Vending machine service scheduling
First Claim
1. A system-implemented method for scheduling service for a plurality of vending machines to select those vending machines which are to be serviced in a predefined service period, the system comprising hardwired and/or software programmed circuitry, the method comprising operations of:
- (1) determining, by said circuitry, a service priority indicator of each of a plurality of vending machines;
(2) determining, by said circuitry, a scheduling priority for each of a plurality of subroutes, each subroute being a set of one or more vending machines, at least one of the subroutes comprising a plurality of vending machines separated by driving times, wherein determining the scheduling priority of each subroute comprises adding, by said circuitry, the service priority indicators of the subroute'"'"'s plural vending machines and determining the scheduling priority as a function of a sum of the service priority indicators of the subroute'"'"'s vending machines;
(3) selecting, by said circuitry, a subroute S1 for service by using the scheduling priorities, the subroute S1 being one of the plurality of the subroutes;
(4) selecting, by said circuitry, one or more vending machines for service in the subroute S1 in said service period;
wherein each vending machine which is not selected is deselected for service in said service period.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are provided for calculating vending machines'"'"' service priorities and scheduling the vending machines for service taking into account a number of factors and thresholds (520). In some embodiments, the machines (110) are subdivided into subroutes (320). Each subroute has one or more machines, and at least one subroute has a plurality of machines. The vending machine service schedule is generated by selecting the highest priority subroute (410) and selecting the machines in that subroute (420). Other subroutes can be selected (430, 440) if there is time left in the Service Period.
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Citations
69 Claims
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1. A system-implemented method for scheduling service for a plurality of vending machines to select those vending machines which are to be serviced in a predefined service period, the system comprising hardwired and/or software programmed circuitry, the method comprising operations of:
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(1) determining, by said circuitry, a service priority indicator of each of a plurality of vending machines; (2) determining, by said circuitry, a scheduling priority for each of a plurality of subroutes, each subroute being a set of one or more vending machines, at least one of the subroutes comprising a plurality of vending machines separated by driving times, wherein determining the scheduling priority of each subroute comprises adding, by said circuitry, the service priority indicators of the subroute'"'"'s plural vending machines and determining the scheduling priority as a function of a sum of the service priority indicators of the subroute'"'"'s vending machines; (3) selecting, by said circuitry, a subroute S1 for service by using the scheduling priorities, the subroute S1 being one of the plurality of the subroutes; (4) selecting, by said circuitry, one or more vending machines for service in the subroute S1 in said service period; wherein each vending machine which is not selected is deselected for service in said service period. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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21. A system-implemented method for selecting vending machines for being serviced in a predefined service period, the system comprising hardwired and/or software programmed circuitry, the method comprising operations of:
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(1) determining, by said circuitry, a scheduling priority for each of a plurality of predefined subroutes, each subroute being a set of one or more vending machines, at least one of the subroutes comprising a plurality of vending machines separated by driving times, wherein for at least the one of the subroutes comprising the plurality of vending machines, the scheduling priority incorporates information on states of more than one of the subroute'"'"'s vending machines; (2) said circuitry using the scheduling priorities to select one of the predefined subroutes for being serviced in the service period; (3) said circuitry selecting one or more vending machines in the subroute selected in the operation (2) for being serviced in the service period; (4) said circuitry repeating the operations (2), (3) as long as a service schedule for the service period is not full and there is a non-selected vending machine selectable for service in the operation (3), to select a new subroute in each iteration of the operation (2); wherein at least two different iterations of the operation (2) result in selections of subroutes with respective two different scheduling priorities, and wherein less than all of the vending machines are selected by said circuitry for being serviced in the service period. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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Specification