Using advanced shipping notification information for supply chain process analysis

• US 7,711,654 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2004
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sensitech Incorporated (Carrier Global Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sensitech Incorporated (Carrier Global Corporation)
• Inventors: Schmidtberg, Rupert A., Leshuk, Jeffrey Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): EPSTEIN, BRIAN M
• Application Number:
  US10/934,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20050055237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,069 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/7, 340/870, 340/10.1, 340/541, 702/81, 235/375, 235/385
• US Class Current: 705/333
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 2215/00 Details concerning sensor power supply
• 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 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems

Abstract

Systems and methods collect data concerning a supply chain and perform statistical analysis on the collected data to facilitate identification of anomalies or inefficiencies in the process. One method disclosed involves storing, in memory accessible to at least one processor, an electronic copy of an advanced shipping notification (ASN) that was transmitted from a shipping location to a receiving location in advance of shipping at least one item therebetween, and also storing, in memory accessible to the at least one processor, data reflecting at least one determined value of at least one monitored aspect of the shipment between the shipping location and the receiving location. The at least one processor uses at least some information from the ASN stored in memory, with at least some of the data stored in memory, to generate at least one report involving the at least one determined value.

Claims

1. A method, comprising steps of:

(a) storing, in memory accessible to at least one processor, an electronic copy of an advanced shipping notification (ASN) that was transmitted from a shipping location to a receiving location in advance of shipping at least one item therebetween, wherein the ASN comprises;

an identifier that identifies a sensor used to monitor at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item during the shipment and to produce time stamped sensor data; and

a tracking number;

(b) uploading to memory accessible to at least one processor, the time stamped sensor data from the sensor reflecting at least one determined value of the at least one monitored physical or environmental condition of the shipment between the shipping location and the receiving location together with information that uniquely identifies the sensor;

(c) with the at least one processor,

using the tracking number included in the ASN to retrieve location event information from a carrier responsible for transporting the at least one item between the shipping location and the receiving location the location event information comprising;

shipment location data reflecting a location of the item between the shipping location and the receiving location; and

shipment time data reflecting times at which the item was at the location;

using the retrieved location event information to identify at least a portion of the time stamped sensor data as having been accumulated when the sensor was associated with the at least one item by relating times from the time stamped sensor data and the shipment time data to relate shipment location data with sensor data; and

using at least some shipment information from the ASN stored in memory including the identifier, together with at least a portion of the time stamped sensor data stored in memory that was uploaded from the sensor corresponding to the information that uniquely identifies the sensor, to generate at least one report involving the at least one determined value including the related shipment location data and sensor data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one report comprises at least one of a chart and a graph on which information concerning the at least one determined value and information concerning at least one location event identified from the retrieved location event information are displayed together.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of:

(d) extracting summary information from the identified portion of the sensor data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the summary information comprises at least one of a mean temperature, a minimum temperature, a maximum temperature, degree-minutes above a threshold temperature, degree-minutes below a threshold temperature, time above a threshold temperature, and time below a threshold temperature.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the summary information reflects the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item at only a single product location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one monitored aspect of the shipment comprises a temperature of an environment in which the at least one item was disposed.

7. A computer system comprising a processor and a database, the database having stored therein:

an electronic copy of an advanced shipping notification (ASN) that was transmitted from a shipping location to a receiving location in advance of shipping at least one item therebetween, wherein the ASN comprises;

an identifier that uniquely identifies a sensor used to monitor an aspect of the shipment of the at least one item and produce time stamped sensor data; and

a tracking number from a carrier responsible for transporting the at least one item between the shipping location and the receiving location;

and further having stored therein time stamped sensor data produced by the sensor reflecting at least one determined value of the monitored aspect of the shipment of the at least one item together with information that uniquely identifies the sensor; and

shipment location data and shipment time data retrieved using the tracking number;

wherein the database is accessible to the processor; and

wherein the processor is configured to, using shipment time data stored in the database including the identifier together with the time stamped sensor data stored in the database that was uploaded from the sensor corresponding to the information that uniquely identifies the sensor, generate at least one report involving the at least one determined value that relates the shipment location data to sensor data.

8. The database of claim 7, wherein the at least one monitored aspect of the shipment comprises at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item during shipment.

9. The database of claim 7, wherein the at least one monitored aspect of the shipment comprises a temperature of an environment in which the at least one item was disposed.

