Inventory management for postage supplies

• US 7,987,119 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2004
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quadient Technologies France
• Original Assignee: Neopost Technologies S.A. (Quadient SA)
• Inventors: Minnocci, Lodovico
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Crawley; Talia
• Application Number:
  US10/768,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20050171869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,734 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28, 705/401, 705/400, 705/402, 705/404, 705/60, 705/410, 235/375, 235/376, 209/3.3, 209/583, 209/584, 209/509, 209/552, 209/576, 209/577, 377/1, 377/6, 377/13, 377/14, 377/15, 377/16, 700/90, 700/213, 700/214, 700/215, 700/219, 707/104.1, 60/28, 60/60, 604/04, 604/10
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00556 Ensuring quality of print

Abstract

A mailpiece inventory management system. The system includes a franking machine, a mailpiece identification system coupled to the franking machine and a administration system adapted to communicate with the franking machine. There can be at least one mailpiece counter in the franking machine with each mailpiece counter associated with a type of mailpiece and incremented when a particular type of mailpiece as identified by the mailpiece identification system is franked by the franking machine.

Claims

1. A mailpiece inventory management system comprising:

a franking machine;

a database of mailpiece types;

a mailpiece identification system coupled to the franking machine, said mailpiece identification system comprising a scanner adapted to identify the type of each mailpiece franked by the franking machine from among a plurality of mailpiece types defined by the database of mailpiece types;

a plurality of mailpiece counters in the franking machine, each mailpiece counter associated with a type of mailpiece and incremented when a particular type of mailpiece as identified by the mailpiece identification system is franked by the franking machine; and

a notification system adapted to notify a user of the system when a level of a first type of mailpiece inventory is below a predetermined level, based upon a comparison of one of the plurality of mailpiece counters to the predetermined level for the first type of mailpiece stored in the administration system,

said one of the plurality of mailpiece counters being assigned to the first type of mailpiece and incremented when the first type of mailpiece as identified by the mailpiece identification system is franked by the franking machine.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the scanner comprises a bar-code scanner and each mailpiece in an inventory of mailpiece includes a bar-code identifying a type of the mailpiece.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the scanner is an optical scanner adapted to identify a particular type of mailpiece based on at least one dimension of the mailpiece.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the mail identification system comprises a menu display on the franking machine that allows a user to input a type of mailpiece being franked into the franking machine.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the database of mailpiece types further includes mailpiece type entries for a plurality of users, and each mailpiece type entry for a specific user includes a predetermined level of inventory of each mailpiece type for the specific user.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the notification system further comprises a link to at least one mailpiece supplier, and can notify the at least one mailpiece supplier of a need for more inventory of the particular type of mailpiece.

7. A method of maintaining mailpiece inventory in a franking system comprising:

storing a plurality of mailpiece types in a database;

scanning a plurality of mailpieces to be franked to determine a type of each mailpiece from among the plurality of mailpiece types;

when each mailpiece is franked, incrementing one of a plurality of counters in the franking machine, each counter in the franking machine being associated with one of the plurality of mailpiece types, to reflect the franking of the determined type of mailpiece;

when each mailpiece is franked, comparing a number of the determined type of mailpiece stored in the counter for the type of mailpiece franked with a predetermined inventory level for the type of mailpiece to determine if more inventory of the type of mailpiece is needed; and

notifying a user when a level of a first type of mailpiece inventory is below the predetermined inventory level, based upon the comparison.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising automatically notifying a supplier of the type of mailpiece to provide a new supply of the type of mailpiece if the number of the type of mailpiece franked exceeds the predetermined inventory level.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising determining the type of mailpiece to be franked by scanning a barcode on the type of mailpiece just prior to franking.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising determining the type of mailpiece to be franked by optical recognition of at least one dimension of the type of mailpiece just prior to franking of the type of mailpiece.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

determining that a number of a type of mailpieces franked exceeds a predetermined inventory level;

generating an email notification to a user of the franking system that an inventory level for the type of mailpiece is below the predetermined inventory level;

generating an email notification to a supplier of the type of mailpiece to deliver a new inventory of the type of mailpiece to the user; and

delivering the new inventory of the type of mailpiece to the user.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, subsequent to a restocking of inventory of the type of mailpiece, receiving a new inventory level of the type of mailpiece and using the new inventory level to reset the counter.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a franking machine;

a medium identifier in communication with a database of medium types and coupled to the franking machine, the medium identifier adapted to receive an item to be franked by the franking machine, and to identify the medium type of the item to be franked from among a plurality of medium types defined by the database of medium types, based on information regarding the item to be franked;

a plurality of counters coupled to the medium identifier, each of the plurality of counters associated with a different medium type than each of the other of the plurality of counters, and storing a value that indicates the number of items of the corresponding medium type franked by the franking machine and identified by the medium identifier; and

a user interface coupled to the counter, the user interface adapted to provide a notification to a user of the apparatus when the value of the counter reaches a predetermined level corresponding to an inventory level of the medium type.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the information regarding the item to be franked is a physical dimension of the item to be franked as measured by the medium identifier.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the information regarding the item to be franked is obtained from an indicia printed on the item.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the information regarding the item to be franked is the medium type of the item as provided by the user.