US 7,443,282 B2Granted

System and a method, including software and hardware, for providing real-time and synchronization views of supply chain information

AssigneeIndustrial Technology Research Institute

InventorsMengru Tu, Kuo-Sue Lo, Chuan-Yu Wu, Cheng-Wei Huang, Ho-Chun Lei

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Abstract

A system and method, including software and hardware, for providing an accurate, real-time, and synchronized view of supply chain information. The system utilizes various RFID technologies (like an RFID tag, an RFID reader, and an RFID middleware software) to collect and manage data in real time. It then implements a synchronization mechanism to synchronize supply chain data from various data sources within and across a company in near real time fashion to allow different types of enterprise users, both internal and external, to access the synchronized information and take synchronized action within an appropriate timeframe.

Claims14

Dependent claims

An RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)-enabled Real-time Supply Chain Synchronization System (R2SCSS), comprising:

an RFID and Sensor Gateway Component for receiving information from a Tag and Reader Layer;
an Information Buffer Management Component at least communicating with the RFID and Sensor Gateway Component, wherein the Information Buffer Management Component is an interface between an RFID Middleware Layer and a Data Synchronization Layer;
a Database/Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL) Component at least communicating with the Information Buffer Management Component;
a Real-time Product Information Synchronization Component, a Real-time Manufacturing Synchronization Component, a Real-time Inventory Synchronization Component and a Real-time Demand Fulfillment Synchronization Component communicating with each other to form a Core Component, wherein the Core Component communicates with the Information Buffer Management Component and the Database/Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL) Component;
a Data Warehouse communicating with the Information Buffer Management Component, the Database/Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL) Component and the Core Component;
and
a Web Portal Component communicating with the Core Component for use by a user.

4 more elements

A method for an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)-enabled Real-time Supply Chain Synchronization System (R2SCSS), comprising:

initiating a new RFID tag via an initialization module;
reading initiated information of the new RFID tag via a Tag Read/Write Module;
reading processing information of the new RFID tag via the Tag Read/Write Module;
and
judging whether the reading step reads an item ID with normal-condition processing information or reads an item ID with abnormal-condition processing information via the Tag Read/Write Module.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.