Apparatus and method of collecting and monitoring shipment data
First Claim
11. The method of determining the compliance statistics as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is included the further step of identifying each core date element which is related with one of the plurality of shipments.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system is described for colleting and monitoring shipment data, wherein one or more service providers can enter into the system shipment data that is indicative of the attributes of a plurality of customer shipments as one or more customers forwards at least one customer shipment through a shipment-cycle. The shipment data reflects the attributes of each customer shipment and/or events occurring to at least one customer shipment during its shipment cycle. The collecting and monitoring system comprises a plurality of customer terminals, a web server, a central computer and a plurality of disparate shipment data input terminals, a plurality of customer terminals, a web server, a central computer and a plurality of disparate shipment data input terminals. Each of the plurality of customer terminals comprises a customer display, a customer computer and a customer data input device, the customer computer being programmed to facilitate the customer to input using its data input device a request for the shipment data of one or more of the customer'"'"'s shipments. The web server comprises a server memory for storing web pages for facilitating at least one customer to enter a request for shipment data. The central computer comprises a shipment tracking data base for receiving and storing shipment data. The central computer is programmed for receiving and storing shipment data in the shipment tracking data base. Each of the plurality of disparate shipment data input terminals enters shipment data into the system which includes a synchronous terminal computer and an asynchronous terminal computer. The central computer being programmed to access from the shipment data elements that are used to determine the compliance statistics and whether shipment data has been entered in each core data element of each shipment. The system further includes a plurality of customer data input devices for requesting shipment data corresponding to criteria entered by a customer.
39 Citations
54 Claims
- 11. The method of determining the compliance statistics as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is included the further step of identifying each core date element which is related with one of the plurality of shipments.
- 15. The method of determining the compliance statistics as claimed in claim 1, wherein step b) repeatedly accesses each core data element in the central computer until each core data element has been accessed by the central computer.
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17. The method of determining the compliance statistics as claimed in clam 16, wherein there is included the further step of dividing the total number of errors by the total number of data core elements entered by the one terminal to provide an error rate for the station related to the one terminal.
- 18. The method of determining the compliance statistics as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is included for the plurality of stations the further steps of identifying each shipment of the plurality of shipments as it passes through one of the plurality of stations, identifying for a predetermined interval of time each of the plurality of shipments moving to the one station during its shipping-cycle, determining for each shipment passing to the one station the number of data core elements entered by the a terminal related to the one station, and determining for each shipment passing to one station the number of date core elements which have not been filled with data.
- 20. The method of determining the compliance statistics as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is included the further steps of determining each shipment that moves in its shipment-cycle to a predetermined station, based upon the predetermined station and the shipment that moved to the predetermined station determining that each station has a corresponding role, and determining for the predetermined station and each shipment that moved to the predetermined station the number of data core-elements provided for each shipment that moved to the predetermined station.
