JP3333107B2 - Customer queuing fairness system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a customer queuing fairness system for averaging the waiting time of each customer who waits in order in a plurality of queues, and is particularly suitable for use with a POS system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a plurality of queues are waiting for a turn, a new queue may be added to eliminate congestion. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, in a large supermarket or the like in which a plurality of settlement counters 1 are installed, when crowded, the customer 3 forms a line for each settlement counter 1 and waits for the settlement process by the cashier 5 in turn. Conventionally, in such a situation, a new settlement counter 1a
When the processing is started, generally, only the customers 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d in the vicinity flow to the settlement counter 1a.

[0003]

However, in the conventional waiting system described above, when the processing is started by a new settlement counter 1a at the time of congestion, the waiting time of only the nearby customers 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d is reduced. As a result, there is a problem that all customers waiting in line have no fair advantage. Conventionally, the waiting time of a customer has not been monitored, so that it has not been possible to adequately resolve customer dissatisfaction due to an increase in the waiting time during congestion, and this has caused a problem of a service degradation. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a customer queuing fairness system capable of fairing the waiting time of a customer waiting in line.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a customer queuing fairness system according to the present invention outputs identification information for identifying a customer and displays a message notifying the customer of queue information to be queued. Transmitting and receiving display means for detecting the identification information in the order in which the customer carrying the transmitting and receiving display means enters the monitoring area, searching the minimum queue at that time, and displaying the message on the transmission and reception display means. A storage / control means, which periodically communicates with the transmission / reception display means of the customer who has been guided to the queue, and determines whether the customer who has been guided to the queue and the monitoring area depend on whether communication has been continued for a certain period of time or not. And customers passing through the inside.

In this customer queuing fairness system, when a customer carrying transmission / reception display means for outputting identification information for identifying a customer enters the monitoring area, the storage / control means enters the identification information in the order of entering the monitoring area. Is detected, the minimum queue at that time is searched, a message of queue information to be arranged in the transmission / reception display means is displayed to guide the customer to the minimum queue, and the transmission / reception display of the customer guided to the queue It periodically communicates with the means, and distinguishes between customers who have been guided to the queue and customers who pass through the monitoring area, depending on whether or not they have communicated for a certain time.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a customer queuing fairness system according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram for implementing a customer queuing fairness system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the system configuration of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an external view of a shopping basket used in the customer queuing fairness system of FIG. FIG. A plurality of settlement counters 11 (five in this example) are installed in the store, and a POS register 13 and a wireless base station 15 are installed in correspondence with each settlement counter 11. The customer 19 performs shopping using the transmission / reception display means (shopping basket) 21. The operator 17 performs registration and settlement processing of commodities in the shopping basket 21 of the customer 19 arranged in each settlement counter 11.

All POS registers 13 are connected to storage / control means (store controller) 25 located in the backyard through a LAN cable 23. As shown in FIG. 2, the POS register 13 includes a CPU 27, an input unit (such as a keyboard) 29, a run interface (LAN / IF) 31, and a wireless communication unit 33 using electromagnetic waves.
, A display unit 35, and a wireless communication unit 37 using optical radio waves.

The store controller 25 includes a CPU 39
Display unit 41, input means (keyboard or the like) 43,
A storage unit (memory) 45 and a run interface (LA)
N / IF) 47 and a clock unit 49.

The shopping basket 21 includes a CPU 51, a radio communication unit 53 using optical waves, a display unit 55, and a radio communication unit 57 using electromagnetic waves.

The wireless base station 15 relays the POS register 13 and the wireless communication units 33 and 57 of the shopping basket 21 by electromagnetic waves. Further, the POS register 13 and the shopping basket 21 can directly communicate with each other via the wireless communication units 37 and 53 using optical waves.

Next, a customer guiding procedure of the customer queuing fairness system will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a customer guidance procedure, FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a counter addition procedure, FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a settlement process, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a screen display example of a store controller. In this customer queuing fairness system, the customer 19 does not select the settlement counter 11 by himself, but uses the system which is automatically created so that the waiting time can be obtained fairly. It must be specified.

[0012] After completing the shopping, the customer 19 goes close to the settlement counter 11 (within the monitoring area). Then, the identification information (customer No.) of the customer 19 is transmitted from the wireless communication unit 57 of the shopping basket 21 of the customer 19 to the wireless communication unit 33 of the POS register 13 via the nearest wireless base station 15 (st1). The POS register 13 sends the customer number from the run interface 31 to the run interface 47 of the store controller 25 located in the backyard via the LAN cable 23 (st3). The store controller 25 stores the customer number and the current time read from the clock unit 49 as a set in the storage unit 45 (s
t5).

Then, the store controller 25 finds the settlement counter 11 having the least queue at that time (st7), and stores the settlement counter number (#) in the shopping basket 21 of the customer 19 in the reverse communication procedure. Display unit 5
5 (st9). When the shopping basket 21 receives this, the CPU 51 instructs the display unit 55 to display the message “Please go to the cash register” (s
t11). The customers 19 are lined up at the settlement counter 11 displayed on the display unit 35.

