Virtual Inventory Management for ATM Error Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional money depositing/dispensing devices face delays in error recovery due to differences between the inventory amount managed by the device and the actual amount of banknotes present, especially when errors like banknote jams occur, leading to inefficiencies in financial institution operations.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of a virtual inventory management system that treats missing banknotes as a virtual inventory amount, allowing the device to manage the sum of actual and virtual inventory amounts, enabling accurate accounting and rapid error recovery by considering discrepancies as virtual inventory.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the device strictly requires actual banknotes to be present in the storage unit for error recovery, then inventory accuracy is maintained, but error recovery time increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the banknote inventory through the virtual inventory amount concept. When banknotes are physically absent from the storage unit, the system maintains a virtual representation of these banknotes in the inventory management system, allowing error recovery procedures to continue without waiting for physical banknote presence while maintaining accounting accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual inventory amount acts as an intermediary between the physical banknote storage and the inventory management system. It mediates the discrepancy between actual physical presence and book inventory records, enabling the system to reconcile accounts and perform error recovery without requiring immediate physical banknote availability.
2Reliability
If substitutive banknotes are prepared to replace torn banknotes, then inventory accuracy is restored, but the process delays error recovery and teller business
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary accounting actions by recording the virtual inventory amount before physical banknote replacement occurs. This allows the inventory management system to be updated and error recovery to proceed without waiting for the time-consuming process of locating and inserting substitutive banknotes, thus reducing loss of time while maintaining reliability through subsequent reconciliation.
3Measurement precision
If the device stops operation to perform returning process and reconcile inventory, then measurement accuracy improves, but productivity and operational efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic inventory management where the inventory amount is not fixed but can be adjusted through virtual inventory amounts. This allows the system to adapt to changing physical banknote presence without stopping operations, maintaining measurement precision through continuous virtual tracking while preserving productivity by avoiding operational interruptions.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual inventory amount enables continuous inventory management and error recovery procedures even when physical banknotes are temporarily absent. The useful action of inventory verification and error recovery continues without interruption by relying on virtual representations, thereby maintaining operational efficiency while achieving measurement accuracy.
Data Source
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AI summary
A money depositing/dispensing device includes an inventory amount obtaining unit, a virtual inventory amount setting unit, and a device inventory amount management unit. The inventory amount obtaining unit is configured to count money to be stored in a storage unit and count money fed from the storage unit, thereby successively obtaining an inventory amount in the storage unit. The virtual inventory amount setting unit is configured to set an inventory amount of banknotes which are not present in the device but should be treated as money present in the device, as a virtual inventory amount. The device inventory amount management unit is configured to manage, as an inventory amount in the device, a sum of the inventory amount in the obtained by the storage unit inventory amount obtaining unit and the virtual inventory amount set by the virtual inventory amount setting unit.