Method and apparatus for determining the origin status of a product

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods, apparatus, systems, and computer elements for generating preference data related to products manufactured from at least one inbound material and manufacturing at least one product related to the preference data, wherein the at least one product is manufactured by manufacturing from the at least one inbound material.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to methods, devices, systems, and computer elements for generating preference data associated with a product manufactured from at least one inbound material, and to methods, devices, systems, and computer elements for manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data by manufacturing from at least one inbound material. [Background technology]

[0002] Producers or exporters of products, such as chemicals or individual products made from different materials, can claim preferential treatment by establishing originating status in accordance with rules of origin. Preferential treatment allows, for example, the export of the product to the country of destination at a preferential tariff rate (i.e., duty-free or reduced) if a preference agreement exists between the country of origin and the country of destination. This may give the producer or exporter of the originating product a competitive advantage over producers or exporters of equivalent non-originating products because no customs duties are imposed.

[0003] The data required to determine product preference data is typically contained in declarations provided by suppliers of materials used in the manufacture of the product. The data contained in the declarations must be integrated into existing systems used to determine product preference data. However, this data integration is tedious, labor-intensive, and error-prone.

[0004] There is therefore a need to simplify the exchange and sharing of data on materials used to manufacture products such as chemicals and individual products, and to simplify the establishment of product origin status. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Disclosed in one aspect is a computer-implemented method for generating preference data associated with a product, particularly a chemical product, the product being manufactured from at least one inbound material, the computer-implemented method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a request to generate preference data, the request including product data related to a product; (b) retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials from inbound material data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data associated with each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with the respective inbound material data and optionally based on data associated with the respective inbound material data; (c) searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to a product made from at least one material; (d) generating preference data associated with the product based on the retrieved rules of origin, the retrieved preference data, and the received product data; and (e) providing the generated preference data via the communication interface; Includes.

[0006] Disclosed in another aspect is a computer-implemented method for generating preference data relating to a product, particularly a chemical product, wherein the product is produced by manufacturing from at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product produced by said manufacturing from at least one of the inbound materials, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a request to generate preference data, the request including product data related to a product; (b) retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials from inbound material data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data associated with each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and optionally based on data associated with each inbound material data, and the data owner is associated with each inbound material data; and / or (c) generating preference data associated with the intermediate product, the step comprising: - retrieving intermediate product data based on the received product data; - searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to the intermediate product; - generating preference data associated with the intermediate product based on the retrieved rules of origin, the retrieved preference data, and the retrieved intermediate product data; The steps performed by (d) searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to a product made from at least one material; (e) generating preference data related to the product based on the retrieved rules of origin, the retrieved preference data related to the inbound material, and / or the generated preference data related to the intermediate product, and the received product data; and (f) providing the generated preference data via the communication interface; Includes.

[0007] In yet another aspect, an apparatus for generating preference data relating to a product, particularly a chemical product, made from at least one material is disclosed, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, cause the apparatus to perform the methods disclosed herein; Includes.

[0008] In yet another aspect, a computer element, particularly a computer program product or computer readable medium, having instructions for execution by one or more processors configured to perform any of the steps of the methods disclosed herein is disclosed. In yet another aspect, a computer element, particularly a computer program product or computer readable medium, is disclosed having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause any of the devices disclosed herein to perform any of the methods disclosed herein.

[0009] In yet another aspect, a method for producing a product, particularly a chemical product, associated with preference data is disclosed, wherein the product is produced from at least one inbound material, and the method comprises the steps of: (a) providing inbound material(s) to a manufacturing process and using the manufacturing process to produce a product from the provided inbound material(s); (b) receiving a request to generate preference data, the request including product data associated with the product; (c) retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials from inbound material data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data associated with each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and optionally based on data associated with each inbound material data; (d) searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to the manufactured product; and (e) generating preference data based on the received product data, the retrieved preference data, and the received rules of origin, and associating the generated preference data with the manufactured product; Includes.

[0010] In yet another aspect, a method for producing a product, particularly a chemical product, associated with preference data, is disclosed, wherein the product is produced by at least one intermediate product produced by production from at least one inbound material and / or one or more inbound components, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing inbound material(s) to a manufacturing process and using the manufacturing process to partially manufacture a product from the provided inbound material(s) and / or using the manufacturing process to manufacture intermediate product(s) from the provided inbound material(s) and using the manufacturing process to at least partially manufacture a product from the manufactured intermediate product(s); (b) receiving a request to generate preference data, the request including product data associated with a product; (c) retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials from inbound material data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data associated with each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and optionally based on data associated with each inbound material data, and the data owner is associated with each inbound material data; and / or (d) the steps of: - retrieving intermediate product data based on the received product data; - searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to the intermediate product; and - generating preference data associated with the intermediate product based on the retrieved rules of origin, the retrieved preference data, and the retrieved intermediate product data; generating preference data relating to the intermediate product by (e) searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to the manufactured product; and (f) generating preference data based on the received product data and / or the generated preference data associated with the intermediate product and the received rules of origin, and associating the generated preference data with the manufactured product; Includes.

[0011] In yet another aspect, a system configured to manufacture products, particularly chemical products, associated with preference data from one or more inbound materials and to provide the manufactured products associated with the preference data is disclosed, the system comprising: (a) a manufacturing line configured to manufacture products from inbound materials and to provide manufactured products, the products being connected to or including physical identifiers; (b) a collector configured to collect product data related to the product; (c) a request receiver configured to receive a request to generate the preference data, the request including product data associated with the product; (d) a preference data provider configured to retrieve preference data related to the inbound materials from inbound material data related to the inbound materials based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data related to each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and optionally based on data related to each inbound material data, and the data owner is associated with each inbound material data; (e) a rules provider configured to retrieve at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to a product manufactured from at least one inbound material; (f) a preference data generation unit configured to generate preference data associated with the manufactured product based on the retrieved product data, the retrieved preference data, and the retrieved rules of origin; and (g) an assigner configured to assign a physical identifier to the generated preference data; Includes.

[0012] In yet another aspect, a system configured to manufacture a product, particularly a chemical product, associated with preference data from one or more inbound materials and / or from one or more intermediate products produced by manufacturing, and provide a manufactured product associated with preference data, is disclosed, the system comprising: (a) A manufacturing line configured to manufacture products from inbound materials and / or intermediate products and provide manufactured products, wherein the chemical products are connected to or include physical identifiers; (b) a collector configured to collect product data related to the product; (c) a request receiver configured to receive a request to generate the preference data, the request including product data associated with the product; (d) Preference data providers configured to: (1) retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials from inbound material data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data associated with each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and, optionally, based on data associated with each inbound material data, the data owner being associated with each inbound material data; and (2) The following: - retrieving intermediate product data based on the received product data; - searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to intermediate products; - generating preference data associated with the intermediate product based on the retrieved rules of origin, the retrieved preference data, and the retrieved intermediate product data; generating preference data associated with the intermediate product in accordance with the method of (e) a rules provider configured to obtain at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to a product manufactured from at least one inbound material; (f) a preference data generation unit configured to generate preference data associated with the manufactured product based on the received product data, the preference data provided by the preference data supplier, and the retrieved rules of origin; and (g) an assigner configured to assign a physical identifier to the generated preference data; Includes.

[0013] By establishing the origin status or place of origin of a product made from at least one material, a product manufacturer or exporter can claim preferential treatment for the product when exporting the product to a destination country that has a preference agreement with the product's country of origin. Preferential treatment, for example, allows the product to be exported to the destination country at a preferential tariff rate (i.e., duty-free or reduced), thereby providing the product manufacturer or exporter of the originating or preferred product with a competitive advantage over comparable non-originating or non-preferential products. The methods, apparatus, systems, and computer elements disclosed herein provide an efficient method for determining product-related preference data, such as the place of origin of a product made from at least one material supplied by an upstream supply chain participant, while reducing or avoiding the need to integrate material data included in a material supplier's declaration into existing systems used to determine product-related preference data. The generated preference data can be used to more efficiently control the production of additional products from the product associated with the preference data. For example, product supply to a manufacturer in a particular country can be made more efficient based on the generated preference data, and further products produced by that manufacturer can be made to meet specific requirements regarding the origin of the further products produced.

[0014] Simplified and customizable data sharing or exchange within a supply chain is enabled from inbound material suppliers to product manufacturers or from chemical product manufacturers to individual product manufacturers, at least in part through the use of inbound material passport(s) containing inbound material data associated with one or more decentralized identifiers and ingredient passport(s) containing ingredient data associated with one or more decentralized identifiers. In this manner, more reliable and efficient determination of priority data related to a product is achieved, while the data remains the property of the supplier supplying the upstream participant. Inbound material passports can be stored in dedicated repositories associated with respective data owners, such as from an inbound material manufacturer supplying materials to downstream participants manufacturing products from such materials. Similarly, raw material passports may be stored in dedicated repositories associated with respective data owners, such as from a raw material manufacturer supplying raw materials to downstream participants manufacturing incoming raw materials from such raw materials. Repositories may be accessed via a decentralized network. Access to such repositories may be controlled via a decentralized data providing network node associated with each data owner of the data stored in such repositories. Storing such passports in dedicated storage locations associated with respective data owners allows for controlled access to such passports by such data owners. This contrasts with storing such passports in a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain, where access to data stored in such a ledger cannot be fully controlled by the data owner, since the data owner does not have control over the storage locations that store distributed copies of the ledger. Furthermore, data stored in a distributed ledger may be accessible by members of a distributed ledger network, such as a blockchain network, in particular by members of a public blockchain network.Associating data related to inbound materials with one or more decentralized identifier(s) and, optionally, one or more authentication mechanisms can provide more reliable and secure data sharing and exchange. Furthermore, including one or more authentication mechanisms allows multiple data consumption services from different participants in the supply chain to access the material data, enabling more flexible data sharing or exchange. By linking the decentralized identifier to a digital representation of the inbound material or ingredient data, the inbound material or ingredient data can be accessed via the decentralized identifier and digital representation in a robust and reliable manner in a single-manufacturer to multiple-user environment, provided the digital representation includes a representation for accessing the inbound material or ingredient data. Because the inbound material or ingredient data associated with each passport has a standardized data format, data integration into existing systems is unnecessary. Therefore, preference data included in the inbound material or ingredient data can be directly used to determine product-related preference data or material-related preference data, respectively, avoiding risks associated with inaccurate or partial data integration. [Means for solving the problem]

[0015] In the following, the terms used in this specification and / or the technical field of the present disclosure will be outlined by embodiments and / or examples. When examples are provided, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the examples.

