FUJI ELECTRIC JOURNAL May/2005 (Vol.78-No.3)

TOP PAGE Vending Machines and Distribution Systems

Trends and Future Outlook for the Vending Machine Market in Japan
Makoto Onoda, Junichi Hiramatsu
There are more than 5.5 million vending machines in Japan, and these machines play an indispensable role in daily living. Although the vending machine market is said to be saturated, there are many remaining challenges including improving environmental responsiveness through energy savings and CFC-free operation, adoption of universal designs, greater safety and security of commodity sales, sales of a wider array of new products, and easier operation. This paper examines the trends of the vending machine market in Japan and also presents the status and outlook for new product development by Fuji Electric.

New F-series of Can and Bottle Beverage Vending Machines
Koji Hachii, Yoshikazu Saitou, Tomonori Maekawa
Approximately 2.19 million can and bottle beverage vending machines are installed at indoors and outdoors locations in Japan. Easeof- use is desired not only for the beverage manufacturer employees or the store clerks who replenish or changeover the types of products being sold, collect deposited money, and replenish coins stored in the vending machines for providing change, but it is also desired for consumers, so that the vending machines can be used by a wide range of potential customers, from children to adults. Accordingly, Fuji Electric has developed the new F-series of can and bottle beverage vending machines, which feature a new front door design, commodity storage and sales racks, cooling and heating units, and an electronic component that controls sales and cooling/heating.

Energy Saving Technology for Beverage Vending Machines
Masamichi Iwasaki, Kouji Takiguchi, Satoru Kondo
Can and bottle beverage vending machines are prescribed under the "Law concerning rationalization of energy usage" in Japan. With the introduction of a "top runner" system, target values are established for amount of annual power consumption, and beginning in FY2005, it is mandatory that these targets are reached. Fuji Electric has previously been involved in energy-savings efforts and nearly achieved the target value in 2004. An even more ambitious target value has been set for 2005, and Fuji has developed new energy-saving technology to complete its F-series of vending machines. This paper presents an overview of that energy-saving technology.

New Glass-front Design Vending Machine
Masahiro Nishi, Yoshio Yasaka, Hiroshi Watanabe
Glass-front design vending machines are known in the market as general-purpose beverage vending machines capable of selling products of various package types. Recently, with enforcement of the "Heart Building Law" (a Japanese law for making buildings more accessible to the elderly), vending machines are increasing being required to support the widespread use of universal concepts, provide greater sales per unit (per machine) and to have the capability for selling a diverse variety of products. In response to these market needs, Fuji Electric has developed a fully redesigned, new glass-front design vending machine that provides advanced functionality and high reliability. This paper describes the main features and construction of this new vending machine.

New Cup Beverage Vending Machine with a Beverage Mixing System
Kenichi Hamamoto, Hideyuki Minezaki, Manabu Ueno
A new cup beverage vending machine with a beverage mixing system has been developed. This unit is equipped with a pressure brewer for brewing espresso coffee, a fully functional suction brewer for brewing regular coffee, and a special mixing bowl for whipped cream as standard equipment. As an option, a frozen drink making mechanism may also be attached for making frozen beverages. The ability to supply a wide variety of beverages at a high unit price is expected to revitalize the cup beverage vending machine market.

Environmentally Friendly Technology for Vending Machines
Yukio Kimura, Jun Shinohara, Toshiaki Tsuchiya
Vending machines have a multifaceted interaction with the environment, and affect global warming, resource depletion, ozone depletion and the like. For this reason, environmentally friendly technology must be utilized during the product commercialization process. Thus far, environmentally friendly technologies have been developed and incorporated into environmentally friendly commercial products. From the viewpoint of product assessment, technical development is focusing on the 3 "R's" (reduce, reuse and recycle) and the reduction of harmful substances. This paper discusses the latest environmentally friendly technology for vending machines and Fuji Electric's efforts to reduce such harmful substances, including compliance with the RoHS directive and CFC-free operation.

Software Engineering for Vending Machines
Takeo Nakano, Masanobu Shigeta, Tetsuhito Watanabe
Recently, with the application of network technology and Javabased functionality to vending machines, new software for these vending machines is increasingly being developed. Consequently, it is necessary to improve software productivity and quality control for complex- function software. For this purpose, we pursued comprehensive improvements to process and product development. This paper summarizes the changes in software technology and describes the application of object-oriented and aspect-oriented methods to vending machines. Fuji Electric's involvement with CMM (capability maturity model) and ISO9001 are also discussed.

