Product and document fulfilment system

Abstract

A product and document fulfilment system for merging together discrete articles and specific documentation which pertains to each discrete article, and for packaging and labelling the same. The system comprises an article conveyor on which discrete articles are carried seriatim, a first machine code reader for reading the unique machine readable code on each discrete article, a printer for printing a specific document pertaining to the article, instruction control means governing the delivery of the appropriate document to be merged with the article, a merging station where the specific document and the article are merged, a second machine code reader for reading the machine readable code on the specific document, first memory and counter means for recognizing the identity of the discrete article at the merging station, and accept/reject means to accept the merged article and specific document when a match occurs, or reject the item when no match occurs.

1 . A product and document fulfilment system for merging together discrete articles and specific documentation which pertains to each discrete article, and for packaging and labelling the same, comprising: 
 an article conveyor on which discrete articles are carried seriatim, and where each discrete article carries on it a unique machine readable code having instruction information pertaining thereto;    a first machine code reader for reading each unique machine readable code;    a printer for printing a specific document which pertains to each discrete article in keeping with the instruction information contained in said unique machine readable code associated with each said discrete article;    a merging station where said specific discrete article and its respective specific document are merged together; and    a control module providing instructions to merge the specific document and its respective discrete article.    
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising first memory and counter means associated with said article conveyor and said first machine code reader wherein, at any instant in time the identity of a specific discrete article at said merging station is known.  
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , further comprising an accept/reject module to accept the merged article and specific document when the information read from a specific document matches information from said first memory and counter means, so as to permit said merged article and specific document to proceed for further handling, and to reject said merged article and specific document when no match occurs.  
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein said first memory and counter means operates to store information as to the unique machine readable code for each specific discrete article as it is carried seriatim past said first machine code reader in memory, and to recover the information in that unique machine readable code for that specific discrete article from memory when said counter has determined that the specific discrete article has reached said merging station.  
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein said counter determines that a specific discrete article has reached said merging station as a result of one of the circumstances chosen from the group consisting of: a given number of sequential steps of said article conveyor have occurred since the article passed said first machine code reader, and a predetermined period of time has expired since the article passed said first machine code reader.  
   
   
       6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising a third machine code reader adjacent said merging station, whereby the unique machine readable code of a specific discrete article is read as the article reaches the merging station, and the information contained in the unique machine readable code for that specific discrete article is fed to said first memory and counter means.  
   
   
       7 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , further comprising a storage and supplemental conveyor means for delivering at least one non-discrete article to said merging station in keeping with instruction information contained in each unique machine readable code for each discrete article, as it is read at said first machine code reader.  
   
   
       8 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , further comprising a label printer and a packager for packaging each merged discrete article and its respective specific document and for placing a label on the package where said label carries specific discrete information in keeping with instructions derived from said instruction information contained in the respective unique machine readable code.  
   
   
       9 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , further comprising a label printer and a packager for packaging each merged discrete article, its respective specific document and said at least one non-discrete article, and for placing a label on the package where said label carries specific discrete information in keeping with instructions derived from said instruction information contained in the respective unique machine readable code.  
   
   
       10 . The apparatus of  claim 8 , further comprising a second machine code reader for reading information on the respective specific document.  
   
   
       11 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , further comprising a fourth machine code reader located after said label printer and packager for reading said label and comparing the information read therefrom with the information retained in said first memory and  
   
   
       12 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , further comprising a fourth machine code reader located after said label printer and packager, for reading said label and comparing the information read therefrom with the information retained in said first memory and counter means.  
   
   
       13 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein each discrete article is chosen from the group consisting of articles of clothing, books, pharmaceuticals packaged software, packaged computer parts or accessories, cosmetics, small household appliances, small household electronic devices, and sporting goods: and 
 wherein each specific document is chosen from the group consisting of invoices and packaging slips.    
   
   
       14 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein each discrete article is chosen from the group consisting of articles of clothing, books, pharmaceuticals, packaged software, packaged computer parts or accessories, cosmetics, small household appliances, small household electronic devices, and sporting goods; 
 wherein each specific document is chosen from the group consisting of invoices and packaging slips; and    wherein each non-discrete article is chosen from the group consisting of catalogues, brochures, CDs, promotional gifts, and combinations thereof.    
   
   
       15 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein each unique machine readable code on a respective discrete article is chosen from the group consisting of barcodes, magnetic characters, coded magnetic strips, OCR readable characters, and combinations thereof: and 
 wherein each machine code reader is chosen from the group consisting of barcode readers, magnetic character readers, magnetic strip readers, optical character readers and combinations thereof.    
   
   
       16 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein said instruction information includes data chosen from the group consisting of customer number identity of the respective discrete article, and the combinations thereof.