[0016] In one embodiment, a product may be any product resulting from the use of at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product in a manufacturing process. That is, the material / intermediate product is used by the manufacturing process to produce the product(s) or is used by the manufacturing process in at least one manufacturing step of a series of manufacturing steps required to produce the product(s). Thus, for example, a product does not necessarily comprise the material / intermediate product in its original form (e.g., original chemical composition or original physical appearance) if the product is produced by reacting the material / intermediate product or if the product is produced by changing the appearance of the material / intermediate product.

[0017] In one embodiment, inbound materials may be one or more physical entities, ingredients, parts, components, subassemblies, and assemblies provided to manufacturing and used by manufacturing to produce a product. In one embodiment, intermediate products may be one or more physical entities, ingredients, parts, components, subassemblies, and assemblies produced by manufacturing from one or more inbound materials provided to manufacturing. The intermediate products may be used by manufacturing to produce one or more products. In one embodiment, inbound materials may be discrete or non-discrete materials, e.g., a continuous volume of a solid or liquid, if discrete, or may include multiple pieces, e.g., parts or components, if discrete. Discrete materials may represent finished products that are separate items that are easily identifiable, e.g., by counting, e.g., automobiles, airplanes, shoes, etc. Discrete materials can be broken down at the end of their lifecycle, allowing their components to be recycled.

[0018] In one embodiment, the inbound material may be a chemical or chemical material. A chemical raw material may include a material used as an educt or starting material in a manufacturing process. It may be a virgin material or a recycled material, e.g., a material that has already undergone a manufacturing and use cycle. A virgin material may include a newly extracted raw material, particularly a material that has not undergone a previous manufacturing and use cycle, particularly a material that has not been processed and / or used. According to the present disclosure, a recycled material may be a material that has already undergone a manufacturing and use cycle. For example, a recycled material may be a material that has undergone processing after its use to prepare it for reuse. This may include a processing step, e.g., recycling, and / or other processing steps, e.g., cleaning. A recycled material is an example of a recycled material. A material that has undergone one or more processing steps after its use may also be a material that has undergone one or more processing steps after its use. The processing step may be a process that allows the material to be introduced into a manufacturing process as a raw material. A chemical raw material may be a chemically processed material, e.g., a raw material that has undergone at least one chemical reaction, e.g., an intermediate material used in a further manufacturing process.

[0019] In one embodiment, the inbound material may be a part. A part may include multiple discrete pieces. For example, a component may be manufactured by assembling multiple discrete objects.

[0020] In one embodiment, the inbound material may be a component assembly. The component assembly may be made up of multiple components. For example, the component assembly may be manufactured by assembling multiple components.

[0021] In one embodiment, the manufacturing may be a chemical manufacturing, a chemical manufacturing network, or a discrete manufacturing. A chemical manufacturing network may include one or more chemical and / or mechanical processes. A chemical manufacturing network may produce one or more products through chemical and / or mechanical processing. A chemical manufacturing network may include multiple types of manufacturing processes for producing one or more product(s) and / or intermediate product(s) from one or more inbound materials. A chemical manufacturing network may produce one or more products from inbound materials provided to the chemical manufacturing network. A chemical manufacturing network may produce one or more intermediate products from inbound materials provided to the chemical manufacturing network. A chemical manufacturing network may include a complex manufacturing network that produces multiple chemicals through multiple manufacturing processes. A chemical manufacturing network may include connected, interconnected, and / or disconnected manufacturing processes. A chemical manufacturing network may include a complex network or a broadband network. A chemical manufacturing network may include one or more manufacturing processes with multiple manufacturing steps. The manufacturing steps included in a chemical manufacturing network may be defined by the physical system boundary of the chemical manufacturing network. A system boundary may be defined by the location and / or control of a manufacturing process or step. A system boundary may be defined by a site in a chemical manufacturing network. A system boundary may be defined by a manufacturing process or step controlled jointly by one entity or multiple entities. A system boundary may be defined by a value chain with staggered manufacturing processes or steps leading to a product, managed jointly or individually by multiple entities. Inbound materials may enter the physical system boundary of a chemical manufacturing network. An entry point(s) in a chemical manufacturing network may be indicated by the entry of inbound material(s) into the system boundary of a chemical manufacturing network or chemical substance network. A product may exit the physical system boundary of a chemical manufacturing network.An exit from a chemical manufacturing network may be indicated by a product leaving the system boundary of the chemical manufacturing network or chemical network.

[0022] In one embodiment, an identifier element may be associated with or connected to the inbound material or the packaging of the inbound material. The identifier element may be associated with or connected to the inbound material at least at the time of production of the inbound material. Through the identifier element, inbound material data related to the inbound material is accessible throughout the distributed network. The inbound material data may be associated with a distributed identifier. The identifier element may be uniquely associated with the inbound material. The identifier element may be uniquely associated with a digital incoming material identifier. The digital material identifier may be uniquely associated with the inbound material. In this manner, inbound material data may be provided for each inbound material or for each individual inbound material. The inbound material identifier may include one or more distributed identifiers uniquely associated with the inbound material. The inbound material identifier may be associated with one or more distributed identifiers that represent the inbound material data. The distributed identifier may be a digital identifier for the distributed network. The decentralized identifier may be a digital identifier provided to the decentralized network and participating nodes of the decentralized network, such that the decentralized identifier may indicate a physical entity of the inbound material within the decentralized network, and the participant nodes may be able to interpret the relationship of the decentralized identifier to the physical entity of the inbound material in the material chain.

[0023] In one embodiment, the decentralized identifier may include any unique identifier uniquely associated with a data owner, such as an inbound material supplier or ingredient supplier, and each of the inbound material or ingredient data. The decentralized identifier may include one or more universally unique identifiers (UUIDs) or digital identifiers (DIDs). The identifier may be issued by a central or decentralized ID issuer. The decentralized identifier may include authentication information. Through the unique association of the decentralized identifier with a data owner and the respective data (e.g., inbound material data or ingredient data), access to the respective data may be controlled by the data owner associated with the respective data. This is in contrast to a central authority scheme in which identifiers are provided by a central authority and access to the data is controlled by the central authority. Decentralized in this context refers to the use of identifiers in implementations controlled by the data owner. The decentralized identifier may include one or more identifiers used in a decentralized network and enabling data exchange across the decentralized network. The data exchange may include discovering a decentralized identifier for a participant node of the decentralized network, authenticating the participant node of the decentralized network, and / or authorizing data transfer via peer-to-peer communication between participant nodes of the decentralized network. The decentralized identifier may be a digital identifier. Thus, the decentralized identifier may not correspond to a physical identifier physically affixed to an inbound item (e.g., a package of inbound material).

[0024] Inbound materials and products may be part of a product ecosystem. A product ecosystem may include various chains, including production, use, and reuse. In these chains, one or more ecosystem participants may contribute to the production, use, or reuse of a product. For example, a production chain may include a raw material manufacturer and / or a product manufacturer. Further, for example, a use chain may include a product user, a product maintainer, and / or a product distributor. Further, for example, a reuse chain may include a collector, a sorter, a recycler, and / or a refurbisher. Participants in a product ecosystem may be connected through a decentralized network. The decentralized network may include one or more decentralized network nodes configured to perform data transactions. The decentralized network may be a peer-to-peer decentralized network. The decentralized network need not be a decentralized blockchain network. The decentralized network nodes may be associated with participants in the product ecosystem. Data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol that includes an authentication and / or authorization mechanism. A peer-to-peer network may be established between the decentralized network nodes of the decentralized network based on the authentication and / or authorization mechanism. One or more authentication mechanisms may be associated with or linked to a decentralized identifier. One or more authentication mechanisms associated with a decentralized identifier may be provided to a decentralized network node. One or more authentication mechanisms associated with a decentralized identifier may be accessible by the decentralized network node. A decentralized configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and increases control by each data owner in the decentralized network.

[0025] In one embodiment, a data providing service (hereinafter also referred to as a data providing node) may include computer-executable instructions for providing and / or processing data, such as inbound material data associated with a data owner, for access and / or processing by a data consuming service (hereinafter also referred to as a data consuming node). The data providing service and the data consuming service may be part of a distributed network. The data providing service may control access to the inbound material data by the data consuming service(s), particularly over the distributed network. The data providing service may be connected to one or more dedicated data storages that store the inbound material data / ingredient data, and may be controlled or owned by the data owner of the inbound material data or ingredient data, respectively. This allows the data owner to retain full control over their respective data, while at the same time allowing the respective data to be shared under controlled conditions, for example, by using appropriate authorization and authentication mechanisms or schemes, to facilitate the generation of preference data associated with products manufactured from the inbound materials associated with the inbound material data, and to improve the manufacturing process of further products from the products.

[0026] In one embodiment, a data consumption service may include computer-executable instructions for accessing and / or processing data, such as inbound material data, associated with a data owner, particularly a data owner associated with the inbound material data. The data consumption service may be controlled or owned by a product manufacturer. The data consumption service may be controlled by an entity that consumes the inbound material to manufacture a product. The data consumption service may be part of a distributed network. Through the data consumption service, a product manufacturer may obtain at least a portion of the inbound material data associated with the inbound material needed or used to manufacture a product.

