Communication of managing vending operations based on wireless data

• US 8,126,764 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sierra Wireless America Incorporated (Sierra Wireless Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Numerex Corporation (Sierra Wireless Incorporated)
• Inventors: Murray, Tomás, Jansson, Edward R., Comer, Edward Irby, Nicolaides, Alexander, Peralta, Juan Manuel Garcia
• Primary Examiner(s): Loftis, Johnna
• Application Number:
  US12/985,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20110106585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 418 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.29, 705/7.34
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/025 Indirect paging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A system coupled to one or more vending machines, such as soft drink vending machines, via a wireless data link can acquire operational vending data, for example sales data, hardware status, and product temperature. The system can compile data from multiple vending machines dispersed across a geographic area such as a city or state. The system can include software that refines the vending operations of one or more such vending machines based on analysis of acquired data, taking into consideration other information such as market, business, seasonal, or environmental factors. Refining vending operations can include adjusting product offerings, relocating vending machines, replicating favorable conditions, and addressing unexpected sales variations.

Claims

1. A method for operating a vending machine comprising the steps of:

monitoring sales of each of a plurality of product offerings for the vending machine by receiving sales information from the vending machine transmitted via a wireless network;

analyzing the received sales information with a computer and identifying an underperforming product offering in the plurality of product offerings;

responsive to the analyzing step, replacing the underperforming product offering with another one of the product offerings;

determining that the vending machine exhibits lower sales performance than other vending machines in response to comparing the sales information of the vending machine to sales information of other vending machines transmitted via the wireless network;

identifying a second vending machine in the other vending machines as an outperforming vending machine based on the transmitted sales information, wherein the second vending machine is located at a site;

conducting computer analysis to reveal characteristics of the site; and

conducting computer analysis to identify a new site for the vending machine that has similar characteristics to the revealed characteristics of the site of the second vending machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the sales information comprises receiving data transmitted in a control channel of a cellular communication system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing the received sales information comprises forecasting sales for each product offering in the plurality of product offerings based on the received sales information;

and the identifying step comprises identifying an underperforming product offering based on the forecast sales.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of analyzing the received sales information comprises performing statistical analysis; and

the replacing step comprises replacing the underperforming product offering with the another product offering if the statistical analysis indicates that the underperforming product offering exhibits a statistically significant level of underperformance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

another vending machine is linked to the data processing system via the wireless network;

the method further comprises the steps of;

analyzing product offerings in the another vending machine based on received sales information transmitted from the another vending machine via the wireless network; and

identifying a product offering providing desirable sales performance in the another vending machine; and

the replacing step comprises replacing the underperforming product offering with the identified product offering providing desirable sales performance in the another vending machine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the underperforming product offering comprises determining if any product offering in the plurality of product offerings is in a marketing test.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the underperforming product offering comprises determining if sales performance of at least one product offering in the plurality of product offerings is expected to improve.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

defining a stocking level for one product offering in the plurality of product offerings; and

adjusting the stocking level based on analyzing the received sales information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein adjusting the stocking level comprises increasing the stocking level if the one product offering exhibits higher inventory depletion than at least one other product offering in the plurality of product offerings.

10. A method, for operating a vending machine in a plurality of vending, machines, comprising the steps of:

receiving sales information transmitted from the plurality of vending machines over a wireless network;

identifying the vending machine as underperforming and another vending machine as overperforming responsive to conducting computer analysis of the transmitted sales information;

identifying a factor of a location of the another vending machine using computer analysis; and

selecting a new location for the vending machine according to the identified factor using computer analysis of candidate sites.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of vending machines comprises the another vending machine.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the factor comprises proximity of the location to a sports arena or a park.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the factor comprises a customer demographic pattern.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of responsive to identifying an underperforming product in the vending machine based on the received sales information, replacing the underperforming product with another product.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the selecting step comprises identifying locations that are underserved by current vending machine operations but have characteristics deemed to be conducive to profit generation.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

moving the vending machine to the new location; and

operating the moved vending machine at the new location.

17. A method, for operating a vending machine that a plurality of vending machines comprises, comprising the steps of:

tracking sales of the plurality of vending machines based on data transmitted from the plurality of vending machines over a wireless network;

based on computer analysis of the tracked sales, determining that the vending machine exhibits a statistically significant pattern of lower sales performance than other vending machines in the plurality of vending machines;

based on computer analysis of the tracked sales, determining that a sub-plurality of vending machines in the plurality of vending machines consistently outperform other vending machines in the plurality of vending machines;

based on computer analysis, identifying characteristics of the sub-plurality of vending machines that consistently outperform other vending machines in the plurality of vending machines; and

defining a change in operations of the vending machine so the vending machine adopts the identified characteristics of the sub-plurality of vending machines that consistently outperform other vending machines in the plurality of vending machines.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein defining the change in operations of the vending machine comprises identifying a new site for the vending machine.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

relocating the vending machine to the new site; and

operating the relocated vending machine.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of identifying characteristics of the sub-plurality of vending machines that consistently outperform other vending machines in the plurality of vending machines comprises identifying characteristics of site locations of the sub-plurality of vending machines, and

wherein the step of defining the change in operations of the vending machine comprises identifying a new location for the vending machine according to the identified characteristics of the site locations.