Supply chain visibility solution architecture

• US 20060163338A1
• Filed: 03/29/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Salvador, Andy P., Adil, Mohammad A., Schwandt, Craig A., Allen, Lingzhi L., Beeson, Frank J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,497,370 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 11/008 incorporating GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisions for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials

Abstract

A supply chain (or other process) visibility solution is disclosed that combines RFID technology with a data visibility architecture to provide real-time or near real-time supply chain information at various stages of the supply chain (or other process). The system uses a data gathering architecture which collects data from multiple sources about an object. The sources of data include RFID tags, scanners and manual input. The data from the RFID tags is used to correlate the gathered data to attributes associated with the object (e.g., name, description or price). The gathered data and attributes are stored in a data store according to a customizable schema and published for consumption by one or more business processes.

Claims

1. A method for managing process data, comprising:

receiving status information, said status information includes RFID data and status data about one or more objects;

storing said status data in a first format;

mapping said status data to attribute information about said one or more objects using said RFID data;

transforming said status data and attribute information to a first schema based on metadata; and

publishing said transformed status data and attribute information.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing redundancy filtering and noise mitigation on said status information.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

gathering said status information including reading an RFID tag and receiving manual input data.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

gathering said status information, said gathering includes reading an RFID tag and receiving manual input data using an application on a first computing device;

providing feedback data to said first computing device in order to pre-populate one or more fields of an interface of said application.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

said mapping includes reading said attribute information from a cache if said RFID data is already in said cache and accessing an external EPC look-up service if said RFID data is not already in said cache.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating said metadata.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

said publishing includes providing said transformed status data and attribute information to different applications via an application integration entity.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

said publishing includes providing said transformed status data and attribute information to an extraction, transformation and load entity for delivery to a data warehouse; and

providing said status data and attribute information to a data mining tool from said data warehouse.

9. A method for managing process data, comprising:

gathering supply chain information about an object from two or more sources including an RFID tag;

mapping said supply chain information to attribute data for said object using information from said RFID tag; and

providing said supply chain information and said attribute data to different applications via an application integration entity.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein:

said step of gathering includes reading said RFID tag and receiving input from a source other than RFID tags.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein:

said step of gathering includes reading said RFID tag and receiving manual input data.

12. A method according to claim 9, further comprising:

performing redundancy filtering and noise mitigation on said supply chain information.

13. A method according to claim 9, wherein:

said gathering includes reading said RFID tag and receiving manual input data using an application on a first computing device; and

said method further comprises providing feedback data to said first computing device in order to pre-populate one or more fields of an interface of said application.

14. A method according to claim 9, wherein:

said providing said supply chain information and said attribute data includes using a publish/subscribe service to provide said supply chain information and said attribute data to said application integration entity via a web server.

15. A method according to claim 9, wherein:

said different applications include a first application and a second application; and

said application integration entity includes a first adapter to communicate with said first application and a second adapter to communicate with said second application.

16. A system for managing process data, comprising:

an RFID reader;

a data input device, said data input device receives data from at least one source other than an RFID tag; and

a data bridge system, said data bridge system includes a loading entity receiving data from said RFID reader and said data input device, a look-up entity that uses tag data from said RFID reader to identify product attributes associated with said tag data, and a transforming entity that transforms data from said input device to a format for publishing.

17. A system according to claim 16, wherein:

said data input device is a bar code scanner.

18. A system according to claim 16, wherein:

said RFID reader and said data input device are part of a computing system; and

said computing system converts said data from said RFID reader and said data input device to an XML format for sending to said data bridge system.

19. A system according to claim 16, wherein:

said RFID reader and said data input device are part of a first computing system;

said first computing system communicates said data from said RFID reader and said data input device to a second computing system; and

said second computing system includes a file watch service that automatically detects said data from said RFID reader and said data input device and transmits said data from said RFID reader and said data input device to said data bridge system.

20. A system according to claim 16, further comprising:

an application integration system, said data bridge system includes a data store that stores said transformed data, said application integration system is in communication with said data store; and

two or more different applications in communication with said application integration system, said two or more applications access said transformed data via said application integration system.