addressed memory location is decremented by that outgoing quantity.

3. The inventory control device of claim 2 wherein said function setter includes further a switch for generation of a successive reading command, whereby in response to the successive reading command the item number stored in said code register counter is incremented by one at a time and the contents of the memory location addressed by the incremented item number is displayed.

4. The inventory control device of claim 2 wherein said memory means is a rotary type magnetic storage device.

5. The inventory control device of claim 2 wherein said function setter includes further an erasing command generating switch to initiate the device and an additional switch to inhibit a write operation of said read/write circuit.

6. The inventory control of claim 2 wherein said function setter includes a fourth command generating switch for generation of a successive read command, said control logic circuit operable in response to the successive read command stored in said function register to increase by one the contents of said code register counter and, in response to the coincidence signal from said coincidence circuit, the output of said read/write circuit being coupled to the input of said I/O register.

7. The inventory control device of claim 2 including further a manual switch which when actuated prevents the instruction to effect write operation from said control logic circuit from reaching said read/write circuit.