[0027] In one embodiment, a data owner may include any entity that generates data, such as inbound material data or ingredient data. A generating node may be coupled to an entity that owns a physical product for which or from which data, such as inbound material data or ingredient data, is generated. Data, such as inbound material data or ingredient data, may be generated by a third-party entity on behalf of the entity that owns the physical product or for the entity for which the data is generated. Generated data, such as inbound material data or ingredient data, may be stored in one or more dedicated data storages owned, managed, or accessible by the data owner. The dedicated storage(s) may be accessible to the data owner. The dedicated data storage(s) may be accessed by a data consumption service using a decentralized identifier and data associated with the material data. The data owner may be a material manufacturer or ingredient manufacturer, respectively. Access to the inbound material data may be controlled by the data owner via the decentralized identifier and the unique association between the data owner and the inbound material data. Access to the ingredient data may be controlled by the data owner via the decentralized identifier and the unique association between the data owner and the ingredient data. Inbound material data may be accessed by the data owner. Ingredient data may be accessible by the data owner. Thus, the data owner may directly or indirectly own the material data or the ingredient data, respectively. The data owner may control access to the inbound material data via the data owner's data provision service. The data owner may control access to the material data. The inbound material data may be associated with the data owner. The data owner may be the owner of the inbound material data or the owner of the material data. The inbound material data may be stored in a database of or under the control of the data owner. The data owner may control access to the raw material data. Ingredient data may be associated with the data owner. The data owner may be the ingredient data owner or the ingredient data owner.The ingredient data may be stored in a database owned by or under the control of the data owner.

[0028] In one embodiment, rules of origin may determine where a product made from at least one material or a material made from at least one ingredient originates. Rules of origin may determine where a product is made from at least one material or where a material is made from at least one ingredient. Rules of origin may determine where a product is made from at least one material or where a material is made from at least one ingredient. The origin of a product may be considered the economic nationality of the commercially traded product. The origin of a raw material may be considered the economic nationality of the commercially traded raw material. Rules of origin allow for the determination of the origin and are divided into preferential and non-preferential rules of origin. Rules of origin are based on the tariff classification of the product or raw material.

[0029] In one embodiment, non-preferential rules of origin may be used to determine the country of origin for most-favored-nation (MFN) purposes. The country of origin may be determined using non-preferential rules that apply when only one country is involved in the production of a product or raw material, and non-preferential rules that apply when more than one country is involved in the production of a product or raw material.

[0030] In one embodiment, preferential rules of origin may be used to determine whether a product or material is eligible for preferential tariffs offered under a particular free trade agreement (FTA). Preferential rules of origin may include a set of criteria that a product or material must comply with when exported to an FTA partner country in order to be considered originating within the territory of the trade agreement.

[0031] In one embodiment, preferential rules of origin may be based on tariff classification. Preferential rules of origin may be product or material specific. Each tariff classification eligible for preferential tariffs under a trade agreement may be associated with rules of origin. Preferential rules of origin may be established at the commodity code / country tariff line level. Preferential rules of origin may be defined for specific types of products within a tariff classification or commodity code. Preferential rules of origin may be negotiated separately for each FTA and attached to the main agreement in the form of a protocol or annexes on product-specific preferential rules of origin. Therefore, the preferential rules of origin for a particular FTA may be retrieved from the respective protocol or annexes. There are two types of product preferential rules of origin: rules covering "fully manufactured products" and rules covering "substantial transformation of raw materials used to manufacture the product." Substantial transformation is a type of rule of origin that requires a product or material to undergo a certain process in order to be considered to originate in a country.

[0032] In one embodiment, a processor may refer to any circuit, such as any logic or quantum circuit, configured to perform the basic operations of a computer or system, and / or generally to a device configured to perform computations or logical operations. In particular, a processor or computer processor may be configured to process the basic instructions that run a computer or system. It may be a semiconductor-based processor, a quantum processor, or any other type of processor configured to process instructions. As an example, a processor may be or include a central processing unit ("CPU"). A processor may be a ("GPU") graphics processing unit, a ("TPU") tensor processing unit, a ("CISC") Complex Instruction Set Computing microprocessor, a Reduced Instruction Set Computing ("RISC") microprocessor, a Very Long Instruction Word ("VLIW") microprocessor, or a processor implementing another instruction set or a combination of instruction sets. The processing means may also be one or more special-purpose processing devices, such as an application-specific integrated circuit ("ASIC"), a field-programmable gate array ("FPGA"), a complex programmable logic device ("CPLD"), a digital signal processor ("DSP"), a network processor, or the like. The methods, systems, and devices described herein may be implemented as software within a DSP, microcontroller, or other side processor, or as hardware circuitry within an ASIC, CPLD, or FPGA. It should be understood that the term processor may refer to one or more processing devices, such as a distributed system of processing devices located across multiple computer systems (e.g., cloud computing), and is not limited to a single device unless otherwise specified. In one embodiment, a processor may also be considered a subpart of a processor, where the subpart executes a method in the form of a thread, container, and / or virtual machine.

[0033] In one embodiment, a computing node may represent any device or system that includes at least one physical, tangible processor and physical, tangible memory that can have computer-executable instructions executed by the processor. A computing node may also be a device not traditionally considered a computing node, such as a handheld device, manufacturing equipment, a sensor, a monitoring system, a control system, a home appliance, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a mainframe, a data center, or a wearable (e.g., eyeglasses, watches, etc.). The memory may be in any form, depending on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0034] In one embodiment, memory or data storage media may represent physical system memory, which may be volatile, nonvolatile, or a combination thereof. Memory may also include nonvolatile mass storage devices such as physical storage media. Memory may also be a computer-readable storage medium such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices, non-magnetic disk storage such as solid-state disks, or any other physical and tangible storage medium that can be used to store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computing system. Additionally, memory may also be a computer-readable medium (also referred to as a transmission medium) that carries computer-executable instructions. Furthermore, program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures may be automatically transferred from a transmission medium to a storage medium (or vice versa) upon reaching various computing system components. For example, computer-executable instructions or data structures received over a network or data link may be buffered in RAM within a network interface module (e.g., "NIC") and then ultimately transferred to the computing system's RAM and / or to a less volatile storage medium within the computing system. Thus, it should be understood that storage media may be included in computing components that also (or primarily) utilize transmission media.

[0035] In one embodiment, the computer-readable program instructions for carrying out the operations of the present disclosure may be either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including assembler instructions, instruction set architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine-dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state setting data, or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Java, Smalltalk, C++, and traditional procedural programming languages ​​such as the "C" programming language, or similar programming languages. The computer-readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partially on the user's computer as a standalone software package, partially on the user's computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer via any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computer (e.g., via the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuits, including, for example, programmable logic circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or programmable logic arrays (PLAs), can utilize the state information of the computer-readable program instructions to execute the computer-readable program instructions and personalize the electronic circuit to perform aspects of the present invention. In one embodiment, the computer-readable program instructions may be downloaded to a respective computing / processing device from a computer-readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device over a network, such as the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and / or a wireless network. The network may include copper transmission cables, optical transmission fiber, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers, and / or edge servers.A network adapter card or network interface within each computing / processing device can receive computer-readable program instructions from the network and transfer the computer-readable program instructions for storage in a computer-readable storage medium within each computing / processing device.

[0036] In one embodiment, a communication interface may represent a software and / or hardware interface for establishing communication, such as the transfer or exchange of signals or data. The software interface may be, for example, a function call or an API. The communication interface may include a transceiver and / or a receiver. Communication may be wired or wireless. The communication interface may be based on or support one or more communication protocols. The communication protocol may be a wireless protocol, such as a short-range communication protocol, such as Bluetooth® or WiFi, or a long-range communication protocol, such as a cellular or mobile network, such as second-generation mobile phone networks (“2G”), 3G, 4G, LTE (Long-Term Evolution), or 5G. Alternatively, or in addition, the communication interface may be based on a proprietary short-range or long-range protocol. The communication interface may support any one or more standard and / or proprietary protocols.

[0037] The methods, apparatus, systems, and computer elements of the present disclosure may utilize distributed computing. Distributed computing may refer to any computing that utilizes multiple computing resources. Such utilization may be achieved through virtualization of physical computing resources. An example of distributed computing is cloud computing. "Cloud computing" may refer to a model that enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services, etc.). When distributed, a cloud computing environment may be distributed within an organization and / or internationally across multiple organizations. In one embodiment, distributed computing may be implemented in a federated network.

[0038] The methods, apparatus, systems, and computer elements of the present disclosure may utilize a distributed network, which may refer to any computing network that distributes information processing workloads among multiple nodes instead of relying on a single central node, with each of these separate nodes acting as a mini-central node that interacts independently with the other nodes.

[0039] For material and product suppliers within a supply chain, calculating and verifying the origin of materials and products, and obtaining and managing each supplier declaration containing the necessary material and product data, often involves a lot of bureaucracy associated with integrating the material and product data contained in those declarations into existing systems used to determine preferential data associated with those materials and products. Such complex data integration processes carry risks, including inaccurate or incomplete data transfer from each declaration to existing systems.

[0040] However, reliable and accurate determination of the origin status or place of origin of a product made from at least one material is a prerequisite for a product manufacturer or product exporter to claim the preferential treatment to which they are entitled for that product when exporting that product to a destination country that has a preferential treatment agreement with the country of origin of the product. Furthermore, the origin status of a product makes it possible to more efficiently control or manage the production of further products that use that product by controlling the supply of that product to the manufacture of those further products based on the product's origin status.

[0041] It is therefore highly desirable to provide methods, devices, systems and computer elements that avoid the need to integrate material data relating to the origin of materials provided by material suppliers, for example in the form of a supplier declaration, into existing systems that are used to determine preference data for products manufactured from the supplied materials based on the supplied material data. It is further desirable to provide methods, devices, systems and computer elements that make it possible to control the production of further products based on the origin status of the supplied products.

[0042] These and other objects that will become apparent from the following description are solved by the subject matter of the independent claims. The dependent claims refer to embodiments of the invention.

[0043] The preference data may be generated by a product manufacturer, e.g., a manufacturer associated with a manufacturing that produces a product. For this purpose, it is necessary to know the preference data of all materials used in the manufacturing of the product. In this regard, various scenarios are possible. For example, materials provided to manufacturing by a supplier may be used within manufacturing to produce the product. In this case, the preference data associated with all provided inbound materials may be retrieved from the inbound material data associated with each inbound material. For this purpose, the product manufacturer may use, for example, a data consumption service, to access the inbound material data based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and, optionally, on data associated with each inbound material data. Access to the inbound material data may be controlled by a data provision service associated with the data owner of the inbound material data.

