Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A SUPPLY CHAIN
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is the first application filed concerning the present description.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates to the field of method and systems for
controlling a
supply chain for carrying and moving goods and more specifically to methods
and
systems adapted for multi-company, multi-service and multi-modal supply
chains.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Supply chains are for carrying and moving goods from one place to
several
other places in the world with multimodal means by promising requesting
parties
(payers) to provide a specific service, knowing as precisely as possible, at
any
time, the status of the specific service ordered and reliably achieving the
specific
service. In this field, services are specified with several kinds of data
including:
origin and destination locations, parties, kind, quantity and conservation
prescription of goods, delivery date and conditions, quality requirements,
traceability requirements, etc.
[0004] In the field of carrying and moving goods, traditional systems manage
services separately according to their respective transportation domain. These
transportation domains could be: Container services, Truck Load (TL), Less
Than
Truck Load (LTL), logistic & brokerage and others means as fleet maintain
labor
management, geodesic and GPS tracking. Traditional systems cannot manage
globally interchanging or shifting means of transportation. This involves
increasing
time and risk of error to consolidate traceability of goods when many
transportation
means are used. Moreover, traditional systems cannot optimize the utilization
of
common resources available to such services. Common resources could be trucks
and trailers, locations in terminals, fleet, and other resources.
[0005] In the field of carrying and moving goods, traditional systems manage
different steps as well as transportation domains separately beginning with
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submitting quotations and ending with invoicing orders. The first step
consists
generally in answering clients requesting information about their order in
progress
or submitting quotations to the clients or taking orders. This first step is
generally
managed by a first system specialized on the client relationship. The second
step
consists in regulating the traffic for achieving transportation orders. The
last step
consists in collecting information about an order and invoicing it according
to
standard practices. Each step needs new manual and independent entries with
specific information and mainly into separate systems, per transport segment
(container, LTL, or VL). Such multiple entries consume time, increase the
risks of
errors and delays invoicing.
[0006] Another characteristic of traditional systems in the field of carrying
and
moving goods is the asynchronous report of execution steps and the
asynchronous
instruction transmittal. Most of time, the reporting of deliveries is
collected one or
more days later when the operator returns to the office. These differences
between
reality and status in the database prevent the simulation of the best
combination to
react to an event or to promise a service to a client. The computed schedule
is
already wrong as soon as it is set. On the other hand, most of time, operators
receive instructions on the phone without keeping a paper trail. Oral
instructions
cause several errors in executing the plan.
[0007] Another characteristic of traditional systems in the field of carrying
and
moving goods is the excessive amount of time for simulating transportation
solutions. One the phone, clients cannot wait several minutes to receive a
realistic
quotation. In these kinds of cases, for the purpose of taking the order
immediately,
the quotation must be submitted immediately, within a single minute.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] According to an aspect of the invention, there is presented herein a
method
for controlling globally and/or individually, and for optimizing based on live
events,
in real-time, in a single or multi company environment, simultaneously many
well
known business activities such as customer relationship management (CRM),
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pickup calls phone services, scheduling, monitoring of picking up and delivery
of
parcels and operations status, of transfer, of terminal, of interleaving and
of
deliveries, human resource management, pricing, maintenance, engine
monitoring,
device monitoring and invoicing, offering thus integrated solutions to each
segment
of the market of goods transportation in a single system.
[0009] According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for
controlling a supply chain for moving a plurality of goods by a plurality of
agents
and according to a plurality of orders. The method comprises: updating a
knowledge base populated with information comprising: a status of each one of
the
goods; a status of each one of the agents; a plurality of rules for
establishing
expected behaviors of the goods and of the agents; and the orders. The method
further comprises: determining, based on at least a portion of the information
in the
knowledge base, a plurality of instructions to be executed by the agents for
moving
the goods to achieve the orders at least in part, each one of the instructions
having
an expected completion duration; sending the instructions to the agents;
receiving
the instructions for execution by the agents; upon completion of one of the
instructions by one of the agents or when an event affects one of the
instructions
executed by one of the agents, the same one of the agents sending the status
of
one of the goods or its own status to the knowledge base; and returning to the
updating a knowledge base, wherein each elapsed time between each one of the
agents sending the status of one of the goods or its own status to the
knowledge
base and the same one of the agents receiving one of the instructions is
smaller
that the expected completion duration of the same one of the instructions.
