Supply chain message management and shipment constraint optimization

• US 9,443,229 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2015
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elemica Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Elemica Incorporated
• Inventors: Torkian, Behzad, Castro, Armand III, Hane, Cindi, Blomquist, Nathan, Dale, Paul, Koopmans, Maarten, Schnorf, Blake, Fix, Markus, Samuga, Arun
• Primary Examiner(s): Rashid, Harunur
• Application Number:
  US14/980,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20160162838A1
• Time in Patent Office: 260 Days
• Field of Search: 726/22
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/082 applying multi-factor authentication cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3215 using a plurality of channels network architectures or network communication protocols using different networks H04L63/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

A method of adapting a message translation system includes receiving a message from a sender; selecting a configuration set from a stored plurality of configuration sets based on at least two of: information regarding the sender of the message, information regarding a recipient of the message, and information regarding the message type; processing the message in accordance with information derived from the selected configuration set; identifying an issue with the processing of the message in accordance with information derived from the selected configuration set; determining a resolution for the identified issue with the processing of the message in accordance with information derived from the selected configuration set; updating the selected configuration set based upon the determined resolution; reprocessing the message in accordance with information derived from the updated configuration set; and transmitting the message reprocessed in accordance with information derived from the updated configuration set to a recipient.

Claims

1. A method for improved efficiency of translation of a business message through a message translation system in a supply chain system, the method comprising:

(a) receiving, by a computing system of the message translation system, a business message including respective constraints on a plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of constraints includes a plurality of temporal constraints and a plurality of qualitative constraints, the plurality of qualitative constraints selected from the group consisting of a product to be shipped, a quantity of product to be shipped, a loading point, storage capacity, goods, volumes, preferences, prices, requirements to combine shipments, requirements related to the type of party, combined shipments, type of party, fixed calculations, price, quantity-based calculations including step-functions, a large slot than shipment, availability of goods, product outages, product groups, a type of event of a trading partner, a same shipment constraint, a generated qualitative constraint from the computing system, pick-up location, drop-off location, a product grouping, a first medical facility, a first conference facility, a first recreational facility, a first transportation resource, equipment, personnel, set-up, clean-up, a desired task, a type of an appointment, nature of an appointment, staffing, a staff member, a storage area, a storage volume, a capacity of a resource, a quantity of staff, availability of staff before an appointment, availability of staff after an appointment, pick-up of multiple products, drop-off of multiple products, shipment of multiple components, a third party trading partner, a shipper, a carrier, a sub-carrier, a trading partner, a type of trading partner and other qualitative constraints, the plurality of temporal constraints selected from the group consisting of a time required for a pickup, a time required for a delivery, a time for an appointment, storage availability, loading point availability, product availability, business hours, staff availability, time required for completing tasks, distribution of time required for completing tasks, operating times, a time, appointment times, potential appointment timeframes, fixed time calculation, potential appointment timeframes spanning at least one day, potential appointment timeframes spanning at least two days, loading point hours of operation, block time, availability of goods, previous appointments, intervals, fixed durations, variable durations, reservations, negative reservations, release times, times, preferences, subcarrier release times, frozen time, subcarrier frozen times, timeframes, a generated temporal constraint from the computing system, pick-up time, drop-off time, a timeslot, a freeze of appointments and other temporal constraints;

(b) processing the plurality of constraints, by a processor of a message translation system, into a format for use with the computing system;

(c) expanding a first qualitative constraint of the plurality of qualitative constraints into an expanded temporal constraint on a first resource of the plurality of resources meeting one or more quality levels associated with the plurality of qualitative constraints;

(d) translating, by the computing system, the plurality of temporal constraints and the expanded temporal constraint into respective sets of binary temporal constraints;

(e) combining, by the computing system, each of the respective sets of the binary temporal constraints into combined respective binary temporal constraints, wherein combining the respective sets of binary temporal constraints into combined respective binary temporal constraints includes applying one or more bit-wise Boolean operations to the respective sets of binary temporal constraints;

(f) combining, by the computing system, the combined respective binary temporal constraints into a single overall binary temporal schedule, wherein combining the combined respective binary temporal constraints includes applying one or more bit-wise Boolean operations to the combined respective binary temporal constraints;

