Systems and methods for labeling consumer items with unique identifiers

• US 9,990,605 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2017
• Issued: 06/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal Mart Stores Inc (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Harcar, Mustafa A., Rizkallah, Andrew J., Bozik, Olivia H., Rogers, Bryan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Labaze, Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US15/490,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20170300854A1
• Time in Patent Office: 413 Days
• Field of Search: 235385, 235375, 235487, 705 1428, 705 28
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06103 the marking being embedded in a human recognizable image, e.g. a company logo with an embedded two-dimensional code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10762 Relative movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

In some embodiments, methods of tracking uniquely labeled products are provided. An item representing one unit of a consumer product may be labeled with a unique label via automatically generating a random identifier unique to the item, associating the randomly-generated identifier with the item in a record of an electronic database, creating a label comprising a substrate and the randomly-generated identifier, applying the label to the item, and tracking the item via obtaining the randomly-generated identifier from the label. Products labeled with unique identifiers via such methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating tracking, by retailers, of retail items labeled by the retailers with unique randomly-generated identifiers, the system comprising:

a plurality of retail items, each of the retail items being an individual unit of a consumer product and including;

a manufacturer label including a uniform product code indicating a manufacturer of the consumer product and a product code of the consumer product; and

a retailer label separate from the manufacturer label and comprising a substrate and a randomly-generated identifier unique to the individual unit of the consumer product, the randomly-generated identifier of each of the individual units of the consumer product being distinct from one another;

an inventory management database configured to associate the randomly-generated identifiers on the retailer labels with their respective individual units of the consumer product, wherein the randomly-generated identifiers on the retailer labels do not identify the individual units of the consumer products independent of the association of the randomly-generated identifiers with their respective individual units of the consumer products in the inventory management database; and

a computing device including a programmable processor and being programmed to obtain, in response to a scan of at least one retailer label of at least one of the individual units of the consumer product at a retailer facility by an electronic device, at least one of the randomly-generated identifiers associated with the scanned at least one retailer label from the inventory management database in order to uniquely identify the at least one of the individual units of the consumer product and to track at least one worker task associated with the at least one of the individual units of the consumer product associated in the inventory management database with the obtained at least one of the randomly-generated identifiers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the randomly-generated identifier does not represent the uniform product code associated with the consumer product, and wherein the retailer label does not include the uniform product code associated with the consumer product.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the randomly-generated identifier includes at least one of:

a plurality of alphanumeric characters, a barcode, a quick response (QR) code, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a date stamp, time stamp, origin stamp, and user stamp indicating a date when the retailer label was placed by a worker of the retailer on each of the individual units of the consumer product, a time when the retailer label was placed by the worker of the retailer on each of the individual units of the consumer product, a location where the label was placed by the worker of the retailer on each of the individual units of the consumer product, and the worker of the retailer who placed the retailer label on each of the individual units of the consumer product, respectively.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the randomly-generated identifier is configured to indicate whether an individual unit of the consumer product associated with the randomly-generated identifier in the inventory management database is new, refurbished, or used.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising brand indicia on the retailer label for each of the individual units of the consumer product, wherein the brand indicia includes at least one of manufacturer identification and retailer identification for each of the retail items, and wherein the brand indicia is at least one of incorporated into the randomly-generated identifier and visibly separate from the randomly-generated identifier.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising item-specific information associated with each of the individual units of the consumer product, the item-specific information including at least one of a present location of each of the individual units of the consumer product, a present status of each of the individual units of the consumer product, an expiration date of each of the individual units of the consumer product, an identification of a delivery vehicle used to transport each of the individual units of the consumer product, and an identification of a worker of the retailer who handled each of the individual units of the consumer product at a product distribution facility or the retailer facility.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the retailer label is configured such that the randomly-generated identifier is scanable at the retailer facility by a personal electronic device of a consumer and such that such that each of the retailer labels is detachable from a respective one of the individual units of the consumer product by the consumer.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the retailer label is configured such that a scan of the randomly-generated identifier by the personal electronic device of a consumer results in at least one of an addition of the respective one of the retailer items to a shopping cart of a consumer and an automatic reorder of the respective one of the individual units of the consumer product for the consumer.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the randomly-generated identifier corresponds in the inventory management database to at least one of consumer product identification code, a unique item code, and additional data associated with a respective one of the individual units of the consumer product.

