JPH0750520B2 - Terminal control device for POS system - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a terminal control device in a POS system such as a department store, a supermarket, a chain store, or another store.

In the distribution industry such as supermarkets, a POS system (point-of-sale information management system) consisting of multiple POS terminal devices and terminal control devices has been introduced, and sales information (POS information) collected from POS terminal devices is Sales of
It is used for inventory or product management such as ordering.

In the distribution industry in recent years, consumer needs are diversifying and competition is intensifying.Therefore, we carry out a product lineup that responds to the needs of consumers in a finely tuned manner, quickly grasping hot-selling products and dead-selling products, and rotating products. There is a pressing need to improve rates even more than ever.

Therefore, there is a demand for a POS system that can effectively utilize POS information to meet those demands and further utilize it in marketing and management strategies.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional POS system 51.

The POS system 51 includes a plurality of POS terminal devices 2 and a terminal control device.
53, a communication control device 54, and a communication line 5.

The POS terminal device 2 includes an optical reading device 6 that reads a product code by scanning a code mark attached to the product, and an electronic cash register (ECR) 7.

The terminal control device 53 includes a store controller 58, a CRT display unit 15 connected to the store controller 58, and a printer 1.
It consists of 6 and keyboard 17.

The store controller 58 is made up of hardware such as a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device such as a magnetic disk and a floppy disk, a control device, and a computing device, in which the daily data sent from each POS terminal device 2 is stored. Sales information file 9 that stores the POS information of each product, product master file 10 that stores the attribute information of each product, item-based management file 60 that extracts the necessary data related to the product from these files and edits it item by item, each file A data processing unit 61 is formed to read / write data and perform various data processing to create output information.

This terminal control device 53 responds to an inquiry about the price of a single item from the POS terminal device 2 by using the PLU in the product master file 10.
(Price Lookup) Look up the table and respond.
Further, the terminal control device 53 updates the contents of the sales information file 9 based on the POS information sent from the POS terminal device 2, and updates the product master file 10 and the item-based management file 60 in a timely manner.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional item-based management file 60.

This item-based management file 60 has a data area for storing data relating to individual products (strictly speaking, product items) for each product for three years.
Based on the information, data is written in the data column of the corresponding month (or day) in the data area 60a of this year. At the end of the fiscal year, the data stored in the data area 60b of the previous year is shifted to the data area 60c of the year before last, and the data stored in the data area 60a of this year is shifted to the data area 60b of the previous year. Is done.

In such a POS system 51, data processing results such as various tables and graphs are displayed on the screen of the CRT display unit 15 or printed by the printer 16 in response to the operation of the keyboard 17 by the operator.

An operator views a table, a graph, or the like, or analyzes the table or graph, and manages products such as sales, inventory, or orders.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Now, for example, products handled in supermarkets include seasonal products such as matsutake mushrooms, watermelons, dolls, New Year's equipment, ski equipment, etc., in which supply or demand is limited to a specific period of the year.

In such seasonal products, there are many days, weeks, or months when sales or purchases are zero, and sales data or purchase data of the products is not generated during the period.

For example, taking the above-mentioned "matsutake mushroom" as an example, the sale period of this product is generally three months from September to November. In other words, sales data actually occurs during these three months, but practically does not occur outside this period.

Therefore, “matsutake” in the item-based management file 60 described above
The data areas 60a, b, and c of each year of
Sales data is stored in the data column until January, but no data is stored in other months.

Therefore, for example, the day of August 21, 1987, the operator plans to make a purchase plan for this year's matsutake mushrooms on that day, and the operator operates the keyboard 17 in order to see the sales results of the "matsutake mushrooms" (one or both of sales and the number of sales) Yesterday (87 years 8 years)
For example, weekly sales results for eight weeks, which are traced back on the basis of (the 20th of the month), are displayed on the screen of the CRT display unit 15 in the form of a table or a graph.