The shopping basket 21 can communicate only with the radio base station 15 corresponding to the checkout counter 11 that is lined up. The shopping basket 21 and the radio base station 15
Communication is performed at regular intervals. Therefore, if the shopping cart 21 continues to communicate with the wireless base station 15 for a certain period of time, the store controller 25 determines that the customers 19 of the shopping cart 21 are lined up on the checkout counter 11. Therefore, the customer 19 passing near the checkout counter 11 is not determined as a queued customer 19.

The state in which the customers 19 are lined up one after another in the checkout counter 11 and the rows are formed as described above is displayed on the display unit 41 of the store controller 25 as shown in FIG. The store controller 25 stores the customer 19 in line.
Is selected, and the payment counter # is assigned to the shopping basket 21 of the customer 19 who is newly lined up.
Is transmitted, and the message "Please go to the cash register" is displayed on the display unit 55.

The payment counter 11 is abnormally crowded and the customer 1
When it is unlikely that a quick settlement process can be performed on 9, the manager of the backyard performs an additional setting of the settlement counter 11 a through the input means 43 of the store controller 25.
At this time, the customer 1 who is able to line up with the additional payment counter 11a
9 is selected by the following procedure. First, on the store controller screen of FIG. 7, the customer 1 having the longest waiting time is displayed.
9 (customer number 0013 in this example) is selected with the highest priority (st17), and the message "Please go to the cashier" is displayed on the display unit 55 of the shopping basket 21 of the customer 19 (st19).

Next, after the customer No. 0013 is lined up on the additional settlement counter 11a, the customer counterparts 13 except for the settlement counter 11 (# 4) in which the customer No. 0013 is lined up are second in the list. The customer 19 having the longest waiting time (customer number 0016 in this example) is selected, and the message “Please go to the cash register” is displayed on the display unit 55 of the shopping basket 21 of the customer 19. Thereafter, similarly, guidance to the additional payment counter 11a is performed until the number of customers in other rows is fair (st21).

After the merchandise is registered in the settlement counter 11 (st15), the settlement process is completed in the POS register 13 (st23), and finally, at the stage of issuing a receipt (st25), the POS register 13 transmits the radio signal. Communication unit 3
7 to read the customer No. of the shopping basket 21 (st2
7) This is sent to the store controller 25, and at the same time, a signal for deleting is transmitted.

In response to this, the store controller 25
Deletes the customer number in the storage unit 45 (st29),
At the same time, the updated customer number is returned to the POS register 13 (st31). The POS register 13 sends the updated customer number to the shopping cart 21 via the wireless communication unit 37.
In response to this, the shopping cart 21 changes the display to the updated customer No. and at the same time deletes the message “Please go to the cashier” from the display unit 55 (st33). Thus, the guidance of the customer 19 by the present system ends. At this point, the shopping basket 21 for a new customer can be used, but the shopping basket 21 is moved to the bagging corner by the customer 19 after receiving the receipt, and thus goes out of the monitoring area of the radio base station 15 (st35). . Therefore, shopping basket 2
1 is that the system is not monitored on this system until the next customer 19 puts in a product and arranges it in the management area again.

As described above, according to the above-described customer queuing fairness system, the number of customers 19 waiting in the queue and the waiting time are stored in the store controller 25 via the shopping cart 21 and the POS register 13, Since the minimum queue found by the store controller 25 is displayed on the shopping basket 21 of the newly arranged customer 19,
The queues can be equalized, and the waiting time of the customer 19 can be equalized. And the settlement counter 11
Is added, the customer with the longest waiting time 19
Can be preferentially guided to the additional payment counter 11, so that the waiting time of the customer 19 can be equalized.

Conventionally, a minimum queue is set for each customer 1
9, it was difficult to determine the minimum queue among all the queues, and even if the minimum queue was found, other customers lined up before reaching the queue. In some cases, the queue is no longer the minimum queue and the next minimum queue must be found, resulting in wasted waiting time. On the other hand, according to the above-described customer queuing fairness system, it is promised that when entering the monitoring area, it will always be in the minimum queue.
The burden on the customer 19 of having to find the minimum queue can be reduced, and the service to the customer 19 can be improved.

Further, since the queue of the customer 19 can be monitored by the store controller 25, the settlement counter 11 can be properly added at the time of congestion, and the customer 19 can be dissatisfied and the service can be improved. Further, since the queue of the customer 19 can be made into a database, it can be used for management and determination of the working hours of the employed staff.

