U.S. patent application number 10/934052 was filed with the patent office on 2005-03-10 for using location event information for supply chain process analysis.
This patent application is currently assigned to Sensitech Inc.. Invention is credited to Leshuk, Jeffrey Allen, Schmidtberg, Rupert A..
Application Number | 20050055268 10/934052 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34280165 |
Filed Date | 2005-03-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050055268 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Schmidtberg, Rupert A. ; et
al. |
March 10, 2005 |
Using location event information for supply chain process
analysis
Abstract
A product supply chain may be viewed not just as a series of
discrete, unrelated shipment transactions, but as a "process" (or
pipeline) that can be subject to statistical process control. The
present invention is directed to novel systems and methods for
collecting data concerning one or more aspects of a supply chain,
for performing statistical analysis on the collected data to
facilitate the identification of anomalies or inefficiencies in the
process, and for communicating the results of such statistical
analysis to those responsible for the supply chain so that remedial
measures may be taken, if appropriate. Among other things, a method
is disclosed that involves storing, in memory accessible to at
least one processor, data reflecting at least one determined value
of at least one monitored aspect of a shipment of at least one item
from a shipping location to a receiving location, and also storing,
in memory accessible to the at least one processor, location event
information corresponding to the shipment of the at least one item
from the shipping location to the receiving location. The at least
one processor uses the location event information stored in memory,
together with the data stored in memory, to generate at least one
report involving the at least one determined value.
Inventors: |
Schmidtberg, Rupert A.;
(Westford, MA) ; Leshuk, Jeffrey Allen; (Davis,
CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Robert M. Abrahamsen
Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.
600 Atlantic Avenue
Boston
MA
02210-2206
US
|
Assignee: |
Sensitech Inc.
Beverly
MA
|
Family ID: |
34280165 |
Appl. No.: |
10/934052 |
Filed: |
September 3, 2004 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60500565 |
Sep 5, 2003 |
|
|
|
60519458 |
Nov 12, 2003 |
|
|
|
60526878 |
Dec 4, 2003 |
|
|
|
60564402 |
Apr 22, 2004 |
|
|
|
60564447 |
Apr 22, 2004 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/13 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/0639 20130101;
G06Q 10/087 20130101; G01K 2215/00 20130101; G06Q 10/0833 20130101;
G06Q 10/063 20130101; G08B 25/00 20130101; G06Q 10/06 20130101;
G06Q 10/08 20130101; G06Q 10/083 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/013 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method, comprising steps of: (a) storing, in memory accessible
to at least one processor, data reflecting at least one determined
value of at least one monitored aspect of a shipment of at least
one item from a shipping location to a receiving location; (b)
storing, in memory accessible to the at least one processor,
location event information corresponding to the shipment of the at
least one item from the shipping location to the receiving
location; and (c) with the at least one processor, using the
location event information stored in memory, together with the data
stored in memory, to generate at least one report involving the at
least one determined value.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one report comprises
at least one of a chart and a graph on which information concerning
the at least one determined value and information concerning at
least one location event identified from the retrieved location
event information are displayed together.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (c) further comprises
using the retrieved location event information to identify at least
a portion of the data as having been accumulated by at least one
sensor when the at least one sensor was associated with the at
least one item.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising a step of: (d)
extracting summary information from the identified portion of the
data.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the summary information comprises
at least one of a mean temperature, a minimum temperature, a
maximum temperature, degree-minutes above a threshold temperature,
degree-minutes below a threshold temperature, time above a
threshold temperature, and time below a threshold temperature.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein the summary information reflects
the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at
least one item at only a single product location.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one monitored aspect
of the shipment comprises a temperature of an environment in which
the at least one item was disposed.
8. A database having stored therein data reflecting at least one
determined value of at least one monitored aspect of a shipment of
at least one item from a shipping location to a receiving location,
and having further stored therein location event information
corresponding to the shipment of the at least one item from the
shipping location to the receiving location.
9. The database of claim 8, wherein the at least one monitored
aspect of the shipment comprises a temperature of an environment in
which the at least one item was disposed.
10. A computer-readable medium for use with at least one processor
included in a system having at least one memory accessible to the
at least one processor having stored therein data reflecting at
least one determined value of at least one monitored aspect of a
shipment of at least one item from a shipping location to a
receiving location, and having further stored therein location
event information corresponding to the shipment of the at least one
item from the shipping location to the receiving location, the
computer-readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored
thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause
the at least one processor to perform a step of: (a) using the
location event information stored in memory, together with the data
stored in memory, to generate at least one report involving the at
least one determined value.
11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least
one report comprises at least one of a chart and a graph on which
information concerning the at least one determined value and
information concerning the at least one location event identified
from the retrieved location event information are displayed
together.
12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the step (a)
comprises using the retrieved location event information to
identify at least a portion of the data as having been accumulated
by at least one sensor when the at least one sensor was associated
with the at least one item.
13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising a
step of: (b) extracting summary information from the identified
portion of the data.
14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the summary
information comprises at least one of a mean temperature, a minimum
temperature, a maximum temperature, degree-minutes above a
threshold temperature, degree-minutes below a threshold
temperature, time above a threshold temperature, and time below a
threshold temperature.
15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the summary
information reflects the at least one physical or environmental
condition of the at least one item at only a single product
location.
16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the at least
one monitored aspect of the shipment comprises a temperature of an
environment in which the at least one item was disposed.
Description
[0001] This application claims the benefit of each of: (1) U.S.
Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/500,565, filed Sep. 5, 2003,
(2) U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/519,458, filed Nov.
12, 2003, (3) U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/526,878,
filed Dec. 4, 2003, (4) U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.
60/564,402, filed Apr. 22, 2004, and (5) U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. No. 60/564,447, filed Apr. 22, 2004. The entire
disclosure of each of the foregoing applications is hereby
incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] The present invention is directed generally to novel systems
and methods for collecting data concerning one or more aspects of a
supply chain and performing a statistical analysis of the supply
chain process based on that data.
BACKGROUND
[0003] For many companies, one of the most important business
processes is the movement of perishable goods through the
temperature-controlled portions of a supply chain. In many
instances, proper operation of the so-called "cold chain" is
critical to maintaining the quality of such goods.
[0004] Each year, companies spend millions of dollars on
refrigerated staging and processing areas, storage, transport,
display and/or specialized packaging. Many of them, however, do not
know how well the entire, and very expensive, process works.
[0005] Traditional temperature monitoring programs are generally
used to make accept/reject decisions or for dispute resolution.
They are typically not designed to help a company identify and
address problems or inefficiencies in its cold chain. Measuring the
effectiveness of the cold chain can enable a company to identify
and address such problems or inefficiencies, which might otherwise
go undetected.
[0006] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art system 100 for cold
chain analysis that has been employed in the past by the assignee
of the present invention. As shown, the system 100 included a
temperature sensor 102 which was associated with a quantity of
product 104 as the product 104 was transported from a shipping
location 106 to a receiving location 108. At the shipping location
106, a hand-held data entry device 110 would be used to manually
enter data concerning the product 104 and the temperature sensor
102 associated with it. The data entered in the device 110 was then
transmitted to a database 112 at a remote location 114. In some
circumstances, the shipper would instead communicate information
associating the sensor 102 with the product 104 to the remote
location 114 in another manner, such as (1) by sending a packing
list for the product, including the sensor ID, by facsimile to the
remote location 114, (2) by sending a database containing such
information to the remote location 114 on a regular basis, e.g.,
monthly, or (3) by simply writing product identification
information on the sensor 102.
[0007] Before the product 104 left the shipping location 106, a
person manually depressed a "start" button on the sensor 102 so as
to cause the sensor 102 to begin logging temperature information at
regular intervals, e.g., every five minutes.