However, since there is no sales of matsutake mushrooms in the display target period in this case, only data of "0" is read from the data area 60a of this year and displayed on the screen, which is information required by the operator. There was a problem that (Sales record of last season) was not displayed. In addition, especially in stores with a large selection of products, there are many non-seasonal products that continue on days with no sales, and even if such products are specified, sales are similar to seasonal products. Only the data of "0" which was not present was displayed on the screen.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to facilitate the analysis of the sales record by the operator of a product such as a seasonal product that continues to be sold on days with no sales.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The device of the present invention, as shown in FIGS.
It is a terminal control device that collects sales information from the terminal device of the system, and is a set of records for each product that individually has a field indicating the latest sales time, in order to manage sales results for each specific time unit. File and the data indicating the sales time and the sales record for only the sold product are written in the record corresponding to the product, and the file update means for updating the field of the record, and the operation input means, , The screen display means, a file reading means for reading the data of a record of a product designated by an operation from the file, and a data reading means for reading a specific display instruction operation based on the data read by the file reading means. The sales record for a certain period of time dating back from the time indicated by the field corresponding to the data. Comprising and a screen display processing means for displaying the plane display unit.

[Work]

In the file, the sales information of a specific time unit collected from the terminal device is accumulated for each product. However, the target of accumulation is limited to the products that had sales. The time unit is a time zone, a day, a week, a month, or the like that divides business hours.

In order to clarify the timing of occurrence of sales information and enable the determination of whether or not there is sales at any time, sales information includes sales data such as sales or the number of sales, and sales such as date, time, week number, etc. It is composed of data indicating the time. For example, to store sales information on a daily basis,
Data that stores a sales date and a sales record as a pair is stored. This allows you to search for files on any day,
If there is no corresponding sales information, it is known that the sales day is the day when the sales are “0”. Therefore, even if the sales information is omitted on the day when the sales are “0”, for example, the sales results of 30 days Graphs showing changes can be created without any problems.

In other words, it is possible to omit the information that there is no sales by including the information indicating the sales time in each sales information,
By the omitted amount, it is possible to accumulate more substantially useful sales results other than "0".

On the other hand, when the sales information is accumulated, the sales time or the address of the memory area storing the sales information is written, and the specific field in the record is updated to indicate the latest sales time of the product.

When the operator performs a predetermined operation, the specific field described above in the record of the designated product is referred to,
The sales record for a certain period, which is traced back from the latest sales time of the product, is displayed on the screen, not the time (hour, day, week, month, etc.) when the operation is performed.

〔Example〕

 Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the POS system 1 according to this embodiment. The same parts as those shown in FIG. 10 described in the section of the prior art are designated by the same reference numerals.

The POS system 1 is composed of POS terminal devices 2, 2, ..., A terminal control device 3, and a communication control device 4 and a communication line 5 for connecting them.

The POS terminal device 2 includes an optical reading device 6 for optically reading a code mark attached to a product and an ECR (electronic cash register) 7.

The terminal control device 3 includes a store controller 8, a CRT display unit 15 connected to the store controller 8, and a printer 1.
It consists of 6 and keyboard 17.

The store controller 8 includes hardware such as a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device such as a magnetic disk or a floppy disk, a control device, and an arithmetic device.

The store controller 8 is a sales information file 9, P that stores the daily POS information sent from each POS terminal device 2.
Edited based on the product master file 10 that stores the attribute information of the product (single product) such as LU table, the information output file 11 for outputting the product information in various formats, the sales information file 9 and the product master file 10. An item-based management file 12 to be generated and a data processing unit 13 for reading / writing these files and performing various data processing to create output information are provided.

The information output file 11 is a file written by referring to the above-mentioned product master file 10 and item-based management file 12 for screen display or printing. , Zero sales, Price band sales, Daily sales, Weekly sales, Cumulative sales, etc. Individual output files, Departmental price range sales files, and time group sales and daily sales by product group It contains various output files required for product management, such as group-specific output files.

The item-based management file 12 includes management files such as daily, weekly, monthly, and price range, and each of these management files is based on the data collected from the POS terminal device 2 for each product (single item). Aggregated data in specific time units, for example, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly sales quantity, sales amount, purchase quantity, purchase amount, etc. are stored.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a single item record 12a of a single item "matsutake" in the monthly management file of the item-based management file 12.

In the single item record 12a, an update date field FLD in which the date when the contents are updated is written, a key field FLK in which a department code, a major classification code and a single item code are written, and the sales quantity of the year and month and the year and month. 18 monthly tables (ie 18 months worth) in which money is written TB
M is provided.

