WO2020171773A1

WO2020171773A1 - Method and system for product tracking

Info

Publication number: WO2020171773A1
Application number: PCT/SG2019/050097
Authority: WO
Inventors: Supramaniam R. RAMASAMY; Suranthran PERIASAMY; Puvaneswari PARAVAMSIVAM; Chai Chua CHIA; Induprasad NAIR
Original assignee: Olam International Ltd
Current assignee: Olam International Ltd
Priority date: 2019-02-21
Filing date: 2019-02-21
Publication date: 2020-08-27
Anticipated expiration: 2021-08-21

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for tracking a product, wherein the system comprises a user equipment (10) at each source point (10a) for transmitting a first product data to a computing unit (20). A transporting unit (40) transports the product (1) from the source point (10a) to one or more target points (30a). A reporting device (30) at each target point captures and transmits a second product data to the computing unit (20). The computing unit (20) identifies any discrepancy in the product received at the corresponding target point (30a) based on the first and second product data. MOST ILLUSTRATIVE DRAWING: FIGURE 1

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRODUCT TRACKING

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention herein relates generally to the field of product tracking and, more particularly, to a method and a system for tracking a product.

BACKGROUND

Current technical advancements in communication and transportation have made discrete manufacturing easier and cheaper, wherein manufacturers are able to manufacture or buy each component e.g. fasteners, framework and the like, from different locations and transport the same to an assembling plant before selling a final product e.g. toy, vehicle, etc., to a buyer. A similar approach has been followed in processing and selling agricultural products, wherein yield from multiple small farms are collected and processed in one or more processing plants located near the farms to minimize the losses due to delay in processing.

In this approach, tracking the amount of produce received from each producer and loss during transportation is of paramount importance. Several automated systems have been developed to track the products from multiple suppliers. United States granted patent no.: US 9,710,771 B2 discloses a method and system for managing crop processing in real-time, wherein crop data e.g. volume, weight, moisture content, harvest time and the like, is transmitted from a harvest collection location to a central computer. The central computer assigns a processing facility to each vehicle transporting the harvest based on an operating schedule of the processing facility. Further, the processing facility measures the harvest and compares the same with the crop date received from the central computer to identify discrepancies, if any.

Even though the conventional system is successful in tracking and reporting discrepancies in the product delivered at the processing facility, it is not suitable for tracking multiple types of products transported together and also identification of product missed or lost during transportation or during collection. Hence, there is a need for a method and system for automated tracking of multiple types of products in a simple, fast and cost-effective manner, while enabling adjustment in transportation based on discrepancies in the product received at a target location.

SUMMARY

The present invention proposes a system and method for tracking a product, wherein the system comprises a user equipment at a source point for transmitting a first product data to a computing unit. A transporting unit transports the product from the source point to the target point. A reporting device located at a target point captures and transmits a second product data regarding the product received at the target point to the computing unit. The computing unit identifies any discrepancy in the product received at the target point based on the first and second product data.

In one aspect of the present invention, a communication device is coupled to the product for broadcasting an identity data (ID) of the communication device to the reporting device.

As the computing unit identifies the discrepancies by comparing the first product data with the second product data which is the ID received from each communication device, the present invention is capable of automated tracking of multiple types of products in a simple, fast and cost-effective manner.

In another aspect of the present invention, the computing unit processes the first product data, the second product data, target location data, source location data, and/or loading capacity data of each transporting unit to plan a route for guiding the transporting unit. Thus, the present invention enables adjustment in transportation of the product based on discrepancies in the product received at the target point.

Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

In the figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label with a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.

FIGURE 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of the system for tracking a product, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGURE 2 illustrates a flow diagram of the method for tracking a product, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method and a system for tracking a product, which will now be described with reference to the embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings. The embodiment does not limit the scope and ambit of the disclosure. The description relates purely to the exemplary embodiment and its suggested applications.

The embodiment herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiment in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiment herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiment herein. Accordingly, the description should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiment herein. The description hereinafter, of the specific embodiment will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify or adapt or perform both for various applications such specific embodiment without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware or programmable instructions) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as an“unit,”“module,” or“system.”