[0008] After the sensor 102 reached the receiving location 108,
someone would either download the information from the sensor 102
via a downloading device 116 and transmit the downloaded data to
the database 112 at the remote location 114, or would ship the
sensor 102 to the remote location 114, where data would then be
downloaded from it and uploaded to the database 112. At this time,
the data collected by the sensor 102 would be associated with the
shipment information gathered by the handheld device 110 so as to
create a complete record containing information about the shipment,
its contents, and the data recorded by all associated sensors.
[0009] Some sensors 102 were equipped with "stop" buttons, which
may or may not have been activated when the sensors 102 and
associated products 104 reached the receiving location 108.
[0010] FIG. 2 shows an example of how the data would typically
appear when it was first uploaded to the database 112. Since all of
the uploaded data was not necessarily accumulated during a period
of interest, e.g., the sensor 102 may have been started before it
was associated with a product 104 or before the product 104 had
entered the supply chain being monitored, or may have been stopped
after it was separated from the product 104 or after the product
104 had exited the supply chain being monitored, the data had to be
"conditioned" so as to reflect only the period of interest. This
conditioning was done manually based on the information that was
made available to, and the past experience of, the person
performing the conditioning, and therefore required that person to
make an educated guess concerning the portion of the data that
should properly be used for further analysis.
[0011] In the example shown in FIG. 2, it appears likely that the
sensor 102 was started several hours before it was associated with
a product 104 in the cold chain, and was stopped or had data
extracted from it approximately one half hour after it was
separated from the product 104. Thus, if this raw (unconditioned)
data had been used to perform any type of analysis, the results of
that analysis would have been inaccurate and unreliable.
[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of how beginning and ending
locations for the raw data from a sensor 102 were marked during the
conditioning step, with the line 302 identifying the beginning
point and the line 304 identifying the ending point 304. To
determine how the data should be conditioned, a person had to
examine the raw data to identify telltale characteristics
indicating the likely points where the sensor 102 entered and left
the cold chain, and correlate those points with any other
information known about the shipment, such as how long such
shipments normally took, the approximate times that the shipments
began and ended, etc., so as to permit the person to make an
educated guess as to where to place the lines 302, 304.
[0013] After the data from a sensor 102 had been conditioned,
summary data for the entire shipment could be extracted from it
into a spreadsheet format. Such summary data generally included
parameters such as shipment ID, origin, destination, carrier,
product type, average temperature, minimum temperature, maximum
temperature, time above the ideal temperature, time below the ideal
temperature, trip time, and degree minutes (i.e., the total number
of minutes at each degree). After extraction, the summary data
could be accessed and processed by a human being using special
software programs to manually generate informative graphs and
charts.
[0014] After these graphs and charts were generated, the human
being had to manually transfer them to a server 126 and thereby
make them accessible to a customer's computer 128 (FIG. 1) via the
Internet 122 for review and analysis. That is, after logging onto a
website maintained on the server 126, a customer at the computer
128 could click on one of a predefined set of hyperlinks to access
a corresponding, pre-generated chart or graph stored on the server
126. In some instances, after accessing such an initial chart or
graph, the customer could "drill down" to additional pre-defined
charts or graphs stored on the server 126 by clicking on a
particular part of the initial chart or graph.
[0015] Descriptions of three types of charts and graphs that were
generated in this prior art system (a box plot, a control chart,
and a histogram) are provided below in connection with FIGS. 4-6.
Turning first to FIG. 4, an example is shown of how a box plot 400
for accumulated data was generated. Such a box plot provided a
summary of the location, spread, and skewness of a distribution. In
the box plot 400, the upper quartile (Q3 or 75th percentile) and
the lower quartile (Q1 or 25th percentile) of the data are
portrayed by the top 410 and bottom 412, respectively, of a
rectangular box 408. Roughly 50% of the data is contained within
the box 408. The median (50th percentile) is portrayed by a
horizontal line segment 402 within the box 408.
[0016] The lines 404 that extend from the ends 410, 412 of the box
408, called the "whiskers," are based on the data in the tails of
the data and help show the spread of the distribution. The whiskers
404 extend to the most extreme point within a calculated range
(e.g., one and one-half times the distance between the ends 410,
412) beyond each end 410, 412 of the box 408. Points falling beyond
the whiskers are indicated by individual stars 406. These points
are potential outliers, since they are significantly different from
the rest of the observations.
[0017] If the median line 402 cut the box 408 in half and the
whiskers 404 on either end 410, 412 extended about the same
distance from the box 408, then the distribution was symmetrical.
Lack of symmetry would indicate that the data may not have come
from a normal distribution. If the data was normally distributed,
then roughly 99% of the data would have been contained between the
whiskers 404 of the box plot 400.
[0018] FIG. 5 shows an example of a control chart 500 generated
using the prior art system discussed above. Such control charts
helped the user understand what their current supply chain
processes were capable of and how much variation (about the mean)
to expect from the current process. Such charts also allowed the
user to determine whether variations from point to point were due
to expected random variation or due to an assignable cause.
Basically, a control chart is a run chart that includes
statistically generated upper and lower control limits. The purpose
of a control chart was to detect any unwanted changes in the
process being analyzed. Abnormal points or certain patterns in the
graph signal would reveal these changes.
[0019] Extensive research by statisticians has shown that by
establishing upper and lower limits at three times the standard
deviation of the process (plus and minus, respectively), 99.73% of
the random variation would fall within these limits. When a 30
point falls outside the control limits or when certain patterns
occur in the data, it is usually due to an assignable cause. A
process is therefore said to be in "statistical control" when the
process measurements vary randomly within the control limits; that
is, the variation present in the process is consistent and
predictable over time. The upper and lower control limits are not
the same as tolerance or specification limits. Control limits are a
function of the way a process actually performs over time.
Specification, or tolerance, limits, on the other hand, are a
function of what people want the process to do, and may not have
any direct relationship to the actual capabilities of the
process.
[0020] Control charts such as that shown in FIG. 5 have three basic
components: (1) performance data 502 plotted over time, (2) a
centerline (CL) 504, which is the mathematical average of all the
samples plotted, and (3) upper 506 and lower 508 statistical
control limits (UCL & LCL) that define the constraints of
common cause variations.
[0021] In the prior art system 100 discussed above, the control
limits 506, 508 were used in conjunction with control charts 500 to
help interpret temperature-related data accumulated by sensors 102.
Control limits 506, 508 reflected the expected variation in the
temperature of the cold chain being monitored. Results that fell
outside of these limits were considered to be "out of control"
points and would have suggested that some abnormal cause had acted
on the cold chain. If the temperature data fluctuated within the
limits 506, 508, it was assumed to be the result of common causes
within the process (flaws inherent in the process), and could only
have been affected if the system was improved or changed. If the
temperature data fell outside of the limits 506, 508, it was
assumed to be the result of special causes.
[0022] In the prior art system 100, several tests were used to spot
variations due to assignable causes on a control chart 500: (1) one
data point falling outside the control limits, (2) six or more
points in a row steadily increasing or decreasing, (3) eight or
more points in a row on one side of the centerline, and (4)
fourteen or more points alternating up and down. These tests were
conducted manually by a human being. That is, a human being had to
visually inspect the control charts for the presence of one or more
of the above patterns.
[0023] FIG. 6 shows an example of a histogram 600 generated using
the prior art system discussed above. A histogram, such as the
histogram 600, is a graphical representation of a set of
measurements. It consists of columns drawn over class intervals,
the heights of which are proportional to the number of measurements
falling within a given interval.
