Supply chain visibility for real-time tracking of goods

US7136832B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Savi Technology, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Xi Li · New York, US
• Keng-shao Chang · San Jose, US
• John J. Dooley · Mountain View, US
• Abhijit A. Deshpande · Fremont, US
• Thomas Alan Greene · Santa Cruz, US
• Darren Jeffrey Hakeman · San Mateo, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 4, 2001
• Grant date: Nov 14, 2006
• Expiry date: Jul 18, 2023

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/06
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A commerce visibility network allows for the collection and distribution of real-time location and status information regarding the movement of goods and assets through a supply chain. Items and/or conveyances may be individually tagged using radio frequency identifiers or other tagging technologies, such as global positioning satellite technology. The location of an item or conveyance may be marked and information on the location may be stored at a site server. The site server may then upload location information to a data center. Supply chain users may then be charged a fee per tracked item or fee per transaction to access the data center and view reports compiled using the location information regarding each tracked item. This allows for instantaneous access to location and status information of any item in the supply chain. Additionally, aggregation information is provided to allow for the tracking of items which are stored in conveyances, even in several levels of conveyances. Compensation logic is applied to the asset movement data to provide a continuous knowledge of the asset locations, so as to compensate for deficiencies in the raw location data.