System for coordination and documentation of material handling

Abstract

Arrangement for coordinating and documenting the handling of material between at least two sites remote from one another, which is useful particularly in inventory control situations and the movement of bulk pharmaceuticals. There is provided at a first site a master data communicator unit whereby an operator may, upon preliminarily addressing the programmable data lock portion of the master unit with the correct code, enter data, for example, alphanumeric data, into the master unit. This information is automatically forwarded to one or more slave units associated with respective slave sites, wherein the information entered at the master unit is continuously displayed on both the master and slave units. The information forwarded to the slave unit is passed through an information distribution control arrangement situated at the master site by which an operator may control the dissemination of the data entered in the master unit to the slave units on a need-to-know basis. Provision is made in the slave units to forward to the master unit indication as to whether the information displayed on the respective slave units is acceptable or not. Indication of the acceptance of the information at a particular slave site may automatically effect a print-out of that information, for example, in the form of a label. The master unit includes various electronic logic features providing for example a facility for correcting improperly-entered data and locking out the entry of further data following completion of a desired data entry.