[0010] According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a
processor platform for controlling a supply chain for moving a plurality of
goods by
a plurality of agents and according to a plurality of orders. The processor
platform
comprises an input means for receiving information comprising a status of each
one of the goods; a status of each one of the agents; a plurality of rules for
establishing expected behaviors of the goods and of the agents; and the
orders.
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The processor platform further provides a data memory means for making
available data comprising a knowledge base and a code memory means for storing
a program code. The program code comprises updating the knowledge base
populated with the information and determining, based on at least a portion of
the
information in the knowledge base, a plurality of instructions to be executed
by the
agents for moving the goods to achieve the orders at least in part, each one
of the
instructions having an expected completion duration. The processor platform
further comprises a processor for executing the program code and an output
means for sending output information comprising the instructions to be sent to
the
agents for receiving the instructions for execution by the agents. The
processor
platform allows, upon completion of one of the instructions by one of the
agents or
when an event affects one of the instructions executed by one of the agents,
the
same one of the agents sending the status of one of the goods or its own
status to
the knowledge base. Each elapsed time between each one of the agents sending
the status of one of the goods or its own status to the knowledge base and the
same one of the agents receiving one of the instructions is smaller that the
expected completion duration of the same one of the instructions.
[0011] According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a
processor
readable medium having recorded thereon statements and instructions for
execution by a processor platform for carrying out a method comprising:
updating a
knowledge base populated with information comprising: a status of each one of
the
goods; a status of each one of the agents; a plurality of rules for
establishing
expected behaviors of the goods and of the agents; and the orders;
determining,
based on at least a portion of the information in the knowledge base, a
plurality of
instructions to be executed by the agents for moving the goods to achieve the
orders at least in part, each one of the instructions having an expected
completion
duration; sending the instructions to the agents; receiving the instructions
for
execution by the agents; upon completion of one of the instructions by one of
the
agents or when an event affects one of the instructions executed by one of the
agents, the same one of the agents sending the status of one of the goods or
its
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own status to the knowledge base; and returning to the updating a knowledge
base; wherein each elapsed time between each one of the agents sending the
status of one of the goods or its own status to the knowledge base and the
same
one of the agents receiving one of the instructions is smaller that the
expected
completion duration of the same one of the instructions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] Further features and advantages of the present invention will become
apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with
the
appended drawings, in which:
[0013] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system using a method
according
to an embodiment of the invention;
[0014] Figure 2 is a flowchart showing a method according to another
embodiment
of the invention;
[0015] Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating a processor platform according
to an
embodiment of the invention; and
[0016] Figure 4 is block diagram illustrating a processor platform connected
to a
processor readable medium, according an embodiment of the invention.
[0017] It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features
are
identified by like reference numerals.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0018] Referring to Figure 1, there is shown a block diagram of a system 100
for
controlling a supply chain 101 using a method according to an embodiment of
the
invention. The supply chain 101 is for moving and transforming goods 102 by
agents 103 into an environment 104, according to orders 105. The control of
the
supply chain 101 is completed by instructions 106 continuously transmitted in
real-
time to the agents 103, themselves controlling the goods 102. The instructions
106
are continuously determined by a determining module 107. The instructions 106
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are determined for achieving at least in part the orders 105 when they are
executed by the agents 103. The determining of the instructions 106 is based
on a
knowledge base, not numbered, continuously updated in real-time. The knowledge
base comprises a synchronous status file 113 containing information about
statuses of the agents 108 and statuses of the goods 109, an order file 114
containing the orders 105 and a rule file 115 containing the rules 110,
establishing
expected behaviors of the goods 102 and of the agent 103.
[0019] The goods 102 comprise any combination of any kind of physical entity
like
a unit, a package, a unit load, a container, a portion of a transport fleet,
bulk
material, a living animal and a person. A unit could be a single object
without
packaging like a car, a meat carcass, wood, a metal coil, a beam or the like.
A
package is generally movable by a person and contains goods packed with
cardboard or other disposable or reusable packaging. A unit load combines
packages or items into a single "unit" of a few thousand kilograms that can be
moved easily with simple equipment. A unit load packs tightly into warehouse
racks, containers, trucks, and railcars, yet can be easily broken apart at a
distribution point, usually a plant, a distribution center, wholesaler, retail
store, etc.