When sales data is generated in the monthly table TBM,
Monthly table TBM of the month is generated in the first table,
The contents of each monthly table TBM until then are sequentially shifted downward by one table. The contents of the bottom table are deleted. When sales data for the month in which the monthly table TBM is created occurs, the sales data is added to the corresponding monthly table TBM.

In other words, the sales data and year / month data are written to the monthly table TBM only when sales data is generated.
Monthly table TBM of the month for which sales data does not occur is not generated.

When sales data is written to the monthly table TBM,
The content of the update date field FLD is updated.

Therefore, in the case of the above-mentioned single item "matsutake mushroom", for example,
As of August 20, 1987, the sales of this year (87) are “0”, and the latest (last) sales date is November 3, 1986 of the previous year. And, in the month when there was sales of Matsutake mushrooms in the previous year (86),
It is a three-month period from September to November, and as for the monthly table TBM, only the three tables corresponding to these three months are used. The year before last (1985) is three months from September to November.

In this way, in the single-item record 12a, only the month in which sales actually occur and sales data occurs
Since M is generated and data is stored only for that amount, the usage efficiency of the data area is improved for single items with many months without sales, such as single item "Matsutake", and long-term sales even with small data areas Data can be stored. Moreover, the contents are updated only when sales data is generated, so the number of file accesses is smaller and the file update processing time is shorter than when updating all products in sequence regardless of sales. Shortened.

The weekly management file in the item-based management file 12 has the same configuration as the monthly management file described above.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a single item record 12b of the daily management file in the item-based management file 12.

In the single item record 12b, the update date field FLD, the department code, the large classification code, which is the same as the above single item record 12a,
Key field FLK to which the single item code is written, and
A daily table TBD for 31 days in which the month and day and the sales quantity and the amount of the month are written is provided.

When sales data is generated in the daily table TBD,
Daily table with sales data of the same number as the date
Written in TBD, the month and day can be rewritten to that date.
Further, for a day when there is no sales before that day, the data of “0” is written in place of the sales data, and the date is rewritten to the date of this month.

In other words, although the daily management file single item record 12b has the daily table TBD for 31 days regardless of the presence or absence of sales data, it writes the sales data or "0" data instead of the sales data and rewrites the date. Is only done when sales data is generated.

At the same time, the content of the update date field FLD is updated to the date on which the sales data was generated (the date when sales were made).

The single item record 12b shown in FIG. 3 is applied to a single item having a biased sales within one month such as a monthly magazine.

That is, for example, as of August 21, 1987, sales from August 17 to yesterday (August 20) are zero, so the daily table TBD and the update date field FLD between them are updated. No, the daily table TBD contains the date of the previous month (July) and sales data (“0” data), and the update date field FLD contains the date of the latest sales (August 16, 1987).
Are stored respectively.

As described above, the content of the single item record 12b is updated only on the day when sales actually occur and the sales data is generated, so that the time required for the file update process is shortened.

The data processing unit 13 is provided with an update writing processing unit 14a and a history reading processing unit 14b.

The update writing processing unit 14a rewrites or updates the contents of the single item records 12a and 12b of each management file of the item-based management file 12. The timing is, for example, the time when the data to be written is generated or an appropriate time after the store is closed on that day.

In the history read processing unit 14b, a product (single product) is designated,
When the aggregated data for the product is output by the CRT display unit 15 or the printer 16, the content of the specified single product record is read from the corresponding management file in the itemized management file 12.

At that time, the update date field FL of the single item record
The data in the monthly table TBM and the daily table TBD is read with reference to D and the date stored in the update date field FLD as a reference.

Next, the operation of the POS system 1 will be described.

The POS system 1 responds to the inquiry about the price of a single item from the POS terminal device 2 by referring to the PLU table in the product master file 10, and using the POS information sent from the POS terminal device 2, the sales information file 9 Update the contents of.

Further, according to the contents of the keyboard operation by the operator, the data is read from the item-by-item management file 12, the product master file 10 is referred to as necessary, and the output information such as a table or a graph is created and the CRT display unit 15 It is displayed on the screen or printed out by the printer 16.

For example, the history read processing unit 14b displays the aggregated data for a certain period traced back from yesterday as a reference (current time) on the CRT display unit 1.
It operates when the operator operates the keyboard 17 according to the display method selection menu displayed on the screen 5 at the same time as displayed on the screen 5 and specifies "display history".