[0024] A histogram is constructed from a frequency table. A
frequency table is constructed by dividing the data collected into
intervals or "bins," and then counting the number of data points
falling within each interval. A graph consisting of several columns
is then constructed, with the height of each column being
determined by the number of data points collected in a
corresponding interval. In the histogram 600, the height of each
column indicates the number of shipments during which the measured
minimum temperature fell within a respective five degree range of
temperatures.
[0025] The following example is illustrative of how the
above-described charts and graphs stored on the server 126 were
accessed by a customer using the prior art system 100. First, after
logging onto a website maintained by the server 126, the customer
could select a hyperlink corresponding to a particular
characteristic (e.g., mean temperature) from among a group of such
hyperlinks (e.g., mean temperature, minimum temperature, maximum
temperature, degree-minutes >0.degree. F., time >0.degree.
F., and trip time). In response to that selection, a pre-selected
and pre-generated group of box plots 400 stored on the server 126
could be displayed that were segregated according to some
pre-defined criterion (e.g., by the distribution centers through
which monitored product flowed). The user could then click on one
of the box plots 400 to access a pre-generated control chart 500
stored on the server 126 that included a set of data points upon
which the selected box plot was based. The user could then click on
one of the data points 502 in the control chart 500 to retrieve
from the server 126 either a graph of data from, or a summary chart
of information relating to, the trip with which the selected data
point 502 corresponded. In some prior art systems the customer
could also retrieve from the server 126 a pre-generated histogram
600 for the originally selected criterion, e.g., mean
temperature.
[0026] In such systems, all of the charts and graphs available for
display to the customer were generated and stored on the server 126
sometime before the customer logged onto the website. Once uploaded
to the server 126, the content of, and available formats for, those
charts and graphs was essentially fixed unless and until new or
different charts and graphs were separately generated and uploaded
to the server 126. Thus, while the customer was able to select from
among a number of pre-selected and pre-generated charts and graphs
that had been uploaded to the server 126, the customer's control of
(1) which charts and graphs were generated and therefore available
for review, (2) the content of the available charts and graphs, and
(3) the format in which the available charts or graphs were
presented, was limited to requesting that additional or different
charts or graphs be manually created and made available via
additional hyperlinks on the website.
[0027] Returning again to FIG. 1, for purposes entirely unrelated
to the monitoring of temperature, in advance of sending a shipment
of product 104, a computer 118 at the shipping location 106
typically sent an advanced shipping notification (ASN), sometimes
alternatively referred to as "dispatch advice," an "advance ship
notice," a "bill of lading," a "ship notice/manifest," etc., over
the Internet 122 to a computer 120 at the receiving location 108.
As used herein, "advanced shipping notification" is intended to
broadly encompass all such notice types. An example of an
extensible markup language (XML) file structure for an ASN is
attached as Appendix A, to provisional application Ser. No.
60/500,565, incorporated by reference above. Another example of an
ASN file structure is set forth in electronic data interchange
(EDI) transaction set 856. In addition to other pieces of
information, the ASN generally included a tracking number for the
shipment. With the tracking number, either of the computers 118 or
120 could access a server 124 maintained by the carrier to track
the product 104 through the cold chain. Operators of the computers
118 and 120 could therefore retrieve from the server 124
information such as when the product 104 left the shipping location
106 and arrived at the receiving location 108, as well as occasions
on which the product 104 reached certain transition points along
the way that were recorded by the carrier.
SUMMARY
[0028] A product supply chain may be viewed not just as a series of
discrete, unrelated shipment transactions, but as a "process" (or
pipeline) that can be subject to statistical process control. The
present invention is directed to novel systems and methods for
collecting data concerning one or more aspects of a supply chain,
for performing statistical analysis on the collected data to
facilitate the identification of anomalies or inefficiencies in the
process, and for communicating the results of such statistical
analysis to those responsible for the supply chain so that remedial
measures may be taken, if appropriate.
[0029] According to one aspect of the present invention, a method
involves storing, in memory accessible to at least one processor,
data reflecting at least one determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a shipment of at least one item from a shipping
location to a receiving location, and also storing, in memory
accessible to the at least one processor, location event
information corresponding to the shipment of the at least one item
from the shipping location to the receiving location. The at least
one processor uses the location event information stored in memory,
together with the data stored in memory, to generate at least one
report involving the at least one determined value.
[0030] According to another aspect, a database has stored therein
data reflecting at least one determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a shipment of at least one item from a shipping
location to a receiving location, and has further stored therein
location event information corresponding to the shipment of the at
least one item from the shipping location to the receiving
location.
[0031] According to another aspect, a computer-readable medium is
disclosed for use with at least one processor included in a system
having at least one memory accessible to the at least one processor
having stored therein data reflecting at least one determined value
of at least one monitored aspect of a shipment of at least one item
from a shipping location to a receiving location, and having
further stored therein location event information corresponding to
the shipment of the at least one item from the shipping location to
the receiving location. The computer-readable medium has a
plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by
the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to use
the location event information stored in memory, together with the
data stored in memory, to generate at least one report involving
the at least one determined value.
[0032] According to another aspect of the present invention, a
method for performing statistical analysis on at least one
monitored aspect of a product supply chain involves storing, in
memory accessible to at least one processor, first data reflecting
at least one first determined value of at least one monitored
aspect of a first shipment of at least one first item occurring in
the supply chain, and storing, in memory accessible to the at least
one processor, second data reflecting at least one second
determined value of at least one monitored aspect of a second
shipment of at least one second item occurring in the supply chain.
The at least one processor is used to automatically generate at
least one report reflecting a statistical analysis of the first
data and the second data.
[0033] According to another aspect, a system for performing
statistical analysis on at least one monitored aspect of a product
supply chain comprises at least one memory and at least one
processor. The at least one memory has stored therein first data
reflecting at least one first determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a first shipment of at least one first item
occurring in the supply chain, and having further stored therein
second data reflecting at least one second determined value of at
least one monitored aspect of a second shipment of at least one
second item occurring in the supply chain. The at least one
processor is coupled to the at least one memory and is configured
to automatically generate at least one report reflecting a
statistical analysis of the first data and the second data.
[0034] According to another aspect, a system for performing
statistical analysis on at least one monitored aspect of a product
supply chain comprises means for storing first data reflecting at
least one first determined value of at least one monitored aspect
of a first shipment of at least one first item occurring in the
supply chain, and means for storing second data reflecting at least
one second determined value of at least one monitored aspect of a
second shipment of at least one second item occurring in the supply
chain. The system further comprises means, coupled to the means for
storing first data and the means for storing second data, for
automatically generating at least one report reflecting a
statistical analysis of the first data and the second data.
[0035] According to another aspect, a computer-readable medium is
disclosed for use with at least one processor included in a system
including at least one memory having stored therein first data
reflecting at least one first determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a first shipment of at least one first item
occurring in a supply chain, and having further stored therein
second data reflecting at least one second determined value of at
least one monitored aspect of a second shipment of at least one
second item occurring in the supply chain. The computer-readable
medium has a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when
executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one
processor to automatically generate at least one report reflecting
a statistical analysis of the first data and the second data.
[0036] According to another aspect of the present invention, a
method for analyzing a supply chain process involves automatically
determining whether a plurality of data points, each representing
at least one determined value of at least one monitored aspect of a
supply chain, match a pattern indicative of an anomalous condition
in the supply chain process.
[0037] According to another aspect, a system for analyzing a supply
chain process comprises at least one processor configured to
automatically determine whether a plurality of data points, each
representing at least one determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a supply chain, match a pattern indicative of
an anomalous condition in the supply chain process.
[0038] According to another aspect, a computer-readable medium is
disclosed for use with at least one processor included in a system
including at least one memory having stored therein data
representing a plurality of data points, each data point
representing at least one determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a supply chain. The computer-readable medium
has a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed
by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to
automatically determine whether the plurality of data points match
a pattern indicative of an anomalous condition in the supply chain
process.