A pallet is a type of unit load. A container could be a multi-purpose oversea
container of different sizes, a refrigerated container, a specialized
intermediate bulk
container for transporting in bulk liquid, powder, aggregate or the like, and
a
specialized container fitted to a single unit or several units as an engine, a
piece of
airplane or the like. In some agreements, the goods to move or to transform
comprise pieces of transport fleet like a loaded or empty trailer with or
without a
tractor, a wagon, an airplane, a ship and the like. Bulk material could be
liquid such
as chemical liquid or petroleum product, gas or solid as sand, stone, cement,
coal,
grains, ore, flour and the like.
[0020] The agents 103 comprise any combination of any means such as a
person (e.g. a driver, a cargo handler, a maintenance man, a clerk, a manager,
etc.) a moving device (e.g. a tractor, a trailer, a forklift, a crane, a ship,
a wagon,
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an aircraft, a belt conveyor, a chain conveyor, etc.), a transforming device
(e.g. a
milling machine, a press, a molding tool, a cutting machine, etc.), a
assembling
device (e.g. a welding device, a screwdriver, a mount assembly, etc.), a
packaging
device (e.g. a wrapper, a bagger, a crating machine, etc.), a containing
device (e.g.
a pallet, a surface storage, a location in warehouse, a refrigerator, a
freezing room,
a container, etc.), an identifying device (e.g. a laser marking device, a
device for
installing RFID chip, a machine to lay labels, etc.), a monitoring device
(e.g. a
geographic positioning system, a physical characteristic (e.g. temperature,
weight,
pressure, etc.) measurement device, a presence detector, etc.), a maintenance
device (e.g. a spare tire, a tow truck, a refrigeration (for maintaining the
temperature), etc.), an eliminating device (e.g. a shredder, a burner, a
separator, a
cleaner, etc.), a communication device (e.g. a device using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
an
Ethernet network, internet, a mobility network, the novel E VDEO technology
system, etc.), a power supply (e.g. electricity, fuel, hydraulic pressure
source,
steam source, etc.), and a financial resource (e.g. payment card, cash, etc.).
According to an embodiment, the agents 103 are directly controlled by
different
organizations, not shown. Organizations comprise partner companies, providers,
customers or public organizations resident in different countries.
[0021] The goods 102 and the agents 103 interact with themselves and within
the
environment 104. The environment 104 comprises any combination of any external
element with which the goods 102 and the agents 103 interact such as:
transport
networks (land, air, and sea), traffics, meteorological phenomenon,
administrative
constraints (customs formalities, permits, etc.), fuel and service network,
customers, providers and partners and the like.
[0022] Each one of the orders 105 comprises at least one of an expected
service
(i.e. what the supply chain 101 is able to achieve; e.g. shipping, logistic &
brokerage, less than load shipping, vanload shipping, container transport,
intermodal shipping, packaging, splitting, warehouse management, transport
terminal, traceability, quality, fleet maintenance, geodesic, driving
maintenance and
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manufacturing), an expected loading status of one of the goods (i.e. expected
characteristics of one of the goods at the loading instant), an expected
delivery
status of the same one of the goods (i.e. expected characteristics of the same
one
of the goods at the delivery instant), a specification (i.e. the description
of the
loading environment, of the delivery environment, of the technical
constraints, of
the administrative constraints, a transformation map, an objective
intermediate
time frame) and an objective performance (i.e. a measure of at least one of a
service rate, an overall equipment effectiveness, a profitability, a value
added
production ratio, and an assessment of an impact to the environment.). Each
one
of the orders 105 could further comprise contract related matters such as
property,
responsibility, insurance and payment. Each one of the orders 105 could come
from a customer, from a partner, from one of the organizations controlling the
agents 103 or from the main organization controlling the supply chain 101.
[0023] The statuses of each one of the goods 102 or of the agents 103 are
formal
characteristics thereof at a given instant. A status could vary at any time;
it is a
transcription of the real state of the goods or of the agents. A status
comprises at
least one of a time, a location (e.g. a geographical position), a state of
association
with one of the goods (e.g."trailer ddd contains pallet ppp"), a state of
association
with one of the agents (e.g. "trailer ddd is pulled by tractor ttt"), a state
of
association with the environment (e.g. "trailer ddd is ridding on ice"), a
physical
characteristic (i.e. kind of goods, temperature, volume, pressure, weight,
capacity,
surface, level of a tank, etc.) and a logical status (e.g. "driver yyy is
resting", "good
kkk is controlled", "trail ggg under custom rights", "state of packaging of
eeee is
validated by ppp", "container hhh is insured for www dollars", "driving
license of
eee is valid", etc.).
