JPH07105281A - Order acceptance management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the response of a terminal device to order accepting operation through inexpensive constitution by retrieving an auxiliary data base and sending a request to retrieve a master data base to a host computer only when there is no corresponding data. CONSTITUTION:On the side of the terminal device 4, the auxiliary data base 5 which stores data received from the host computer 2 is provided and in the terminal device 4, a means which retrieves the auxiliary data base 5 and sends the request to retrieves the master data base 1 to the host computer 2 only when there is no corresponding data is provided. While a process for inquiring of the host computer 2 is performed, the auxiliary data base 5 on the side of the terminal device 4 is structured, so only data having features of an ordering person, an area, a period, etc., are structured in the auxiliary data base 5. Therefore, the host computer 2 is only inquired of about only articles which are low in ordering frequency, and the use charge for a communication line 3 is reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an order management system using a computer, and more particularly to an order management system which is suitable for mass sales of parts, inquiries about stocks, etc. in the distribution industry.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an order management system using a computer, all information is gathered in a master database that can be directly accessed only by a host computer, and at the time of business execution, the requested data is sent to the terminal device side via a communication line. It is configured to be sent.

[0003]

However, since an inquiry about the stock etc. is made to the host computer every time the ordering work is performed on the terminal device side, the usage fee of the communication line increases and the response is delayed. There is.

In this case, it is possible to distribute the information in the master database to each terminal device in advance.
In such a case, a large-capacity database is required on the terminal device side, and the cost becomes high, and further, unnecessary data is distributed to a specific orderer, resulting in a large amount of waste. is there.

Further, there is a problem that it is troublesome because the matching process between the information in the master database and the data distributed to the terminal device side has to be performed periodically.

An object of the present invention is to provide an order management system capable of improving the responsiveness to ordering work in a terminal device with an inexpensive structure.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an auxiliary database for storing data received from a host computer on the terminal device side and searches the auxiliary database in the terminal device. A means for transmitting a request for searching the master database to the host computer is provided only when the corresponding data does not exist.

[0008]

According to the above means, the auxiliary database on the terminal device side is constructed while executing the inquiry processing with the host computer.

Therefore, for each orderer, mainly the data regarding the products handled by the orderer is constructed in the auxiliary database. That is, in the auxiliary database, only data having characteristics such as the orderer, the region, and the time is constructed. Therefore, it is only necessary to inquire of the host computer about products whose order frequency is low, and it is possible to reduce the communication line usage fee and improve the responsiveness at the same time with an inexpensive structure.

[0010]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electric appliance order management system to which the present invention is applied. A host computer 2 having a master database 1 is connected to the host computer 2 via a communication line 3. And the auxiliary database 5 accessed by the terminal device 4.

In the master database 1 connected to the host computer 2, all databases used in the system such as product master, customer master and price master are integrated.

The terminal device 4 is composed of, for example, an intelligent workstation having a hard disk function. As shown in FIG. 2, the line access unit 41, the input unit 43 of the keyboard 42, and the auxiliary database access unit 4 are provided.
4 and a screen output unit 45.

The auxiliary database 5 is composed of a hard disk device, and may initially not store any information.

The terminal device 4 is arranged at each sales base of the product.

Next, the order management processing relating to such a configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, in order to place an order for a product, the terminal device 4
Input data such as customer code, product and quantity (step 301). Then, the terminal device 4 searches the auxiliary database 5 to check whether or not the detailed data on the inputted product is stored (steps 302, 30).
3). Further, the input data is displayed on the screen as shown in FIG.

As a result, when the detailed data on the input product is not stored, a message is sent to the host computer 2 so as to distribute the detailed information of the product (step 305).

However, if the detailed data is already stored, the detailed information transmission unnecessary signal is set in the electronic message and transmitted to the host computer 2 (step 304).

When the host computer 2 receives the electronic message from the terminal device 4, if the electronic message is an order request, the host computer 2 updates the master file with the order reservation in the master database 1 and performs the settlement process (step 601).

Next, it is checked whether or not the detailed information transmission unnecessary signal is ON, and if it is not ON, the detailed information of the corresponding product is transmitted from the master database 1 to the terminal device 4 (step 603).

In the example of FIG. 5, the product code shown in FIG.
Assuming that the product name shown in (b) is stored in the master database 1, the product code and the product name are transmitted.

Upon receiving the detailed information as a response message from the host computer 2 (step 402), the terminal device 4 stores the detailed information in the auxiliary database 5 (step 403). Then, the processing result is shown in FIG.
The screen is displayed as shown in (step 404).

By repeating such processing every time the ordering work is performed to the host computer 2, detailed data regarding the products mainly handled by the orderer is sequentially stored in the auxiliary database 5. In the subsequent ordering business, the detailed information transmission request is transmitted to the host computer 2 only when the detailed data of the corresponding product does not exist in the auxiliary database 5.

By the way, the auxiliary database 5 is rich in contents each time an order is placed, but its storage capacity is so small that it is impossible to store all of it.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, the access count value 70 is stored in the data stored in the auxiliary database 5.
When the auxiliary database 5 becomes full as shown in FIG. 8 (step 80)
1) Then, for example, 20% of the records are deleted in the order of increasing access count, and old data is discarded. On the other hand, if it is not full, data accumulation is permitted (step 803).

By doing so, the small-capacity auxiliary database 5 can be effectively used.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the auxiliary database on the terminal device side is constructed while executing the inquiry processing with the host computer, the auxiliary database has characteristics such as the orderer, the region, and the period. Only data with is built. Therefore, it suffices to make an inquiry to the host computer only for products whose order frequency is low, and it is possible to reduce the communication line usage fee and improve the responsiveness at the same time with an inexpensive structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an order management system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of a terminal device in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a transmission process of a terminal device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a reception process of the terminal device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a screen display example of a terminal device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a reception process of a host computer.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of data accumulated in an auxiliary database.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for deleting old data from the auxiliary database.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Master database, 2 ... Host computer, 3
... communication line, 4 ... terminal device, 5 ... auxiliary database.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an order management system comprising a host computer, a master database and a terminal device, an auxiliary database for storing data received from the host computer is provided on the terminal device side, and the auxiliary database is searched in the terminal device. An order management system comprising means for transmitting a request for searching the master database to the host computer only when there is no corresponding data.