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This invention relates to a merchandising means and method, and is
particularly directed to achievement of rapid sales of merchandise of the
type which is presently sold in a "supermarket".
The arrangement with a supermarket as commonly used, is that the store
should have a large number of shelves and in some stores as many as 30,000
different items are available for sale. However, only a relatively few of
those items are "fast moving" items and the fast moving items occupy most
of the shelving space. They include such products as loaves of bread,
eggs, milk, toilet rolls, paper towels, pet food and other items which are
frequently purchased. As the shelves become empty, they are restocked by
hand, and to limit the amount of labour involved it is customary to have a
single shelf or bin occupying a large space but containing only one
specific item, for example, one formula of pet food in a large number of
tins. This arrangement results in a very bulky store space, and
consequently it is sometimes difficult for a customer to locate the
particular product he specifically requires. Thus it is not uncommon for
the weekly shopping for goods required by a family to occupy as much as a
full hour of time. This has further ramifications in that in most
instances car parking is necessary, and because of the slow turn around of
customers, the parking space required is excessive.
The main object of this invention is to provide a method of handling
merchandise in a retail environment, which method is much quicker than the
method presently used. This in turn, involves the use of novel handling
devices, and the novel handling devices are associated with old and
well-known handling devices but in a novel configuration.
It is known already to be old to utilise a computer network with software
which will maintain a running inventory of items of merchandise as sales
take place, and will identify price, and further it is known in large
distribution centres (although not common in supermarkets) to load and
unload pallets from storage spaces by means of robots. It is also known to
use carousels for transferring products by means of conveyors, and
carousels are also otherwise used in manufacturing for the various stages
of manufacture of an assembly.
However, with the object of reducing labour and expediting the sales of
products, the method of this invention makes it possible to provide a
"drive through" floor space which is associated with a conveyor space, and
the conveyor space is associated with a conveyor which extends in the
direction of travel of a motor vehicle, the conveyor itself is associated
with a multi-level structure having a plurality of recesses containing
merchandise in an arrangement wherein the merchandise can be selected one
or more items at a time, and lowered by elevating means onto the conveyor.
The merchandise may be in pallets. There may be provided a plurality of
product identification means, each of which can, for example, comprise a
touch sensitive visual display unit, which can be scrolled by electronic
means, and associated software which identifies the products available,
together with an order station at which the customer can identify the
products he wishes to purchase. The downstream or exit end of the assembly
can be associated with a packaging and pricing station which can be in
accordance with known art.
Pallet design is not standard but is specific for specific articles, and
for example the pallet design for eggs and the pallet design for packs of
paper towels would be very different. Some products can be handled
automatically by engagement with the handling means and others need to be
carried in carrier trays. All need to be in a stack which can be readily
unloaded, either from the top or from the bottom. In some instances the
products can be unloaded by robot directly from pallets.
The sequence of handling articles can be as follows: The pallets are loaded
into their compartments in the facility or facilities (several facilities
usually being required) and when a product or products are required by a
customer from any one recess in the storage facility, the order is
transmitted by electronic means to a robot control arrangement, and may
also effect partial rotation of the storage facility (if rotatable), and
identify the height of the relevant recess. A robot is then directed to
the recess, and removes one or more products therefrom according to the
order received. The removed products are then lowered by a descent
conveyor and released therefrom onto a horizontal transfer conveyor
beneath the facility, and conveyed by the transfer conveyor to the
packaging area. Between the storage facilities and packaging area there
can be provided additional storage means which can be operated either
electrically or by hand, and which display products for sale to remind
customers in case they overlooked some of their requirements. The sale is
then entered and the products packed into a container and placed in the
customer's vehicle without the customer needing to exit his vehicle to
that stage.
For simplicity of understanding, the robots are identified as being pivotal
as well as moveable in X, Y and Z directions, the conveyor from the entry
point to the packaging point being regarded as an X direction, the other
horizontal movement of right angles thereto is a Z direction and the
vertical movement as Y direction.
While the invention need not necessarily include the abovementioned details
an embodiment is described hereunder in some further detail with reference
to and is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a lay-out according to this embodiment, but
showing only two order stations;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a storage facility, illustrating one only robot
and a spiral type descent conveyor;
FIG. 3 is a partly sectioned fragmentary plan showing a linear carriage
guide;
FIG. 4 is a partly sectioned elevation of FIG. 2; and,
FIGS. 5-9 are flow charts which illustrate the sequence arrangement in
block diagrams format.
