Methods and systems for accessing information related to an order of a commodity

• US 10,096,047 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2014
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trace Produce LLC
• Original Assignee: Trace Produce LLC
• Inventors: Farmer, James G., Farmer, Charles W., Farmer, Joseph W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rosen, Nicholas D
• Application Number:
  US14/154,354
• Publication Number:
  US 20140129383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: 707736, 707758, 705 711, 705 1449, 705500, 705 22, 705 28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

Methods of allowing a customer to access information related to an order of a commodity include gathering inspection information from a commodity lot, collecting grower, field, and packing information associated with the commodity lot, recording purchase orders associated with the commodity lot, assigning a trace code to each of the purchase orders, entering the inspection information; the grower, field, and packing information; the purchase orders; and the trace codes into a database maintained through online accounts. Many members of a supply chain are entitled to accounts that are linked, each account being given limited access to other accounts, thereby allowing the customer to access the inspection information, and the grower, field, and packing information, by entering one of the trace codes into the web-based application. According to one exemplary embodiment, each of the purchase orders associated with the commodity lot is linked within the web-based application.

Claims

1. A commodity tracing method, comprising:

gathering, by at least one member of a supply chain, at least one of inspection information, origin information, packing information, and product information from each commodity lot of a plurality of commodity lots;

assigning a unique trace code to each of said commodity lots;

affixing the unique trace code onto each of a plurality of discrete products of said commodity lots;

entering said trace codes and at least one of said inspection information, said origin information, said packing information, and said product information into one or more servers;

providing a web-based application configured to provide at least one customer with access to at least one of said inspection information, said origin information, said packing information, and said product information of said at least one commodity lot in response to said at least one customer receiving or viewing in transit said at least one commodity lot or product and entering, searching, viewing, or scanning said trace code into said web-based application;

linking the trace code corresponding to the products of the commodity lots to product inventory information within a database to maintain identification of product tracing information for products within orders;

wherein the at least one member of the supply chain includes at least one of a packing facility, a supplier, a distributor, a retailer, an inspector, a grower, a customer, a foodservice entity; and

utilizing the database, by at least one of the members of the supply chain, to gain access to the product tracing information for products within orders.

2. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, wherein said inspection information comprises at least one of quality information of said at least one commodity, verification of source information, origin of source information, harvest information, packing information, freshness information, grade information, or food safety status information.

3. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, wherein said commodity lot can be defined as a common commodity, variety, batch, product, field, farm, a quantity, or packing facility.

4. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing said one or more servers through an online account, wherein said online account is part of a web-based application configured to allow one or more individual accounts to be created by one or more members of a supply chain; and

configuring said one or more servers to allow said members of the supply chain to enter or view one or more of said inspection information, said origin information, said packing information, said order information, said shipping information, said account information, and the trace codes within said online account.

5. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, wherein gathering at least one of said inspection information, said origin information, said packing information, and said product information, comprises gathering one or more of a:

a map of a source of said commodity;

textual description, photograph, video, audio commentary, and/or multimedia display of one or more of the following;

the commodity or product, a source of said commodity, a grower of said commodity, a packing facility where said commodity is processed, an inspection of the commodity or product, a variety of said commodity or product, pesticide records, certificates, a method of shipment of said commodity or product, informational items associated with the product, storage locations and facilities.

6. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising providing access to one member of the supply chain with an account to another member of the supply chain when a permission is entered into the one or more servers.

7. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising configuring the web-based application to allow the at least one customer to access at least one of the inspection information, the origin information, the packing information, the packaging information, and the order information associated with the at least one commodity lot by accessing a secure web-based account assigned to the at least one customer via the internet.

8. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising configuring the one or more servers to allow the members of the supply chain to search the database for all products and orders associated with a common lot code or a commodity lot via the online account.

9. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising linking the trace codes to all final destinations of products with the same code, or from the same commodity lot.

10. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising utilizing the database, by a member of the supply chain, to add content to the database associated with one of the trace codes to document a contact of the product by the member of the supply chain.

11. The commodity tracing method of claim 10, further comprising adding information to the trace code affixed to the product.

12. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising searchably linking multiple purchase orders within the database when the multiple purchase orders have shared product lots.

13. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising:

allowing a retailer to notify a customer when there is an issue associated with a product.

14. The commodity tracing method of claim 4, further comprising configuring the individual accounts such that a first individual account can send information to a second individual account via the web-based application.

15. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, wherein assigning a trace code to each of said commodity lots comprises assigning a tracking identification (tracking ID) to each of said commodity lots, including assigning a tagging system identifier to each of said commodity lots.