[0039] According to another aspect, a method for analyzing a supply
chain process involves automatically determining whether any of a
plurality of data points representing determined values of at least
one monitored aspect of a supply chain falls without statistical
process control limits for the supply chain process.
[0040] According to another aspect, a system for analyzing a supply
chain process comprises at least one processor configured to
automatically determine whether any of a plurality of data points
representing determined values of at least one monitored aspect of
a supply chain falls without statistical process control limits for
the supply chain process.
[0041] According to another aspect, a computer-readable medium is
disclosed for use with at least one processor included in a system
including at least one memory having stored therein data
representing a plurality of data points, with each data point
representing at least one determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of a supply chain. The computer-readable medium
has a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed
by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to
automatically determine whether any of the plurality of data points
falls without statistical process control limits for the supply
chain process.
[0042] According to another aspect of the present invention, a
method is disclosed for use in a system in which at least one first
sensor is associated with at least one first item that is
transported from a first shipping location to a first receiving
location so that the at least one first sensor can monitor at least
one physical or environmental condition of the at least one first
item as the at least one first item is so transported. The method
comprises storing first data accumulated by the at least one first
sensor in memory, with at least some of the first data reflecting
changes in the at least one physical or environmental condition of
the at least one first item that occurred when the at least one
first sensor was associated with the at least one first item, and
automatically identifying at least a portion of the first data as
having been accumulated when the at least one first sensor was
associated with the at least one first item.
[0043] According to another aspect, a computer-readable medium is
disclosed for use with at least one processor included in a system
in which at least one first sensor is associated with at least one
first item that is transported from a first shipping location to a
first receiving location so that the at least one first sensor can
monitor at least one physical or environmental condition of the at
least one first item as the at least one first item is so
transported, and in which first data accumulated by the at least
one first sensor is stored in memory, with at least some of the
first data reflecting changes in the at least one physical or
environmental condition of the at least one first item that
occurred when the at least one first sensor was associated with the
at least one first item. The computer-readable medium has a
plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by
the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to
automatically identify at least a portion of the first data as
having been accumulated when the at least one first sensor was
associated with the at least one first item.
[0044] According to another aspect of the present invention, a
method involves storing, in memory accessible to at least one
processor, an electronic copy of an advanced shipping notification
(ASN) that was transmitted from a shipping location to a receiving
location in advance of shipping at least one item therebetween, and
also storing, in memory accessible to the at least one processor,
data reflecting at least one determined value of at least one
monitored aspect of the shipment between the shipping location and
the receiving location. The at least one processor uses at least
some information from the ASN stored in memory, together with at
least a portion of the data stored in memory, to generate at least
one report involving the at least one determined value.
[0045] According to another aspect, a database has stored therein
an electronic copy of an advanced shipping notification (ASN) that
was transmitted from a shipping location to a receiving location in
advance of shipping at least one item therebetween, and further has
stored therein data reflecting at least one determined value of at
least one monitored aspect of the shipment of the at least one
item.
[0046] According to another aspect, a computer-readable medium is
disclosed for use with at least one processor included in a system
including at least one memory accessible to the at least one
processor that has stored therein an electronic copy of an advanced
shipping notification (ASN) that was transmitted from a shipping
location to a receiving location in advance of shipping at least
one item therebetween, and having further stored therein data
reflecting at least one determined value of at least one monitored
aspect of the shipment of the at least one item. The
computer-readable medium has a plurality of instructions stored
thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause
the at least one processor to use at least some information from
the ASN stored in memory, together with at least a portion of the
data stored in memory, to generate at least one report involving
the at least one determined value.
[0047] According to another aspect, a method involves transmitting
an advanced shipping notification (ASN) from a shipping location to
a receiving location in advance of shipping at least one item
therebetween. The ASN comprises an identifier that identifies a
sensor that will be used to monitor at least one physical or
environmental condition of the at least one item as the item is
transported between the shipping location and the receiving
location.
[0048] According to another aspect, an advanced shipping
notification (ASN), which is transmitted from a shipping location
to a receiving location in advance of shipping at least one item
therebetween, comprises an identifier that identifies a sensor that
will be used to monitor at least one physical or environmental
condition of the at least one item as the item is transported
between the shipping location and the receiving location.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0049] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a prior art system
for monitoring temperature conditions during one or more shipments
of product;
[0050] FIG. 2 is a graph showing a typical waveform that was output
by one of the sensors shown in the system of FIG. 1;
[0051] FIG. 3 is a graph showing how conditioning lines were
manually added to graphs like that shown in FIG. 2;
[0052] FIG. 4 shows an example of a box plot generated based upon a
statistical analysis of accumulated data;
[0053] FIG. 5 shows an example of a control chart generated based
upon a statistical analysis of accumulated temperature data;
[0054] FIG. 6 shows an example of a histogram generated based upon
a statistical analysis of accumulated temperature data;
[0055] FIG. 7 shows an example embodiment of a system embodying
several aspects of the present invention;
[0056] FIG. 8 shows an example user interface screen that may be
presented to a user to permit the user to select various parameters
upon which one or more reports reflecting a statistical analysis of
a supply chain will be based;
[0057] FIG. 9 shows an example of a set of box plots that may be
automatically generated based upon a statistical analysis of
accumulated temperature data in accordance with one aspect of the
invention;
[0058] FIG. 10 shows an example of a control chart that may be
automatically generated based upon a statistical analysis of
accumulated temperature data in accordance with one aspect of the
invention;
[0059] FIG. 11 shows an example of a temperature graph for a single
shipment that may, for example, be accessed by clicking on one of
the points in the control chart of FIG. 10;
[0060] FIG. 12 shows an example of a histogram that may be
automatically generated based upon a statistical analysis of
accumulated temperature data in accordance with one aspect of the
invention; and
[0061] FIG. 13 shows an example of temperature graph that may
presented to the user which reflects location event information in
accordance with one aspect of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0062] As noted above, a product supply chain may be viewed not
just as a series of discrete, unrelated shipment transactions, but
as a "process" (or pipeline) that can be subject to statistical
process control. As used herein, "supply chain" refers to any
mechanism by which product is transported between at least two
points, and may encompass any situation in which one or more
product types are transported by one or more carriers from one or
more origins, either directly or through one or more distribution
centers or intermediate holding locations, to one or more
destinations, or even just some portion or leg of the foregoing,
e.g., from a particular distribution center to a particular
destination. It is not uncommon in a supply chain for a quantity of
product to be transferred in bulk during one or more initial legs,
to be broken down into pallets for transfer during one or more
additional legs, and then further broken down into cartons or mixed
with other products for transfer during one or more final legs.
This entire series of transfers would be considered to be a "supply
chain" as that term is used herein, as would any single portion or
leg, or combination of portions or legs, of such a series of
transfers.
[0063] By regularly accumulating data concerning one or more
aspects of various shipments in a supply chain, and making reports
based on a statistical analysis of that data readily accessible to
a user, the supply chain "process" can be efficiently and
effectively analyzed by the user. By using proper analytical
techniques, various inefficiencies and/or anomalies in the process
can be brought to light in such reports, so that measures can be
taken promptly and efficiently to ameliorate the same.
[0064] In some embodiments, the data accumulation and/or report
generation processes may be fully automated so that reports can be
generated automatically (by one or more computers) based on
accumulated data any time a user electronically submits a request
for such a report. As used herein, "automated" and "automatically"
are used to refer to any action or set of actions that are taken
without human intervention, e.g., a computer-implemented process.
That a human being requests a computer to perform a process does
not mean that the process performed by the computer in response to
that request is not automated.
