Electronic method and system for monitoring containers and products

• US 7,423,534 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Issued: 09/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Original Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Inventors: Dhanjal, Smriti Gandhi, Griffin, Nicholas, Melendez, Rafael
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, TOAN NGOC
• Application Number:
  US11/275,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20070164862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/572.4, 340/572.8, 340/825.49, 340/10.1, 340/825.36, 340/686.1, 340/10.5, 340/10.34, 340/539.26, 235/375, 235/385
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

An electronic method for monitoring the location of a container and one or more products capable of being contained in the container in an operating environment. The method can include the steps of (a) placing an extreme condition identification (ID) tag encoded with a container ID on a location on a container capable of containing one or more products; (b) associating the one or more products with the container ID; and (c) tracking the location of the containers based on the extreme condition ID tag.

Claims

1. An electronic method for monitoring the location and integrity of a container and one or more products capable of being contained in the container in an operating environment, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) placing an extreme condition identification (ID) tag encoded with a container ID on a location on a container capable of containing one or more products;

(b) placing a unique product ID tag encoded with one or more product IDs and product birth histories on one or more products loaded into the container, wherein the one or more product IDs are associated with the one or more product birth histories;

(c) associating the one or more products in the container with the container ID; and

(d) tracking the location of the container based on the extreme condition ID tag and determining the integrity of the container based on the product birth histories.

2. The electronic method of claim 1, wherein the extreme condition ID tag is an extreme condition radio frequency identification (RFID) tag made of a film material, aluminum or polyurethane, and step (d) includes:

(d) tracking the location of the container via one or more radio frequency (RF) interrogators capable of identifying the location of the extreme condition RFID tag.

3. The electronic method of claim 2, further comprising:

(e) placing the one or more RF interrogators at one or more locations selected from the group consisting of;

one or more drop points, one or more fork lifts, and one or more handheld scanner.

4. The electronic method of claim 1 further comprising:

(e) identifying the container and the one or more products contained on the container based on the container ID and the one or more products; and

(f) determining campaign information of the one or more products based on the one or more product birth histories.

5. The electronic method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) receiving a quality concern regarding one of the one or more products contained in the container; and

(f) associating the quality concern with the container ID and the one of the one or more products having a quality concern.

6. The electronic method of claim 5, wherein step (f) includes:

(f) associating the quality concern in real time in response to receiving the quality concern.

7. The electronic method of claim 6, further comprising:

(g) transmitting the quality concern.

8. The electronic method of claim 5, further comprising:

(f) updating the quality concern.

9. The electronic method of claim 1, wherein the container is a rack and the one or more products is selected from the group consisting of at least one engine and at least one transmission.

10. The electronic method of claim 9, wherein the rack is a single, multiple, or contiguous rack.

11. The electronic method of claim 1 wherein step (c) includes:

(c) associating the one or more products with the container ID at about the drop time for the one or more products.

12. The electronic method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) selecting the location of the extreme condition ID tag on the container based on the primary operating environment of the container.

13. The electronic method of claim 12, wherein the primary operating environment is a manufacturing plant.

14. The electronic method of claim 1, wherein the extreme condition tag is an extreme condition barcode sticker and the method further comprises receiving the one or more product birth histories indicating the integrity of the container based on the one or more product ID tags.

15. An electronic system for monitoring the location and integrity of a container and one or more products capable of being contained on the container in an operating environment, the system comprising:

(a) one or more extreme condition identification (ID) tag encoded with a container ID on a location on a container capable of containing one or more products;

(b) a unique product ID tag encoded with one or more product IDs and product birth histories on one or more products loaded into the container, wherein the one or more product IDs are associated with the one or more product birth histories;

(c) a database for storing the association of the one or more products in the container with the container ID and for checking the one or more product birth histories for indicating the integrity of the container; and

(d) one or more tracking devices for tracking the location of the container based on the extreme condition ID tag and for determining the integrity of the container based on the product birth histories.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more extreme condition ID tag is an extreme condition radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, made of a film material, aluminum or polyurethane and the tracking device is one or more radio frequency (RF) interrogators capable of identifying the location of the extreme condition RFID.

17. The electronic system of claim 16, further comprising:

(e) one or more tracking device placement locations for tracking the location of the container, wherein the one or more tracking device placement locations are selected from the group consisting of;

one or more drop points, one or more fork lifts, and one or more handheld scanner.

18. The electronic system of claim 15, wherein the database is capable of associating a quality concern related to one of the one or more products with the container ID.

19. The electronic system of claim 18, further comprising:

(f) one or more transmitters for transmitting the quality concern to the one or more tracking devices.

20. An electronic method for monitoring the location and integrity of a container and one or more products capable of being contained on the container in an operating environment, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) placing an extreme condition radio frequency identification (RFID) tag encoded with a container identification (ID) on a location on a container capable of containing one or more products;

(b) placing a unique product identification (ID) tag encoded with one or more product IDs and product birth histories on one or more products loaded into the container, wherein the one or more product IDs are associated with the one or more product birth histories to determine the integrity of the container;

(c) associating the one or more products in the container with the container ID and receiving the one or more product birth histories indicating the integrity of the container;

(d) tracking the location of the container based on the extreme condition tag and determining the integrity of the container based on the product birth histories;

(e) tracking the location of the container via one or more radio frequency (RF) interrogators capable of identifying the location of the extreme condition RFID tag;

(f) placing the one or more RF interrogators at one or more tracking device placement locations; and

(g) transmitting the location of the container.