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22. A system for collecting and monitoring shipment data, wherein one or more system administrators enters into the system shipment data that is indicative of the status of a plurality of shipments as at least one shipment is moved through a shipment-cycle, the shipment data reflecting the attributes of each shipment and/or events occurring to each shipment during its shipment-cycle, the collecting and monitoring system comprising:
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a) a first plurality of synchronous terminals, each of the plurality of synchronous terminals comprises a browser and an emulator;
b) a second plurality of non-synchronous terminals, each of the plurality of non-synchronous terminals comprises at least one data input system and a non-synchronous terminal memory;
c) first and second data transmission networks, each of which transmits there over the shipment data from one of the terminals;
d) a central computer comprising a shipment tracking database for receiving and storing shipment data therein, and a shipment tracking program memory for storing a program for receiving and storing shipment data in the shipment tracking database;
e) a web server comprising a webpage memory for storing web pages for facilitating the service provider'"'"'s entry of shipment data into the shipment tracking database; and
f) the emulator being actuated by at least one of the service providers to execute the program stored in the shipment tracking program memory to connect the emulator to the central computer by the first data transmission network to enter shipment data into the shipment tracking database, and the browser being actuated by the one service provider to connect the browser by the second data transmission network to the webpage memory whereby the service provider may display at least one webpage to facilitate the one service provider to enter shipment data over the second data network to the shipment tracking database, each of the data input systems is non-synchronous with respect to each of the web server and the central computer, whereby shipment data is inputted from the data input system into the shipment tracking database by the first transmission data network. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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30. A system for collecting and monitoring shipment data, wherein one or more service providers can enter into the system shipment data that is indicative of the attributes of a plurality of customer shipments as one or more customers forwards at least one customer shipment through a shipment-cycle, the shipment data reflecting the attributes of each customer shipment and/or events occurring to at least one customer shipment during its shipment-cycle, the collecting and monitoring system comprising:
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a) a plurality of customer terminals, each customer terminal comprising a customer display, a customer computer and a customer data input device, the customer computer being programmed to facilitate the customer to input using its data input device a request for the shipment data of one or more of the customer'"'"'s shipments;
b) a web server comprising a server memory for storing web pages for facilitating at least one customer to enter a request for shipment data;
c) a central computer comprising a shipment tracking data base for receiving and storing shipment data, the central computer being programmed for receiving and storing shipment data in the shipment tracking data base; and
d) a plurality of disparate shipment data input terminals for entering shipment data into the system, at least one of the plurality of shipment data input terminals has a synchronous terminal computer which is programmed to operate synchronously with respect to the web server and the central computer, and at least another of the plurality of shipment data input terminals has a shipment data input memory and an asynchronous terminal computer which is programmed to operate asynchronously with respect to the web server and the central computer to determine whether the inputted shipment data represents a change in the attribute and/or the status of the customer shipment and, if so, to store the received shipment data in the shipment data input memory and to download the inputted shipment data from the shipment data input memory to the shipment tracking data base. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A system for collecting and entering shipment status data into the system, the shipment status data is indicative of the status of at least one customer shipment which one or more customers forwards through a shipment-cycle, the shipment status data reflecting selected events occurring to at least one shipment during its shipment-cycle, wherein the collecting and entering system comprises:
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a) a central computer comprising a shipment tracking database for receiving and storing the shipment status data, the central computer being programmed to receive and store shipment status data into the shipment tracking data base;
b) a data input for assigning a status code to identify the physical position where each of the selected events occurs and for transmitting in real time via a data transmission network the shipment status data and the assigned status codes to the shipment tracking database;
c) a plurality of customer terminals, each customer terminal comprising a customer display, a customer computer and a customer data input device, said customer computer being programmed to facilitate the one customer to input using its data input device at least one request for the shipment status data of the one customer'"'"'s shipment(s); and
d) a web server comprising a server memory for storing web pages for facilitating the one customer to enter a shipment status data request for the shipment status data of the one shipment of the one customer. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A system for collecting and entering shipment data into the system, the shipment data is indicative of the confidential attributes of each of the plurality of shipments, each of the plurality of shipments being forwarded by a related customer, wherein the collecting and entering system comprises:
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a) a web server comprising a web page memory for storing web pages for facilitating each of the plurality of customers to enter a request for the shipment data of at least one of the customer'"'"'s shipments;
b) a plurality of customer terminals, each customer terminal comprising a customer display, a customer computer and a customer data input device;
c) a data warehouse computer comprising a warehouse database for receiving and storing the shipment data; and
d) the data warehouse computer being programmed to respond to the receipt of the request for the shipment data by prompting the one customer to input its password, to compare the one customer'"'"'s pass word with a plurality of valid customer passwords and, if there is a match, prompting the one customer to enter its search criteria, and construct and apply a search request for the entered search criteria to search the shipment data stored in the warehouse data base to provide a list of one or more shipments with attributes that match the customer'"'"'s search criteria. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. The system for collecting and entering shipment parcel status data as claimed in clam 52, wherein the central computer being programmed to time date when each shipment is entered into the shipment tracking data base and to copy and transfer those shipment data elements that have a time date later than the last time the shipment data elements were copied and transferred to the warehouse data base.
Specification