[0044] In another example, inbound materials provided by a supplier and / or intermediate products manufactured from the inbound materials may be used within a production to manufacture a product. In this case, preference data associated with the manufactured intermediate products may be generated before preference data associated with products manufactured at least in part from the intermediate products is generated. To generate preference data associated with the manufactured intermediate products, a product manufacturer may retrieve preference data associated with each incoming material from the material data, as described above. In yet another example, a first intermediate product manufactured from one or more inbound materials may be used, at least in part, to manufacture another intermediate product. In this case, preference data generated for the first intermediate product, as described above, may be used to determine preference data for the second intermediate product.

[0045] Preference data associated with a manufactured product may be used by a product consumer to control the production of further products using that product. For example, if a product consumer requires that a manufactured product have a particular origin, the product consumer can use the preference data associated with the product to determine the product input stream to a manufacturing site in a particular country, thereby more efficiently controlling the supply of the product to downstream processing operations.

[0046] In one embodiment, the preference data associated with a product includes the product's preferred or non-preferential origin status with respect to at least one country or at least one region. Preferential origin status is indicated for a specific country or region, such as the European Union. Non-preferential origin status is targeted to a specific country or region, such as the European Union. The preferred or non-preferential origin may be used to determine whether a product can receive preferential tariff treatment when exported to a specific country or region. The product's preferred or non-preferential origin may be used to manage product supply to a manufacturer that produces further products from the supplied product. For example, the product's preferred or non-preferential status may be used to determine appropriate manufacturing so that the resulting further products have a predefined origin, e.g., preferred or non-preferential status.

[0047] In one embodiment, the preference data related to the product further includes product data, particularly product data included in the received request, and data related to inbound materials used in the manufacture of the product.

[0048] In one embodiment, the product data includes a product identifier, pricing data, product composition data, and / or a tariff classification associated with the product. The product identifier may be associated with a lot number and / or order number assigned to the product. The lot number may be assigned to a specific physical entity, quantity, or group of products. The lot number may be assigned to incoming raw materials at the time of production of those raw materials. The lot number may represent an identification number assigned to a specific quantity or lot of a product from a single manufacturer. The lot number may typically be located on the outside of the product's packaging. The lot number may enable tracking of component parts or ingredients, as well as labor and equipment records involved in the production of the product. The lot number may be assigned to the product at the time of production. The order number may be assigned to the transfer of a specific physical entity, quantity, or group of products to a product consumer. The order number may be assigned to a product transfer. The order number may be associated with a product manufacturer identifier and a product consumer entity. The product identifier may be used to look up data related to materials used in the production of the product.

[0049] The tariff classification (also called HS code) may refer to the Harmonized System (HS) classification, also known as HS nomenclature. The HS classification is the World Customs Organization's Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System. It is an international tariff classification system that assigns a unique six-digit HS code to each commodity group. This system was first adopted by the Customs Cooperation Council in 1983. HS codes allow customs authorities to identify products and apply appropriate import duties, other taxes, and trade measures. HS codes play an important role in determining a product's origin. Most-favored-nation (MFN) tariffs and preferential tariffs in FTAs ​​are based on HS classification. In any trade agreement, rules of origin vary depending on the product classified by the HS code. Furthermore, HS classification also plays an important role in assessing whether a product falls under various types of rules of origin. HS codes consist of six digits and are divided into the following sections: chapter (first two digits), heading (first four digits), and subheading (total six digits). The HS code is further subdivided into 7- to 12-digit item codes (also known as commodity codes or country-specific tariff lines) by country.

[0050] Product configuration data may include a bill of materials (also referred to as a BOM) associated with a manufactured product. A bill of materials is a list of inbound materials and / or intermediate products indicating the quantity of each material required to manufacture the respective product. A bill of materials may therefore also be considered a formula, recipe, or ingredient list. Data related to inbound materials (imported raw materials) used to manufacture a product may include a description of each inbound material, a tariff classification of each inbound material, and / or a value (e.g., price) of each inbound material. Data related to inbound materials may be included in preference data depending on the origin status of the product. For example, a product without preferential origin status may be associated with preference data that includes data related to incoming materials. In another example, a product(s) with preferential origin status may be associated with preference data that does not include data related to the inbound materials. Each inbound material description may include an inbound material name, an inbound material ID, or a combination thereof.

[0051] In one embodiment, the product data further includes data related to one or more countries or regions for which preference data is to be generated. For example, the product data may include information indicating which countries or regions the product must satisfy for preferential trade. This allows for the generation of preference data that includes data on the countries that satisfy the rules of origin governing preferential trade, separate from data on the product's origin. The latter data may determine the countries to which the preferential tariff rates apply.

[0052] In one embodiment, the request is received by a computing node of a computing system that performs the method for generating preference data disclosed herein. The request includes product data associated with a product for which preference data is to be generated. The product data included in the request may include the product data described above. The product data included in the request may be collected from one or more data sources using one or more product identifiers associated with the manufactured product.

[0053] Depending on whether intermediate products produced by manufacturing were used in the production of the product, the computing node may be configured to obtain preference data associated with the inbound materials and / or generate preference data associated with the manufactured intermediate products, as described below.

[0054] Preference data associated with the inbound materials may be retrieved based on product data included in the received request. In one embodiment, retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data may include retrieving product configuration data based on the received product data. The product configuration data may be used to determine an inbound material identifier associated with the used inbound materials. The inbound material identifier may be used to determine a distribution identifier associated with each inbound material and the inbound material data. The distribution identifier may be used to determine data associated with the inbound material data, for example, by accessing a database in the distributed network and using the determined distribution identifier to retrieve the data associated with the inbound material data.

[0055] In one embodiment, retrieving preference data associated with the inbound materials based on the received product data may include retrieving inbound material composition data based on the received product data. The inbound material composition data may be used to determine inbound material identifiers associated with the used inbound materials. The inbound material identifiers may be used to determine a distribution identifier associated with each inbound material and the inbound material data. The distribution identifiers may be used to determine data associated with the inbound material data, for example, by accessing a database of the distributed network and using the determined distribution identifier to retrieve the data associated with the inbound material data.

[0056] The preference data may be retrieved from inbound material data associated with the inbound material. Material data associated with each incoming material may be accessed based on the decentralized identifier and, optionally, based on data associated with the inbound material data. The inbound material data may be accessed by a data consuming node via the decentralized network based on the decentralized identifier and, optionally, based on data associated with the inbound material data. The inbound material data may be accessed from a data providing node associated with a data owner of the inbound material data. The data providing node may be associated with dedicated storage for storing such inbound material data. The data providing node may be configured to collect the inbound material data stored in the storage based on the received decentralized identifier and provide the collected inbound material data to a data consuming service requesting the inbound material data. The decentralized identifier may be associated with the inbound material data. As inbound material data is linked to each inbound material, for example using an inbound material identifier, a decentralized identifier is also associated with the inbound material to which the inbound material data is linked. The decentralized identifier may optionally be used within the decentralized network, in combination with data related to the inbound material data, to access the inbound material data by a data consumption service associated with a product consumer, under the control of a data providing service associated with the data owner of the inbound material data, thereby enabling the inbound material data to be transferred and accessed in a controlled and secure manner, as described above.

[0057] In one embodiment, the decentralized identifier is associated with a data owner. In one embodiment, the decentralized identifier is associated with the inbound material with which the inbound material data is associated. Associating the decentralized identifier with the data owner may allow the data owner to regain control over the inbound material data associated with the decentralized identifier. Furthermore, associating the decentralized identifier with the data owner may allow verification of the inbound material data via the data owner. For example, the data owner's information may allow the origin of the inbound material data to be confirmed.

[0058] In one embodiment, the distributed identifier is a physical identifier associated with or assigned to the inbound material. Thus, the distributed identifier is associated with or assigned to each incoming material used to manufacture a product. The physical identifier (hereinafter also referred to as a physical identifier element) may represent any virtual or physical location that associates the distributed identifier with each inbound material. The physical identifier may be any identifier for each inbound material, such as a batch number or part number. The physical identifier element may include, but is not limited to, a passive or active element, such as a QR code or an RFID tag. The physical identifier element may be a physical identifier physically associated with each inbound material. The identifier element may include a marker embedded in the inbound material, a barcode, a QR code, an embossed code, a tag such as an RFID tag, or a similar physical location that allows each inbound material to be digitally identified. The connection between the physical identifier and the inbound material may be made by a physical connection with the physical material or physical entity. For example, the physical identifier may be connected to the physical entity of the inbound material, i.e., physically attached to the inbound material, e.g., the packaging of the inbound material. The physical identifier may correspond one-to-one to a virtual identification or to a physical identification by physical connection to the physical entity.

[0059] The distributed identifier may be determined based on a physical identifier associated with each inbound material. The physical identifier may be provided from a sensor that reads a physical identifier element physically associated with the inbound material. The physical identifier may be used to determine the distributed identifier, for example, by accessing a database that includes physical identifiers correlated with corresponding distributed identifiers. The physical identifier may be used to determine the distributed identifier, for example, by querying a distributed network for distributed identifiers linked to the physical identifier using query data that includes the physical identifier.

[0060] In one embodiment, the preference data is retrieved using a distributed identifier and / or an inbound material identifier associated with the inbound material. For example, the preference data may be retrieved from the inbound material data using the distributed identifier(s) associated with the inbound material. In another example, the preference data may be received using an inbound material identifier associated with each inbound material. The inbound material identifier may be used when the inbound material data is stored in data storage associated with the material data consumer (e.g., a product manufacturer), for example, after accessing the inbound material data using a data consumption service, and the stored data is correlated with such inbound material identifier.

[0061] In one embodiment, access to inbound material data is based on an owner identifier associated with the data owner, specifically, the data owner of each inbound material data. The owner identifier may be a string identifier associated with the data owner's name. The owner identifier may be provided by a physical identifier provider, such as a barcode, embossed code, QR code, or tag, such as an RFID tag. Such communication may also be completed via ad-hoc Wi-Fi, BLE beacon, and / or NFC. Communication may be performed via available communication channels, including, but not limited to, a web server, ad-hoc Wi-Fi, BLE beacon signals, NFC, scanning a barcode or QR code, etc. Through the owner identifier, material data can be associated with the owner of the material data by including the owner identifier. The owner identifier may be used for data transactions, such as sharing or exchanging material data. The owner identifier may be provided to a data consumption service. Providing the decentralized identifier and the data owner's owner identifier to the data consumption service may simplify tracking of data transactions. Transactions within the data ecosystem can be associated with, for example, the explicit name of the data owner.