[0024] Each one of the instructions 106 comprises at least a request to one of
the
agents for interacting with at least one of the environment, one of the goods
and
another one of the agents. Examples of such requests include "load the pallet
xxxx
at the gate gggg with the forklift ffff", "go to gate gggg and unload at
location 1111",
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"Unpack the pallet yyyy at location kkkk", "Adjust the temperature to dddd
Celsius
degrees", "Inflate tire tttt", "Identify the present container". Each one of
the
instructions 106 has expected completion duration, which is an expected
duration
between the expected time that one of the agents 103 will receive one of the
instructions 106 and the expected time that the same one of the agents 103
will
complete the same one of the instructions 106. One of the instructions 106
could
be to interrupt a previous one of the instructions 106 before receiving a new
one.
[0025] Each one of the instructions 106 can be assembled into, or referred to
as, a
set of sub-instructions to be performed by one of the agents 103. Each set of
sub-
instructions includes one or more sub-instructions. One of the agents 103 acts
one
of the instructions 106, namely one set of sub-instructions, at a time. Each
one of
the instructions 106 can be modified during its execution by a deletion, a
modification or an addition of a sub-instruction.
[0026] The rules 110 comprise an establishment of an expected behavior of at
least
one of one of the goods 102 with respect to the environment 104 (e.g. "timber
not
to be exposed to air of less than 80% moisture"), one of the goods 102 with
respect
to another one of the goods 102 (e.g. "is it prohibited to move sulfuric acid
and food
in the same container" ), one of the goods 102 with respect to one of the
agents
103 (e.g. "check of a pallet of kind ffff requests an operator having a permit
jjj"),
one of the agents 103 with respect to the environment 104 (e.g. "trailer jjj
cannot
load more than ss tones on roads qqq during the winter"), one of the agents
103
with respect to another one of the agents 103 (e.g. "trailer zzz can be pulled
by
tractors of kind kkk"), one of the agents 103 with respect to one of the goods
102
(e.g. "trailer aaa must be cleaned before loading food"), one of the agents
103 with
respect to one of the instructions 106 (e.g. "agents rrr send a receipt prior
ccc
minutes after receiving an instruction"). The expected behaviors are
combinations
of possible behaviors and of desired behaviors to achieve, as best as
possible, the
orders 105. The rules 110 further comprise a unitary conversion means for
converting money, physical units (e.g. ISO units to imperial units and
reverse) or
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codification; a performance calculator, a pricing calculator and an invoicing
calculator.
[0027] The synchronous status file 113 is continuously updated in real-time by
an
updating means 112. In real time means that when a variation of the status of
one
of the goods 102 or one of the agents 103 appears in the supply chain 101,
information of the new status is transmitted immediately to the synchronous
status
file 113. Sampled information may include:
a. Data entered by operators or transferred from a local system or
transmitted by sensors (ex: temperature, speed, etc.) and transmit in
real time via telecommunication or mobility networks
b. Data collected automatically from an engine computer, an IT device
installed into truck or by a positioning system (GPS) or read from a
barcode, Radio Frequency Identification means (RFID) or other
means, and transmitted in real time via telecommunication or mobility
networks.
c. Sound recorded from operators or from any other party (e.g. voice of
client, witness, etc.) or from equipment (e.g. sounds of engine,
cooling machine, etc.) or from goods (e.g. crying or snoring of living
goods).
d. A picture or a movie needed for quality or traceability requirements
and available in real time via telecommunication or mobility networks.
[0028] The updating means 112 transmits information via classical means such
as
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, an Ethernet network, the Internet, a mobility network and
the
novel E VDEO technology system. Information could also transit by intermediate
databases controlled by different organizations.