[0065] Reports may additionally or alternatively be generated
automatically on a regular basis (e.g., once a day, once a week,
once a month, etc.), or perhaps in response to certain events such
as the accumulation of a new piece of data. Such automatically
generated reports may also be analyzed automatically to identify
patterns indicative of inefficiencies or anomalies in the process.
Whenever such a pattern is identified pursuant to such automated
analysis, one or more users may be notified automatically, e.g., by
e-mail, pager, fax, etc., so that they may know to access one or
more reports reflecting the identified pattern. Notified
individuals may then, if appropriate, promptly take remedial
measures and potentially avoid serious consequences resulting from
the identified anomaly. The reported information may further enable
the notified individuals to proactively avoid similar or related
anomalous situations in the future by manipulating or revamping
various aspects of the process.
[0066] Data that may be used to perform the statistical analysis on
the process, and report generation based thereupon, may be
accumulated from any of a number of sources, and may include one or
more of (1) data from sensors that monitor a physical or
environmental condition of a product in a supply chain, (2)
information concerning particular shipments and their contents
(e.g., from ASN's), (3) and location event information (discussed
below). Accordingly, huge amounts of raw data may be consolidated
into a simple, understandable form for easy identification of
problems or inefficiencies in the supply chain.
[0067] An example of a system 700 embodying several aspects of the
present invention is depicted in FIG. 7. As shown, the system 700
may include one or more sensors 102 which are associated with a
quantity of product 104 so as to monitor a physical or
environmental condition of the product 104 as it passes through a
supply chain. Sensors 102 may be associated with the product 104 in
any of a number of ways, and the invention is not limited to any
particular method of association. It is important only that each
sensor 102 be arranged with respect to the product 104 so that,
during transport, it is capable of monitoring the physical or
environmental characteristic of interest.
[0068] In some embodiments, the sensors 102 may be physically
associated with the product 104 so that they remain physically
associated with the product 104 in substantially the same way (1)
before and after the product 104 is loaded from a shipping location
106 or an intermediate holding area (not shown) onto a transport
vehicle (e.g., a truck, ship, plane, train car, etc.--not shown),
(2) before and after the product 104 is transferred between
transport vehicles, and/or (3) before and after the product 104 is
unloaded from a transport vehicle to an intermediate holding area
or the receiving location 108. Alternatively, one or more vehicles
or holding areas may have one or more sensors 102 physically
associated with them so that the sensors 102 remain physically
associated with the vehicles or holding areas before and after the
product 104 is loaded thereon or removed therefrom.
[0069] In alternative embodiments, other aspects or parameters of
the shipment process may additionally or alternatively be
monitored. For example, the trip time of each shipment, the trip
distance for each shipment, the time spent on each transporting
vehicle, and/or the time spent at each location before, after, or
between shipments, may be measured and data reflecting the same may
be accumulated for later analysis and/or report generation. In such
embodiments, sensors 102 would not be required, as such variables
could be measured simply by somehow determining when a product 104
left each shipping location 106 and arrived at each receiving
location 108, and/or when a product was loaded onto and unloaded
from each transporting vehicle. One way this may be accomplished
without using sensors 102 is, for example, through the
interrogation of RFID tags (not shown) or scanning of bar codes
(not shown) associated with the product 104 at various locations.
Such information may alternatively be ascertained by using a
tracking number to access electronic records reflecting departure
and arrival times, etc., that are maintained by the carrier
responsible for a shipment.
[0070] For the sake of simplicity, the description that follows
will focus primarily on the use of one or more temperature sensors
to track temperature conditions in a cold chain. It should be
appreciated, however, that the invention is not so limited, and any
of a number of different types of sensors 102 can be additionally
or alternatively be employed to track additional or different
physical or environmental conditions of the product 104 during any
portion(s) or leg(s) of its supply chain. The sensors 102 shown in
FIG. 7 may, for example, additionally or alternatively be capable
of monitoring humidity, incident light, exposure to x-rays or other
radiation, pressure, shock, impact, presence or quantity of
airborne particles, viscosity, volume, speed, acceleration,
orientation, etc. In addition, as mentioned above, some embodiments
of the invention need not employ sensors 102 at all, and instead
may track and perform statistical analysis on an aspect of the
shipping process unrelated to a physical or environmental condition
of the product, such as "trip time" for one of more legs of a
shipment, time spent at particular product locations (e.g., at
particular warehouses or on particular vehicles) or the total
distance traveled during a shipment (i.e., "trip distance").
[0071] As used herein, "cold chain" means any transportation chain
for product in which the temperature of the environment in which
the product is held is controlled, and is not limited to situations
in which products are kept "cold."
[0072] In some embodiments, the sensors 102 may additionally or
alternatively identify "alarm" conditions and log data reflecting
times at which such conditions occurred or were detected. Alarms
may be generated, for example, when a particular maximum or minimum
temperature is exceeded, when a particular temperature condition is
found to exist for more than a threshold period of time, etc.
[0073] The sensors 102 may additionally have some processing
capability or "intelligence," enabling them to calculate and log
statistics such as average temperature, mean kinetic temperature,
times above or below thresholds, times within or without
temperature ranges, etc. In some embodiments, specialized sensors
capable of operating at cryogenic temperatures may be employed. An
example of such a sensor is described in U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. No. 60/519,458, filed Nov. 11, 2003, the entire
disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0074] It should be appreciated that the system 700 may also
include additional equipment for monitoring the supply chain during
multiple trips between the shipping location 106 and the receiving
location 108 and/or for monitoring the supply chain between
additional shipping and/or receiving locations, with relevant
information concerning such other trips or other shipping routes
also being communicated to the remote location 114 in a similar
fashion. As discussed in more detail below, the accumulation of
information from multiple trips and/or shipping routes in this
manner enables the generation of statistical data, as well as
useful charts and graphs using the same, that can be monitored and
analyzed by trained personnel to identify problems or
inefficiencies in a supply chain, and to evaluate how the
performance of a supply chain measures up to certain industry
benchmarks.
[0075] In contrast to the prior art system 100, the conditioning of
the data logged by the sensors 102 may be automated, i.e., may be
performed without human intervention, so that the processing and
compilation of that data into a useful format can also be performed
automatically. In the embodiment of FIG. 7, this automatic
conditioning may be accomplished using any of a number of
techniques, or some combination thereof.
[0076] As a first option, the system 700 may employ RF units 702,
704 at the shipping and receiving locations. The RF units 702, 704
may, for example, be RF receivers or transceivers configured and
arranged to receive RF signals from the sensors 102 at the
beginning and end of the supply chain being monitored. The received
RF signals may contain information that uniquely identifies the
sensors 102 so as to distinguish them from other sensors 102. The
temperature sensors 102 in such an example may continuously or
periodically transmit signals for receipt by the RF units 702, 704,
or may contain RFID transponders that broadcast RF signals in
response to an interrogation signal from the RF units 702, 704. In
some embodiments, RFID transponders containing a dynamic electronic
product code (EPC), i.e., an EPC that can be altered dynamically to
reflect a condition of the product 104, may be employed for this
purpose. An example of such a transponder suitable for such an
application is described in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.
60/475,554, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated
herein by reference.
[0077] In the above situation, the RF units 702 and 704 may
therefore communicate the starting and ending times of the supply
chain for the product 104 to the database 112 at the remote
location 114. In addition, the temperature data accumulated by the
sensor 102 and ultimately uploaded to the database 112 may be time
stamped. The database 112 may thus be caused to contain sufficient
information, i.e., time stamped data and the starting and stopping
times for that data, to automatically condition the temperature
data received from the sensor 102.