The present invention provides a system and method for tracking at least one product. A communication device is coupled to each product for broadcasting identity data (ID) of the communication device, which enables automated tracking of multiple types of products in a simple, fast and cost-effective manner.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, FIGURE 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of the system for tracking a product, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The system (50) comprises a user equipment (10) at a source point (10a), a computing unit (20), a reporting device (30) at a target point (30a) and a transportation unit (40). In an exemplary embodiment, the product (1 ) is an agricultural product e.g. fruit, vegetable, seed, grains, tea leaves, livestock, milk etc., and the source point (10a) is a crop collecting location e.g. farm, plantation, storage facility and the like. In an alternate embodiment, the product (1 ) may be a manufactured product e.g. electronic component, fastener, etc., and the source point (10a) may be a manufacturing facility, warehouse, etc. Further, the system (50) may include multiple source points which may be at different locations within a farm, plantation, manufacturing facility and the like. The user equipment (10) at the source point (10a) is capable of communicating e.g. text, voice, image and video communication, with the computing unit (20). Also, the user equipment (10) may be in the form of a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, smartphone and personal digital assistant. The user equipment (10) transmits a first product data to the computing unit (20) through a wired/wireless connection, wherein the first product data is manually inputted by a user or automatically captured by the user equipment (10) through a transducer connected to the user equipment (10). For example, the user equipment (10) may be a desktop computer connected to an electronic scale, which automatically captures weight measurement of the product (1 ) from the scale when the product (1 ) is placed on the scale. Similarly, the computing unit (20) may be any device capable of communicating and processing the first product data, and it may be wired/wirelessly connected to the user equipment (10) and the reporting device (30). For example, the computing unit (20) may be a server, cloud computing system and the like.

The target point (30a) may be a packaging facility, assembly plant, processing facility e.g. mill, and the like. The transporting unit (40) transports the product (1 ) from the source point (10a) to the target point (30a). Before transporting the product (1 ), one or more communication devices (40a) are coupled to the product (1 ). The communication device (40a) may be based on Bluetooth®, infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), ultraband, WiFi, Zigbee®_, Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), 2G, 3G, 4G or any other communication protocol that allows automatic data communication between two or more devices within a threshold distance from one another.

The communication device (40a) broadcasts an identity data (ID) thereof, which is received by the reporting device (30) when the product (1 ) comes closer to the reporting device. On the other hand, the user equipment (10) captures the ID before transporting the product (1 ) and includes the ID in the first product data and transmits the first product data to the computing unit (20). The first product data includes the ID, product measurement data and location data of the source point (10a). In one embodiment, the product measurement data includes qualitative data, quantitative data, time and location of manufacture/harvest of the product (1 ) and the like.

The computing unit (20) includes a storage part (not shown) for storing a location data of each target point (30a) and a loading capacity data of each transporting unit (40). The computing unit (20) processes the first product data and/or the stored data to plan a route for guiding the transporting unit (40). Even though the transporting unit (40) is shown as a vehicle in the FIGURE 1 , it shall be understood that the transporting unit (40) may also be a conveyor line such as an endless belt conveyor and the like, capable of conveying products along different processing stations located within a manufacturing plant or a crop processing plant.

The reporting device (30) transmits the ID as a second product data to the computing unit (20), wherein the second product data may also include additional information such as product parameter data and the like. The computing unit (20) identifies any discrepancy in the product (1 ) received at the target point (30a) based on the first product data with the second product data. In an exemplary embodiment, the computing unit (20) identifies the discrepancy by comparing the ID in the first product data with the ID in the second product data. If no discrepancy is identified, the computing unit (20) reports successful delivery of the product (1 ) to a supervisor through a text notification.

As the computing unit (20) identifies the discrepancies based on the ID received from the communication device (40a) coupled to the product (1 ), the present invention is capable of automated tracking of multiple types of products in a simple, fast and cost-effective manner by coupling a communication device to each type of products and each group of products collected from different suppliers.

Additionally, after identifying the discrepancies, the computing unit (20) tracks a location of missing products based on the ID of the missing products and schedules a product transfer assignment to the same transporting unit (40) or a different transporting unit based on availability. FIGURE 2 illustrates a flow diagram of the method for tracking a product, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The method (100) comprises the steps of: transmitting (101 ) a first product data from a user equipment (10) at each of one or more source points (10a) to a computing unit (20); transporting (102) the product (1 ) from the source points (10a) to one or more target points (30a) using at least one transporting unit (40); capturing and transmitting (103) a second product data at a reporting device (30) at each target point (30a); and guiding (104) the transporting unit (40) based on the first and second product data.