11. A method of facilitating tracking, by retailers, of retail items labeled by the retailers with unique randomly-generated identifiers, the method comprising:

providing each of the retail items, each of the retail items being an individual unit of a consumer product, with;

a manufacturer label including a uniform product code indicating a manufacturer of the consumer product and a product code of the consumer product; and

a retailer label separate from the manufacturer label and including a substrate and a randomly-generated identifier unique to the individual unit of the consumer product, the randomly-generated identifier of each of the individual units of the consumer product being distinct from one another;

providing an inventory management database configured to associate the randomly-generated identifiers on the retailer labels with their respective individual units of the consumer product, wherein the randomly-generated identifiers on the retailer labels do not identify the individual units of the consumer products independent of the association of the randomly-generated identifiers with their respective individual units of the consumer product in the inventory management database;

providing a computing device including a programmable processor;

obtaining, via the computing device and in response to a scan of at least one retailer label of at least one of the individual units of the consumer product at a retailer facility by an electronic device, at least one of the randomly-generated identifiers associated with the scanned at least one retailer label from the inventory management database; and

uniquely identifying the at least one of the individual units of the consumer product and tracking at least one worker task associated with the at least one of the individual units of the consumer product associated in the inventory management database with the obtained at least one of the randomly-generated identifiers.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing step further includes generating the random identifier not representing the uniform product code associated with the consumer product, and wherein the generating step does not include generating the uniform product code associated with the consumer product represented by the retailer label.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing step further includes generating the random identifier including at least one of:

a plurality of alphanumeric characters, a barcode, a quick response (QR) code, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating at least one of a date stamp, time stamp, origin stamp, and user stamp on the retailer label indicating a date when the retailer label was placed by a worker of the retailer on each of the individual units of the consumer product, a time when the retailer label was placed by a worker of the retailer on each of the individual units of the consumer product, a location where the retailer label was placed by a worker of the retailer on each of the individual units of the consumer product, and the worker of the retailer who placed the retailer label on each of the individual units of the consumer product, respectively.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing step further includes generating the random identifier indicating whether an individual unit of the consumer product associated with the randomly-generated identifier in the inventory management database is new, refurbished, or used.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating brand indicia on the label for each of the individual units of the consumer product, wherein the brand indicia includes at least one of manufacturer identification and retailer identification, and further comprising at least one of incorporating the brand indicia into the randomly-generated identifier and generating the brand indicia on the retailer label in a location that is visibly separate from the randomly-generated identifier.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating item-specific information on the retailer label associated with each of the individual units of the consumer product, the item-specific information including at least one of a present location of each of the individual units of the consumer product, a present status of each of the individual units of the consumer product, an expiration date of each of the individual units of the consumer product, an identification of a delivery vehicle used to transport each of the individual units of the consumer product, and an identification of a worker of the retailer who handled each of the individual units of the consumer product at a product distribution facility or the retail sales facility.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing step further comprises generating the randomly-generated identifier that is scanable by a personal electronic device of a consumer, and wherein the providing step further comprises applying the retailer label to each of the individual units of the consumer product as a detachable label such that the retailer label is detachable from a respective one of the individual units of the consumer product by the consumer.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising, in response to a scan of the randomly-generated identifier on the retailer label of at least one of the individual units of the consumer product by the personal electronic device of a consumer, at least one of adding the at least one of the individual units of the consumer product to a shopping cart of a consumer and automatically reordering the at least one of the individual units of the consumer product for the consumer.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing step further includes generating the randomly-generated identifier corresponding in the inventory management database to at least one of consumer product identification code, a unique item code, and additional data associated with a respective one of the individual units of the consumer product.