[0078] In some embodiments, location event information may
additionally or alternatively be recorded in an RFID tag associated
with the product 104, either as a part of the sensor 102 or as a
separate device. Examples of systems and techniques for
accomplishing such a result are described in U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. No. 60/564,447, filed on Apr. 22, 2004, the entire
disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0079] Alternatively, the RF units 702, 704 may simply transmit
signals to the sensors 102 that instruct the sensors 102 to start
and stop recording temperature data at the beginning and ending
points of their journey. In this manner, the sensors 102 may
themselves automatically condition the data by recording data only
during the relevant portion of the supply chain. As mentioned
above, in some embodiments, the sensors 102 may even contain
sufficient "intelligence" to recognize and record the occurrence of
alarm conditions and/or to calculate and log statistical
information during the journey. For example, the sensors 102 may
record the occurrence of alarm conditions in response to
determining that minimum and/or maximum temperatures have been
reached or have been exceeded for a particular time period, etc.,
and/or may calculate and log information such as the average
temperature, the mean kinetic temperature, time above or below a
particular temperature or within or without a particular
temperature range.
[0080] The temperature data and/or location event information
recorded by the sensors 102 may be communicated to the database 112
in any of a number of ways, and the invention is not limited to any
particular mode of communication. In some embodiments, the
temperature data and/or location event information from the sensors
102 may be communicated from the sensors 102 to the RF unit 704
and/or intermediate RF units via RF signals. Alternatively, the
data and/or location event information may be downloaded from the
sensors 102 at the receiving location 108 (e.g., using the
downloading device 116), at the remote location 114, or at some
other location remote from the receiving location 108.
[0081] Additional RF units (not shown) may also be disposed at
various points along the supply chain to make available further
information concerning times at which particular milestones, e.g.,
the leaving of a shipping location, the reaching a distribution
center, the arrival at a receiving location or, the changing of
hands from one carrier to another, or the transfer from one vehicle
to another are reached during the product's journey. In some
embodiments, data and/or recorded location event information may
also be downloaded from the sensors 102 at these intermediate
locations. As discussed in more detail below, information
concerning the times and locations at which such milestones occur,
hereafter "location event information," may be advantageously used
together with other data stored in the database 112 for the purpose
of analyzing the performance of the supply chain and various legs
thereof. For instance, location event information may be used
together with time-stamped temperature data to determine the
average temperature a product was subjected to while it was
disposed in a particular warehouse or on a particular vehicle. A
similar determination may additionally or alternatively be made
based upon the "marking" of temperature data (or data accumulated
by some other type of sensor) with location event information, as
described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.
60/564,447, incorporated by reference above.
[0082] For some applications, an RF unit 702, 704 at only one of
the two locations 106, 108 could be used if it were known that
either the beginning or ending part of the data from the monitors
108 would not need conditioning, for example, if it was known that
the pressing of a start or stop button on the sensors 102 would be
performed in a reliable manner at one of the two locations.
[0083] A second approach that may be employed, either alone or in
combination with one or more aspects of the RF approach discussed
above, to automatically condition data received from the sensors
102 is to obtain location event information from the carrier(s)
that shipped the product 104. With reference to FIG. 7, one way
this may be accomplished is to make one or more tracking numbers,
e.g., a FedEx tracking number, available to the server 126 at the
remote location 114, which enables the server 126 to retrieve
location event information from one or more servers 124 maintained
by the carrier(s) responsible for transporting the product 104. If
the data logged by the sensors 102 is time stamped, the location
event information retrieved from the server 124 can itself be used
to automatically condition the data, because the location event
information would provide, among other information, the time at
which the product 104 left the shipping location 106 and the time
at which it arrived at the receiving location 108.
[0084] Moreover, as noted above, in addition to or in lieu of such
conditioning of data, location event information may be used to
select particular portions of conditioned data that should be used
to generate particular reports. For example, if a sensor 102 was
associated with a product 104 from when it left a shipping location
106 to when it arrived at a receiving location 108, after having
passed through several distribution centers and/or been transferred
between many vehicles, location event information could be used to
identify a portion of the sensor's data corresponding to a time
period that the product 104 was at a particular distribution center
or was on a particular vehicle.
[0085] As further elaborated on below, this and other location
event information obtained from the carrier may additionally or
alternatively be included on one or more of the charts and/or
graphs generated for a user so as to provide the user with insight
into how particular location events impacted the process being
monitored. It should be appreciated that such location event
information can additionally or alternatively be obtained in other
ways, and the invention is not limited to the use of any particular
technique for obtaining it. For example, as mentioned above, the RF
units 702, 704 can be used to obtain location event information, or
to cause RFID tags associated with products to store location event
information transmitted by such units.
[0086] Additionally or alternatively, RFID tags or barcodes may be
associated with products so that, as the products pass through
certain locations at which RFID interrogators or bar code readers
are disposed or employed, location event information for the
products may be accumulated by tracking locations and times at
which the RFID tags or bar codes are read. As another option, the
sensors 102 may additionally or alternatively be equipped or
associated with GPS receivers that track the location of a product
versus time. In some embodiments, people could additionally or
alternatively manually provide information concerning location
events by keying appropriate data into a computer system as
products pass through particular locations, or a paper based system
could even be employed, with people creating documents reflecting
location events for products as the products pass through
particular locations, and information from such documents later
being manually entered into a computer system.
[0087] In some embodiments, accumulated location event information,
and perhaps other information as well, may additionally or
alternatively be employed to authenticate the pedigree and
integrity of transported items. Systems and techniques for
accomplishing such a result are described in U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. No. 60/564,402, filed Apr. 22, 2004, the entire
disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0088] Moreover, in some embodiments, techniques may additionally
or alternatively be employed to predict the remaining shelf life of
a product based upon accumulated sensor data. Examples of systems
and methods for doing this are described in U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. No. 60/526,878, filed Dec. 4, 2003, the entire
disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0089] As mentioned above, it is common for a shipper to transmit
an advanced shipping notification (ASN) to a receiver in advance of
shipping a quantity of product via one or more carriers. In one
embodiment of the present invention, this ASN may also be
transmitted, e.g., via a network cloud 706 (FIG. 7), from the
computer 118 at the shipping location 106 to the database 112 at
the remote location 114, or may be forwarded from the computer 120
at the receiving location 108 to the database 112 after being
received from the shipping location 106.
[0090] It should be appreciated that the network cloud 706 depicted
in the example shown may be any network or combination of separate
or integrated networks, or other communication links, suitable for
transmitting information between and/or amongst the various
computers/servers 118, 120, 124, 126 in the system. The network
cloud 706 may, for example, represent the Internet. It should
further be appreciated that each of the computers/servers 118, 120,
124, 126 may itself comprise multiple computers operating together,
or may be a part of a larger computer system or network. As shown
in the example ASN format attached as Appendix A to U.S.
Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/500,565, incorporated by
reference above, the ASN may include a wide variety of details
concerning the product 104 being shipped, the manner in which the
shipment is to take place, and the entities responsible for or
involved in buying, selling, and shipping the product 104.
[0091] In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the
ASN may be modified or appended to contain one or more codes that
uniquely identify the sensors 102 that are associated with the
product 104 being shipped. The codes may, for example, be serial
numbers unique to the sensors 102, or may be unique "trip numbers,"
which would enable the same sensors 102 to each be used for
multiple trips. In some embodiments, the ASN may also include
information reflecting where the sensors 102 are physically
positioned with respect to the product 104 and/or with respect to
the container and/or vehicle in which the product 104 is
transported. For example, the ASN may specify that a sensor 102 is
disposed on the lower left-hand side of pallet number three, in
container number thirty seven, within truck number nine hundred and
eighty two. In addition, as noted above, the ASN may contain
tracking code(s) that may be used to retrieve location event
information from the carrier(s) responsible for shipping the
product 104.