Referring first to FIG. 1 which illustrates the principles of the
invention, at an order station 10 a customer in a motor vehicle 11 can
scroll through the relevant products which he may wish to purchase, these
products being illustrated on a screen 12 of a visual display unit of a
computer, each product identifying, for example, the brand, the
ingredients of the product (if appropriate), the price, and any relevant
advertising material.
There is provided a transfer conveyor 13 which in this embodiment is double
width, the width being divided by a plate 14, since the invention
simplifies the double sided handling of goods, that is, a second motor
vehicle 11 can be located on the opposite side of the transfer conveyor
13. The transfer conveyor 13 is conveniently of a belt type which is in
common use already in the food industry. In more complex installations,
the transfer conveyor 13 is provided with a plurality of dividing plates
14 into a series of channels for accommodating different orders.
There are shown a pair of elevated frames 16 which straddle the transfer
conveyor 13, and which support rotational storage facilities 17 which are
multi-level. Saleable goods are loaded into the recesses or compartments
18 of the storage facility 17 from a central shaft 15 in which a platform
may be raised and lowered by elevator means already well known in the art.
The storage facilities 17 may be circular but are preferably multi-sided
much as shown in Fig t, which illustrates each having eight sides and a
much larger number, perhaps 20 levels. Two such storage facilities as
illustrated would handle most of the fast moving merchandise which is
presently purchased by customers in supermarkets.
Removal of goods from compartments 18 is effected by robots 19 (FIG. 1 )
which can be of known type, for example as supplied by the firm Advanced
Rapid Robotics, of Woodford, South Australia. Robots 19 can remove
articles from compartments 18 and deposit them into buckets 20 of bucket
type descent elevators 21 which deposit the articles in turn onto transfer
conveyor 13.
Control of the robots may be simplified by rotation of the storage
facilities 17, and to this effect, a turntable as illustrated in FIG. 4
may be used, or a simple bearing if the storage facilities are small.
Rotational positioning of the storage facilities 17 is best effected by
computer controlled stepping motors. As an alternative, or in addition,
Geneva or other known mechanisms may be used to ensure precise rotational
locations for each carousel station.
It is of course a trait to overlook some item which a customer may require
and as the vehicle 11 traverses from the order station 10 to the packing
station 22, it passes a plurality of side by side "after thought"
dispensers 23, each provided with a manually or electrically operated
release device 24, and the release devices can be actuated to release
respective products back to the transfer conveyor 13. The products finally
discharge onto a platform 25 from which they can be transferred back onto
the packing station 22 for packaging and charging to the customer.
As said above, frequently there is a requirement for very small articles,
and this requirement can be met by having small articles contained in
small compartments in the tertiary storage rooms 26, from which they can
be removed by the operator of the packing station 22 and added to the
customer's order. For larger inventories, an additional assistant may be
required and the tertiary bins 26 can be much more extensive than
illustrated herein.
It is a requirement of many customers to separately identify certain
perishable articles such as kinds of meat, fruit, or vegetables, and for
that reason the invention contemplates as an addendum the use of a
perishable and refrigerated products bar 28 adjacent a parking station 29.
By utilising the arrangement which is illustrated in FIG. 1, it will be
seen that two motor vehicles 11 can simultaneously move from the order
stations 10 to the packing station 22 independently of one another so that
the transfer conveyor 13 can perform two functions, but this can be easily
increased to more order stations.
Many variations can take the place of some of the equipment described above
and for example instead of the order station 10 being provided with
screens 12, the order stations can simply comprise push button stations
where the products can be identified numerically or by written
description. To avoid confusion at the packing station 22, each customer
may receive a numbered card before entry to the order station, and thereby
separately identify his order from the orders of other customers. Colour
coding may also be used for identification of different orders.
The description of the first embodiment in FIG. 1 can be used, not only in
relatively small installations but also in large installations, but
sometimes there is a requirement for an even larger installation, and in
such instances the rotation of a storage facility, and the existence of
two only vertical elevators place limitations of time on the flow through
of customers' vehicles.
