Claims:STATEMENT OF CLAIMS
1. We claim that the process comprises of capturing image of batch number, manufacturing/expiry date & maximum retail price using a scanner and converting it into text form.
2. We claim that the process comprises of creating an environment using a variety of logics to identify the product name by using combination such as:
a. If Batch number & MRP matches – consider it match
b. If Batch number & Expiry matches – consider it match
c. If Batch Number has a character missing or character captured incorrectly by Picture AI – use the nearest match with help of MRP & Expiry to identify the product
d. Other multiple scenarios emanating from combination of Batch Number, Manufacturing Date, Expiry Date and MRP to identify the product and transmit the same to Inventory Management System

3. We claim that the process comprises of passing the identified information to the Inventory Management System or any other platform that holds the product details including name, pack, expiry date, manufacturing date and MRP – whether the product being scanned/image taken is meant for inward (purchase, free goods, sales return) or Outward(sales, bonus sales or purchase return) basis a tag captured in the App at time of scanning

4. We claim that the process comprises of an Inventory Management System which receives and processes appropriate entry and thus enables capturing the product name with need to do barcoding physically. , Description:FIELD OF INVENTION

The current invention relates to faster billing, better inventory management and identification of product name in Pharma, Over the Counter (OTC) products & Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) channel in India.

All Pharma, OTC & FMCG products, as of Dec 2020, lack batch level bar codes and many products lack even the basic product identifier bar codes. So when there is any physical movement of goods in the channel – company to distributor, distributor to retailer and retailer to consumer – there is physical stock verification and/or accompanied by data entry in the Inventory Management system. Same is true for reverse logistics. To reduce this pain point, many Pharma, OTC & FMCG retailers spend a lot of time, energy and money in putting batch level 2D barcodes in their own premises, post purchase.

The present invention relates to a process for Capturing Product Name for purpose of a transaction in the Channel (purchase, sales, ordering or reverse logistics) on the basis of batch number, Manufacturing/expiry Date and MRP of a packaged product – Medicine, OTC, FMCG and other such goods sold through channel – physical & digital

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PRIOR ART

Presently there is no process in place that allows identifying/capturing of Product name other than manual data entry process whereby data entry is done where package does not have a manufacturer printed barcode.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The Principal object of this invention is to facilitate transactions namely Ordering, Purchase, Purchase Return, Sales, Sales Return WITHOUT Data Entry and facilitate batch level stock verification without there being need to do data entry by physically reading the batch number and expiry date on the product strip.

Another Object of this process is to identify the name of the product using combination of batch number and/or manufacturing/expiry date and/or maximum retail price.

Summary of the Invention
In the Retail Channel, lack of product level barcodes and the consequent pain in data entry of each and every transaction (inward or outward) is one of the key reasons of inadequate & poor retail computerization. With the ability of this invention to identify product at batch level basis Picture AI & Batch Number, Manufacturing Date, Expiry Date & MRP algorithm, the pain of transaction data entry in channel will reduce substantially and lead to significant higher retail computerization. This will be very helpful to the different users as given below:

User Scenarios

- When company (CFA / Godown) bills goods to a Distributor then there is physical stock verification to ensure that the batch billed as per invoice in Inventory Management System and the batch packed & ready for dispatch – is identical and matching
- When the Distributor receives goods from a Company, then there is physical stock verification to ensure that the batch billed as per invoice in Inventory Management System and the batch packed & ready for dispatch – is identical and matching
- When Distributor bills goods to a Retailer then there is physical stock verification to ensure that the batch billed as per invoice in Inventory Management System and the batch packed & ready for dispatch – is identical and matching
- When Distributor bills goods to a Retailer then there is manual data entry in the Inventory Management System as product is not identified at batch level for products with barcode or not identified at all due to lack of product barcodes. In this scenario the invention can help identify product at batch-level without barcodes and transmit to Inventory Management System to perform the transaction (sales, order, sales return, purchase, purchase return) WITHOUT Data Entry.
- When Retailer bills goods to a Consumer then there is manual data entry in the Inventory Management System as product is not identified at batch level for products with barcode or not identified at all due to lack of product barcodes. In this scenario the invention can help identify product at batch-level without barcodes and transmit to Inventory Management System to perform the transaction (sales, order, sales return, purchase, purchase return) WITHOUT Data Entry.

SALIENT FEATURES:
With artificial AI to capture image and using the variable printed material at time of packaging (batch number, manufacturing/expiry & MRP) to identify a product, one can scan and do inward / outward movement of goods in a channel, exactly as if there is batch level barcode printed on the product by the manufacturer.

- Tie-up with Image AI processing company
- Using variable information printed at time of packaging (batch number, manufacturing date, expiry date & MRP) and maintaining batch wise product master to identify the product being transacted
- Transmitting output to Inventory Management System of the Retailer, Distributor or Company performing the transaction.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING:
Figure 1 depicts schematic diagram of the flow of the process.

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
• An image capturing device which could be a mobile phone or camera is used to capture the (Batch Number, Manufacturing Date, Expiry Date & MRP). Using artificial intelligence, the image quality is enhanced and through OCR technology the text is extracted from the image. From the text extracted the following fields are identified (batch number, manufacturing/expiry date & MRP)
• Batch Level Product Master built and maintained in a database helps capture exact product name basis text output given after Image Conversion
o Extracted information is then subjected to following logics to identify the appropriate product name, System checks for exact match of Batch number & MRP. If system identified only one product then the product is given as result, if multiple products are identified then system further checks for matchability with Expiry Date, if result is one item, it is given as result. In case if multiple entries are retrieved even at this step, then user is allowed to select appropriate name from the two records.
o If Batch Number and MRP do not retrieve any results, then Batch number & Expiry are matched– In case of only one SKU is retrieved then it is given as result, if multiple SKUs are retrieved then user is allowed to select the appropriate item
o If no data is retrieved in above scenarios, then batch number is auto corrected with the best appropriate match using combination of MRP, Expiry and comparing the batch number in database with batch number retrieved from Image.
o Other multiple scenarios emanating from combination of Batch Number, Manufacturing Date, Expiry Date and MRP to identify the product and transmit the same to Inventory Management System
• MergeAll passes to Inventory Management System, the product details including name, pack, expiry date, manufacturing date and MRP – whether the product being scanned / image taken is meant for inward (purchase, free goods, sales return) or outward (sales, bonus sales or purchase return) basis a tag captured in the App at time of scanning.
• Inventory Management System receives and process appropriate entry