[0062] In one embodiment, access to inbound material data is based on a decentralized participant identifier associated with the data consumption service. The decentralized participant identifier may be defined by access rules associated with the inbound material, thereby filtering data consumption services based on the associated decentralized participant identifier and controlling access to the inbound material data based on the decentralized participant identifier. The access rules may be defined by a data owner of the inbound material data such that only certain participants of the decentralized network can access the inbound material data, i.e., access to the inbound material data is prevented by all members of the decentralized network. By storing the inbound material data in storage associated with the material owner and using the access rules, the material owner has complete control over access to the inbound material data. This is in contrast to distributed ledger technology-based distributed networks, where the data owner may not be able to control access to data stored on the distributed ledger by other decentralized network participants.

[0063] In one embodiment, access to the inbound material data is based on an access element associated with the inbound material. The access element may be stored in a distributed registry associated with or under the control of the data owner of the inbound material data. The distributed registry may be associated with a distributed data providing network node associated with the data owner. The data owner may control access to such a distributed registry via the associated distributed data providing network node. This is in contrast to a distributed network based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), where a ledger that may be considered a distributed registry here is replicated across multiple network nodes that are not controlled, or only partially controlled, by the data owner of the inbound material data. The access element may include a distributed identifier and access data. The access data may point to the inbound material data or a portion thereof. Pointing in this context means a network representation or address suitable for accessing the respective inbound material data. Access may include an access point to the respective inbound material data, a link for accessing the respective data, an endpoint for accessing the respective data, or a service endpoint for accessing the respective data.

[0064] In one embodiment, the preference data associated with each inbound material includes data regarding the inbound material's preferred or non-preferential origin status with respect to at least one country and the inbound material price. For example, the preference data may include invoice data indicating the preferred or non-preferential origin status as well as the inbound material price. Using the invoice data within the inbound material data allows the necessary information for the inbound material to be obtained from a single data source, e.g., a single request to access each inbound material data from a data provider associated with each inbound material data. The preference data may be part of a supplier declaration issued for each inbound material. The supplier declaration may be included in each inbound material data. The data regarding the inbound material's preferred origin status may include an inbound material identifier, the country or state of origin of the inbound material, and the preferred country or state of origin. The inbound material identifier may include a material name, a CAS number, an inbound material ID, a lot number, a batch number, or a combination thereof. A preferential recipient country may correspond to a country or countries with which the inbound material satisfies the rules of origin that govern preferential trade with that country. Data regarding the non-preferential origin status of the inbound material may include an inbound material identifier, an identifier associated with a non-originating raw material used in the production of the inbound material, a tariff classification associated with the non-originating raw material, and a value associated with the non-originating raw material. An identifier associated with a non-originating ingredient used in the production of the inbound material may include an ingredient name, an ingredient ID, a CAS number of the ingredient, a lot number of the ingredient, a batch number of the ingredient, or a combination thereof. A non-originating raw material may be a raw material whose country of origin is different from the country in which the raw material is used to produce the product.

[0065] In one embodiment, the decentralized identifier(s) and, optionally, data associated with the inbound material data, are associated with one or more authentication mechanisms or schemes. The authentication mechanisms or schemes may include tokens, such as private key and public key infrastructures, certificate mechanisms, or biometric mechanisms, such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or voice recognition. Common public key certificates include, for example, X.509 certificates. The authentication mechanisms or schemes may securely control data access by data consumption services and ensure the integrity of data provision services. This allows for more reliable, controlled, and secure data exchange or sharing. The one or more authentication mechanisms or schemes associated with the decentralized identifiers may be provided in at least one decentralized authentication data registry, preferably accessible by the data provision services and / or data consumption services. The authentication data registry may be a central registry, such as a central file system, a centrally managed distributed database, and / or a centrally managed peer-to-peer network. The central configuration allows for a high degree of control and standardization via a central node. The authenticated data registry may be a distributed registry such as a distributed ledger, a distributed file system, a distributed database, and / or a peer-to-peer network. A distributed configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and provides greater control to data owners.

[0066] In one embodiment, the decentralized identifier(s) and optionally data associated with the inbound material data are associated with one or more authorization mechanisms or schemes. The authorization mechanism or scheme may include authorization rules including data transaction instructions or protocols such as data usage policies, smart data contracts, or more complex data processing instructions associated with the data providing services and / or data consuming services. Through the authorization mechanism or scheme, data access and data usage by the data consuming services can be controlled in a secure manner. The one or more authorization mechanisms or schemes associated with the decentralized identifiers may be provided to nodes for accessing the inbound material data. Additionally or alternatively, the one or more authorization mechanisms may be provided in at least one central or decentralized authorized data registry, preferably accessible by the data providing services and / or data consuming services. One or more authorization mechanisms or schemes associated with the decentralized identifiers may be provided to nodes processing inbound material data and at least one of a central file system, a centrally managed distributed database, a centrally managed peer-to-peer network, a distributed ledger, a distributed file system, a distributed database, and / or a peer-to-peer network, and may preferably be accessible by data providing services and / or data consuming services.

[0067] In one embodiment, the data related to the inbound material data includes the inbound material data or a portion thereof.

[0068] In one embodiment, data related to inbound material data includes one or more digital representations that point to the inbound material data or portions thereof. In this context, pointing refers to any network representation or address suitable for accessing the respective inbound material data. Data related to material data may include multiple digital representations that point to different portions of the respective inbound material data. Data related to material data may also include multiple digital representations that point to different portions of the respective inbound material data. Such different portions may overlap at some data points. The digital representations may include access points to the respective inbound material data, links for accessing the respective data, endpoints for accessing the respective data, or service endpoints for accessing the respective data. In this way, each inbound material data can be maintained and managed by the data owner associated with that inbound material data. Because there is no need to check and control access to multiple distributed data points, access can be provided through the representation of the access point, simplifying data validation, integrity checks, quality checks, and access control.

[0069] If the digital representation includes a representation for accessing the respective inbound material data or a portion thereof, e.g., a locator to the respective data or a portion thereof, the respective data may be stored, e.g., in dedicated storage owned or managed by the data owner associated with the inbound material data, and accessed via a data consumption service using the locator. Using the locator allows the data owner to maintain full control over the inbound material data, since appropriate authorization and authentication are required to access the data. This allows data associated with the decentralized identifier and the inbound material data to be openly shared, e.g., on a public web platform, without the need to disclose the respective inbound material data associated with the decentralized identifier. Thus, transparency regarding the existing endpoint associated with the decentralized identifier can be provided, while ensuring the required level of confidentiality of the inbound material data associated with the decentralized identifier.

[0070] The digital representation may be stored in a distributed registry associated with or under the control of the data owner of the inbound material data. The distributed registry may be associated with a distributed data providing network node associated with the data owner. The data owner may control access to such a distributed registry via the associated distributed data providing network node.

[0071] In one embodiment, the inbound material data further includes data related to the properties of the inbound material and / or data related to the use of the inbound material. Such properties can be static or dynamic properties. Static properties are properties that remain constant over time, such as melting point, boiling point, density, hardness, and flammability. Dynamic properties are properties that change over time, such as shelf life, pH value, color, and reactivity. Inbound material properties can include chemical properties such as performance properties, flammability, toxicity, acidity, reactivity, and heat of combustion, and / or physical properties such as density, color, hardness, melting point, boiling point, and electrical conductivity. Data related to the use of the inbound material can include data related to further processing of the inbound material, such as using the inbound material as a reactant in a further chemical reaction, and / or data related to the use of the inbound material, such as using the inbound material in a processing and / or manufacturing process.

[0072] In one embodiment, the inbound material data further includes emissions data, recycled content, bio-based content, and / or production data. The recycled content data and / or bio-based content data may include any data related to the recycled content or bio-based content used to provide or produce the physical entity of the inbound material. The emissions data may include any data related to the environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may represent the inbound material entity and its associated environmental footprint. The emissions data may include data related to the carbon footprint of the inbound material. The emissions data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions, such as those emitted during the production of incoming materials. The emissions data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions of the entity's or company's own operations (manufacturing, power plants, waste incineration). Scope 2 includes emissions from externally sourced energy production. Scope 3 includes all other emissions along the value chain. Specifically, it includes the greenhouse gas emissions of raw materials obtained from suppliers. A product carbon footprint (PCF) is the sum of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from consecutive and interlinked process steps associated with a specific product. A cradle-to-gate PCF sums greenhouse gas emissions based on selected process steps (from resource extraction to the factory gate where the product leaves the factory). Such a PCF is referred to as a partial PCF. To achieve this aggregation, each company providing a product must provide as accurately as possible its Scope 1 and Scope 2 contributions to each product's PCF and must be able to obtain reliable and consistent data on the PCFs of purchased energy (Scope 2) and inbound materials (Scope 3). Manufacturing data may include any data related to the production of inbound materials. Manufacturing data may include monitoring and / or control data related to the production of inbound materials. Manufacturing data may also include measurement data related to the material quality of inbound materials.

[0073] In one embodiment, the inbound material data relates to or includes different classes of inbound material data. For example, data related to the inbound material data may include multiple digital representations that refer to different classes of inbound material data. The different classes may include inbound material preference data, physical data associated with the inbound material, inbound material declaration data, inbound material safety data, Certificate of Analysis data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, inbound material discharge data, recycled material content data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, biobased content data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, inbound material production data, and combinations thereof. For example, at least one class may include inbound material declaration data, inbound material safety data, and Certificate of Analysis data. The aforementioned data may also be associated with other than the inbound material, such as ingredients / components used to produce the inbound material. In another example, at least one class may include emissions data, recycled content data, biobased content data, and / or manufacturing data related to the physical entity of the inbound material. Such data may also be associated with more than just the inbound material, such as ingredients / components used to manufacture the inbound material.

[0074] At least one class of inbound materials data may include inbound materials data associated with at least one authorization mechanism or scheme. For example, emissions data, recycled content data, biobased content data, manufacturing data, preference data, or a combination thereof may be access-restricted. Such access restrictions may be provided by an authorization mechanism or scheme. For example, the authorization mechanism or scheme may include rules specifying which data consumption services gain access and under what conditions.