This problem is largely overcome in a second embodiment wherein the storage
facility comprises a large storage structure 35 which may be circular in
section but is preferably multi-sided as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. As
illustrated, the structure 35 is octagonal in plan (as in the first
embodiment) comprising eight walls 36, each of which, however, is
apertured to give a plurality of loading apertures 37, and the inner wall
38 comprises a plurality of relatively short vertical portions between
horizontal portions giving a grid effect which establish a large number of
compartments 39 loaded through apertures 37 (similar to compartments 18)
defined by surfaces extending between inner and outer wall surfaces. In
order to load merchandise into the apertures 37, there is provided a
loading elevator 40 which may be elevated within the hollow shaft of the
structure 35 and can carry merchandise upwardly in the manner of an
elevator of known type. The storage area is designated 41, and this is a
basement beneath the ground level, and surmounted by a floor 42 containing
surfaces 43 which define an access opening 44 for the elevator 40.
Surrounding the structure 35 there are eight equally spaced vertical
columns 45 which can, for example, be of I-section steel extending
upwardly from the ground, supported in the basement by piers 46, and
carrying on them respective elevating carriages 47 (FIG. 4), the carriages
supporting an octagonal ring 48, the straight sides 49 of which form
tracks for slides 50 which can move independently. The slides 50 also
carry robots 51, only one of which is shown in FIG. 4.
It is not contemplated that either of the storage facilities 17 (FIG. 1) or
35 (FIG. 4) should be rotational. However robot requirements may be
reduced in smaller installations, and FIG. 4 illustrates a turntable
arrangement 52 which may be used for partial rotation of a smaller
structure.
Between the structure 35 and the octagonal ring 48 there is located a
spiral chute 54 which has a central division 55, the division dividing the
chute into an inner chute and an outer chute. As described below the
robots 51 will selectively deposit merchandise from the compartments 39
into the inner or outer chute portions to be either delivered to the left
or right-hand linear transfer conveyor 56. In having two conveyors, the
one building can service two customers at the same time, as in the first
embodiment. If more than two divisions are used in the transfer conveyor,
gates operate to separate orders. These are not shown.
Because there is a tendency for build up of merchandise in the chutes 54 if
gravity alone is relied upon, chutes may either be provided with chains or
belts which follow the spiral path and which are continually driven, or
alternatively with spaced resilient rollers projecting slightly above the
chute floor to ensure continuous downward passage of the merchandise.
The robots 51 and the tracks are controlled by a computer control which is
illustrated in charts 1 through to 5, and described in detail below.
With both embodiments of the invention, it is possible to have driveways
extending each side of the octagonal buildings or carousels, the entry
portion being an "order station" equipped with an electronic visual
display unit which can be programmed to select, price and compare brands,
either visually or in a straightforward selection by punching in
appropriate keys, which will identify which items and the quantity
required. Categories and index of brands will also assist the consumer.
In order to clearly distinguish one order from another, participating
customers are provided with a card. The card can be in the form of a
credit card or can be individually issued to consumers. In both cases,
debiting of accounts or summarising purchase bills take place via the
cards.
As an alternative to an identification card, or in addition to it, use may
be made of colour coding. Each robot 51 may be provided with a spray head
59 (FIG. 4), or a plurality of spray heads, which will spray a colour to
the package of an article retrieved thereby, the colour being one of
several, and selection of colour being made to correspond to different
order stations. Alternatively, coloured tabs may be applied from
dispensing heads on the robots. This arrangement reduces risk of confusion
at packing station 22.
The drawings indicate a limit of two orders being dispensed, but clearly
the number of order stations can be increased to, say, four, and further
divisions 14 added to the transfer conveyor 56, and corresponding further
divisions 55 added to the spiral chute 54.
Customers to the left and to the right of the towers can simultaneously
proceed to order their shopping via the electronic visual display unit.
Once a shopping list has been ordered, the driver can proceed to drive to
the packing station where the goods are awaited to be loaded directly into
cars by an attendant. At that station, entertainment may be provided.