For example, if the normal aggregated data (data based on yesterday) for the past 3 months is displayed for the above-mentioned single item "Matsutake", only the format is displayed because there is no sales, and the actual contents are Is also not displayed. If "History display" is specified at that time, the aggregated data for a certain period traced back from the date stored in the update date field FLD of the single item record 12a, which is November 3, 1986, is displayed. The data for each month, October, and September are displayed in the same format as the previous display (normal display).

FIGS. 4a and 4b show an example of data displayed on the screen of the CRT display unit 15, of which FIG. 4a shows the single-item 8-week analysis table 31 by “normal display”, and FIG. Shown are the individual product 8-week analysis tables 32 by "history display", respectively. The single-item 8-week analysis tables 31 and 32 are graphs based on the data read from the single-item record of the weekly management file of the item-based management file 12.

In Fig. 4a, for the single item "Matsutake", yesterday (August 1987)
The sales volume and sales amount for the past 8 weeks including the week to which (20th) belongs and the previous 7 weeks are displayed.

However, since there is no sales during this period, only the format is displayed, and the substantial content part is blank.

Therefore, when the operator presses the "C1" key (not shown) on the keyboard 17 to specify "History display" according to the message MSG at the bottom of the screen, the screen switches to Fig. 4b and the latest sales of "Matsutake" It was the day when there was 86 years
The data is displayed as far back as the week to which November 3 belongs.

In FIG. 4b, the date display on the upper left is changed to November 3, 1986, and the sales quantity and sales amount for the eight weeks before the week to which this day belongs are displayed.

As a result, the operator can easily grasp the sales situation of "Matsutake" in the previous year, and can accurately predict the sales volume of this year based on the past data and make a stocking plan.

To switch from the screen of FIG. 4b to the screen of FIG. 4a,
Press the "C1" key again.

When the operator presses the "A2" key (not shown) on the keyboard 17 according to the message MSG, the same contents are displayed in a tabular form, and when the "B4" key (not shown) is pressed, the screen at that time is displayed on the printer. Printed by 16.

In addition, single-item 8-week analysis table 31,3 shown in Fig.4 a and b
2 is an information output file by the history read processing unit 14b
Once written to 11 relevant output files, then
This is what is displayed on the screen of the CRT display unit 15.

Next, the processing operation of the above-described data processing unit 13 will be described based on the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing operation for updating the item-based management file 12.

First, in step # 1, data is read from the sales information file 9.

Next, the corresponding single item record is read from the item-based management file 12 (step # 2).

The update date field FLD of the single item record is updated with the date when the data occurred (step # 3).

The daily table update routine, the weekly table update routine, and the monthly table update routine are executed (steps # 4,5,6).

The item-by-item management file 12 is updated with the updated single item record (step # 7), and the process returns to step # 1 to read the next data from the sales information file 9.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the above-mentioned daily table updating routine.

In step # 11, the data is written in the daily table TBD on the relevant day.

The data in the daily table TBD from the day after the date last updated to the day before this update date is cleared, and the date is rewritten at the same time (step # 12).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the above-mentioned weekly table updating routine.

In step # 21, it is determined whether or not there is a weekly table (not shown) having the same week number as the read data date.

If yes, rewrite the contents of the appropriate weekly table (step # 22).

If no, the data stored in the weekly table is sequentially shifted, and the read data is stored in the new weekly table (step # 23).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the monthly table update routine described above.

In step # 31, it is determined whether or not there is a monthly table TBM having the same month as the read data date.

If yes, rewrite the contents of the corresponding monthly table TBM (step # 32).

In the case of No, the data stored in the monthly table TBM is sequentially shifted, and the read data is stored in the new monthly table TBM (step # 33).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of displaying the time-series data of the item-based management file 12.

The operator manages the item-based management file 12 that is time-series data including time information while looking at the screen of the CRT display unit 15, etc.
If an appropriate output format is selected to display the accumulated data in the area (YES in step # 41), the CRT display unit 15 displays the normal display according to the selected output format (step # 42). . That is, data for a certain period of time dating back to yesterday is displayed.

When the "C1" key on the keyboard 17 is pressed, the history is displayed (steps # 43, 44, 45). In other words, the data traced back from the last sale date is displayed.

After that, each time the "C1" key is pressed, the "normal display" and the "history display" are switched.