[0092] In alternative embodiments, the ASN stored in the database
112 may be linked to data from a sensor 102 in ways other than by
including sensor identification information in the ASN. For
example, information that links the data from one or more sensors
102, or other data reflecting a monitored physical or environmental
condition or location of a product 104, to a particular ASN may
instead be transmitted and stored in the database 112 along with
that data. The document identifier field "206" of the example ASN
format shown in Appendix A of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.
60/500,565 (incorporated by reference above) may, for example, be
stored along with sensor data to provide such a link.
[0093] As discussed in more detail below, because ASN information
may be stored in the database 112 and linked with condition (e.g.,
temperature) and/or other information (e.g., trip time, time spent
at particular product locations, and/or trip distance) for a
particular shipment of product 104, any of the numerous details
reflected in the ASN may be used to generate reports for review by
a person monitoring one or more characteristics of the shipment. In
addition, the ASN information may be made available to the reviewer
as he or she is reviewing those reports, so as to provide easy
access to information respecting a particular shipment, upon
request, in a format with which the reviewer is already
familiar.
[0094] After conditioned data has been stored in the database 112
along with at least some information indicating certain parameters
of the trips with which the conditioned data is associated, e.g.,
using ASN information and/or location event information, a number
of charts, graphs, and other reports may be generated based upon
that data to provide personnel reviewing them with useful insight
into various aspects of the process being monitored (e.g., the cold
chain). In one embodiment, data from all legs of a company's supply
and distribution network can be accumulated as matter of course, so
that reports may be generated for a user, automatically or upon
request, with one or more parameters for such reports being
selected by the user. For example, a person may use a computer 128
(FIG. 7) to access a website maintained on the server 126 at the
remote location 114, and through that website may select from a
list of standard report options, or may request that a customized
report be prepared. In response to the user's selections, the
server 126 may identify and retrieve the data from the database 112
that should be used in generating the report, and then generate the
requested report based on the selected data. This should be
contrasted with the prior art system 100 discussed above, in which
reports were generated in advance, independent of the user
accessing the website on the server 126, thereby giving the user
access to only a predefined set of pre-generated charts and graphs
via corresponding hyperlinks.
[0095] An example of a menu that may be presented to a user for the
purpose of specifying various attributes of a report to be
generated is shown in FIG. 8. In the example shown, the user is
permitted to select (using fields 802a-b, and 804a-b) date ranges
for the data that will be used in generating the report. In
addition, the user is permitted to select (using fields 806a-d)
from among a number of other criteria upon which data from the
database 112 may be selected for inclusion. As shown, each of the
fields 806a-d may be provided with a pull-down menu that permits
the user to select from among a group of predefined criteria. The
predefined criteria that are made available may be determined for a
particular user based upon the data that has been stored in the
database 112, and the particular needs of that user.
[0096] In embodiments in which ASN information for a shipment of
product 104 is stored in the database 112 and linked with
information reflecting changes in a physical or environment al
condition or location of the product 104 during the shipment, the
predetermined criteria used may be any of the large number of
attributes for the shipment reflected in the ASN. In the
illustrative example shown, the criteria available for selection in
the fields 806a-d include "product type," "supplier," "distribution
center," "carrier," and "product location" (e.g., a particular
warehouse or vehicle). In alternative embodiments, a larger or
smaller number of criteria, or even all possible criteria, by which
the data in the database 112 can be segregated, conceivably by
using any field contained in the ASN associated with that data, can
be presented to the user as possible data selection criteria.
[0097] As shown, when the user selects any one of the criteria, the
possible values associated with that criterion may be presented in
a corresponding field 808a-d. In some embodiments, the possible
values presented in the fields 808a-d may be automatically
extracted from the stored ASN information, based on the selection
made in the corresponding field 806a-d. In other embodiments, the
content of the fields 808a-d may be determined ahead of time.
[0098] In any event, in the example shown, the selection of
"product" in the field 806a has caused a number of different types
of products to be displayed in the field 808a, and the user has
selected "fresh cut salads." In addition, the user has indicated
that only data collected between the dates of Dec. 1, 2002 and Mar.
11, 2003 should be used for generation of both control charts and
box plots/histograms. Although not illustrated, the user could
alternatively have selected one or more additional or different
criteria in the fields 806a-d for use in selecting the data to be
used in generating one or more reports. For example, the user may
have specified that only data corresponding with shipments of
"mixed vegetables" that were shipped by "PDQ Carrier" from "ABC
Supplier" to "XYX Distribution Center" should be used in generating
reports. In the example shown, after the user has made the desired
selections in fields 802-808, the user may click on a button 810 to
request that reports be generated using data selected in accordance
with the specified criteria.
[0099] FIG. 9 shows an illustrative example of how a chart or graph
may be first be presented to the user in response to the user
clicking on the button 810 (FIG. 8). As shown, information may be
displayed in a first region 914 of the screen that reflects the
"settings" that have been selected by the user (FIG. 8). In
addition, in a second region 916 of the screen, the user may be
given a number of options that permit the user to select or alter
the formatting and configuration of generated charts and/or
graphs.
[0100] As a first option in the illustrated example, the user may
select (using pull-down menu 902) a variable that the generated
chart or graph will be based upon. In the example shown, the user
has selected "mean temperature" as the analysis variable. It should
be appreciated, however, that any of a virtually unlimited number
of analysis variables can additionally or alternatively be used,
and the invention is not limited to the use of any particular
variable. As but a few examples, in addition to or lieu of "mean
temperature," the user could have selected minimum temperature,
maximum temperature, degree-minutes above a threshold temperature,
degree-minutes below a threshold temperature, time above a
threshold temperature, time below a threshold temperature, trip
time, trip distance, or time spent at product locations (e.g., a
particular warehouse or vehicle). Moreover, in embodiments in which
conditions other than temperature are additionally or alternatively
monitored, e.g., humidity, incident light, exposure to x-rays or
other radiation, pressure, shock, impact, presence or quantity of
airborne particles, viscosity, volume, speed, acceleration,
orientation, etc., similar variables related to such conditions may
be presented as options in field 902.
[0101] Next, in the example of FIG. 9, the user is given the option
of selecting from among a number of types of charts and graphs that
may be generated and displayed. Any of a number of different types
of charts or graphs may be used, and the invention is not limited
to any particular type of chart or graph. In the illustrative
example shown, the user is permitted to select a "control chart," a
"histogram," or a "box plot" for display. The basic format for
these three types of charts and graphs may be essentially the same
as that discussed above in the "Background" section of this
disclosure.
[0102] For the box plot option, the user may be permitted to select
the basis upon which the generated box plots will be segregated
and/or sorted. In the example shown in FIG. 9, this functionality
is enabled by the pull-down menus 906a-b. Specifically, the
pull-down menu 906a may permit the user to select a criterion that
determines how the generated box plots will be segregated, and the
pull-down menu 906b may determine how the segregated box plots will
be sorted on the screen. In the example shown, the user has
requested that the box plots be segregated by product carrier,
i.e., that a separate box plot be generated for each carrier that
transported "fresh cut salads" between Dec. 1, 2002 and Mar. 11,
2003, and has requested that the generated box plots be sorted
based upon the ranges of data values included in them.
[0103] Like the criteria available for selection in the fields
806a-d, the box plots may be segregated in any number of ways, and
the invention is not limited for any particular criterion for
segregation. They may, for instance, be segregated by "product,"
"supplier," "distribution center," "carrier," "product location,"
or any other distinguishing criterion.
[0104] As a result of these selections, the generated chart 908
shows a respective box plot for each of 17 different carriers (A-Q)
that shipped the selected product during the selected dates, with
the box plots being generated based upon the mean temperature
values measured during those shipments. In this example, the box
plots are sorted so that the box plot for the carrier having the
smallest range between the highest and lowest mean temperature
values (i.e., carrier Q) is on the left and the carrier having the
largest range between the highest and lowest mean temperature
values (i.e., carrier A) is on the right.
