Systems and methods for managing an inventory

• US 20070102512A1
• Filed: 11/09/2005
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Invatron Systems Corp.
• Original Assignee: Invatron Systems Corp.
• Inventors: Doerwald, Axel
• Granted Patent: US 7,464,872 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Effectively re-stocking, re-organizing and removing items on display may reduce instances of dissatisfaction amongst shoppers/patrons and also may improve the profitability of a store. However, previous methods for managing displays of products that have limited shelf lives are sometimes time consuming and prone to errors. In contrast, some embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for managing the inventory of random weight items in such a way as to reduce the potential that consumers will purchase expired or past-date portions of items offered for sale.

Claims

1. A method of packaging and labelling a plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item by modifying a product label code standard, the method comprising:

assigning an at least one digit batch number to a respective plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item;

creating a plurality of product label codes in accordance with a product label code standard wherein each of the product label codes corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of portions of the product sold as a random weight item; and

wherein the step of creating the plurality of product label codes comprises modifying each product label code by replacing a selected field with the at least one digit batch number that is not provided by the product label code standard.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the product label code standard comprises a country code field occupying at least one digit;

and the country code field is the selected field such that the step of creating the plurality of product label codes further comprises modifying each product label code by replacing the country code field with the at least one digit batch number.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the product label code standard is EAN/UCC-14 specified standard 14-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) code-structure that includes a two-digit country code field, a one digit item type field containing a value for indicating a random weight item, an item code field having five digits, a one digit price check field, a four digit price (value) field, and a one digit overall check field, wherein each of the plurality of 14-digit product label codes corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of portions of the product sold as a random weight item;

and

the country code field is the selected field such that the step of creating the plurality of product label codes comprises modifying each product label code by replacing the respective two digit country code field in each of the plurality of 14-digit product label codes with the assigned at least one digit batch number representing the respective plurality of portions of the product sold as a random weight item.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the batch number includes only one digit for storing a value representative of the particular plurality of portions of the product sold as a random weight item.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the other digit of the replaced two-digit country code field is a dummy value.

6. A method according to claim 2, wherein the batch number field includes two digits for storing a value representative of the particular plurality of portions of the product sold as a random weight item.

7. A system for managing an inventory of portions of at least one product sold as a random weight item comprising:

a weigh scale manager connectable to at least one electronic weigh scale for receiving portion information about a plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item; and

an inventory database for storing at least one record containing portion information about a plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item, and wherein the inventory database is connectable to the weigh scale manager to receive the portion information.

8. A system according to claim 7, further comprising a Point-Of-Sale (POS) controller connectable to the inventory database for scheduling queries of the inventory database to retrieve portion information.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein the portion information comprises an item code, the number of portions in the plurality of portions, an effective date for each of the plurality of portions, and a batch number value.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the batch number value is representative of a corresponding plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item.

11. A system according to claim 9, wherein the effective date comprises at least one of an expiry date, a best before date, a sell by date, a use by date and the like.

12. A system according to claim 9, wherein the portion information further comprises a price value for each of the plurality of portions.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein the inventory database is searchable by at least the item code and batch number to identify the corresponding effective date.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the inventory database is also searchable by the price value of a particular portion to identify the corresponding effective date of the particular portion.

15. A system according to claim 8, wherein the POS controller is connectable to at least one POS device capable of scanning a 14-digit code-structure for random weight items, interchangeable with the EAN/UCC-14 specified standard 14-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) code-structure, wherein the difference comprises a batch number field provided in place of a two digit country code field, the batch number field having at least one digit for storing a batch number value representative of a particular plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item.

16. A system according to claim 15, wherein the POS device is located at a cashier counter in a retail store.

17. A system according to claim 15, wherein the POS device is a handheld price scanner.

18. A system according to claim 15, wherein the batch number field includes only one digit for storing a batch number value representative of the particular plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item.

19. A system according to claim 18, wherein the other digit of the replaced two-digit country code field is a dummy value.

20. A system according to claim 18, wherein the batch number field includes two digits for storing a batch number value representative of the particular plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item.

21. A method for checking an effective date of a random weight item from information in a product label code for random weight items, the product label code having respective fields for storing an item code value and a batch number value, wherein the batch number value is representative of a particular plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item, the method comprising:

scanning the product label code to retrieve an item code value and a batch number value; and

polling an inventory database using the item code value and batch number value to retrieve an effective date.

22. A method according to claim 21, wherein the product label code also has a field for storing an item type value indicating that the scanned product is a portion of a product sold as a random weight item.

23. A method according to claim 22, wherein other than the respective field for storing the batch number value, the product label code is interchangeable with the EAN/UCC-14 specified standard 14-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) structure with the exception of the batch number field.

24. A method according to claim 23, further comprising:

determining whether or not a scanned item is a portion of a product sold as a random weight item from the product label code on the item;

if the scanned item is not a random weight item, processing the scanned information as though the item is not a portion of a product sold as a random weight item; and

attentively,

processing the scanned item as though the item is a portion of a product sold as a random weight item.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein processing a scanned item as though the item is a portion of a product sold as a random weight item includes polling the inventory database using the item code value and batch number value to retrieve an effective date.

26. A method according to claim 21, wherein the product label code also has a field for storing a price value and the method further comprises identifying an effective date in the inventory database as a function of the item code value, batch number value and the price value.

27. A method according to claim 21, wherein the effective date includes at least one of an expiry date, a best before date, a sell by date, a use by date and the like.

28. A method according to claim 21, further comprising:

determining whether or not the current date is close to or past the effective date; and

if the current date is close to or past the current date, providing a signal indicating the proximity of the current date to the effective date.

29. A system for managing an inventory of portions of at least one product sold as a random weight item comprising:

a central inventory database for storing portion information about a plurality of portions of a product sold as a random weight item distributed to at least one retail outlet; and

a local inventory database, connectable to the central inventory database, for receiving and storing at least a portion of the information stored on the central inventory database.