FIELD OF INVENTION:

The invention relates to a process realized through an electronic device which will ensure 'FAIR' LPG Cylinder Delivery to households every time in terms of weight of LPG (to ensure that a customer gets the said quantity of LPG in every cylinder), empowerment of the customer to accept or deny the delivery as per the measured weight and to make delivery reports in real-time available with Time, Weight and Customer Information to the Inventory/Central Server.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

In the existing delivery system:
1. Customer books a cylinder through Phone, SMS or by Visiting to the
agency referred by the company (Indane, HP, Bharat Gas etc.) they are registered with.
2. Agency generally takes 4-7 days time to deliver the cylinder after the booking.
3. Home delivery of LPG Cylinders is done by delivery boys who work for their respective GAS Agencies.
4. Specific areas in the city are entitled to these delivery boys for the delivery purpose.
5. Every morning Agency employees assign the no. of cylinders to be delivered in various house-holds to these delivery boys according to their allotted area.
6. These delivery boys are usually equipped with a mechanical weigh scale and supposed to measure the weight every time in-front of the customer at the time of delivery.
7. Customer pays the amount and receives the cylinder by signing on the delivery challan/slip.
8. Delivery boy also collects the empty cylinder from every house at the time of delivery.
9. Delivery boy returns to the agency in evening after all the deliveries and handover the duly signed challan and the money to the agency manager/employee.
10. The agency manager/employee feeds the information of delivery to the
system as per the received challans.

The inventory and Delivery Process (Existing):
1. Agency raises its demand to the company as per the total requirement(Here all entries per delivery, demand and existing stock are fitted in the system manually).
2. Company confirms the same to the agency as well as the bottling plant.
3. Agency gets the allotted cylinders from the bottling plant.
4. Cylinders kept in the Go-down' and get dispatched according to the scheduled delivery to households.
5. Delivery-boys gets a per day schedule of delivery according to his assigned areas/locality.
6. Delivery boy's core responsibility is to deliver the cylinder safely to the households as per the delivery schedule.
7. In return of every delivery, the customer signs a cha I Ian/receipt for the same.
8. Inventory gets updated only when all the delivery boys deliver/hand over the duly signed receipts to the agency (Normally in evening).

The existing system is disadvantageous to the customer because of the following reasons:
1. The mechanical (spring based/other) weigh equipments are easy to get
altered/malfunctioned hence most of the time the customer end-up getting a less filled LPG cylinder.
2. Most of the customers complain about the precision of such weigh scales.
3. Delivery boys are generally accused for LPG theft from the cylinders before its delivery to homes.
4. Ladies/Women at homes generally accept the delivery during the day time and are not familiar/find difficulties reading such scale.

The existing system is disadvantageous to the agency on account of following reasons:
1. When customer complaints to the company, it is the agency which gets penalized or even gets their license cancelled.
2. Agencies are helpless as it is hard to stop wrong doings outside of their premises.
3. Currently the agencies have no provision to know the weight of a cylinder at the time of delivery.
4. Even to update the inventory they have to rely on these delivery boys (No Automatic updates facility available).

One object of the invention is to provide a tamper-proof device that measures the accurate weight of an LPG cylinder and gives a digital output to the customer at the time of delivery.

Another object of the invention is empowering the customer to accept or deny the delivery as per their satisfaction in terms of weight of the cylinder.

Still another object of the invention is to provide instant real-time delivery information to inventory/central server with the weight, customer information, and delivery time stamp.

Object of the invention is to provide cash-less delivery facility to the consumer.

Further object of the invention is to derive report from the data sent by the device for Post-facto analysis.

Still further object of the invention is to provide alert facility on a 'less weight cylinder delivery' to both Agency as well as customer with the details of delivery boy, weight and time of delivery information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:-

A tamper proof solution to measure the cylinder weight at time of Dispatch (Stationary Unit) as well as the time of Home Delivery (Mobile Unit) capture the consumer/customer acceptance and manage the Inventory at Agency level and/or Organization level by sending relative information (Weight, Customer Details with Acceptance and Time of the Delivery) to the designated server instantly.

ACCOMPAYING DRAWING (Figure 1):-

1. Electro-Mechanical weight scale: This weigh scale measures the weight and display the exact weight on the in-built electronic display. It has got 4-10 functional keys to operate (i.e. ON/OFF, TARE, FUNTION, SEND etc.). It has got 2-3 LED's which denominates various situations (i.e. Power, Hold etc.).
2. GSM/GPRS Modem: A standard GSM modem (Tri-Band/Quad-Band) enabling the device to send/receive information with stamp mainly to the server by GPRS and/or SMS.
3. RFID Reader: RFID reader to capture the 'Customer Information' from the 'SMART/RFID CARD'.
4. RFID SMART CARD: An IS014443 Type A/B card with unique ID no.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPAYING DRAWING:

The proposed invention relates to a device and a method, to authenticate measured weight of a LPG cylinder recorded in the bottling plant/agency go-down, by the customer who receives it from bottling plant via an agency. It also envisages
method of updating the inventory of the agency once the receipt of the said cylinder is duly confirmed by the customer after being satisfied about the accuracy of weight as declared by the agency. Realization of due payment from the pre-paid card is also implemented through the device instantly.