16. The commodity tracing method of claim 6, wherein said tagging system identifier comprises one of a radio-frequency identification tag (RFID), barcode, lot code, or a scan-able code.

17. The commodity tracing method of claim 16, wherein the tagging system identifier comprises an inventory, sales, or shipping code placed on the commodity by a shipper.

18. The commodity tracing method of claim 17, wherein the inventory, sales, or shipping code comprises one of a bar code, a scannable code, an RFID, or a lot code.

19. The commodity tracing method of claim 18, wherein the tagging system identifier is separate from an existing inventory, sales, or shipping code.

20. The commodity tracing method of claim 16, wherein the tagging system identifier is associated with a company identifier.

21. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, further comprising configuring said web-based application to allow said at least one customer to access at least one of said inspection information, said origin information, said packing information, said product information, and said products within orders associated with said at least one commodity lot by entering or scanning one of said trace codes into said web-based application.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising configuring said web-based application to present said at least one customer with at least one of audit information, inspection information, and certification information generated by at least one of a government agency, a government auditor, a government inspector, an independent third party auditor, an independent third party inspector, and an independent third party certifier.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining general information about a customer from products traced by said customer;

presenting a specific direct marketing campaign to said customer in response to

entering or scanning of a trace code; and

configuring said marketing campaign to present said customer with one of advertisements, recipes, and products that relate to said general information about said customer.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein providing said web-based application to said at least one customer comprises providing said web-based application to at least one of a foodservice entity, retailer, distributor and a supplier;

and

further comprising configuring said web-based application such that said commodity lot associated with said trace code is traced to its final destination by entering said trace code into said web-based application.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering inspection information from each commodity lot comprises gathering inspection information from a commodity lot comprising at least one of a produce, a grain, a meat, a livestock, a fruit, a vegetable, a food product, and a frabricated product.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering inspection information from each commodity lot comprises associating at least one of a photograph, a video image, or inspection text with each trace code assigned to each respective commodity lot.

27. The commodity tracing method of claim 1 wherein a load information is included in the at least one of inspection information, origin information, packing information, and product information.

28. The commodity tracing method of claim 27 wherein the load information comprises one of a purchase order, a bill of lading, a shipping detail, a sales detail, a quantity detail, an inventory control, a transport vehicle information, or a price.

29. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, wherein the database is accessible via one of a personal computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellular phone, or another remote computing device.

30. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, wherein a geographic location of the at least one customer is determined from a detected location of a remote computing device used to view the product information.

31. The commodity tracing method of claim 1, wherein the product information comprises an advertisement related to the product.

32. A product information viewing method, comprising:

gathering, via one or more members of a supply chain, at least one of inspection information, origin information, packing information, and product information for a product of a commodity lot;

assigning a unique code to the product of the commodity lot, wherein the code is affixed directly onto each product during production;

associating the code and the at least one of the inspection information, the origin information, the packing information, and the product information on one or more servers;

providing a web-based application configured to provide at least one customer with access to at least one of the inspection information, the origin information, the packing information, and the product information of the at least one product in response to the at least one customer entering, scanning, searching, or viewing the code in the web-based application;

wherein the code includes one of a company identifier or a product code.

33. The product information viewing method of claim 32, wherein the code comprises one of a product code, a radio-frequency identification tag (RFID), a barcode, or a scan-able code.

34. The product information viewing method of claim 32, wherein the at least one customer accesses the web-based application using one of a personal computer, personal digital assistant, cellular phone, or other remote computer device.

35. The product information viewing method of claim 32, wherein a geographic location of the at least one customer is determined from a detected location of a remote computer device used to view product information.

36. The product information viewing method of claim 32, further comprising:

accessing the one or more servers through an online account, wherein the online account is part of a web-based application configured to allow one or more individual accounts to be created by one or more members of a supply chain; and

configuring the one or more servers to allow the one or more members of the supply chain to enter or view the product information.

37. The product information viewing method of claim 36, further comprising configuring the individual accounts to enable transmission of information between said individual accounts.

38. The product information viewing method of claim 36, further comprising:

enabling a message transmission from a retailer to an end-customer via the web-based application when there is an issue with a product.

39. The product information viewing method of claim 32, further comprising:

determining general information about a customer from detected products viewed by the customer;

presenting a specific direct marketing campaign to the customer in response to the customer entering or scanning a product code; and

configuring the marketing campaign to present the customer with one of advertisements, recipes, and products that relate to the determined general information about the customer.

40. The product information viewing method of claim 32, further comprising sending product information to a customer in the form of an advertisement when the customer scans or enters a product code into the web-based application.