Next, another embodiment of the customer queue fairing system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a shopping basket provided with product information detecting means, FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a device configuration of the shopping basket shown in FIG. 8, and FIG. 10 shows a screen display example of a store controller of another embodiment. FIG. 1 to 3
The same reference numerals are given to the same members as those shown in (1), and overlapping description will be omitted. In this embodiment, the shopping basket 61 is provided with the product information detecting means 63. The product information detecting means 63 may be, for example, provided with a scaler for measuring the weight of the product on the bottom surface of the shopping basket 61 so that the total weight of the product in the shopping basket 61 can be detected. The product information detecting means 63 may be capable of detecting the number of products by reading a tag or the like of the product, or may be one that detects both the weight and the number of products.

The shopping basket 61 sends the customer number to the wireless communication unit 5.
7, the product information is also transmitted.
The rest of the system configuration is the same as the above-described system configuration.

The procedure of the customer queuing fairness system according to this embodiment will be described. After completing the shopping, the customer 19 goes close to the settlement counter 11 (within the monitoring area).
Then, the wireless communication unit 57 of the shopping basket 61 of the customer 19
POS register 1 via the nearest wireless base station 15
3 to the wireless communication unit 33 of the customer 19 (customer N
o) and product information (for example, the number of products) are transmitted. PO
The S register 13 sends the customer No. and the product information from the run interface 31 to the run interface 47 of the store controller 25 in the backyard via the LAN cable 23.

The store controller 25 communicates with the customer N
o, the current time read from the clock unit 49, and the shopping coefficient from 0.1 to 1.0 are obtained from the product information, and stored in the storage unit 45 as a set. And store controller 2
5 is the payment counter 1 with the least queue at that time.
1 is found, and the settlement counter # is transmitted to the display unit 55 of the shopping basket 61 of the customer 19 in the reverse communication procedure. When the shopping cart 61 receives this, the CPU 51 instructs the display unit 55 to display the message “Please go to the cash register”. The customer 19 sees this and lines up at the settlement counter 11 displayed on the display unit 55.

The state in which the customers 19 are lined up one after another on the settlement counter 11 and form a line is displayed on the display unit 41 of the store controller 25 as shown in FIGS. A customer having a larger shopping coefficient in FIG. 10 requires a longer time for settlement. By taking this element and the element of the waiting time in FIG. 7 into consideration, the minimum queue displayed on the display unit 55 of the shopping basket 61 is considered. To determine.

According to the customer queuing fairness system according to this embodiment, the shopping basket 61 has the product information detecting means 63
Is provided and the minimum queue is determined in consideration of the shopping coefficient, so that the waiting time of the customer 19 can be more fairly equalized.

In the above-described embodiment, a queue at a checkout counter of a large supermarket or the like has been described as an example. However, the customer queuing fairness system according to the present invention also includes transmission / reception display means instead of a shopping basket. By carrying a customer (such as an IC card) with a customer, the invention can also be applied to the fairness of a queue formed for the purpose of waiting for an arbitrary process (for example, ticket gate, entrance, ATM).

[0030]

According to the present invention, transmission / reception display means for outputting identification information for identifying a customer and displaying a message for notifying the customer of queue information to be queued, and the order in which the customer carrying the transmission / reception display means enters the monitoring area. Detecting the identification information, comprising a storage and control means for searching the minimum queue at that time and displaying the message on the transmission and reception display means, periodically with the transmission and reception display means of the customer guided to the queue It was made to distinguish between the customer who guided to the queue and the customer who passed through the monitoring area, depending on whether or not the communication was continued for a certain period of time, so that the queue could be equalized, The waiting time of the customer can be equalized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a customer queuing fairness system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the system configuration of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an external view of a shopping basket used in the customer queuing fairness system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a customer guidance procedure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for adding a counter.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a settlement process.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of a store controller.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a shopping basket provided with product information detecting means.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a device configuration of the shopping basket illustrated in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of a store controller according to another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a conventional queue.

[Description of Signs] 19 Customer 21, 61 Shopping basket (transmission / reception display means) 25 Store controller (storage / control means) 63 Product information detection means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G07G 1/01

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] And 1. A transmission and reception display means for displaying a message notifying the queue information to align outputs the identification information identifying the customer to a customer, the customer carrying the said transmission reception display unit enters the monitor area detecting the identification information sequentially, searching for the minimum queue at that time and a storage and control means for displaying the message to the transceiver display means, the transmission and reception display means customers induced to wait queue Periodic
To communicate over a certain period of time
More customers queuing fairness system, characterized in that to distinguish between customers through customer before Ki監 viewing region derived the queue. 2. The customer queue according to claim 1, wherein when the waiting process is completed, the identification information stored in said storage / control means is deleted and the identification information of said transmission / reception display means is updated with new identification information. Fairness system. 3. When a new queue is opened, the new queue name is displayed on the transmission / reception display means carried by the customer having the longest waiting time at that time to guide the customer.
The described customer queue fairness system. 4. A product information detecting means is provided in said transmission / reception display means, and product information detected by said product information detecting means is transmitted to said storage / control means in addition to said identification information, and said product information is taken into account. 2. The customer queuing fairness system according to claim 1, wherein the minimum queue is determined.