Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Article handling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-28
2002-04-23
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Article handling
C700S241000, C700S244000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06377868
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates generally to storage and processing of data related to chemical product usage, and more particularly, to collecting, communicating, and analyzing chemical product usage data based on distribution of the product by a product dispenser.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Institutional laundry facilities, such as those employed in many large hotels, nursing homes, and hospitals, typically employ washing machines with separate automated detergent dispensers. Generally, these institutional washing machines are larger and wash greater volumes of laundry over time than standard consumer washing machines used in homes. Typically, a separate, automated cleaning product dispenser is connected to one or two industrial washing machines to automatically deliver cleaning products, such as detergent, bleach, rinse agent, etc., according to logic designed or programmed into the dispenser.
In a broader sense, automated chemical product (“chemistry”) dispensers are useful in many different chemical application systems, including cleaning systems relating to laundry operations, warewashing operations (e.g., a dishwasher), water treatment operations, and pool and spa maintenance, as well as other systems, such as food and beverage operations and agricultural operations. For example, chemical products used in a warewashing operation may include detergent, de-ionized water, sanitizers, stain removers, etc. Chemistry used in agriculture may include without limitation pesticides, herbicides, hydration agents, and fertilizers. Other applications of the present invention may be used in, without limitation, dairies and dairy farms, (e.g., in teat dips); breweries; packing plants; pools spas, and other recreational water facilities; water treatment facilities; and cruise lines. Other chemical products may include without limitation glass cleaning chemicals, hard surface cleaners, antimicrobials, germicides, lubricants, water treatment chemicals, rust inhibitors, etc.
Automated chemical product dispensers can reduce labor and chemistry costs by automatically delivering predetermined amounts of chemicals in a proper sequence. Furthermore, some chemical products can be hazardous in concentrated form; therefore, automated chemical product dispensers reduce the risks of exposure to operators, who would otherwise measure and deliver the chemical products manually.
In a laundry operation, to coordinate the proper delivery of cleaning product for each washing machine cycle, both the washing machine and the dispenser are preferably programmed to run a given “formula” for a particular type of item being washed. For example, if the laundry operator is washing bed sheets, he or she selects a washing machine selection corresponding to a set of cycles (i.e., a formula) for “sheets” and selects a separate dispenser setting corresponding to a “sheets” formula of chemical products (e.g., including possibly detergent, bleach, sanitizer, and rinse agent). Therefore, the dispenser supplies the proper cleaning product (or provides no cleaning product) for appropriate washer cycles, in accordance with the selected formulas. In this manner, for example, detergent is supplied to the washing machine during the wash cycle and not during the rinse cycle.
Unfortunately, operator error (i.e., improper formula selections on one or both of the washing machine and the dispenser) can result in the cleaning products being supplied to the washing machine during the wrong cycle or not at all. Such errors can result in improperly washed or potentially damaged laundry items. Other costly inefficiencies can include washing items without filling the wash basin to capacity, which wastes water, energy, and cleaning product and increases labor and maintenance costs.
In addition, individual institutional laundry accounts tend to be geographically dispersed, requiring many individual field service managers to physically visit individual laundry operations or accounts periodically, to monitor product usage on a periodic basis at those operations, and to provide the corrective instructions to the corresponding laundry operators. Typically, this manual method fails to provide the rapid feedback or the cross-account analysis that can be helpful to laundry operators in managing their operations.
Accordingly, it is desirable to maintain and analyze automatically a real-time or historical log of operational data detectable or storable by a dispenser or a dispenser-related device, preferably in relation to corporate information, such as work shifts, facility location, hotel occupancy rates, energy costs, etc., so as to facilitate rapid corrective action. Existing approaches, however, fail to provide the capability or capacity of automatically detecting large amounts of dispenser data, communicating and recording dispenser data and corporate data to a central database, and analyzing the data to provide feedback to the laundry operation and/or the dispenser, particularly across an aggregation of multiple accounts within the same corporation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A communications network coupling one or more chemical dispenser sites to a server computer and a database is useful to a corporation in managing its chemical product usage, as well as other costs. For example, a given hotel corporation operates multiple hotels throughout the nation. Each hotel, preferably corresponding to an account, includes one or more laundry operations (e.g., a dispenser site having a dispenser and one or more washing machines). The dispenser or detergent vendor operates a server computer and database to which dispenser data for one or more laundry operations within the corporation are stored. Exemplary dispenser data includes without limitation one or more of the following data types: dispensed detergent amounts; dispensing times, dates, and sequences; water temperature; water flow volumes; chemical product type; machine identifiers; washing machine signals; empty capsule indications; start/end of formula indications, formulas, and other information originating at the detector site, whether detected by a dispenser or by an associated device (such as a remote temperature probe). Corporate data relating to the laundry operation, such as account information, alignment information, utility costs, employee shift information, labor costs, and additional information relating to other aspects of the corporation or laundry operation, can be also be stored and analyzed alone or in combination with dispenser information.
By collecting and analyzing the dispenser and corporate data in the database, a dispenser vendor can analyze this data to generate performance information (such as product usage data) and provide feedback to the customer. For example, a calculation of the number of pounds of laundry washed per occupied room (“LbsOCR)” can be made from a combination of dispenser data (e.g., the number of loads, which corresponds to the number of completed formulas) and corporate data (e.g., the number of occupied rooms). Furthermore, a target can be set (statically or dynamically) for the LbsOCR result, so that LbsOCR results that are above the target are flagged as “out-of-spec. ” “Out-of-spec” results, which may indicate inflated detergent, labor, and utility expenses, for example, can be fed back to the customer to allow the customer to improve its laundry procedures.
Furthermore, the analysis may be performed across multiple accounts, such as multiple accounts within a single corporation or organizational region, to compare, for example, one account in a corporation with others accounts with the same corporation. An alignment identifier is used to relationally group multiple accounts. In this manner, for example, the LbsOCR of one account in a corporation can be compared against the LbsOCR of other accounts in the corporation to determine its relative performance. The customer can then use this information to improve the laundry procedures at poorer performing accounts.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problems are solved
Ecolab Inc.
Ellis Christopher P.
Tran Khoi H.
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