Supply chain visibility for real-time tracking of goods
First Claim
1. A method for the real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
- affixing a tag to each good to be tracked and/or to each conveyance used to store or carry the goods;
marking the location of one of the goods at a data appliance and storing information on said location at a site server coupled to said data appliance;
uploading said location information to a data center, said data center coupled to said site server; and
charging users of said supply chain a fee dependent on the number of tracked goods to access said data center and view reports compiled using said location information regarding each tracked good.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A commerce visibility network allows for the collection and distribution of real-time location and status information regarding the movement of goods and assets through a supply chain. Items and/or conveyances may be individually tagged using radio frequency identifiers or other tagging technologies, such as global positioning satellite technology. The location of an item or conveyance may be marked and information on the location may be stored at a site server. The site server may then upload location information to a data center. Supply chain users may then be charged a fee per tracked item or fee per transaction to access the data center and view reports compiled using the location information regarding each tracked item. This allows for instantaneous access to location and status information of any item in the supply chain. Additionally, aggregation information is provided to allow for the tracking of items which are stored in conveyances, even in several levels of conveyances. Compensation logic is applied to the asset movement data to provide a continuous knowledge of the asset locations, so as to compensate for deficiencies in the raw location data.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for the real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
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affixing a tag to each good to be tracked and/or to each conveyance used to store or carry the goods;
marking the location of one of the goods at a data appliance and storing information on said location at a site server coupled to said data appliance;
uploading said location information to a data center, said data center coupled to said site server; and
charging users of said supply chain a fee dependent on the number of tracked goods to access said data center and view reports compiled using said location information regarding each tracked good. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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17. A method for the real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
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affixing a tag to each good to be tracked and/or to each conveyance used to store or carry the goods;
marking the location of one of the goods at a data appliance and storing information on said location at a site server coupled to said data appliance;
uploading said location information to a data center, said data center coupled to said site server; and
charging users of said supply chain a fee per transaction to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good, each transaction including a single tag read.
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33. A system for real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
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a data center;
one or more site servers coupled to said data center;
one or more data appliances, each of said data appliances coupled to one of said site servers;
one or more tags, each of said tags affixed to a good or conveyance in a way such that they may be read by tag reader coupled to or part of said data appliances; and
one or more users coupled to said data center via the World Wide Web, wherein each of said users are charged a fee per good tracked to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 37, 38, 40, 41)
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36. A system for real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
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a data center;
one or more site servers coupled to said data center;
one or more data appliances, each of said data appliances coupled to one of said site servers;
one or more tags, each of said tags affixed to a good or conveyance in a way such that they may be read by tag reader coupled to or part of said data appliances; and
one or more users coupled to said data center via the World Wide Web, wherein each of said users are charged a fee per transaction to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good, each of said transactions including a tag read.
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39. A system for real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
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a collaboration center;
one or more data centers coupled to said collaboration center;
one or more site servers coupled to said data center;
one or more data appliances, each of said data appliances coupled to one of said site servers;
one or more tags, each of said tags affixed to a good or conveyance in a way such that they may be read by tag reader coupled to or part of said data appliances; and
one or more users coupled to said data center via the World Wide Web, wherein each of said users are charged a fee per good tracked to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good.
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42. A system for real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, including:
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a collaboration center;
one or more data centers coupled to said collaboration center;
one or more site servers coupled to said data center;
one or more data appliances, each of said data appliances coupled to one of said site servers;
one or more tags, each of said tags affixed to a good or conveyance in a way such that they may be read by tag reader coupled to or part of said data appliances; and
one or more users coupled to said data center via the World Wide Web, wherein each of said users are charged a fee per transaction to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good, each of said transactions including a tag read. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44)
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45. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for the real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, the method including:
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affixing a tag to each good to be tracked and/or to each conveyance used to store or carry the goods;
marking the location of one of the goods at a data appliance and storing information on said location at a site server coupled to said data appliance;
uploading said location information to a data center, said data center coupled to said site server; and
charging users of said supply chain a fee dependent on the number of tracked goods to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good.
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46. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for the real-time tracking of goods in a supply chain, the method including:
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affixing a tag to each good to be tracked and/or to each conveyance used to store or carry the goods;
marking the location of one of the goods at a data appliance and storing information on said location at a site server coupled to said data appliance;
uploading said location information to a data center, said data center coupled to said site server; and
charging users of said supply chain a fee per transaction to access said data center and view reports compiled using location information regarding each tracked good, each transaction including a single tag read.
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Specification