Systems and methods for article inventory transfer

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of managing an inventory of articles includes receiving, by a transfer processor, article information associated with the articles, and identifying, by the transfer processor, one of the articles based on an article identifier. The method also includes retrieving article information based on the identifier, the article information including care information for the one of the articles, and, when the identified article is an article requiring special care, a special care requirement is included in the care information, and preparing the article for transfer based on the care information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method of managing an inventory of articles, comprising:
 receiving, by a transfer processor, article information associated with the articles;   identifying, by the transfer processor, one of the articles based on an article identifier;   retrieving article information based on the identifier, the article information including care information for the one of the articles, and, when the identified article is an article requiring special care, a special care requirement is included in the care information; and   preparing the article for transfer based on the care information.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the special care requirement is at least one of a storage requirement, a protective packaging requirement, or an inspection requirement. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the care information is indicative of an article that includes at least one of silk, leather, angora, or cashmere. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further including causing a display to display a notification indicative of the special care requirement. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the special care requirement is indicative of an article that requires a protective storage or a protective packaging. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the special care requirement is indicative of an article that requires a protective packaging, wherein preparing the article for transfer includes placing the article in the protective packaging and placing an additional article identifier outside of the protective covering based on the special care requirement. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further including presenting a prompt to produce a copy or print a copy of the article identifier. 
     
     
         8 . A method of transferring an article, comprising:
 receiving one or more articles at a transfer station;   identifying, by a transfer processor, at least one of the articles by reading an article identifier associated with the at least one of the articles;   retrieving article information of the at least one of the articles based on the article identifier;   identifying a group identifier and updating, by the transfer processor, the article information with the group identifier; and   transferring the article to a transfer location.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the group identifier is identified by reading the group identifier with a reading device. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the identified article is identified by reading the article with the reading device and receiving article information from a database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , further including updating the article information to indicate the transfer location. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , further including determining a protective packaging requirement of the article, the protective packaging requirement being included in the article information. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , further including reading an inspector identifier with a reading device. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein updating the article information includes associating an inspector with at least one article. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the article identifier includes at least one of a one-dimensional barcode, a two-dimensional barcode, or an RFID tag. 
     
     
         16 . A system for tracking an article during a transfer process, comprising:
 a plurality of article identifiers associated with a corresponding plurality of articles;   a reading device configured to read the article identifiers and output identifier information; and   a transfer processor in communication with the reading device and including one or more processors configured to:
 receive the identifier information from the reading device, 
 retrieve article information associated with the plurality of articles based on the identifier information, and 
 identify care information of the plurality of articles based on the article information. 
   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , further including a display, wherein, when the identified article is an article requiring special care as indicated in the article information, the transfer processor is configured to cause the display to display a notification indicative of the special care requirement on the display, the special care requirement being indicative of at least one of a storage requirement or a protective packaging requirement. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the transfer processor is configured to cause the display to display a prompt to create a duplicate of one of the article identifiers. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the transfer processor is configured to cause the display to display the prompt based on a determination that the identified article is the article requiring special care. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the reading device includes at least one of a scanning device or an imaging device and the article identifiers include at least one of a one-dimensional barcode, a two-dimensional barcode, or an RFID tag.