Delivery service management system

• US 5,541,394 A
• Filed: 05/22/1995
• Issued: 07/30/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Ogawa, Yoshiki, Suzuki, Hiromasa, Kouchi, Toshihito, Honma, Naoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajec, Donald T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Thien Minh
• Application Number:
  US08/446,427
• Time in Patent Office: 435 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/385, 235/384, 235/383, 364/401, 364/408, 364/470, 364/478
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

A delivery service management system utilizes a two-dimensional bar code having key information for specifying the source of a material and content information of this material and attached in a delivery service, a two-dimensional bar code having key information for specifying the source of an item obtained by processing the material and content information of the item and attached in a delivery service, and a two-dimensional bar code having key information for specifying a seller of the item and content information describing a selling condition of the item and attached in a delivery service. Every time a delivery service has occurred between the material system, the processing system, and the selling system, the key information and the content information are received from the two-dimensional bar code to a database. Delivery service information associated with a given source is fed back to the given source represented by the key information from a set of pieces of received information.

Claims

1. A system for managing delivery among suppliers of materials, manufacturers of products using the materials, sellers of goods corresponding to or being same as the products, and customers of the goods, said system comprising:

first information holding media each attached to the material supplied from any of the suppliers to any of the manufacturers, each said first information holding medium holding key information for specifying a specific supplier of the material to which the first information holding medium has been attached, and optionally holding content information for describing a content of this material;

second information holding media each attached to the product supplied from any of the manufacturers to any of the sellers, each said second information holding medium holding key information for specifying a specific manufacturer of the product to which the second information holding medium has been attached, and optionally holding content information for describing a content of this product;

third information holding media each attached to the goods delivered from any of the sellers to any of customers, each said third information holding medium holding key information for specifying a specific seller of the goods to which the third information holding medium has been attached, and optionally holding content information for describing a content of this goods;

means for gathering the key information and the content information, if exists, from any of the first, second, and third information holding media, each time when the delivery of the material having the first information holding medium has occurred between any of the suppliers and any of the manufacturers, each time when the delivery of the product having the second information holding medium has occurred between any of the manufacturers and any of the sellers, and each time when the delivery of the goods having the third information holding medium has occurred between any of the sellers and any of the customers, so as to provide an integrated group of the gathered information with respect to the key and content information; and

means for preparing total or statistics data, relating to any of the materials, products, and goods, from the gathered information in the integrated group provided by said gathering means.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said information holding medium includes a two-dimensional bar code.

2. A delivery service management system for managing delivery or distribution of various things, said delivery service management system comprising:

a first information holding medium which is attached to a thing before the thing is delivered from a first place to a second place, first information holding medium holding key information indicating a source of the thing and content information describing a content of the thing, the content of the thing indicating at least parts which comprise the thing;

means for gathering the key information and the content information of the thing from first information holding medium attached to the thing when the thing is delivered from the first place to the second place;

means for obtaining specific information with respect to the thing from the content information gathered by gathering means, for accumulating specific content information on the content of the thing being delivered from the first place to the second place, and for accumulating content information of other previously delivered things;

means for feeding the specific and accumulated information, obtained by said obtaining means, back to the source of the thing relating to the specific information;

a second information holding medium which is attached to a product of the thing before the product is delivered from the second place to a third place, second information holding medium holding second key information indicating a second source of the product and second content information describing a content of the product;

supplying means, serving as said source of the thing and located at said first place, for supplying the thing;

processing means, serving as said second source of the product and located at said second place, for processing the thing supplied by said supplying means to produce the product of said thing;

second gathering means for gathering the second key information and the second content information of the product from second information holding medium attached to the product when the product is delivered from the second place to the third place; and

means for obtaining total or statistics data with respect to the product from the key information held by first and second information holding medium.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

first writing means for writing, at supplying means, the key information and the content information of the thing to the information holding medium to be attached to the thing; and

second writing means for writing, at said processing means, the key information and the content information of the thing as well as the key information and the content information of the product to the second information holding medium to be attached to the product.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein said information holding medium includes a two-dimensional bar code.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said two-dimensional bar code includes:

a user area for storing the key information and the content information; and

a protect area for protecting specific information stored in the user area from being known by an unauthorized party.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the key information held by said first information holding medium includes a code of raw material of the product or a manufacturer code of the raw material, and the content information held by said first information holding medium includes information with respect to a manner of producing the raw material or a construction of the raw material; and

the key information held by said second information holding medium includes a code of the product or a manufacturer code of the product, and the content information held by said second information holding medium includes information with respect to a manner of producing the product or a construction of the product.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the product includes fabric, cloth or a dress, and the raw material includes threads.