(g) translating, by the computing system, the single overall binary temporal schedule into a non-binary temporal schedule;

(h) displaying to a user, one or more viable scheduling alternatives from the non-binary temporal schedule; and

(i) performing a subsequent run of steps (a)-(h) independent of a previous run of steps (a)-(h) without knowledge of the previous run.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon reception of one of the viable scheduling alternatives;

sending information to the recipient.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein steps (a)-(h) are repeated in a subsequent run.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the subsequent run is performed without knowledge of an initial run.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the combined respective binary temporal constraints are single respective binary temporal constraints.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the business message includes one of a purchase order, a purchase order acknowledgement, an advance shipping notice, or an invoice.

7. A method for improved efficiency of translation of a business message through a message translation system in a supply chain system, the method comprising:

(a) receiving, by a computing system of the message translation system, a business message including respective constraints on a plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of constraints includes a plurality of temporal constraints and a plurality of qualitative constraints, the plurality of qualitative constraints selected from the group consisting of a product to be shipped, a quantity of product to be shipped, a loading point, storage capacity, goods, volumes, preferences, prices, requirements to combine shipments, requirements related to the type of party, combined shipments, type of party, fixed calculations, price, quantity-based calculations including step-functions, a large slot than shipment, availability of goods, product outages, product groups, a type of event of a trading partner, a same shipment constraint, a generated qualitative constraint from the computing system, pick-up location, drop-off location, a product grouping, a first medical facility, a first conference facility, a first recreational facility, a first transportation resource, equipment, personnel, set-up, clean-up, a desired task, a type of an appointment, nature of an appointment, staffing, a staff member, a storage area, a storage volume, a capacity of a resource, a quantity of staff, availability of staff before an appointment, availability of staff after an appointment, pick-up of multiple products, drop-off of multiple products, shipment of multiple components, a third party trading partner, a shipper, a carrier, a sub-carrier, a trading partner, a type of trading partner and other qualitative constraints, the plurality of temporal constraints selected from the group consisting of a time required for a pickup, a time required for a delivery, a time for an appointment, storage availability, loading point availability, product availability, business hours, staff availability, time required for completing tasks, distribution of time required for completing tasks, operating times, a time, appointment times, potential appointment timeframes, fixed time calculation, potential appointment timeframes spanning at least one day, potential appointment timeframes spanning at least two days, loading point hours of operation, block time, availability of goods, previous appointments, intervals, fixed durations, variable durations, reservations, negative reservations, release times, times, preferences, subcarrier release times, frozen time, subcarrier frozen times, timeframes, a generated temporal constraint from the computing system, pick-up time, drop-off time, a timeslot, a freeze of appointments and other temporal constraints;

(b) processing the plurality of constraints, by a processor of a message translation system, into a format for use with the computing system;

(c) expanding a first qualitative constraint of the plurality of qualitative constraints into an expanded temporal constraint on at least one of the plurality of resources meeting a quality level associated with the plurality of qualitative constraints;

(d) translating, by the computing system, the plurality of temporal constraints and the expanded temporal constraint into sets of binary temporal constraints;

(e) combining, by the computing system, each of the sets of the binary temporal constraints into respective single binary temporal constraints, wherein combining of the sets of binary temporal constraints includes applying one or more bit-wise Boolean operations to the respective sets of binary temporal constraints;

(f) in response to determining a variation of a resource requirement for viability of a timeslot associated with one of more of the sets of the binary temporal constraints, applying a sliding set of adjustment values to the one or more bit-wise Boolean operations of the one or more of the sets of the binary temporal constraints;

(g) combining, by the computing system, the combined respective binary temporal constraints into a single overall binary temporal schedule, wherein combining the combined respective binary temporal constraints includes applying one or more bit-wise Boolean operations to the combined respective binary temporal constraints to define a single overall binary temporal schedule;

(h) translating, by the computing system, the single overall binary temporal schedule into a non-binary temporal schedule;

(i) displaying to a user, a viable scheduling alternative from the non-binary temporal schedule;

(j) upon reception of one of the viable scheduling alternatives;

sending information to the recipient; and

(k) performing a subsequent run of steps (a)-(j) independent of a previous run of steps (a)-(j) without knowledge of the previous run.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the combined respective binary temporal constraints are single respective binary temporal constraints.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the business message includes one of a purchase order, a purchase order acknowledgement, an advance shipping notice, or an invoice.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein steps (e) and (g) include applying one or more bit-wise AND operations to one of the respective sets of binary temporal constraints and the combined respective binary temporal constraints.

