US 5,963,920 A · Inventory control system and method

Abstract

A method and system for managing inventory of bulk commodities from a remote location. A rack storage unit at the point of use of the parts has multiple levels each having side by side rows for storing boxes of the parts. The rows are inclined downwardly from back to front to effect gravity feeding of the boxes toward the front. Each row has plural sites which may be occupied by a box, and a sensor senses whether a box is present at or absent from each site. Electrical signals from the sensors are processed and transmitted to the parts supplier at a remote location. The supplier receives a display containing information as to which sites are occupied and which are vacant. The supplier can respond by shipping parts that are indicated to be in short supply.

Claims13

Dependent claims

Inventory management apparatus for use by a supplier of items to a user that stores the items for use at a user location remote from the supplier location, said apparatus comprising:

a gravity feed storage rack providing a plurality of rows each having a plurality of sites at which an item may be located, each row being inclined downwardly from a loading end to a removal end to effect gravity feeding of items present in the row toward the sites nearest the removal end;
a sensor for each site sensing the presence or absence of an item at the corresponding site;
means for providing a signal as to whether an item is present at or absent from each site;
means for transmitting said signals to the supplier location;
and
means at the supplier location for providing an indication of the presence or absence of an item at each site based on the signals, thereby enabling the supplier to supply to the user items that are in short supply.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Inventory control system and method

Life of this patent

Inventory control system and method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13