Dispensing of merchandise from the compartments 39 (second embodiment), for
example, can commence either when the robots 51 on the surrounding ring 49
are at the top, the bottom, or intermediate the top and bottom, and the
computer algorithm is arranged so that the sequence of ordering is not
necessarily the sequence of delivery onto the chute 54, and if for example
the left hand customer has ordered products at the same time or at a time
which is overlapping the products which are ordered by the customer on the
right hand side, the robots can operate in an order which is most
convenient to the raising and lowering of the ring 49. The ring 49 is
shown as a single ring surrounding the storage structure 35, but it may be
subdivided into eight independently actuated linear robot carriage guides
62, each with its own robot 51, so that the robots can operate
independently at different levels, thus still further reducing time. This
arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 3, and has the advantage that different
robots 51 can operate in different levels simultaneously. The arrangement
of FIG. 3 is particularly useful in very large installations. As in the
first embodiment, the products are released onto respective transfer
conveyors 56, which extend from the storage structure 35 to the packing
station 22. When an order has been completed and all ordered products are
already on the transfer conveyor, a "PLEASE PROCEED", "ORDER COMPLETE" or
other appropriate sign can appear on the visual display unit.
There is a wide difference in dimensions of products, and the drawings are
somewhat oversimplified in showing all of the compartments 39 being the
same size. In practice the compartments 39 can be subdivided in some
instances for smaller articles or left clear for larger articles.
Reference is now made to the charts 1 to 5, which illustrate the sequence
arrangement in block diagram format.
DESCRIPTION OF FUNCTIONAL MODEL OF MERCHANDISING SYSTEM
The merchandising system comprises four main processes that occur
simultaneously. These four main processes are indicated in FIG. 5 as
"Process Customer Orders", "Product Retrieval Control", "Maintain
Inventory Database" and "Monitor Merchandise Progress". The subsequent
FIGS. (6 to 9) detail the functions of these main processes. Each of these
processes will occur indefinitely as the operation of the merchandising
system is to occur indefinitely and will only be halted in the event of a
complete shut down of the system. As such, the function "Merchandising
System complete" will not occur in the normal flow of operations and
represents the halting or shut down of the complete system.
Each of the main processes communicate via the use of messages (detailed by
the use of round cornered boxes) which may have multiple sources and/or
destinations. Messages may trigger an action to occur or may be the source
of information which the receiving function will use at a later time.
Indefinite loops that occur by default without evaluation of any criteria
are annotated with the word "Loop".
In processing a customers order (refer FIG. 6), the process is started by a
customer initiating the order process. Having initiated the process the
system will request the customers credit card and Personal Identification
Number (PIN). The system will then verify the PIN against the credit card.
From this point, the customer starts the selection process of the goods
that they wish to purchase. Having requested details of a particular
product via the visual display unit (VDU), a message is sent to the
database inventory process requesting the information. The customer waits
for the information to be retrieved from the inventory database and
displayed on the VDU. Upon presentation of the product details, the
customer may then choose to either scroll through the various brands
offered, request further details regarding the chosen product or continue
with the ordering process. At this stage the customer is required to make
a decision regarding the product that they have requested detailed
information on. If the customer chooses not to select this product for
purchase then the system loops back to enable the customer to request
details of further products. If however, the customer chooses to purchase
the product selection then a message is sent to both the "Product
Retrieval Control" process and the "Maintain Inventory Database" process
regarding the product chosen and the amount of the product required by the
customer. At this stage the customer waits for the inventory database to
confirm the availability of the chosen product provided by a return
message from the inventory database process. The system then prompts the
customer as to whether the order is complete. If the customer wishes to
purchase further products then the system loops back to enable the
customer to request details of further products. If the order is complete
.then a message is sent to the inventory database process indicating the
completion of the order. The customer is the requested by the system to
proceed to the pick up area. Having completed the order, the customer may
choose "after thought" purchases in proceeding to the pick up area. The
system will then generate a receipt for all of the goods purchased and the
customer collects their purchases from the pick up area.
The system will then unconditionally loop back to the start of the customer
order process and wait for the next customer to initiate another order
process.
The process "Product Retrieval Control" as detailed in FIG. 7 represents
the process that controls the retrieval of products by the robotic arms.
This process consists of two sub processes that also occur simultaneously.
The process detailed as sub process 1 waits for product selections from
the customer order process and product availability information from the
inventory database process. A product selection message will always have a
corresponding message indicating the product availability since the
product selection message indicating the product choice and the amount
required is simultaneously passed to the inventory database process and
will cause a returned message from the inventory database confirming
availability.