While transporting (104) the product (1 ) from the source points (10a) to the corresponding target points (30a), an identity data (ID) of each of one or more communication device (40a) is broadcasted using the corresponding communication device (40a) that is coupled to a product (1 ). Further, the first product data transmitted to the computing unit (20) includes the ID, product parameter data and/or ground location data of the corresponding source points (10a). During processing (105) the first and second product data at the computing unit (20), the ID received from the communication device (40a) is compared with the ID received from the user equipment (10) to identify any discrepancy in the product (1 ) received at the corresponding target point (30a).

Prior to processing (102) the first and second product data at the computing unit (20), a location data of each target point (10a) and/or a loading capacity data of each transporting unit (40) is stored, in a storage part of the computing unit (20). The first product data, the second product data and/or the stored data are processed at the computing unit (20) to plan a route for guiding the transporting unit (40). The computing unit (20) is able to track the missing products based on the IDs of the missing products, which is also useful in planning the route to transport the missing products to the target point (30a) or to a different target point based on availability and location of the missing products.

The complete functioning of the present invention is explained based on an oil palm plantation as a working example. A typical oil palm plantation is several thousands of acres of land divided into multiple zones, wherein each zone includes multiple collections points at which yield collected by corresponding labours is accumulated before transportation.

Each collection point acts as a source point of the present invention, and a user equipment at each collection point records product parameter data such as bunch weight, number of bunches, harvest time, color, quality and the like. A plantation employee at the collection point ties each bunch of oil palm with a communication device e.g. battery-operated NFC tag. Alternatively, the employee may tie multiple bunches together and then fasten a communication device to the same. Further, the employee enters the ID of each communication device and the product parameter data of the corresponding bunch in the user equipment which generates a first product data using each ID, the corresponding product parameter data, and/or ground location of the collection point. A sample set of product data is shown in the below table.

ablel : Sample set of product data

A computing unit located within the plantation or at a remote location receives the first product data from the user equipment at each collection point. A memory unit of the computing unit stores a ground location data of multiple processing mills and a maximum loading capacity of multiple trucks. Each processing mill acts as a target point of the present invention, and each truck acts as a transporting unit. The computing unit processes the stored data and the first product data and generates a route plan for one or more trucks to transport the yield from the collection points to the processing mills. In this example, the trucks are parked at one or more collection points and the route plans are transmitted to the user equipment at respective collection points, which is then communicated to drivers of the trucks by the employee. In case, the trucks are parked in a different location, the route plan is communicated to a communication device provided at the parked location and the drivers receive the corresponding route plans from the communication device. The route plan includes data regarding location of one or more collection points for loading the yield, location of one or more processing mills for unloading the yield, and road map through which the truck has to be driven.

Tablel : Sample set of product data

After communicating the route plan, the employee loads the yield according to the route plan and updates the same in the user equipment. In the meantime, an inspection device located at each processing mills receives a set of IDs assigned to the corresponding processing mill from the computing unit. Alternatively, each inspection device may also receive the product parameter data together with the IDs, as given below.

Table 2: Sample set of product parameter data The product parameter data presented in Table 2 is for illustration purposes only and does not limit the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art would appreciate that the product parameter data may capture other parameters values as deemed necessary to facilitate product tracking. For instance, the product parameter data may capture number of bunches, weight of the bunch or both.

Each inspection device acts as a reporting device of the present invention and captures the ID of each communication device carried in a truck as the truck enters the processing mill. The inspection device transmits the captured data as a second product data to the computing unit. The computing unit compares the IDs received from the user equipment with IDs read by the inspection device to identify any discrepancy.

Further, the computing unit reports a discrepancy in the yield received at the corresponding processing mill, if one or more IDs received from the user equipment do not match with the IDs read by the inspection device. For example, if the inspection device reads only IDs JA_1064 and JA1068, the computing unit sends a report to a supervisor as follows:

Table 3: Sample report generated by the computing unit

Based on the above report, the computing unit tracks the recent location of the missing bunch (JA_1063) and assigns the truck to travel back to the collection point and transport the missing bunch to the processing mill. Alternatively, the computing unit may assign a different truck to travel to the collection point and transport the missing bunch together with other fresh bunches to a different processing mill. By this way, the present invention is capable of automated tracking of multiple types of products in a simple, fast and cost-effective manner, while enabling adjustment in transportation of the product based on a discrepancy report.

