Food tracing and tracking system and method

Abstract

A food tracing and tracking system, method, and computer-program product are provided. The present invention allows companies that operate within these supply-chains, to exchange information bi-directionally throughout the entire supply-chain while maintaining data integrity and appropriate levels of security at all times and in real-time. The present invention enables a continuous linkage across the supply-chain-entities and changing of supply-chain entities in near real-time and ensures data integrity and data security, performs language translation, maintains a continuous history over time without the need for data conversion, and provides each entity within the supply chain the option of publishing their identity and data to the other supply chain entities. New fields can be added as needed for processes and materials. The present invention supports distributed data hosted on various machines by various organizations over a public or private data network.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
         1 . A supply chain management system comprising:
 a server including an application program for performing supply chain management;   a database for storing tables created or read by the application program, the database being coupled to the server; and   a plurality of computer-based user systems coupled to the server over at least one of a public or private data network,   wherein the application program includes one or more components from the following list of components:
 a first component for storing farming information for a material lot of a product; 
 a second component for storing quality information for the material lot of the product; 
 a third component for storing production information for the material lot of the product; 
 a fourth component for storing shipping information for the material lot of the product; and 
 a fifth component for retrieving information stored by one or more of the first thru fourth components, 
 wherein the first through fourth components include fields for entering information to be stored, and wherein deletion, alteration, and addition of the fields is capable of being performed in real or near real-time. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the database is distributed across the network. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the application program is distributed across multiple servers coupled to the network. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of computer-based user systems include at least one of a wireless hand-held device. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein material lots and processing stages are defined at run time of the application program within one or more of the components. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein new processes are defined at run time of the application program within one or more of the components. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein at least one of attributes or relationship types are defined at run time of the application program within one or more of the components for one or more of the materials or processing stages. 
     
     
         8 . A computer program product residing on a computer-readable medium for performing supply chain management, the computer program product comprising one or more components from the following list of components:
 a first component for storing farming information for a material lot of a product;   a second component for storing quality information for the material lot of the product;   a third component for storing production information for the material lot of the product;   a fourth component for storing shipping information for the material lot of the product; and   a fifth component for retrieving information stored by one or more of the first thru fourth components,   wherein the first thru fourth components include fields for entering information to be stored, and wherein deletion, alteration, and addition of the fields is capable of being performed by an authorized user in real or near real-time.   
     
     
         9 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein the computer program product is distributed across multiple servers coupled to the network. 
     
     
         10 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein material lots and processing stages are defined at run time of the computer program product within one or more of the components. 
     
     
         11 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein new processes are defined at run time of the computer program product within one or more of the components. 
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein at least one of attributes or relationship types are defined at run time of the application program within one or more of the components for one or more of the materials or processing stages. 
     
     
         13 . A system for representing a supply chain that changes over time, the method comprising:
 a means for creating any number of supply chain stages;   a means for connecting the created supply chain stages in parallel or serial order; and   a means for nesting created supply chain stages to any depth.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein information associated with the supply chain stages are entered at multiple computer systems that are remote from one another. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 a means for performing adding, changing, and subtracting of data attributes associated with a supply chain without interfering with other users interaction with the system.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 a means for performing adding, changing, and subtracting of business processes and relationships based on new business requirements without interfering with other users interaction with the system.