Systems and methods for supply chain management

• US 9,633,325 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX Ultimate Parent Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX Ultimate Parent Corp.)
• Inventors: Bolene, David, Bolinger, Eric, Drees, Margot, Fornarola, Janine
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ross, Scott
• Application Number:
  US13/804,955
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136273A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,503 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1413 1D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0832 Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

Systems and methods are directed to supply chain management. In particular, the tracking, tracing, authenticating, and reporting of supply chain events for products, is disclosed. Various embodiments can store, analyze, and track supply chain events and help to coordinate and maintain trading partner connections. Various embodiments also help to enhance patient safety, secure the supply chains for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other healthcare products, and help users to follow regulatory requirements.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer-based system and based on scanning at a first location, data for an aggregation event associated with an item at the first location;

wherein the first location impacts the scanning of the data that is obtained by a proximity-based scanner at the first location,

wherein the proximity-based scanner scans a parent electronic product code (EPC) and a child EPC at the first location,

wherein the proximity-based scanner communicates with the computer-based system;

storing, by the computer-based system, the data for the aggregation event in a database as ungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary (BLOB);

tuning, by the computer-based system, the database to optimize database performance,

wherein the tuning includes placing frequently used files on separate file systems to reduce in and out bottlenecks;

obtaining, by the computer-based system, the data from the database for the aggregation event;

in response to the parent EPC at the first location not being known, storing, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC in storage;

associating, by the computer-based system, the aggregation event with the parent EPC at the first location;

determining, by the computer-based system, that an event sequence exists for the parent EPC at the first location;

in response to the event sequence not existing, initiating, by the computer-based system, an event sequence for the parent EPC at the first location;

in response to the child EPC not being known, storing, by the computer-based system, the child EPC in storage;

associating, by the computer-based system, the aggregation event with the child EPC at the first location;

in response to a decommissioning event existing earlier in the event sequence, setting, by the computer-based system, a parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error,

wherein the decommissioning event is issued in response to at least one of destruction of an unconsumed item, an expired item, a damaged item, a recalled item, an item being dispensed, an item being consumed or an item being discarded;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the computer-based system, for disaggregation events earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event;

in response to a disaggregation event existing for the parent EPC, setting, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the computer-based system, for at least one of shipping or receiving events earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event;

in response to the at least one of shipping or receiving event existing for the parent EPC, setting, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the computer-based system, that there is only one commissioning event earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event,

wherein the commissioning event includes identifying at least one of a sellable item, a container associated with the item or aggregation hierarchies for the item;

in response to more than one commissioning event, setting, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC event sequence having events subsequent in time to the current aggregation event, associating, by the computer-based system, each of the subsequent events for the parent EPC with each of the child EPCs listed in the aggregation event, wherein the subsequent events are applied recursively through a parent and child containment hierarchy; and

in response to beginning the event sequence with the aggregation event, setting, by the computer-based system, at least one of a child EPC state or the parent EPC state to indicate a missing commissioning event.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computer-based system, whether a commissioning event exists in the retrieved events for the item; and

in response to the determination that no commissioning event exists in the retrieved events for the item, generating, by the computer-based system, an error status for the item.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computer-based system, whether a plurality of commissioning events exist in the retrieved events for the item; and

in response to the determination that a plurality of commissioning events exist in the retrieved events for the item, generating, by the computer-based system, a suspect status for the item.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computer-based system, whether any receiving events exist in the retrieved events for the item;

for each receiving event, determining, by the computer-based system, whether an associated shipping event exists for the receiving event; and

in response to the determination that there is not an associated shipping event for at least one of the receiving events, generating, by the computer-based system, an error status for the item.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computer-based system, whether any shipping events exist in the retrieved events for the item;

for each shipping event, determining, by the computer-based system, whether an associated receiving event exists for the shipping event; and

in response to the determination that there is not an associated receiving event for at least one of the shipping events, generating, by the computer-based system, an error status for the item.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising a decommissioning event that includes at least one of destruction of unconsumed item, destruction of an expired item, destruction of a damaged product, a recalled product at the point of destruction, a product being dispensed, a product being consumed, or the container being discarded.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing, by the computer-based system, a subset of the items associated with the EPC from the container, in response to a condition reflecting error.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising

identifying, by the computer-based system, one or more contiguous chains of events within the event sequence.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

matching, by the computer-based system, one or more pairs of events; and

forming, by the computer-based system, one or more trees of links from the matched pairs of events; and

identifying, by the computer-based system, each tree as a contiguous chain of events.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding, by the computer-based system and in response to a condition reflecting error, a subset of the items associated with the EPC to be commissioned at least one of on the production line, as a shipment is being packed, or by a wholesaler.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating, by the computer-based system, a type of the data as a key field in a plurality of related data tables to speed searching for the data;

partitioning, by the computer-based system and using the key field, the database according to a class of objects defined by the key field to speed searching for the data for the aggregation event;

linking, by the computer-based system, the plurality of related data tables based on the type of the data in the key fields; and

sorting, by the computer-based system, the data according to a known order to simplify the lookup process.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating, by the computer-based system, at least one of a new link for related events or an unlinked event by utilizing the rules engine.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing, by the computer-based system and in response to the condition reflecting error, a subset of the items associated with the EPC.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the EPC includes at least one of a global trade item number, a national drug code, a header, a filter value, a partition value, a manager number or a serial number.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising a commissioning event that is configured to at least one of identify sellable items, identify the containers for the sellable items or aggregation hierarchies.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer-based system, a set of custom rules from an entity in the supply chain; and

assessing, by the computer-based system, the retrieved events by utilizing the set of custom rules.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading, by the computer-based system, a plurality of stored parameters from an entity in the supply chain;

creating, by the computer-based system, a set of custom rules for the entity; and

assessing, by the computer-based system, the retrieved events by utilizing the set of custom rules.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to the item having a commissioning event, and no previous decommissioning associated with the item, reporting, by the computer-based system and in accordance with a rule, a new commissioning event as suspect.

19. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the computer-based system and based on scanning at a first location, data for an aggregation event associated with an item at the first location;

wherein the first location impacts the scanning of the data that is obtained by a proximity-based scanner at the first location,

wherein the proximity-based scanner scans a parent electronic product code (EPC) and a child EPC at the first location,

wherein the proximity-based scanner communicates with the computer-based system;

storing, by the computer-based system, the data for the aggregation event in a database as ungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary (BLOB);

tuning, by the computer-based system, the database to optimize database performance,

wherein the tuning includes placing frequently used files on separate file systems to reduce in and out bottlenecks; and

obtaining, by the computer-based system, the data from the database for the aggregation event;

in response to the parent EPC at the first location not being known, storing, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC in storage;

associating, by the computer-based system, the aggregation event with the parent EPC at the first location;

determining, by the computer-based system, that an event sequence exists for the parent EPC at the first location;

in response to the event sequence not existing, initiating, by the computer-based system, an event sequence for the parent EPC at the first location;

in response to the child EPC not being known, storing, by the computer-based system, the child EPC in storage;

associating, by the computer-based system, the aggregation event with the child EPC at the first location;

in response to a decommissioning event existing earlier in the event sequence, setting, by the computer-based system, a parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error,

wherein the decommissioning event is issued in response to at least one of destruction of an unconsumed item, an expired item, a damaged item, a recalled item, an item being dispensed, an item being consumed or an item being discarded;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the computer-based system, for disaggregation events earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event;

in response to a disaggregation event existing for the parent EPC, setting, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the computer-based system, for at least one of shipping or receiving events earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event;

in response to the at least one of shipping or receiving event existing for the parent EPC, setting, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the computer-based system, that there is only one commissioning event earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event,

wherein the commissioning event includes identifying at least one of a sellable item, a container associated with the item or aggregation hierarchies for the item;

in response to more than one commissioning event, setting, by the computer-based system, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC event sequence having events subsequent in time to the current aggregation event, associating, by the computer-based system, each of the subsequent events for the parent EPC with each of the child EPCs listed in the aggregation event, wherein the subsequent events are applied recursively through a parent and child containment hierarchy; and

in response to beginning the event sequence with the aggregation event, setting, by the computer-based system, at least one of a child EPC state or the parent EPC state to indicate a missing commissioning event.

20. A system comprising:

a processor,

a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor,

the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the processor and based on scanning at a first location, data for an aggregation event associated with an item at the first location;

wherein the first location impacts the scanning of the data that is obtained by a proximity-based scanner at the first location,

wherein the proximity-based scanner scans a parent electronic product code (EPC) and a child EPC at the first location,

wherein the proximity-based scanner communicates with the processor;

storing, by the processor, the data for the aggregation event in a database as ungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary (BLOB);

tuning, by the processor, the database to optimize database performance,

wherein the tuning includes placing frequently used files on separate file systems to reduce in and out bottlenecks; and

obtaining, by the processor, the data from the database for the aggregation event;

in response to the parent EPC at the first location not being known, storing, by the processor, the parent EPC in storage;

associating, by the processor, the aggregation event with the parent EPC at the first location;

determining, by the processor, that an event sequence exists for the parent EPC at the first location;

in response to the event sequence not existing, initiating, by the processor, an event sequence for the parent EPC at the first location;

in response to the child EPC not being known, storing, by the processor, the child EPC in storage;

associating, by the processor, the aggregation event with the child EPC at the first location;

in response to a decommissioning event existing earlier in the event sequence, setting, by the processor, a parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error,

wherein the decommissioning event is issued in response to at least one of destruction of an unconsumed item, an expired item, a damaged item, a recalled item, an item being dispensed, an item being consumed or an item being discarded;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the processor, for disaggregation events earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event;

in response to a disaggregation event existing for the parent EPC, setting, by the processor, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the processor, for at least one of shipping or receiving events earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event;

in response to the at least one of shipping or receiving event existing for the parent EPC, setting, by the processor, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC being not reusable, checking, by the processor, that there is only one commissioning event earlier in the event sequence than the current aggregation event,

wherein the commissioning event includes identifying at least one of a sellable item, a container associated with the item or aggregation hierarchies for the item;

in response to more than one commissioning event, setting, by the processor, the parent EPC state to a condition reflecting error;

in response to the parent EPC event sequence having events subsequent in time to the current aggregation event, associating, by the processor, each of the subsequent events for the parent EPC with each of the child EPCs listed in the aggregation event, wherein the subsequent events are applied recursively through a parent and child containment hierarchy; and

in response to beginning the event sequence with the aggregation event, setting, by the processor, at least one of a child EPC state or the parent EPC state to indicate a missing commissioning event.