The device comprises of (Fig. 1) an LCD Panel (2) an electro-mechanical weight scale (1) with an LCD Panel for digital display of weight. It has also a plurality of function keys (not shown) to perform various assigned functions like ON/OFF, TARE, FUNCTION, SEND etc. There are also plurality of LEDs (Light emitting diodes) which denominates various situations like POWER, HOLD etc (not shown).

There is also a standard GSM/GPRS module (3) (Tri-Band or Quad-Band) enabling the device to send or receive information with time stamp mainly to the central server by GPRS or SMS.

The device also comprises of a RFID reader (4) (Radio frequency identification) to capture the 'Customer information' from the SMART/RFID card (5). This can also be used as a pre-paid card to make the payment procedure easy for customers. A central processor unit (6) co-ordinates all the functions.

The 'smart card' (5) has a unique ID No which on being flashed on the device records approval of customer, updates the inventory on a remote server maintained at the agency and realizes payment through a prepaid card. The central server is provided with software application integrated in the existing inventory module for instant updation and generation of various reports. This GSM/GPRS based telematic device combined with RFID Technology enables cash less transaction as already mentioned.

The electronic device have means to measure the weight of the LPG cylinder at the time of delivery with authentication and payment facility for customer and posting real time delivery update to the server with, weight time of delivery, collection and customer information. The device is also capable of sending alerts related to less-weight delivery, low battery etc to the customer as well as the agency and/or company.

The process as proposed in the invention works in two steps, (a) from bottling plant to agency (b) from agency to household with concurrent flow of information to a central server.

From Bottling Plant to Agency:
1. Weight measurement at 'bottling plant' at the time of dispatch to a
particular agency against their order. (To update the server automatically with relative information i.e. How many cylinders loaded for delivery, Driver information, Agency information along with weight of each & every cylinder with dispatch date and time information)
2. Weight measurement at the time of 'unloading' at Agency Godown. (To update the server automatically with relative information i.e. How many cylinders reached at agency, Driver information, Agency information along with weight of each & every cylinder with date and time information)
3. Alert message/report gets generated automatically if any kind of mismatch/indiscipline occurs in terms of Cylinders with less LPG weight and/or less no. of cylinders etc.

From Agency to Houses:
1. Weight measurement at 'Agency Godowns' at the time of dispatch to various households (To update the server automatically with relative information i.e. How many cylinders loaded for delivery, Delivery boy's information, along with weight of each & every cylinder with dispatch date and time information)
2. Weight measurement of the cylinder (to be delivered) by delivery boy of in front of the customer at the time of delivery. (To ensure customer about the weight of cylinder at the time of delivery)
3. Customer acknowledges the weight and accepts the delivery by flashing her SMART CARD (Unique ID card provided by the company/agency) on the weighing scale.
4. The acceptance/authentication information goes to server and updates the related delivery reports.
5. Money gets deducted automatically from the pre-paid value of the account of customer.
6. Customer gets information of payment and remaining balance via SMS/E-Mail.
7. Delivery boy collects the empty cylinder and returns to the agency (No fear of carrying cash etc.)

All necessary information (Weight of the cylinder at the time of delivery, Payment details, Delivery boy details as well as Customer details) reaches the central server in no time (real time).

WE CLAIM:

1. An electronic device for measurement and authentication of weight as recorded in the bottling plant, instant updation of inventory and
realization of due payment comprising of:
- electromechanical weigh scale (1)
- LCD display panel (2)
- functional keys
- a central processor unit (6)
- GSM (global system for mobile) or
GPRS (general packet radio service) module (3)
- RFID (radio frequency identification) (4)
- smart card reader (5)
- server (not shown)

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein means to capture the 'customer information' from the Smart Card is provided by the RFID smart card reader.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein means to transmit the captured
information with time stamp to the server is provided by a GSM/GPRS modem (Tri-Band or Quad-Band).

4. The device as claimed in claim 1, the electro-mechanical weight scale is provided with means to measure the weight and display the exact weight on the electronic display in an LCD Panel.

5. The device as claimed in claim l, wherein the electro-mechanical weight scale has got a plurality of functional keys to operate ON/OFF, TARE, FUNCTION, SEND etc and has also means to denominate various situations POWER, HOLD with a plurality of LED (light emitting diodes).

6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a server is provided with software application tool integrated in the inventory module for instant updation and generation of various reports.

7. A method of measurement and authentication of weight of LPG cylinder as recorded in the bottling plant, by the customer instant updation of inventory and realization of due payment as claimed in claim 1 consist steps of:
- measurement of weight at the bottling plant at the time of dispatch
- updating the central server simultaneously with associated information regarding said dispatch
- measurement of weight at the time of unloading at agency go-down and updating the server with related information on arrival of the cylinders
- generate mismatch report
- measurement of weight at agency go-down at the time of dispatch from go-down to respective household
- updating the server with related information
- measurement of weight at the customer premises in front of delivery boy
- acceptance or rejection by the customer through flashing of smart card on the weighting scale
- updation of acceptance/rejection information in the server collating all delivery reports
- deduction of necessary payment from the prepaid value of the account of customer.