Application of Information Technology to Vending Machines
Yasuhiko Miyata, Yoshinobu Kotte, Hisataka Takeda
The use of the non-contact IC cards has been promoted by the railroad industry and regional E-cash service companies, and even more widespread use is anticipated as cell phones become equipped with these cards. With the popularity of non-contact IC card-equipped cell phones, vending machines are being requested not only to provide "osaifu" functionality (a micro-payment system), but also new services in order to increase sales. This paper describes applicable information technology and the expanded use of the Java platform, mainly for development of consumer interfaces and to ensure the easy installation of new services.

Vending Machines with Enhanced Functions to Boost Sales
Koichi Kubota
Within the beverage and food industry, a new market for healthconscious food products and beverages has recently achieved astonishing growth. This new market promises to foster new types of products to be sold in vending machines. Moreover, with the remarkable development of information technology, even in the retail world, new sales modes such as Internet-based sales and new cashless methods for settling small payments are beginning to appear. This paper describes Fuji Electric's efforts to integrate information technology and vending machine technology and develop a new for market vending machines having enhanced functions to boost sales.

Trends and Future Prospects for Food Service Equipment
Tsuneyuki Nakahara, Masahiko Koyasu
For over the past 40 years, Fuji Electric has developed innovative equipment for all sectors of the food service equipment industry and has been both a market pioneer and contributor to the revitalization of the industry. This paper discusses the present status of commercial products in each market sector, categorizes foodservice equipment according to its intended use as either restaurant-use or office-use, and describes the changing environment, needs, trends and future prospects for each category.

The "Soup Deli" Soup Dispenser
Kazuhiko Kanbe, Tadashi Nagasaki, Masahiro Katou
Recently, in the Tokyo metropolitan area and elsewhere in Japan, specialized soup restaurants have opened for business, and are gaining popularity particularly among young girls. In light of these circumstances, Fuji Electric has developed a soup dispenser capable of scooping up soup together with its chunky ingredients, and then selling it. This machine is a compact, table-mountable type dispenser that holds 5L each of two varieties of soup. The soup storage unit has an airtight construction designed to maintain good cleanliness and quality. The soup is heated and kept warm by an efficient and safe IH heating method. This paper reports the results of Fuji Electric's development work, focusing mainly on aspects relating to the vending operation.

Compact-type Iced Coffee Dispenser
Yukihide Mochida, Yasuhiko Kuroyanagi, Shunsuke Kowase
The number of coffee shops selling inexpensive good-tasting coffee has increased in recent years, and the coffee market continues to expand. In this type of coffee market, there are only a few large-sized machines that sell iced coffee. Aiming to pioneer a new market, Fuji Electric has developed a compact, table-mountable iced coffee dispenser. This dispenser is ideal for industrial-use as it automatically performs all processes from the extraction of coffee by paper drip filtering to the subsequent quick cooling and then refrigeration of the coffee.

Automatic Beer Dispenser Equipped with a New Flow Sensor
Masashi Kawamura, Kazuhide Nakashima, Masahiro Matsumoto
Automatic beer dispensers are desired to be compact yet have larger storage capacity, to have improved operability and serviceability, and recently, to have a more stable and hygienic beer spout. In response to these needs, Fuji Electric has developed a new beer dispenser. The main features of this new dispenser are as follows. (1) Improved stability of the amount beer dispensed due to a new non-contact flow sensor and more efficient cooling efficiency of the tank. (2) Detailed function and service settings are possible with an LCD and keyboard. (3) Sanitation is improved with a dedicated button that, when pressed, initiates water rinsing of the beer circuit.

Toward a Comfortable Commercial Environment
(Store Total Plan and Produce)
Kenji Yano
The food distribution market, which is linked to changes in our lifestyle, is changing with surprising rapidity, and new items soon become obsolete. Moreover, the food distribution market faces such large challenges as promoting energy savings and ensuring the safety and security of food. In this era of retail store development, Fuji Electric is applying a "store total plan and produce" (STPP) concept to propose a general solution for stores. This paper introduces the STPP concept, the processing of business affairs, and actual practical examples. The paper also touches upon the future direction of commercial distribution management and the elemental technologies.

Total Energy Saving System for Food Store Equipment
Haruhiko Sudo, Michio Takenaka, Kazuhiro Sakai
In the food distribution industry, there is increasing need for a system capable of stronger and more efficient food safety control, and in response to environmental concerns, capable of energy savings. Against this backdrop, Fuji Electric has developed a total energy saving system for food store equipment. This system is equipped with a fullfledged equipment management function, and in consideration of the store's total heating budget, a function that adapts to changes in the environment both inside and outside the store in order to realize effectively energy savings. This paper presents an overview of this system.