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[0029] Hence the synchronous status file 113 is synchronized with the supply
chain
101 and reflects reality as much as possible. This synchronous status file 113
could comprise :
a. Location of loadings and deliveries, and high frequency (e.g. once a
minute) historic location of equipment, goods, events, dynamic
constraints, etc.
b. Party identification, acts and agreements.
c. Goods and equipment specifications and history of conditions during
operations such as storage, moving, splitting, etc.
d. Knowledge of hazards, failures, incidents, damages or accidents as
soon as they happen.
e. Detailed resources consumed such as age of equipment or human
resources, and costs spent such as fuel or other energy, toll, living
cost, insurances, etc.
f. Any traceability information required by the contractual services sold
to the clients.
g. Any quality information required by the contractual services sold to
the clients as check list validated, pictures or other data.
[0030] Each of the instructions 106 is continuously transmitted in real time
from an
instruction file 116 to a corresponding one of the agents 103 of the supply
chain
101 by a distributing means 117. The distributing means 117 could distribute
an
alphabetic data message, a voice message or a visual message on a computer, a
display screen, a cell phone, a handle device or other receiving devices. The
distributing means 117 could use communication tools such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
an
Ethernet network, the Internet, a mobility network and the novel E VDEO
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technology system. The distributing means 117 could cross several networks and
databases controlled by different organizations.
[0031] The determining module 107 is continuously monitoring the statuses of
the
agents 108 and the statuses of the goods 109. When a change appears, the
determining module 107 determines the instructions 106 which will achieve, at
least in part, the orders 105 when they will be executed by the agents 103.
The
speed of the determining module 107 combined with the speed of the
distributing
means 117 and the speed of the updating means 112 is such that, each elapsed
time between each one of the agents sending the status of one of the goods or
its
own status to the knowledge base and the same one of the agents receiving one
of
the instructions is smaller that the expected completion duration of the same
one of
the instructions. The determining module 107 uses a real time and dynamic
artificial intelligence system on a computer; more particularly it uses an
expert
system.
[0032] The expert system allows optimizing the instructions 106 according to
the
rules 110 which can be updated without generating a program code. The expert
system comprises an inference engine, a computer program that attempts to
derive
answers from the knowledge base. The inference engine is the "brain" that the
expert system uses to process the information in the knowledge base for the
ultimate purpose of formulating new instructions. The rules 110, stored in the
rule
file 115 included in the knowledge base, are updated by a customizable program
code allowing the input of any kind of rules without a generation of a new
program
code.
[0033] The determining module 107 forecasts several scenarios of instructions
and
determines optimized instructions using usual tools of expert systems
including
operational research tools. The determining module 107 takes into account
overall
rules 110, overall orders 105, overall statuses of agents 108 and overall
statuses of
goods 109, globally; e.g. a change in a pricing of a vanload provider could
modify
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the choice of a LTL service or a tractor could be used indifferently for a
container
service or for a LTL service.
[0034] The system 100 further comprises a module for determining an expected
performance 111. While the determining module 107 determines the instructions
106, it determines also an expected status of each one of the goods 102 and an
expected status of each one of the agents 103, as they are expected to be when
the instructions 106 will be achieved. The expected performance 111 is
determined
according to the performance calculator included in the rules 110. The
expected
performance 111 comprises a measure of differences between the expected
statuses of the goods and the orders 105, similarities between the expected
statuses of the goods and the orders 105, a service rate, an overall equipment
effectiveness, a profitability including costs and prices, a value added
production
ratio, and an assessment of an impact to the environment.
[0035] The system 100 further comprises a module editing the orders 118. A
front
office operator, not shown, communicates with one of clients 119 and can enter
a
real new order or a temporary new order, e.g. for quotation. For a new order,
the
determining module 107 proposes the best pricing chosen among overall
available
pricing of agents by crossing every kind of packaging unit (e.g. pallet,
weight,
volume, length in trailer, etc.), every kind of service (e.g. Vanload, LTL,
container,
intermodal shipping, etc.) and every kind of partner and provider. In another
embodiment of the invention, one of the clients 119 can directly enter or
transfer
one of the orders 105 to the orders file 114 via a private assistant 120. The
system
100 is able to answer a request from one of the clients 119 in real-time (i.e.
minutes or seconds in some cases) by the front office operator or directly by
the
private assistant 120.
[0036] The system 100 further comprises a module for validating 125,
permitting,
given the expected performance 111 of the supply chain 101, to return directly
to
the module editing the order 118 or to send the instructions 106 to the agents
103
by the distributing means 117.
