Digital Menu Board With Cash Register And Kitchen Interface

Abstract

A product management and sales system for managing product preparation and sales. The system includes a kitchen display and input device displaying a plurality of perishable food items to be produced and receiving a production indication signal indicating production of at least one of the plurality of perishable food items. The system further includes a digital menu board displaying the plurality of perishable food items available for sale, a sales counter terminal for completing a sale of at least one of the plurality of perishable food items and outputting a sold indication signal; and a controller receiving the sold indication signal. The controller compares the sold indication signal to a predetermined inventory level for the at least one perishable food item and outputs an item-to-be-produced signal to the kitchen display and input.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A product management and sales system for managing product preparation and sales, said system comprising:
 a kitchen display and input device displaying a plurality of perishable food items to be produced and receiving a production indication signal indicating production of at least one of said plurality of perishable food items that have been prepared;   a digital menu board displaying the variety of said plurality of perishable food items that have been prepared and are available for immediate sale, the digital menu board being designed to be viewable by a customer;   a sales counter terminal for completing a sale of at least one of said plurality of perishable food items and outputting a sold indication signal of said at least one perishable food items;   a controller receiving said sold indication signal, said controller comparing said sold indication signal to a predetermined saleable product inventory level for said at least one perishable food items and outputting an item-to-be-produced signal to said kitchen display and input device;   the controller determining a current inventory of said plurality of perishable food items based on said sold indication signal and said production indication signal and, when said current inventory drops to a predetermined level, outputting a display signal to said digital menu board to remove said plurality of perishable food items from said digital menu board; and   marking indicia associated with each said perishable food item, said marking indicia uniquely identifying each of said perishable food items from the remaining of said plurality of perishable food items, wherein said controller further determines an age of each of said plurality of perishable food items, when said age of each said perishable food items is greater than a saleable age, said controller outputs a signal to one of said kitchen display and said sales counter terminal to remove the uniquely identified perishable food item from inventory.   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said controller maintains historic information relating to said perishable food items that exceed a saleable age in connection with a predetermined time frame, said historic information being used to predict future sale needs for said plurality of perishable food items. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 2 , wherein said controller determines a quantity of said plurality of perishable food items that remains unsold at the conclusion of said predetermined time frame and updates said historic information to indicate overproduction of said plurality of perishable food items. 
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said controller monitors a time between said production indication signal for each specific perishable food item prepared and current time to determine non-saleable quality of each of said plurality of perishable food items. 
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said controller further outputs advertisement programming to said digital menu board when available inventory of said plurality of perishable food items is detected based on said sold indication signal and said production indication signal. 
     
     
         6 . The system according to  claim 1 , further comprising a printer for printing a label with said marking indicia associated with each perishable food item prepared, said marking indicia uniquely identifying each perishable food item from the remaining of said plurality of perishable food items. 
     
     
         7 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said perishable food items are pizzas. 
     
     
         8 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said marking indicia includes a bar code.