[0075] At least one class of inbound material data may include inbound material data that is not associated with at least one authorization mechanism or scheme. For example, inbound material declaration data, inbound material safety data, and / or Certificate of Analysis data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material may not be subject to access restrictions. Such access may be provided or ensured by an authorization mechanism or scheme. For example, an authorization mechanism or scheme may include rules specifying that certain regulatory data for a material is accessible.

[0076] In one embodiment, the intermediate product data may include an intermediate product identifier, price data, intermediate product configuration data, and / or a tariff classification associated with the intermediate product. The intermediate product configuration data may be used to determine an inbound material identifier associated with the inbound material used. The inbound material identifier may be used to retrieve preference data from each inbound material data, as described above.

[0077] In one embodiment, retrieving at least one rule of origin comprises retrieving the rule of origin from a data storage medium. The data storage medium may be an internal data storage medium of a computing system that implements the preference data generation method disclosed herein. The data storage medium may be a database connected to the computing system via a communication interface. The data storage medium may be cloud storage.

[0078] In one embodiment, at least one rule of origin is retrieved based on the received product data. For example, the rule of origin is retrieved based on country data included in the product data. In another example, the rule of origin is retrieved based on tariff classifications included in the product data. In one embodiment, the at least one rule of origin includes at least one rule relating to a wholly obtained product and / or at least one rule relating to substantial transformation of materials used to manufacture the product.

[0079] An entirely derived product may be a product that is obtained entirely within the territory of an FTA party without the addition of non-originating materials. Examples include live animals born and raised locally, minerals extracted from the earth, and food grown and harvested within the territory of a party. An entirely derived product may include a product manufactured or produced entirely from materials obtained solely from such materials. Such products or raw materials generally receive the same treatment as entirely derived products and are therefore considered to satisfy the entirely derived rules of origin if all raw materials are entirely derived.

[0080] The at least one rule related to the substantial transformation of inbound materials may include a rule defining a change in tariff classification, a rule defining a value-added calculation, a rule permitting the use of a particular inbound material in the manufacture of a product, a rule prohibiting the use of a particular inbound material in the manufacture of a product, and / or a rule defining specific processing of raw materials used to manufacture a product. A rule defining a change in tariff classification may require that non-originating inbound materials undergo a change in tariff classification to qualify as originating for a product manufactured at least in part from such raw materials. A rule defining a value-added calculation may require that a certain percentage of the total value of a manufactured product be added in the applicable FTA (free trade agreement) area. A rule defining specific processing may require that the specific processing be performed at a particular stage in the manufacturing process of a product.

[0081] In one embodiment, generating the preference data includes the following steps: - determining the country of origin based on the received rules of origin, the retrieved preference data related to the inbound material and / or the generated preference data related to the intermediate product, and the received product data; and - determining a preference status based on the determined place of origin; Includes:

[0082] For example, when preference data for a product is generated, the origin of the product is determined using the rule(s) of origin for attributing a country of origin to a manufactured product, received preference data related to raw materials used in the manufacture of the product, and / or generated preference data related to intermediate products manufactured from one or more raw materials.

[0083] In another example, when preference data is generated for intermediate products manufactured from one or more inbound materials, the country of origin of each intermediate product is determined using the rules of origin for attributing a country of origin to the manufactured intermediate product and the preference data related to the inbound raw materials used in the production of the intermediate product.

[0084] In one embodiment, generating preference data associated with the intermediate product may further include using the generated preference data associated with an intermediate product used to manufacture the intermediate product. For example, a first intermediate product may be used to manufacture a second intermediate product. In this case, the generated preference data for the first intermediate product, optionally along with retrieved preference data associated with inbound materials used to manufacture the second intermediate product, may be used to generate preference data associated with the second intermediate product.

[0085] In one embodiment of the method for manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data, associating the generated preference data with the at least one product includes linking the generated preference data to an identifier associated with the manufactured product. For example, a product identifier associated with the manufactured product can be linked to the generated preference data. This allows the preference data to be searched using the respective product identifier. The product identifier may include a decentralized identifier. For example, a product passport may be generated that includes the decentralized identifier associated with the product data and the product data, including the generated preference data. The product passport may be associated with a digital access element for accessing the preference data associated with the product included in the product passport, e.g., via a data consumption service associated with the product consumer. Thus, the product passport may represent a digital asset associated with a physical product and may be provided digitally when the manufactured product is physically provided to a downstream participant in the product ecosystem. The product passport may be stored in dedicated storage associated with the product passport data owner, such as the product manufacturer. For example, the manufactured product may be provided to a customer, who may determine the decentralized identifier associated with the received product, e.g., as described above. The decentralized identifier may be used to determine data associated with the product data, including the preference data, as described above. The decentralized identifier and data associated with the product data may be used by the customer to access the product passport, including the preference data, using a data consumption service from a data providing service associated with dedicated storage for the product passport. Access to the product passport may be controlled by the product passport data owner, such as a product manufacturer. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0086] These and other features of the present invention are more fully described in the following description of exemplary embodiments of the invention. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits of a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to indicate the same or similar elements, components, and / or parts. This specification is presented with reference to the accompanying drawings: [Figure 1] 1A-1C illustrate exemplary embodiments of a centralized computing environment (FIG. 1A), a distributed computing environment (FIG. 1B), and a distributed computing environment (FIG. 1C). FIG. 1D illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a distributed network environment including distributed participant network nodes associated with participants in a product ecosystem including various products. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 illustrates an example chemical manufacturing network that produces one or more chemical products from one or more input materials in association with an operating system that includes a preference data generation system. [Figure 3] Figures 3A and 3B show a portion of a chemical manufacturing process that produces coatings from different raw materials, Figure 3C shows a portion of a discrete manufacturing process that produces discrete products from different materials, and Figure 3D shows a portion of a supply chain for producing discrete products from chemicals and other ingredients. [Figure 4] 4A and 4B illustrate an example of an apparatus for generating preference data associated with a product manufactured from at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 illustrates an example system for manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data. [Figure 6]FIG. 6 illustrates an example method or apparatus for providing preference data related to inbound materials and products across a value chain via a distributed network. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 shows an example of a product passport or product passport that includes DID owner data, DID document data, and a distributed identity infrastructure. [Figure 8] Figure 8 shows an example of a material or product passport, including identity-based data, passport data, and a decentralized identity infrastructure. [Figure 9] 9A and 9B are diagrams illustrating an example of an authentication protocol between a data consuming service and a data providing service. [Figure 10] 10A-10C show various example configurations of material or product passports secured by digital identifiers. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of a method for generating preference data associated with products manufactured from at least one inbound material according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of a method for producing at least one product associated with preference data and produced by manufacturing from at least one inbound material according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart of aspects of block 1108 of FIG. 10 and block 1110 of FIG. 11, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart of aspects of block 1006 of FIG. 10 and block 1106 of FIG. 11, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 15] FIG. 15 illustrates an example system for manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data, including an example method for generating preference data associated with a product manufactured from at least one inbound material. [Figure 16] FIG. 16 illustrates an example system for manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data, including an example method for generating preference data associated with a product manufactured from at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0087] The detailed description set forth below is intended to describe various aspects of the present subject matter and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the present subject matter may be practiced. The accompanying drawings are incorporated herein and constitute a part of the detailed description. The detailed description includes specific details for providing a thorough understanding of the present subject matter. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the subject matter may be practiced without these specific details.

[0088] In some cases, the depiction of various components in a figure as separate units may reflect the use of corresponding separate physical and tangible components in an actual implementation. Alternatively, or in addition, any single component depicted in a figure may be implemented by multiple actual physical components. Alternatively, or in addition, the depiction of two or more separate components in a figure may reflect different functions performed by a single actual physical component.

[0089] Other figures illustrate concepts in flowchart form. In this form, certain operations are described as comprising separate blocks that are performed in a certain order. Such embodiments are exemplary and non-limiting. Certain blocks described herein may be performed together in a single operation, certain blocks may be broken down into multiple component blocks, and certain blocks may be performed in an order different from that illustrated herein (including aspects in which blocks are performed in parallel).

[0090] The following description may identify one or more features as "optional." This type of description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of features that may be considered optional. That is, other features may be considered optional, even if not explicitly described herein. Moreover, a description of a single entity is not intended to exclude the use of multiple such entities. Similarly, a description of multiple entities is not intended to exclude the use of a single entity. Furthermore, while the specification may describe certain features as alternative ways of performing a specified function or implementing a specified mechanism, the features may also be combined together in any combination. Finally, the terms "exemplary" or "exemplary" refer to one embodiment of potentially multiple embodiments.

[0091] 1A-1C illustrate different computing environments: centralized, decentralized, and distributed. The methods, apparatus, systems, and computer elements of the present disclosure may be implemented in a distributed or at least partially distributed computing environment. Data provision, determination, or processing may be performed by different computing nodes, which may be implemented in a centralized, decentralized, or distributed computing environment.

[0092] 1A and 1B illustrate exemplary embodiments of a centralized and a distributed computing environment with computing nodes, and FIG. 1C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a distributed computing environment.

[0093] In this example centralized computing environment 100a, peripheral computing nodes 101.1 through 101.N are connected to one central computing system (or server). In another example, peripheral computing nodes 101.1 through 101.N may be connected to the central computing node, for example, via a terminal server (not shown). Most functionality is performed by or obtained from the central computing node (also referred to as a remote centralized location). One peripheral computing node 101.N is expanded to provide an overview of the components present on the peripheral computing nodes. The central computing node may be configured with the same components as described in connection with peripheral computing node 101.N. Each computing node 101, 101.1 through 101.N, may include at least one hardware processor 102 and memory 104.