The functions of these steps # 43, 44, 45 correspond to the screen display processing means of the present invention.

According to the above-described embodiment, if the item-based management file 12 is configured by the single item record 12a as described above, the monthly table TBM is generated only for the month in which the actual sales are made, and the data is accumulated only for that month. , For a single item with a lot of months with no sales, the utilization efficiency of the data area is improved, and long-term sales data can be stored even in a small data area. For example, when the sales period is 3 months, data for 6 (= 18/3) years is accumulated, and more accurate analysis of sales results based on abundant data can be expressed. Since the contents are updated only when they occur, the file update processing time is shortened.

In addition, even if the operator does not know the latest sales time, the operator can easily display the sales results at the time when sales were made. It can be easily managed.

In the above-described embodiment, the date data is stored in the update date field FLD, but data of only the day or month or the week number may be stored. Further, the history read processing unit 14b may be configured to read data for a predetermined period from the itemized management file 12 to create a display screen in response to a history display instruction, or to display a normal display instruction. In response, all data may be read from the record of the designated product from the item-based management file 12, and then the screen may be created based on a part of the data previously read in response to the instruction to display the history. .

In the above-described embodiment, the product whose sales are expected to change has been described. However, even if the product sells every day, it may not be sold due to lack of stock or other reasons. Can be applied to any product.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the single-item 8-week analysis table 32 is explained as the output information, but it is possible to output information in various time units such as hourly, daily, weekly, monthly sales, etc. If so, a plurality of screens may be displayed on the paper surface. In addition, it is possible to perform division such as sales floor, store, and price range together with the time division.

In the above embodiment, the item-based management file 12 may be provided as a part of the product master file 10.

In the above embodiment, a transaction file corresponding to the sales information file 9 is provided in the communication control device 4,
Response to price inquiry from POS terminal 2 or P
The OS information may be stored in a transaction file in the communication control device 4. Further, two such communication control devices 4 may be installed in parallel and one may be used as a backup.

In the above-described embodiment, various general-purpose computers or dedicated data processing devices can be used as the terminal control device 3, and the configuration of each unit and the configuration of each file, record, format, etc. can be variously changed. it can.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, the record for each product that constitutes the file is provided with a field indicating the latest sales time of the product. Therefore, by referring to the field, the sales record during the sales period can be promptly obtained. It can be displayed, and it is possible to easily manage products such as seasonal products that have a bias in supply and demand.

In addition, by including the information indicating the sales time in each sales information, it is possible to omit the storage of the information that there is no sales, and it is possible to store more useful sales records correspondingly. Therefore, the utilization efficiency of the storage medium can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view showing a single item record of a monthly management file in an item-based management file, and FIG. 3 is a day-based in an item-based management file. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing a single item record of a management file, Fig. 4a is a diagram showing a single item 8-week analysis table by normal display, Fig. 4b is a diagram showing a single item 8-week analysis table by history display, and Fig. 5 is item-wise management. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing operation for updating a file, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a daily table updating routine, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a weekly table updating routine, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a monthly table updating routine. Figure is a flowchart showing the operation of displaying time-series data of the item-based management file. Figure 10 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional POS system. Is a diagram illustrating an example of the item-by-item management file. In the figure, 1 is a POS system, 2 is a POS terminal device, 3 is a terminal control device, 12 is a management file (file) for each item, 12a is a single item record (record), 13 is a data processing unit (screen display processing means), 14a is an update writing processing section (file updating means), 14b is a history reading processing section (file reading means), 15 is a CRT display section (screen display means), 17 is a keyboard (operation input means), and FLD is an update date field ( Field).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A terminal control device for collecting sales information from a terminal device of a POS system, which is a set of product-specific records each having a field indicating the latest sales time, and for each specific time unit. A file updating unit for writing a file for managing the sales record and the data indicating the sales time and the sales record for only the sold product to the record corresponding to the product and updating the field of the record An operation inputting means, a screen displaying means, a file reading means for reading the data of the record of the product designated by the operation from the file, and a reading means for reading the file in response to a specific display instruction operation. Based on the collected data, for a fixed length of time dating back from the time indicated by the field corresponding to the data To the sales record comprising and a screen display processing means for displaying by said image display means the terminal control unit of the POS system according to claim.