Environmental Assessment Laboratory
Yukio Endo, Shinichi Nakayama, Satoshi Matsumoto
Convenience stores and supermarkets are working to improve energy savings throughout the entire store in order to reduce operating costs and lessen the burden on the environment. In response to this trend, an environmental assessment laboratory was introduced using the store itself as the laboratory. Since the four seasons as well as night and day conditions can be modeled, highly reproducible assessment data can be obtained within a short time period. The store's internal temperature, humidity and airflow distributions can be measured, enabling more accurate simulation of the store's internal environment and more accurate calculations of the store's total heating budget. The most efficient, energy-saving cooling and refrigeration equipment can be selected and a total plan for a comfortable store equipment layout can be proposed, already having been verified.

Next-generation Display Cases for Supermarkets
Takeshi Watanabe, Kazuya Nakayama, Takashi Hirano
In recent years, the supermarket industry's requests for greater energy savings of store equipment and the pursuit of high-grade freshness control, which is closely related to food safety, have been regarded as more important than ever before. In response to these market needs, and based on the development themes of "global warming prevention" and "food safety and security," Fuji Electric is developing supermarket-use next-generation display cases that realize energy savings and high freshness control. This paper presents and overview and describes features of these new display cases.

New Open Refrigerated Cabinets for Convenience Stores
Katsuhiko Maegawa, Yutaka Ando, Takayuki Yano
With the recent increase in competition among convenience stores there has been little increase in the number of new shop openings, and instead, more efficient sales are being pursued. Moreover, environment- related issues such as energy-savings and the conversion to HFC refrigerant are actively being pursued. In response to market needs, Fuji Electric has developed open multi-rack refrigerated cabinets (EFT35 series) as next-generation display cases. This paper presents an overview of these cases.

Modular Store Display Systems for Convenience Stores
Yoshito Kawai
In the fight for survival within the mature market environment of the convenience store industry, store "scrap and build" activities have accelerated, and emphasis is focused on building a competitive network of stores. Moreover, the proactive handling of environmental issues is also demanded based on corporate and societal responsibility. Accordingly, Fuji Electric has rethought conventional construction techniques to develop a modular store unit system ("ecolo-unit") of factory-produced units and panels that are assembled onsite. With this modular system, the time required for store construction is reduced dramatically, the construction environment is improved, environmental burden is lessened, and buildings may be reused, which had been impossible until now.

Trend and Overview of Automation in the Settlement Process
Hitoshi Yamamoto
This paper describes the present status and near-future outlook for the automated settlement of small monetary amounts, which are transacted daily in the marketplace. Associated with settlement, automated deposits and withdrawals demand unmanned operation and labor savings, and the capability to eliminate counterfeit currency and prevent miscalculations is also strongly desired. Vending machines are a widely known practical example, but automated settlement is also recently becoming widespread in the distribution field, mainly at small stores. E-cash is also attracting attention as a new method for settlement. In addition to the advantage of cashless purchasing, other services such as the awarding of points are also being tried experimentally. An overview of automated settlement is provided, focusing on the scope of Fuji Electric's business.

Built-in Type Bill Validator
Kazuyoshi Miyasaka, Taku Nakazawa, Kazumi Enomoto
The industry's first built-in compact validator with attached repository has been developed as a bill validator for use in pachinko halls. By making a hole in the lamp board of a slot machine, and inserting the validator into that hole, extension from the surface can be minimized. By equipping the validator unit with a paper bill repository, installation is possible without having to introduce a large system for transporting the paper bills received. As a result, even small pachinko halls in metropolitan and suburban areas can easily modify a Medal Sand machine into a system capable of handling paper bills.

Compact E-cash Charger
Hisashi Kiyosawa, Eiji Itajiki, Yoshihiro Nakamura
Several methods for implementing E-cash involving contact IC cards have been introduced, but were not well received due to their lack of convenience. However, with the introduction of "FeliCa," a simple, high-speed and secure non-contact IC card, the use of E-cash is accelerating rapidly, not only with cards, but also with cell phones. This paper describes Fuji Electric's compact E-cash charger, based on a new concept and developed in order to support the growing market for "Edy" E-cash.

Compact Cash Management Equipment for Self-service Stations
Yoshinori Itou, Katsumi Ooe, Toshinao Shimizu
Fuji Electric has developed the "ECS06," an ultra-compact cash machine, capable of being housed together with a POS terminal inside a gas pump. Features of this cash machine include, (1) an ultra-compact size that is capable of storing many coins and bills, (2) the capability to handle four types of paper bills and six types of coins, and (3) the capability to reuse deposited bills and coins to provide change. This cash machine is provides speedy and accurate onsite account settlement, and is expected to contribute greatly to the promotion of self-service at service stations. Fuji Electric plans to apply this newly developed technology to other market sectors in the future.

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