It shall be understood that the above example is purely for illustration purpose and the present invention is also applicable for many different fields including manufacturing, oil refinery, ore processing, shipping industry and the like.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

The terms "comprises," "comprising,"“including,” and“having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or groups thereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed.

The use of the expression“at least” or“at least one” suggests the use of one or more elements, as the use may be in one of the embodiments to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results.

The process steps, method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods and algorithms may be configured to work in alternate orders. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described does not necessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of processes described herein may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously, in parallel, or concurrently. Various methods described herein may be practiced by combining one or more machine-readable storage media containing the code according to the present invention with appropriate standard computer hardware to execute the code contained therein. An apparatus for practicing various embodiments of the present invention may involve one or more computers (or one or more processors within a single computer) and storage systems containing or having network access to computer program(s) coded in accordance with various methods described herein, and the method steps of the disclosure could be accomplished by modules, routines, subroutines, or subparts of a computer program product. While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the disclosure, other and further embodiments of the disclosure may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the disclosure is determined by the claims that follow. The disclosure is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the disclosure when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A system (50) for tracking at least one product (1 ), comprising:

i. at least one user equipment (10), at each of one or more source points (10a), capable of transmitting a first product data to at least one computing unit (20);

ii. at least one transporting unit (40) capable of transporting the product (1 ) from one or more of the source points (10a) to one or more corresponding target points (30a);

iii. at least one reporting device (30), at each target point (30a), capable of capturing and transmitting, to the at least one computing unit (20), a second product data regarding the product (1 ) received at the corresponding target point (30a); and

iv. the at least one computing unit (20) capable of guiding the at least one transporting unit (40) based on the first and second product data; characterized in that:

- at least one communication device (40a) capable of broadcasting an identity data, ID, of the communication device (40a) to the corresponding reporting device (30) is coupled to the product (1 ) before being transported to the corresponding target point (30a); wherein the at least one computing unit (20) identifies any discrepancy by comparing the first product data with the second product data which is the ID received from each communication device (40a).

2. The system (50) as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first product data includes at least one of the ID of the corresponding communication device (40a), product parameter data and ground location data of one or more corresponding source points (10a).

3. The system (50) as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one computing unit (20) includes a storage part for storing at least one of a ground location data of each target point and a loading capacity data of each transporting unit (40).

4. The system (50) as claimed in any of claims 1 - 3, wherein the at least one computing unit (20) processes the first product data, the second product data and/or the stored data to plan a route for guiding at least one transporting unit (40).

5. The system (50) as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the transporting unit (40) includes a vehicle or conveyor line.

6. A method (100) for tracking at least one product (1 ), comprising the steps of: i. transmitting (101 ) a first product data from at least one user equipment (10) at each of one or more source points (10a) to at least one computing unit (20);

ii. transporting (102) the product (1 ) from one or more of the source points (10a) to one or more corresponding target points (30a) using at least one transporting unit (40);

iii. capturing and transmitting (103) a second product data at each reporting device (30); and

iv. guiding (104) the at least one transporting unit (40) based on the first and second product data, characterized in that the step of capturing and transmitting (103) includes: o broadcasting, using at least one communication device (40a) coupled to the product (1 ), an identity data, ID, of the at least one communication device (40a) to the corresponding reporting device (30), wherein the first product data is compared with the second product data at the at least one computing unit (20) to identify any discrepancy, and wherein the second product data is the ID received from each communication device (40a).

7. The method (50) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the first product data includes at least one of the ID of the corresponding communication device (40a), product parameter data and ground location data of one or more corresponding source points (10a).

8. The method (50) as claimed in claim 6, includes storing, in a storage part of the at least one computing unit (20), at least one of a ground location data of each target point (30a) and a loading capacity data of each transporting unit (40).

9. The method (50) as claimed in claims 6 - 8, further includes processing the first product data, the second product data and/or the stored data to plan a route for guiding at least one transporting unit (40).

10. The method (50) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the at least one transporting unit (40) includes a vehicle or conveyor assembly.