[0094] Computing nodes 101, 101.101.N may include program code, generally represented as a number of structures 106. The number of structures 106 may also be represented as executable components, executable instructions, computer-executable instructions, or instructions. An executable component, or its equivalent, may be a name for a structure that may be software, hardware, or a combination thereof, or that is well understood by those skilled in the computing arts as being a structure that can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, when implemented in software, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that executable component structure includes software objects, routines, methods, etc., that execute on computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N, regardless of whether such executable components reside within the heap of computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N, or whether the executable components reside on computer-readable storage media. In such cases, those skilled in the art will recognize that the structure of the executable components resides on a computer-readable medium such that, when interpreted by one or more processors (e.g., by processor threads) of the computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N, they cause the computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N to perform the functions. Such structures may be directly computer-readable by a processor (as would be the case if the executable components were binary). Alternatively, such structures may be interpretable and / or compilable (whether in a single stage or multiple stages) to generate a binary that is directly interpretable by a processor. Such an understanding of example structures of executable components is within the understanding of those skilled in the computing arts.Examples of executable components implemented in hardware include hard-coded or hard-wired logic gates that are implemented exclusively or almost exclusively in hardware, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other specialized circuitry. In this description, the terms component, agent, manager, service, engine, module, virtual machine, etc. are used synonymously with executable component.

[0095] The processor 102 of each computing node 101, 101.1...101.N may direct the operation of each computing node 101, 101.1...101.N in response to executing computer-executable instructions that make up executable components. For example, such computer-executable instructions may be embodied on one or more computer-readable media forming a computer program product. The computer-executable instructions may be stored in the memory 104 of each computing node 101, 101.1...101.N. The computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data that, when executed by the processor 101, cause the general-purpose computing node 101, 101.1...101.N, the special-purpose computing node 101, 101.1...101.N, or the special-purpose processing device to perform a particular function or group of functions. Alternatively, or additionally, the computer-executable instructions may configure the computing node 101, 101.1...101.N to perform a particular function or group of functions. The computer-executable instructions may be, for example, binaries, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, or instructions that undergo some interpretation (eg, compilation) before being executed directly by a processor, such as source code.

[0096] Each computing node 101, 101.1...101.N may include a communications channel 108 that enables each computing node 101.1...101.N to communicate with a central computing node 101, e.g., a network that enables transmission of electronic data between computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N and / or modules and / or other electronic devices. When information is transferred or provided to computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N via a network or other communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless), the computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N properly regard the connection as a transmission medium. A transmission medium may be used to transmit desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and may include networks and / or data links that can be accessed by general-purpose or special-purpose computing nodes 101, 101.1...101.N. Combinations of the above may also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0097] Computing nodes 101, 101.1-101.N may further include a user interface system 110 for use in interfacing with a user. User interface system 110 may include output mechanisms 112a as well as input mechanisms 112c. The principles described herein are not limited to the exact output mechanisms 112a or input mechanisms 112c, as these depend on the nature of the device. However, output mechanisms 112a may include, for example, a display, a speaker, a visual indicator, a tactile output, a hologram, etc. Examples of input mechanisms 112c include, for example, a microphone, a touchscreen, a hologram, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse or other pointer input, any type of sensor, etc.

[0098] FIG. 1B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a distributed computing environment 100′ having multiple computing nodes 101.1′ through 101.N′, depicted as solid circles. In contrast to the centralized computing environment 100a illustrated in FIG. 1A, the computing nodes 101.1′ through 101.N′ of the distributed computing environment 100b are not connected to, and therefore not under the control of, a central computing node. Instead, both hardware and software resources may be allocated to individual computing nodes 101.1′...101.N′ (local or remote computing systems), and data may be distributed among the various computing nodes 101.1′...101.N′ to perform tasks. Thus, in a distributed system environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. One computing node 101.N′ is expanded to provide an overview of the components present on the computing node 101.N′. In this example, the computing node 101.N′ includes the same components as those described in connection with the computing node 101.N of FIG. 1A.

[0099] FIG. 1C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a distributed computing environment 100c. In this example, the distributed cloud computing environment 100c may include computing resources for mobile devices 114, applications 116, databases 118, data storage 120, and servers 122. The cloud computing environment 100c may be deployed as a public cloud 124, a private cloud 126, or a hybrid cloud 128. A private cloud 126 is owned by an organization and may be used only by members of the organization with appropriate access rights, and data within the private cloud may be at least confidential. In contrast, data stored in a public cloud 124 may be open to anyone via the Internet. A hybrid cloud 128 is a combination of both a private cloud 126 and a public cloud 124, allowing some data to be kept private while other data is publicly available.

[0100] FIG. 1D illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a distributed network environment. The distributed network environment may include a distributed participant network 162. The distributed participant network 162 may include one or more distributed network participants 130-146. The distributed network participants may be part of a product ecosystem that includes various products, such as chemical products, components, component assemblies, final products, and end-of-life products. The product ecosystem may include a manufacturing chain for producing final products. The product ecosystem may also include a recycling chain for recycling at least a portion of end-of-life products resulting from the use of the manufactured final products. The product ecosystem may include input material suppliers 134, chemical product manufacturers 130, chemical product consumers 136, OEMs 140, final product users 142, end-of-life product collectors 144, and recyclers 146. The product ecosystem may enable the production of new end-of-life products using materials obtained from the recycling of end-of-life products. The product ecosystem may involve the production of chemical products using one or more input materials and the use of the produced chemical products to produce additional chemical products or individual products.

[0101] Participants in the distributed participant network 162 may be associated with end-product manufacturing and / or end-of-life recycling. The distributed network participants 130-146 may represent manufacturers of physical products, such as chemical product producers 130, chemical product consumers 136, OEMs 140, end-of-life product users 142, end-of-life product collectors 144, and recyclers 146. The distributed network participants may be associated with a distributed participant identifier. The distributed participant identifier may uniquely identify the distributed network participant within the distributed participant network 162.

[0102] Participants in distributed participant network 162 may be connected via material flows 168. Material flows 168 may correspond to the flow of products from upstream participants in distributed participant network 162 to respective downstream participants in distributed participant network 162. Material flows 168 may represent continuous or discontinuous flows of products. Product flows may include any suitable means of transportation to transport products from upstream participants to respective downstream participants. Transportation means may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages, etc. Material flows 168 may relate to raw materials, chemical products, chemical intermediates, parts, part assemblies, final products, used products, recycled materials, etc.

[0103] Data flows 164 between distributed network participant nodes may be directly or indirectly related to material flows 168 between distributed network participants. For example, a data flow 164 may be directly related to a material flow 168 when input material data related to the physical entity of an input material provided to a chemical producer 130 by an input material supplier 134 is accessed by a distributed data consuming network node associated with that chemical producer 130. Data flows 164 may be indirectly related to a material flow 168 when data related to a chemical product produced by a chemical producer 130 is accessed by a distributed data consuming network node associated with an end product user 142 or a recycler 146.

[0104] At least some of the participants in the distributed participant network 162 may be associated with distributed participant network nodes 148, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, and 160. The distributed participant nodes 148-160 may be under the control of the respective distributed participants associated with the respective distributed participant nodes. The distributed participant nodes 148-160 may form a distributed network 166. The distributed network 166 may be a peer-to-peer communication network. The distributed network 166 may not be based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), e.g., the nodes of the distributed network 166 may not store a distributed ledger. The distributed network 166 may be configured to execute data transactions 164. The data transactions 164 may be based on a transaction protocol that includes authentication and / or authorization mechanisms. Peer-to-peer communications between the distributed network nodes 148-160 associated with the distributed network participants 130-146 may be established based on authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s). The one or more authentication mechanisms may be associated with or linked to a distributed identifier, as described in the context of FIG. 5. The one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the distributed identifier may be accessible by the distributed data-providing network nodes and / or the distributed data-consuming network nodes, as described in relation to FIG. 5. The distributed configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and provides greater control by data owners of the distributed network.

[0105] Data transactions between distributed network participant nodes may be based on a distributed identifier associated with the data being accessed and / or a distributed identifier associated with the respective inbound material or material used to produce the output product. The distributed identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the inbound material and associated material data. The distributed identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the product and associated product data. The inbound material may be a raw material, a chemical product, a part or component, a part assembly, a used product, or a recycled material. The product may be a raw material, a chemical product, a part or component, a part assembly, a finished product, a used product, or a recycled material. The distributed identifier may uniquely identify each inbound material or product within the distributed network. The distributed identifier may be associated with additional distributed identifiers, such as the distributed identifiers of ingredients used to produce the inbound material. This allows for tracking of the raw materials used to produce the inbound material. The distributed identifier may be included in a digital access element associated with the input material or the output product, for example, as described in the context of Figures 7 and 8.

[0106] Distributed participant nodes 148-160 may be distributed computing nodes. A distributed computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical, tangible processor and physical, tangible memory capable of having computer-executable instructions thereon that are executed by the processor. The memory may be in any form, depending on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0107] At least some of the distributed participant nodes 148-160 may be distributed data providing network nodes. At least some of the participant nodes 148-160 may be distributed data consuming network nodes. Participants in the distributed participant network 162 may be associated with distributed data providing network nodes and / or distributed data consuming network nodes depending on whether data is provided to downstream participants and / or consumed by upstream participants. For example, the input material supplier(s) 134 may be associated with a distributed data providing network node configured to provide input material data associated with the provided input material(s) to downstream participants (e.g., chemical manufacturer 130), e.g., as described in the context of FIG. 5 . Additionally or alternatively, the input material supplier(s) 134 may be associated with a distributed data consuming network node configured to receive input material data associated with the provided input material(s) from an upstream participant (not shown) via the distributed data providing network node associated with the upstream participant.

[0108] The distributed network 166 may include additional distributed network nodes. The additional distributed network nodes may be distributed infrastructure service nodes (not shown in FIG. 1 ). The distributed infrastructure service nodes may not be associated with product ecosystem participants. The distributed infrastructure service nodes may provide services to the distributed network participant nodes 148-160, such as verifying the identities of the distributed network participant nodes 148-160 before performing data exchanges. The distributed network participant nodes 148-160 may be associated with or include certificates, such as X.509 certificates. The certificates may be associated with distributed infrastructure service nodes, including, for example, certificate issuing services and / or dynamic provisioning services that provide dynamic attribute tokens (e.g., OAuthAccessTokens). In this manner, the distributed network participant nodes 148-160 possess unique identifiers embedded in X.509 certificates that identify the respective distributed network participant nodes 148-160. The information necessary to validate the certificates may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or dynamic provisioning service. For example, in the April 2019 IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0, distributed data providing network nodes associated with data owners, certificate authorities (CAs), dynamic attribute provisioning services (DAPSs), and distributed data consuming network nodes associated with data consumers are used to verify identities before performing data exchanges (not shown).

