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US 11,109,721 B2Granted
Dynamic product use reporting system
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsFrederick J. Williams, Jr., Stephen Becker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods, systems and apparatus for dynamically adjusting product use reporting schedules for dispensers to increase or decrease the frequency of such reports based on expected product use such as a date the dispenser is expected to be depleted.
Claims10
A dispensing system comprising:
- a product dispenser comprising:
- a housing comprising (i) a primary roll holder configured to hold a first roll and (ii) a stub roll holder configured to hold the first roll as a second roll when an amount remaining of the first roll is in a threshold range;
- a dispensing mechanism coupled to the housing and configured to dispense from the stub roll holder until the second roll is depleted and thereafter dispense from a new first roll in the primary roll holder;
- a low product alert detector configured to generate a low product alert in response to determining that an amount of the first roll, in the primary roll holder, remaining is in a threshold range;
- a dispenser counter configured to count a number of combined dispenses of the first and second rolls;
- and
- a data communication device configured to transmit the number of combined dispenses according to a reporting schedule and the low product alert;
- and
- a data processing system, remote to the product dispenser, configured to:
- receive the number of combined dispenses from the data communication device;
- determine available dispenses of the second roll based on the number of combined dispenses and a maximum number of dispenses of the first roll;
- determine an expected depletion date of the first and second rolls based on the number of combined dispenses, the available dispenses of the second roll and the maximum number of dispenses of the first roll including determine an estimated dispensing profile over time based on the number of combined dispenses;
- and
- wherein the data processing system is configured to change the reporting schedule based on at least one of the estimated dispensing profile and the expected depletion date, and the data communication device is configured to receive the changed reporting schedule from the data processing device and to transmit the number of combined dispenses according to the changed reporting schedule wherein the number of combined dispenses are transmitted periodically according to the changed reporting schedule and the transmission of the low product alert is transmitted asynchronously.
11 more elements
A dispensing system comprising:
- a product dispenser comprising:
- a housing comprising (i) a primary roll holder configured to hold a first roll and (ii) a stub roll holder configured to hold the first roll as a second roll when an amount remaining of the first roll is in a threshold range;
- a dispensing mechanism coupled to the housing and configured to dispense from the stub roll holder until the second roll is depleted and thereafter dispense from the primary roll holder;
- a dispenser counter configured to count a number of combined dispenses of the first and second rolls;
- and
- a data communication device configured to transmit the number of combined dispenses according to a reporting schedule;
- and
- a data processing system, remote from the product dispenser, configured to:
- receive the number of combined dispenses from the data communication device;
- determine available dispenses of the second roll based on the number of combined dispenses and a maximum number of dispenses of the first roll;
- determine an expected depletion date of the first and second rolls;
- and
- wherein the data processing system is configured to change the reporting schedule based on the expected depletion date, and the data communication device is configured to receive the changed reporting schedule from the data processing device and to transmit according to the changed reporting schedule, wherein the data communication device is configured to transmit the number of combined dispenses at least once according to the reporting schedule and at least once according to the changed reporting schedule.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.