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[0037] When a new one of the orders 105 is entered or one of the orders 105 is
edited or deleted, the expected performance 111 is updated. The front office
operator, connected to one of the clients 119, analyses the expected
performance
111 and can validate the instructions 106 or edit the one of the orders 105.
[0038] In one embodiment of this invention, a portion of the expected
performance
111 is shown on a single screen allowing a non-specialist operator to
understand
quickly and to respond successfully to a request of one of the clients 119.
[0039] Using the expected performance 111, a regulator 124 evaluates if the
instructions 106 when executed, will achieve a good response to the orders
105. If
it is, the regulator 124 can activate the validating 125 which transmit the
instructions 106 to the agents 103 via the distributing means 117. If the
expected
performance 111 is not evaluated as a good response to the orders 105, the
regulator 124 can activate the module editing the orders 118 or editing the
rules
110 before evaluating again the new expected performance 111.
[0040] The system 100 further comprises a recording module, not shown,
continuously recording at least one of a portion of the statuses of the goods
109,
namely the recorded status of the goods, a portion of the statuses of the
agents
108, namely the recorded status of the agents, and a portion of the orders
105,
namely the recorded orders, to a historical database 121. A past performance
122
of the supply chain 101 is determined, based on at least one of a portion of
the
information in the knowledge base, a portion of the historical database 121,
and a
portion of the performance calculator included in the rules 110.
[0041] The past performance 122 of the supply chain 101 comprises a measure of
differences between the recorded status of the goods and the recorded order, a
similarity between the recorded status of the goods and the recorded order, a
service rate, an overall equipment effectiveness, a profitability including
costs and
prices, a value added production ratio, and an assessment of an impact to the
environment.
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[0042] The system 100 further comprises an accessing module, accessing to the
historical base 121 for purposes of at least one of traceability, quality, and
risk
management.
[0043] The system 100 further comprises an invoicing module 127, invoicing
according to a portion of at least one of the information in the knowledge
base, the
historical database 121, the pricing calculator and the invoicing calculator
included
in rules 110, and an invoicing database 123 detailing invoicing agreements.
The
invoicing database 123 comprises for each one of the clients 119 a detailed
price
scale and the price policy of the company including the relationship with
other
organizations.
[0044] The clients 102 can obtain a portion of the statuses of its goods 109
either
directly via a private link 126 from the synchronous status file 113 or via
the front
office operator.
[0045] The system 100 further comprises an updating module, updating the rules
110 according to the historical base 121. Based on a manual analysis of the
historical database 121, it is possible to edit the rules. Also, in normal
operation,
the expert system proposes amendments of the rules 110 to enhance
performances of the supply chain 101.
[0046] For satisfying the clients 119 and for achieving the orders 105,
particularly
the included expected services, better for all parties, the system 100
provides
features such as customer relationship management (CRM), pickup calls phone
services, scheduling, monitoring of picking up and truck positioning, of
transfer, of
terminal, of interleaving and of deliveries, human resource management,
pricing,
maintenance, engine monitoring and device monitoring.
[0047] Referring now to Fig. 2, there is shown a flowchart of a method 200 for
controlling a supply chain for moving a plurality of goods by a plurality of
agents
and according to a plurality of orders, according to an embodiment of the
invention.
Method 200 comprises: updating a knowledge base populated with information
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comprising: a status of each one of the goods; a status of each one of the
agents;
a plurality of rules for establishing expected behaviors of the goods and of
the
agents; and the orders (step 202). Method 200 further comprises: determining,
based on at least a portion of the information in the knowledge base, a
plurality of
instructions to be executed by the agents for moving the goods to achieve the
orders at least in part, each one of the instructions having an expected
completion
duration (step 204); sending the instructions to the agents (step 206);
receiving the
instructions for execution by the agents (step 208); upon completion of one of
the
instructions by one of the agents or when an event affects one of the
instructions
executed by one of the agents, the same one of the agents sending the status
of
one of the goods or its own status to the knowledge base (step 210); and
returning
to the updating a knowledge base, wherein each elapsed time between each one
of the agents sending the status of one of the goods or its own status to the
knowledge base and the same one of the agents receiving one of the
instructions
is smaller that the expected completion duration of the same one of the
instructions
(step 212).