9. A method of managing a delivery service wherein a first information holding medium is attached to a thing which is delivered from a first place to a second place, and holds key information indicating a source of the thing and content information describing a content of the thing the content of the thing indicating at least parts which comprise the thing, said method comprising the steps of:

gathering key information and content information of the thing from said first information holding medium when the thing is delivered from the first place to the second place;

obtaining specific information with respect to the thing from the gathered content information and accumulating specific content information on the content of the thing being delivered from the first place to the second place, and for accumulating content information of other previously delivered things;

feeding the obtained specific and accumulated information back to the source of the thing based on the key information;

wherein a second information holding medium is attached to a product of the thing delivered from the second place to a third place, and holds key information indicating a second source of the product and content information describing a content of the product,

gathering the key information and the content information of the product from said second information holding medium when the product is delivered from the second place to the third place;

arranging the gathered content information based on a prescribed item to provide divided information pieces relating to each other;

feeding the divided information pieces back to a member authorized to access the divided information pieces; and

obtaining total or statistics data with respect to the product from the key information held by said first and second information holding medium.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said information holding medium holds a two-dimensional bar code thereon, from which key information and content information are gathered in said gathering step.

11. A delivery service management system for managing delivery or distribution of various things, delivery service management system comprising:

a first information holding medium which is attached to a thing before the thing is delivered from a first place to a second place, first information holding medium holding key information indicating a source of the thing and content information describing a content of the thing, the content of the thing indicating at least parts which comprise the thing;

information management means for gathering key information and content information of the thing from first information holding medium when the thing is delivered from the first place to the second place;

for obtaining specific information with respect to the thing from the gathered content information for accumulating specific content information on the content of the thing being delivered from the first place to the second place, and for accumulating content information of other previously delivered things; and

for enabling feeding of the obtained specific and accumulated information back to the source of the thing based on the key information;

a second information holding medium which is attached to a product of the thing before the product is delivered from the second place to a third place, second information holding medium holding second key information indicating a second source of the product and second content information describing a content of the product; and

means for obtaining total or statistics data with respect to the product from the key information held by said first and second information holding medium.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said information holding medium includes:

means for holding the key information and the content information; and

means for protecting information held by the holding means from being known by an unauthorized party.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said information holding means includes a two-dimensional bar code.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said second information medium includes a two-dimensional bar code.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein said second information holding medium includes:

means for holding the second key information and the second content information; and

means for protecting specific information held by the holding means from being known by an unauthorized party.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said information management means further includes:

means for reading from said information holding medium the key information and the content information of thing; and

means for writing to second information holding medium at least the key information of thing as well as the second key information and the second content information of said product, so that information of the thing and the product is accumulated in second information holding medium.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein information management means further includes:

first gathering means for gathering the key information and the content information of the thing from information holding medium attached to the thing when the thing is delivered from the first place to the second place;

second gathering means for gathering the key information and the content information of the product from second information holding medium attached to the product when the product is delivered from the second place to the third place;

means for arranging the content information gathered by said first and second gathering means based on a prescribed item to provide divided information pieces relating to each other; and

means for feeding the divided information pieces, provided by said arranging means, back to a member of the delivery service management system authorized to access the divided information pieces.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein said information management means further includes:

means for gathering the key information and the content information of the thing from information holding medium attached to the thing when the thing is delivered from the first place to the second place;

means for obtaining specific information with respect to the thing from the content information gathered by gathering means; and

means for feeding the specific information, obtained by obtaining means, back to the source of the thing relating to the specific information.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein said information holding medium comprises a two-dimensional bar code including:

an area for holding a unity code which is specific to the delivery service management system; and

a user area for holding the key information and the content information of each thing to be delivered.

20. A delivery service management system for managing delivery or distribution of various things, said delivery service management system comprising:

a first information holding medium which is attached to a thing before the thing is delivered from a first place to a second place, said first information holding medium holding key information indicating a source of the thing and content information describing a content of the thing;

means for gathering the key information and the content information of the thing from first information holding medium attached to the thing when the thing is delivered from the first place to the second place;

means for obtaining specific information with respect to the thing from the content information gathered by said gathering means, for accumulating specific content information on the content of the thing being delivered from the first place to the second place, and for accumulating content information of other previously delivered things;

means for feeding the specific and accumulated information, obtained by said obtaining means, back to the source of the thing relating to the specific information;

a second information holding medium which is attached to a product of the thing before the product is delivered from the second place to a third place, said second information holding medium holding second key information indicating a second source of the product and second content information describing a content of the product;

supplying means, serving as said source of the thing and located at first place, for supplying the thing;

processing means, serving as second source of the product and located at second place, for processing the thing supplied by supplying means to produce the product of said thing;

second gathering means for gathering the second key information and the second content information of the product from said second information holding medium attached to the product when the product is delivered from the second place to the third place; and

means for obtaining total or statistics data with respect to the product from the key information held by first and second information holding medium.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein said first information holding medium includes a two-dimensional bar code.