11. A system for improved efficiency of translation of a business message through a message translation system in a supply chain system, the apparatus comprising:

a translation engine configured to;

receive a business message including respective constraints on a plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of constraints includes a plurality of temporal constraints and a plurality of qualitative constraints, the plurality of qualitative constraints selected from the group consisting of a product to be shipped, a quantity of product to be shipped, a loading point, storage capacity, goods, volumes, preferences, prices, requirements to combine shipments, requirements related to the type of party, combined shipments, type of party, fixed calculations, price, quantity-based calculations including step-functions, a large slot than shipment, availability of goods, product outages, product groups, a type of event of a trading partner, a same shipment constraint, a generated qualitative constraint from the computing system, pick-up location, drop-off location, a product grouping, a first medical facility, a first conference facility, a first recreational facility, a first transportation resource, equipment, personnel, set-up, clean-up, a desired task, a type of an appointment, nature of an appointment, staffing, a staff member, a storage area, a storage volume, a capacity of a resource, a quantity of staff, availability of staff before an appointment, availability of staff after an appointment, pick-up of multiple products, drop-off of multiple products, shipment of multiple components, a third party trading partner, a shipper, a carrier, a sub-carrier, a trading partner, a type of trading partner and other qualitative constraints, the plurality of temporal constraints selected from the group consisting of a time required for a pickup, a time required for a delivery, a time for an appointment, storage availability, loading point availability, product availability, business hours, staff availability, time required for completing tasks, distribution of time required for completing tasks, operating times, a time, appointment times, potential appointment timeframes, fixed time calculation, potential appointment timeframes spanning at least one day, potential appointment timeframes spanning at least two days, loading point hours of operation, block time, availability of goods, previous appointments, intervals, fixed durations, variable durations, reservations, negative reservations, release times, times, preferences, subcarrier release times, frozen time, subcarrier frozen times, timeframes, a generated temporal constraint from the computing system, pick-up time, drop-off time, a timeslot, a freeze of appointments and other temporal constraints; and

process the plurality of constraints, by a processor of a message translation system, into a format for use with the computing system; and

a combination engine configured to perform the steps of;

(a) receiving a plurality of constraints on the plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of constraints includes a plurality of temporal constraints and a plurality of qualitative constraints;

(b) expanding a first qualitative constraint of the plurality of qualitative constraints into a first expanded temporal constraint on a first resource of the plurality of resources meeting a quality level associated with the first qualitative constraint;

(c) translating the plurality of temporal constraints and the first expanded temporal constraint into sets of binary temporal constraints;

(d) combining each of the sets of the binary temporal constraints into a plurality of single binary temporal constraints, wherein combining each of the sets of the binary temporal constraints includes applying one or more bit-wise Boolean operations to the sets of binary temporal constraints;

(e) combining the plurality of single binary temporal constraints into an overall binary temporal schedule, wherein combining the plurality of single binary temporal constraints includes applying one or more bit-wise Boolean operations to the plurality of single binary temporal constraints; and

(f) translating the overall binary temporal schedule into a non-binary temporal schedule; and

a display device configured to display to a user, a viable schedule from the non-binary temporal schedule, wherein the combination engine is configured to perform a subsequent run of steps (a)-(f) independent of a previous run of steps (a)-(f) without knowledge of the previous run.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein steps (d) and (e) include applying one or more bit-wise AND operations to the sets of the binary temporal constraints and the plurality of single binary temporal constraints.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein steps (d) and (e) include applying one or more bit-wise OR operations to the sets of the binary temporal constraints and the plurality of single binary temporal constraints.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the combination engine has specialized hardware including a message queue, a master data portion, a validation state, a filter, a map and a reduction stage, the combination engine configured for performing high volumes of computations tasks utilizing thousands of interrelated constraints of the plurality of constraints.