[0048] Referring now to Fig. 3, there is shown a block diagram illustrating a
processor platform 300 for controlling a supply chain for moving a plurality
of goods
by a plurality of agents and according to a plurality of orders, according to
an
embodiment of the invention. The processor platform comprises an input means
301, a data memory means 302, a code memory means 303, a processor 304, and
an output means 305.
[0049] The input means 301 receives information 306 comprising: a status of
each
one of the goods, a status of each one of the agents, a plurality of rules for
establishing expected behaviors of the goods and of the agents, and the
orders.
The information 306 further comprises requirements of controllers of the
supply
chain and organizations comprising partner companies, providers and clients,
resident in different countries. The input means 301 receives information 306
via a
plurality of communication media such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, an Ethernet
network,
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the Internet, a mobility network and the novel E VDEO technology system.
Information 306 could come from intermediate databases controlled by different
organizations.
[0050] The data memory means 302 makes available data comprising a knowledge
base populated with the information 306. Data can be stored exclusively on the
processor platform 300 or divided on several remote processor platforms.
[0051] The code memory means 303 stores a program code comprising: updating
the knowledge base populated with the information; and determining, based on
at
least a portion of the information in the knowledge base, a plurality of
instructions
to be executed by the agents for moving the goods to achieve the orders at
least in
part, each one of the instructions having an expected completion duration.
[0052] The processor 304 makes a call 307 for a portion of the program code to
the
code memory means 303, receives the portion of the program code 308, and
executes the portion of the program code. The processor 304 exchanges, via a
link
309, a portion of the data with the data memory means 302 and treats the
received
portion of data according to the portion of the program code 308.
[0053] The output means 305 sends output information 310 comprising the
instructions to be sent to the agents for receiving the instructions for
execution by
the agents. The output information 310 further comprises reports (e.g.
expected
performance, past performance, invoicing, etc.) to controllers of the supply
chain
and to organizations comprising partner companies, providers and clients,
resident
in different countries. The output means 305 sends the output information 310
via a
plurality of communication media such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, an Ethernet
network,
the Internet, a mobility network and the novel E VDEO technology system.
Output
information 310 can be sent to intermediate databases controlled by different
organizations.
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[0054] The processor 304 further controls an input 311 coming form the input
means 301 and an output 312 going to the output means 305 according to the
program code.
[0055] In use, the processor platform 300 allows, upon completion of one of
the
instructions by one of the agents or when an event affects one of the
instructions
executed by one of the agents, the same one of the agents to send the status
of
one of the goods or its own status to the knowledge base included in the
processor
platform 300. Each elapsed time between each one of the agents sending the
status of one of the goods or its own status to the knowledge base and the
same
one of the agents receiving one of the instructions is smaller that the
expected
completion duration of the same one of the instructions.
[0056] The program code of the processor platform 300 comprises a real time
and
dynamic artificial intelligence system; more particularly it comprises an
expert
system.
[0057] The expert system allows optimizing the instructions according to the
rules
which can be updated without generating a new program code. The expert system
comprises an inference engine, a computer program that attempts to derive
answers from the knowledge base. The inference engine is the "brain" that the
expert system uses to process the information in the knowledge base for the
ultimate purpose of formulating new instructions. The rules, included in the
knowledge base, are updated by a customizable program code allowing the input
of any kind of rules without a generation of a new program code.
[0058] A person skilled in the art will understand that, according to other
embodiments, the processor platform may comprise a plurality of input means, a
plurality of output means, a plurality of processors, a plurality of code
memory
means and a plurality of data memory means, each of these components being
connected locally or remotely, sharing the tasks described above.
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[0059] Now turning to Fig. 4, there is shown a processor platform 401
connected to
a processor readable medium 406 having recorded thereon statements and
instructions for execution by the processor platform 401 for carrying out the
method
for controlling a supply chain described herein. The processor readable medium
406 comprises a local repository 402 (e.g. a hard disk), a medium reader 403
able
to read a removable medium 404 (e.g. a DVD, a Blue Ray, a USB Key, etc.) and a
remote repository 405 (e.g. Internet, Ethernet, etc.).
[00601 While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above
and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it will be evident to those
skilled in
the art that modifications may be made therein without departing from the
essence
of this invention. Such modifications are considered as possible variants
comprised
in the scope of the invention.
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