10. A tangible computer-readable storage medium for use with at least one processor included in a system including at least one memory accessible to the at least one processor that has stored therein:

an electronic copy of an advanced shipping notification (ASN) that was transmitted from a shipping location to a receiving location in advance of shipping at least one item therebetween, wherein the ASN comprises;

an identifier that uniquely identifies a sensor used to monitor at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item during shipment and to produce sensor data; and

a tracking number;

and having further stored therein downloaded time stamped sensor data from the sensor reflecting at least one determined value of the at least one monitored physical or environmental condition of the shipment of the at least one item and the identifier that uniquely identifies the sensor,

the tangible computer-readable storage medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the steps of;

(a) using the tracking number included in the ASN to retrieve location event information from a carrier responsible for transporting the at least one item between the shipping location and the receiving location, the location event information comprising;

shipment location data reflecting a location of the item between the shipping location and the receiving location; and

shipment time data reflecting times at which the item was at the location,

(b) using the retrieved location event information to identify at least a portion of the time stamped sensor data as having been accumulated when the sensor was associated with the at least one item by relating times from the time stamped sensor data and the shipment time data to relate shipment location data with sensor data; and

(c) using at least some shipment information from the ASN stored in memory including the identifier, together with at least a portion of the downloaded time stamped sensor data stored in memory, including the identifier and the at least one determined value, to generate at least one report involving the at least one determined value including the related shipment location data and sensor data.

11. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one report comprises at least one of a chart and a graph on which information concerning the at least one determined value and information concerning at least one location event identified from the retrieved location event information are displayed together.

12. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, having additional instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the further step of:

(b) extracting summary information from the identified portion of the sensor data.

13. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the summary information comprises at least one of a mean temperature, a minimum temperature, a maximum temperature, degree-minutes above a threshold temperature, degree-minutes below a threshold temperature, time above a threshold temperature, and time below a threshold temperature.

14. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the summary information reflects the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item at only a single product location.

15. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the at least one monitored aspect of the shipment comprises a temperature of an environment in which the at least one item was disposed.

16. A method, comprising:

physically associating a sensor device for monitoring at least one physical or environmental condition with at least one item to be transported, the sensor device capable of outputting information that uniquely identifies the sensor device;

transmitting over a network an advanced shipping notification (AS N) from a shipping location to a receiving location in advance of shipping the at least one item therebetween, the ASN comprising;

the information that uniquely identifies the sensor used to monitor the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item to be transported; and

shipment information including a tracking number from a carrier pertaining to the at least one item to be transported;

monitoring the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item with the at least one sensor device to obtain time stamped sensor data;

using the tracking number to obtain location event information including shipment location data and shipment time data;

downloading the information that uniquely identifies the sensor and the time stamped sensor data from the sensor device at the receiving location such that that the time stamped sensor data is associated with the shipment location data using the shipment time data and times from the time stamped sensor data; and

using the retrieved location event information to identify at least a portion of the time stamped sensor data as having been accumulated when the sensor device was associated with the at least one item by relating times from the time stamped sensor data and the shipment time data to relate shipment location data with sensor data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the ASN further comprises information identifying a location of the at least one sensor with respect to at least one of the at least one item and a vehicle on which the at least one item is to be transported.

18. A method for tracking a sensor in transit, the method comprising:

producing with a computer apparatus an advanced shipping notification (ASN) comprising an identifier that identifies at least one sensor device that will be used to monitor at least one physical or environmental condition of at least one item as the item is transported between a shipping location and a receiving location;

attaching the at least one sensor device having the identifier to the at least one item;

transmitting the ASN over a network from a shipping location to a database at the receiving location in advance of shipping the at least one item therebetween;

shipping the at least one sensor device and the at least one item from the shipping location;

monitoring with the at least one sensor device the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item to generate sensor data;

using a tracking number included in the ASN to retrieve location event information including shipment location and time data from a carrier responsible for transporting the at least one item between the shipping location and the receiving location;

receiving the at least one sensor device and the at least one item at the receiving location;

communicating the identifier that identifies the at least one sensor device and the sensor data from the at least one sensor device to the database using a communication device;

associating the identifier from the sensor device with the identifier from the ASN to link the ASN with the sensor data relating to the at least one physical or environmental condition of the at least one item in the database; and

using the retrieved location event information to identify at least a portion of the sensor data as having been accumulated when the sensor was associated with the at least one item by relating times from the time stamped sensor data and the shipment time data to relate shipment location data with sensor data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the ASN further comprises information identifying a location of the at least one sensor with respect to at least one of the at least one item and a vehicle on which the at least one item is to be transported.