Inventory taking system

• US 20080106377A1
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RFID Mexico SA de CV
• Original Assignee: RFID Mexico SA de CV
• Inventors: Ramos Elizondo, Rafael Guillermo, Matus, Jose Adalberto Teran, Flores, Eduardo Ruiz Esparza
• Granted Patent: US 8,022,809 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.92
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system which is able to take inventory of products stored in high rise racks and immediately provide the inventory information to an information system for immediate processing and which makes use of remote electronic identification means for each product, box, etc. and each row of a correspondent rack, thus allowing the system to read great amounts of information at once.

Claims

1. An inventory taking system for using in warehouses having a plurality of products stored in a correspondent storing position, wherein the inventory taking system comprising:

a plurality of remote electronic identification means for each product;

at least one inventory taking device, obtaining information from the plurality of remote electronic identification means and having wireless information sending means;

an electronic information and control system having wireless information receiving means, receiving information from the inventory taking device for its processing and use.

2. An inventory taking system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the remote electronic identification means comprise RFID tags including information about the storing position of a product.

3. An inventory taking system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each storing position is located in a rack having one or more vertical rows and one or more horizontal rows forming one or more cells having a front and a bottom and wherein the plurality of remote electronic identification further comprising:

a plurality of rfid tags for each cell of a corresponding rack, each having information such as number of rack, position of the cell, product capacity and current number of stored products;

a plurality of rfid tags for each product, each having information such as product information and location of the product on the rack.

4. An inventory taking system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electronic information and control system further including wireless control information sending means, for controlling the one or more inventory taking devices.

5. An inventory taking system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each inventory taking device including displacement means.

6. An inventory taking system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each inventory taking device, comprising:

at least one remote electronic identification means reading means;

displacement means for the inventory taking device;

control means for controlling the components of the inventory taking device receiving information from the remote identification means and for sending said information to the electronic information and control system; and

electronic information transmission means connected to the control means, having wireless information transmission means, receiving the information obtained by the control means and wireless sending said information to the electronic information and control system.

7. An inventory taking system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each inventory taking device, comprising:

at least one remote electronic identification means reading means;

displacement means for the inventory taking device;

control means for controlling the components of the inventory taking device receiving information from the remote identification means and for sending said information to the electronic information and control system; and

electronic information transmission means connected to the control means, having wireless information transmission means, receiving the information obtained by the control means and wireless sending said information to the electronic information and control system; and

wherein the inventory taking device moves near the products and obtaining information from the remote identification means of each product including information about its storing position and wireless sending said information to the electronic information and control system.

8. An inventory taking system for using in warehouses having a plurality of racks each having a plurality of rows which may be vertically divided forming cells each including a front and a bottom corresponding to the width of the rack, wherein the products always move from the bottom to the front comprising:

a plurality of rfid tags for each cell of a corresponding rack, each having information such as number of rack, position of the cell, product capacity and current number of stored products;

a plurality of rfid tags for each product, each having information such as product information and location of the product on the rack;

at least one inventory taking device, each comprising;

a plurality of RFID tag reading means, each vertically located along a vertical support and corresponding to the height of each row of the plurality of racks, wherein the number of RFID tags reading means corresponds to the maximum number of rows of the plurality of racks;

moving means for the inventory taking device, comprising a set of wheels drive by an electric motor;

control means, receiving information from the RFID tag reading means and sending said information to a remote information system trough electronic information transmission means having wireless information transmission and reception means, and controlling the moving means for guiding the inventory taking device trough a predetermined path, and further wireless receiving signals from the remote information system for starting and stopping an inventory taking operation;

an electronic information and control system having wireless information receiving and sending means, receiving information from the wireless information transmission means of each inventory taking device for its processing and use and sending a plurality of signals to each inventory taking device for starting or stopping an inventory taking operation.

wherein the electronic information and control system sends a start signal to at least one of the plurality of inventory taking devices and when the inventory taken devices receives the start signal, the control means of each inventory taking device sends a signal to the moving means in order to start moving the device along a predetermined path, or in other embodiments of the invention, its movement may be remotely controlled by the electronic information and control system in accordance with several predetermined paths or routes, and wherein the control means also activate the RFID tag reading means 7 which will start to read an RFID tag once it is sufficiently close to one.

9. A method for taking inventory in warehouses having one or more product storing positions for storing a plurality of products each product having remote identification means, wherein the method comprising:

passing a remote identification means reading device near each product storing position;

obtaining information from the remote identification means of a product of each storing position including information about its storing position; and

wireless sending said information to a remote electronic information and control system.

10. A method for taking inventory as claimed in claim 9, wherein the warehouse has a plurality of racks each having a plurality of rows which may be vertically divided forming cells for storing a plurality of products, each including a front and a bottom corresponding to the width of the rack, wherein each cell having an RFID tag including information such as number of rack, position of the cell, product capacity and current number of stored products, wherein each product including an RFID tag having information such as product information and location of the product on the rack and wherein the products always move from the bottom to the front, the method further comprising:

passing an RFID tag reader in front of a rack;

simultaneously reading the RFID tag of each cell for obtaining information such as number of rack, position of the cell, product capacity and current number of stored products and RFID tags of the products for obtaining information such as product information and location of the product on the rack; and

wireless sending the information of each cell and product to a remote information and control system, for its processing and use.