[0105] As an option, the user may click on the "select categories"
button 910, so as to be given the ability to select a smaller
group, or even one, of the displayed box plots for display. This
may be useful, for example, if the number of box plots displayed
causes the box plots to be so small that they are difficult to
evaluate, or if only a few different box plots are of interest. In
addition, the high and low values of the selected variable (mean
temperature in the example shown) may be altered using the fields
912a-b.
[0106] When box plots such as those shown it FIG. 9 are displayed,
the user may click on one of them to drill down to one or more
charts or graphs generated based on the same data upon which the
clicked-on box plot was based. FIG. 10 illustrates an example of
one such graph (a control chart) that may be displayed when a box
plot (carrier "F" in the example show) is clicked on in this
manner. As shown, in addition to displaying a control chart for the
selected variable (mean temperature), the settings information in
region 914 may indicate that data from carrier "F" has been
selected. At this stage, the user may also click on the histogram
button 904b or the box plot button 904c and have displayed a
histogram or box plot that is also limited to the data from carrier
"F." It should be appreciated that these same box plots, control
charts, and histograms could also have been generated if "carrier"
had been selected in one of the fields 806b-d, and "F" had been
selected in the corresponding one of the fields 808b-d when the
menu of FIG. 8 was presented to the user. When viewing the box plot
under the above circumstances (i.e., after having clicked on a box
plot for a particular carrier), the user may click on the select
categories button 910 so as to re-broaden the box plot chart to
include box plots for additional, or perhaps all, carriers once
again.
[0107] Referring again to FIG. 10, the analysis variable (field
902) may be altered (e.g., to "time above a threshold," or "trip
time," etc.), so as to alter the informational content of the
control chart displayed. The data to be used in generating such a
modified graph would be selected based upon the content of the
settings information in the region 914. In addition, the high and
low values of the selected variable and the number of data points
displayed on the screen may be altered using the fields 912a-b and
1004, respectively, and the portion of the graph that is displayed
may be altered using the buttons 1004a-d.
[0108] In some embodiments, by clicking on one of the data points
in a control chart such as that shown in FIG. 10, the user may
drill down to a graph reflecting data upon which the clicked-on
data point was based. The graph of FIG. 11 shows an example of how
temperature profile data corresponding to a point on the graph of
FIG. 10 may appear. In the example shown, the graph represents the
temperature that was monitored during a particular shipment of
"fresh cut salads" transported by the carrier "F."
[0109] In addition to or in lieu of such a graph, much useful
information (not shown) concerning details of the monitored
shipment may be displayed. Indeed, virtually any information from a
corresponding ASN stored in the database 112, and/or stored
location event information, may be displayed for review at this
stage. Moreover, in addition to or in lieu of the foregoing,
summary data extracted from the downloaded sensor data for the
selected trip or product location (e.g., a particular warehouse or
vehicle) may be displayed to the user when one of the points on a
control chart is clicked on or otherwise selected.
[0110] FIG. 12 illustrates an example of another type of chart (a
histogram) that may be displayed when one of a number of displayed
box plots (carrier "F" in the example shown) is clicked on. For a
histogram, the value in the "number of bins" field 1202 may be used
to determine the number of "bins" (or bars) that the histogram will
include. In addition, like in the previous examples, the analysis
variable in field 902, as well as the values in the fields 91 2a-b,
may be altered to alter the content and appearance of the
histogram.
[0111] Referring back to FIG. 9, when the "histogram" button 904b
or "control chart" button 904a is clicked on directly, without
first drilling down from the displayed box plots, a histogram like
that shown in FIG. 12 may be generated based on all of the data
selected from the menu of FIG. 8, rather than from only a selected
portion of that data. The histogram generated in such a
circumstance may therefore include, for example, data from all
carriers that transported "fresh cut salad" during the selected
dates, rather than data from only a single carrier. In such a case,
the information displayed in the current settings region 914 may be
caused to indicate that data from "all" carriers has been
selected.
[0112] As discussed above, in addition to ASN information, location
event information, either retrieved from a carrier or gathered in
some other manner, may also be stored in the database 112 and used
during the generation of reports. An example of how such a report
may appear is illustrated in FIG. 13. The graph and chart of FIG.
13 together communicate useful information not only concerning the
temperature profile measured during shipment of a product between a
shipping location (origin) and a receiving location (destination),
but also concerning the times and places at which certain events
occurred (e.g., times at which the monitored product was loaded
onto and off of particular airplanes or other vehicles). In some
embodiments, detailed information concerning the shipment with
which the graph is associated, e.g., the information under the
heading "Shipment Information" in FIG. 13, may be derived from the
ASN information stored in the database 112.
[0113] As noted above, in addition or in lieu of generating reports
in response to user requests, at least some reports may be
generated automatically on a regular basis (e.g., once a day, once
a week, once a month, etc.), or perhaps in response to the
occurrence of certain events, such as the accumulation of a new
piece of data, or ten new pieces of data, etc. In addition, for at
least some types of reports, e.g., a control chart such as that
shown in FIG. 10, the automatically generated reports may also be
automatically analyzed after they are generated so as to
automatically identify patterns indicative of inefficiencies or
anomalies in the process. Examples of patterns in a control chart
that may be indicative of potentially anomalous conditions or
trends are discussed above in the "Background" section of this
disclosure. It should be appreciated, however, that in contrast to
the prior art system discussed above, embodiments of the present
invention that perform such automated analysis of control charts or
other reports do not require a human being to visually inspect the
reports to identify such patterns, thereby greatly increasing the
efficiency and effectiveness of the analysis process. It should
further be appreciated that any of a number of other patterns or
conditions could additionally or alternatively be looked for, and
the invention is not limited to the particular patterns mentioned
herein.
[0114] In some embodiments, whenever such a pattern or condition is
identified pursuant to such automated analysis, one or more users
may be notified automatically, e.g., by e-mail, pager, fax, phone,
etc., so that they may promptly and efficiently access one or more
reports reflecting the identified pattern. In the case of e-mail,
the user may be provided with an appropriate hyperlink enabling the
user to quickly access the report containing the identified
pattern. Notified individuals may then, if appropriate, promptly
take remedial measures and potentially avoid serious consequences
resulting from the identified anomaly. The reported information may
further enable the notified individuals to proactively avoid
similar or related anomalous situations in the future by
manipulating or revamping various aspects of the process.
[0115] In some embodiments, each notified individual may be given
the opportunity to respond to the notification with an
acknowledgement indicating that they received it. The
acknowledgment may optionally include information such as the time
it was transmitted, the nature or severity of the
condition--possibly assessed after the individual has reviewed one
or more reports, and what corrective action should be or has been
taken. When an acknowledgement is not received within a certain
period of time, one or more other individuals, e.g., a supervisor,
may be automatically notified in an effort to escalate the issue
and ensure that the condition is dealt with promptly and
appropriately.
[0116] As another option, the above-discussed reports may be
automatically generated so as to take into account data accumulated
during some past period. For example, the control limits of a
control chart may be adjusted based on data accumulated during the
previous week, thirty days, sixty days, etc., so as to more
accurately differentiate between common cause variations and "out
of control" points. Moreover, alarm notifications may be sent to
appropriate individuals (as discussed above) if the control limits
are automatically adjusted too far, e.g., if one of them was
assigned a value outside of a predefined acceptable range.
[0117] Having thus described at least one illustrative embodiment
of the invention, various alterations, modifications and
improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such
alterations, modifications and improvements are intended to be
within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the
foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended
as limiting. The invention is limited only as defined in the
following claims and the equivalents thereto.
* * * * *