If the product is not available then sub process 1 will loop back and await
further product requests and their corresponding availability
confirmation. If however, a valid request was received and the goods were
confirmed as being available then a retrieval request is generated. This
retrieval request is then considered taking into account all of the
previous requests that have not yet been fulfilled. The queue of requests
are then optimised with respect to the arrangement of the robotic arms to
minimise the time taken to retrieve all of the goods requested. The
optimised queue of requests is then sent to sub process 2 (via the message
"Send update to request queue") for the control of the robotic arms and
the retrieval of the required goods. Sub process 1 will then
unconditionally loop back to receiving customer order requests and
confirmations.
Sub process 2 waits for updates to the request queue from the first sub
process. Having received an updated request, the queue is maintained. At
the next stage, the first request from the queue is extracted. The
retrieval request is then analysed to establish the requirement of a
partial rotation of the storage facility. If a partial rotation is
required then it is performed. The appropriate robotic arm is then
requested to retrieve the products from the storage compartment and the
goods are then deposited into the appropriate chute. At this stage, sub
process 2 then loops unconditionally back to maintaining the request queue
and reception of updates to the request queue.
The process "Maintain Inventory Database" as detailed in FIG. 8 represents
the process that continually maintains the inventory database.
This process waits for the reception of incoming messages from the customer
order process with regard to requests for product details, selection of
products for purchase and the indication of the customers order being
completed.
Upon reception of a message requesting product details the inventory
database process proceeds along branch 1 and extracts the relevant details
from the database regarding the products offered. These details are then
sent to the customer order process. The inventory database process then
unconditionally loops back to the reception of incoming messages to the
database system.
Upon reception of a product selection message from the customer order
process, the inventory database process proceeds along branch 2 to
establish the availability of the product selected. If there is no stock
of the product available then a "stock out" message is sent to the
customer. If the product is available then this is also indicated to the
customer. If as a result of the product selection the stock of that
product requires replenishing then a "stock low" message will be sent to
an operator (not detailed). The inventory database process then
unconditionally loops back to the reception of incoming messages to the
database system.
Upon reception of an order complete message from the customer order process
the inventory database process proceeds along branch 3 and logs the
details of the customers complete order. The inventory database process
then unconditionally loops back to the reception of incoming messages to
the database system.
The inventory database process will also respond to manual inputs (not
detailed) such as the replenishment of stock. In this case the process
would proceed along branch 4 and update the database to accommodate the
new stock level. The inventory database process then unconditionally loops
back to the reception of incoming messages to the database system.
The process "Monitor Merchandise Progress" as detailed in FIG. 9 represents
the process that continually monitors and maintains the progress of
merchandise along the chutes.
This process receives messages from sensors on the chute system that will
indicate whether or not goods have stopped on the chutes. If a message is
received indicating a stoppage of goods then the process will initiate a
clearance action and send a message to the chute control mechanism to
correct the stoppage. The monitor merchandise process then unconditionally
loops back to the reception of incoming messages from sensors.
The loading station may be associated with entertainment means, for example
music or videos, news programmes, movies, documentaries and the like, and
furthermore, advertising displays of the specials can be provided both at
the order station and at the packing station.
It is already well known in the art that sales can be identified with
computer technology so that the need to refill the respective compartments
39 can be signalled to an operator in the loading basement and quickly
transferred to the relevant compartment 39.
After the initial packing of the non-perishable goods which would usually
be carried in the compartments 39, the customer can choose to leave the
complex by an "IMMEDIATE EXIT" end or choose to continue on to the next
station which will be a "perishable goods" station. For customers who are
driving their vehicles, the perishable goods may be visually seen through
glass walls at eye level of a driver, who can study the qualities of
displayed meats, vegetables, fruit and frozen goods. The driver will be
assisted by a sales assistant who will remove the selected article and
place it onto a further conveyor for delivery to a secondary packing
station. The same area can be traversed by walk-through customers by
walking along an aisle on the opposite side from the vehicles.
After the perishables have been loaded into the customer's car, the
customer can then leave in an appropriate direction. Walk-through
customers can conveniently leave in another direction where transport of a
different type is available for transporting the customer and his goods.
It is visualised that some of the space presently occupied by parked
vehicles can be used, for example, for gardens between the stations, and
that area can be landscaped. In some instances, the stations will be
separately covered by roofing, or can be all within one large roofed area.
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