[0109] 2 illustrates an example of a manufacturing operation that produces one or more products from one or more materials and / or intermediates in association with an operating system that includes a preference data generation system. The manufacturing operation 204 may be a chemical manufacturing operation that produces chemical products from one or more chemical materials and / or intermediate chemicals.

[0110] Different inbound materials 202 may be provided as physical inputs from material providers or suppliers to produce one or more products 206. The inbound materials 202 may be used directly to produce the products 206. The inbound materials 202 may also be used to produce intermediate products, which may be used to produce the products 206. Preference data for the products 206 produced from the provided inbound materials 202 may be determined according to the methods described herein using inbound material data associated with the provided inbound materials 202 (see also FIGS. 11 through 14B). Preference data for the product 206 manufactured from the provided inbound material 202 and / or intermediate product(s) manufactured from the inbound material 202 provided by manufacturing 204 can be determined according to methods described herein using inbound material data associated with the provided inbound material 202 and generated preference data associated with the manufactured intermediate product(s) (see also Figures 11 through 14B).

[0111] The manufacturing 204 may be a manufacturing network, such as a chemical manufacturing network, as illustrated in Figures 3A and 3B. The manufacturing network may include multiple types of manufacturing processes for producing different products from inbound materials. The manufacturing network may include complex manufacturing networks that produce multiple products in multiple production chains. The manufacturing network may include connected, interconnected, and / or disconnected manufacturing chains. The manufacturing network may produce multiple intermediate products from inbound materials and chemical products from the manufactured intermediate products. The manufacturing network may produce components or discrete products from inbound materials. Inbound materials 202 can enter the manufacturing network at an entry point. Products 206 can exit the manufacturing network at an exit point.

[0112] A manufacturing network may include multiple interconnected processing steps. A manufacturing network may be an integrated chemical manufacturing with connected or interconnected manufacturing chains. A manufacturing network may include multiple different manufacturing chains that share at least one intermediate product. A manufacturing network may include multiple stages of a value chain. A chemical manufacturing network may include the production of different coating materials from one or more raw materials and / or intermediate products, as illustrated in Figures 3A and 3B, for example. A manufacturing network may include multiple manufacturing chains that manufacture from one or more inbound materials 202 or chemical products 206 exiting a chemical manufacturing 204. A manufacturing network may include multiple manufacturing chains that manufacture from one or more inbound material(s) 202 or chemical intermediate products that are used in further manufacturing chain(s) to manufacture chemical products 206 exiting the chemical manufacturing 204. A manufacturing network may include physically connected or interconnected manufacturing sites. The manufacturing sites may be co-located or in different locations. In the latter case, the manufacturing locations may be connected or interconnected by dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles such as trucks, supply chain ships, or other freight transport vehicles.

[0113] The production 204 may convert the inbound material 202 into one or more products 206 that exit the production 204. The conversion may be performed via intermediate products or ingredients. A production 204 that is a chemical production may convert the inbound material 202 into one or more intermediate products and / or one or more chemical products 206 by a method of chemical conversion. The inbound material 202 may be fed into the chemical production 204 at any entry point. The inbound material 202 may be fed into the chemical production 204 at the start of the chemical production 204. The inbound material 202 may include, for example, polymers, pigments, solvents, and other ingredients necessary to produce different coating materials.

[0114] Manufacturing 204 may include multiple manufacturing steps. The manufacturing steps may be defined by a system boundary of manufacturing 204. The system boundary may be defined by location or control relative to the manufacturing process. The system boundary may be defined by the site of manufacturing 204. The system boundary may be defined by a manufacturing process controlled by one entity or multiple entities jointly. The system boundary may be defined by a value chain with staggered manufacturing steps leading up to a final product that may be controlled independently by multiple entities. Manufacturing 204 may include waste collection and sorting steps, recycling steps such as distillation, separation steps that separate the output of one process step, and further processing steps that transform such output into a product that exits the system boundary of manufacturing 204.

[0115] The operating system 208 of the manufacturing 204 may monitor and / or control the manufacturing 204 based on operating parameters of different processes. The operating system 208 may receive manufacturing demand data related to a production plan for the manufacturing 204. The manufacturing demand data may be generated from a target manufacturing capacity for one or more products manufactured by the manufacturing 204. The manufacturing demand data may be generated from a predefined manufacturing capacity or a data-driven model that relates manufacturing capacity to market demand data. The manufacturing demand data may include a target volume for the products manufactured by the manufacturing 204. The operating system 208 may further receive a bill of material related to the intermediate products and / or the manufactured products. The bill of material may include data related to inbound materials used to manufacture the products (e.g., inbound material name, inbound material identifier, inbound material quantity), process data related to the manufacturing chain for manufacturing the intermediate products and / or the products, and / or data related to the intermediate products and / or the manufactured products (e.g., product specification data, data regarding the quantity of the intermediate products and / or the manufactured products).

[0116] Material demand data may be determined based on the received manufacturing demand data and bill of materials. The material demand data may include data regarding quantities of inbound materials needed to produce a target capacity of intermediate chemicals and / or chemical products. The material demand data may include data regarding inbound material identifiers associated with inbound materials needed to produce the intermediate products and / or products and quantities associated with each inbound material. The material demand data may include one or more inbound material specifications for each inbound material identifier indicating a material specification. The material demand data may include data regarding inbound material quantities for each inbound material identifier indicating a quantity of the inbound material to be supplied. The material demand data may specify a manufacturing chain of the manufacturing 204. The material demand data may include bills of materials for one or more manufacturing chain(s) of the manufacturing 204. The material demand data may include one or more recipes specifying one or more inbound materials for manufacturing processes of the manufacturing 204. The determined material demand data may be provided for access by supplier systems associated with suppliers outside the physical system boundary of the chemical manufacturing. Material supply may be triggered by supplier systems accessing material demand data.

[0117] One process step monitored and / or controlled by operating system 208 may be the delivery of inbound material 202 or the discharge of product 206. Another process step monitored and / or controlled by operating system 208 may be the generation of preference data associated with intermediate products produced by manufacturing 204 from inbound material 202. Another process step monitored and / or controlled by operating system 208 may be the generation of preference data associated with products 206 produced by manufacturing 204.

[0118] The operating system 208 may be configured to access data related to the inbound materials 202, data related to the intermediate products, and data related to the process and / or product 206 produced by the manufacturing 204. The operating system 208 may be configured to receive a request to generate preference data for the manufactured product 206, where the request includes product data. The operating system 208 may be configured to obtain the preference data from inbound material data associated with the provided inbound materials 202. The inbound material data may be accessed by a data consuming service associated with the operating system 208, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 5. Data access may be controlled by a data providing service associated with a data owner, such as a data owner of the respective inbound material data. The operating system 208 may be configured to generate preference data associated with intermediate products produced from one or more inbound materials based on the received preference data associated with the inbound materials, the rules of origin, and the intermediate product data retrieved based on the received product data. The operating system 208 may be configured to retrieve rules of origin. The operating system 208 may be configured to generate preference data associated with the manufactured product 206 based on the received preference data associated with the inbound material and / or the generated preference data associated with the intermediate product, the retrieved rules of origin, and the received product data. The operating system 208 may be configured to retrieve rules of origin. The operating system 208 may be configured to generate preference data associated with the manufactured intermediate product based on the received preference data, the retrieved rules of origin, and the received material data associated with the intermediate product. 3A and 3B illustrate a portion of a chemical manufacturing 204 that produces a coating material 206 from different inbound materials 202, such as different feedstocks. The chemical manufacturing 204 may be a chemical manufacturing network, such as that described in connection with FIG.

[0119] Chemical production 204 may constitute a system boundary. In this example, a feed stream forms an inlet to chemical production 204. Chemical products 206 produced from chemical production 204 form an outlet of chemical production 204. Chemical production 204 may be a coating material production, and the chemical products exiting chemical production 204 may be coating materials. Chemical production 204 may include different production chains for different coating materials, such as pigment coating materials and non-pigment coating materials. The production of pigment coating materials may again be carried out using different production chains, where each production chain is dedicated to the production of a particular type of pigment coating material.

[0120] Chemical production 204 may include resin production 302. Resin production 302 may include one or more resin production units, each unit producing a specific resin, and one or more material reservoirs associated with each production unit. The resin from resin production 302 may be considered an intermediate product. The resin produced by resin production 302 may include a polymer, such as a film-forming polymer. Examples of film-forming polymers include alkyd resins, polyester resins, polyimides, silicone resins, novolac resins, urea resins, melamine resins, amino resins, polyurethane resins, epoxy resins, polyolefin resins, polyvinyl resins, polyacrylic resins, polymethacrylic resins, or copolymers thereof.

[0121] Resin production 302 may be supplied by a feedstock stream (inbound material stream) containing the inbound materials 202 necessary to produce the respective resins. The feedstock stream (feedstock stream) may include one or more monomers or prepolymers necessary to produce the respective resins. Monomers may include low molecular weight compounds (e.g., less than 1000 g / mol) containing at least one functional group capable of reacting with an additional functional group. Prepolymers may include polymeric materials (i.e., materials obtained by reacting at least two monomeric materials). The feedstock stream may further include solvents and additional additives necessary to produce the respective resins, such as radical initiators, surfactants, neutralizing agents, etc. Each resin may be produced from the feedstock stream by a suitable chemical polymerization reaction. Each resin may be produced in a batch or continuous manner using suitable resin production equipment, such as a reactor.

[0122] Resin production 302 may be connected to piping or lines that allow for the supply of different raw materials stored in material reservoirs, such as tanks. The amount of inbound material 202 supplied may be determined using sensors, and the sensor data can be used by the operation system 208 described in connection with Figure 2 to control the respective inbound material supply. Resin production 302 may also allow for the addition of metered amounts of inbound material having a defined weight, for example, a solid or liquid supplied as a discretely packaged product, such as a bottle or bag.

[0123] Resin production 302 may include a polymerization step. Resin production may further include a neutralization step and / or a step to remove the organic solvent used in the polymerization step. The produced resin can be delivered to a raw material reservoir such as a tank.

[0124] Resin production 302 may be controlled by operating system 208 described in connection with FIG. 2 based on received material demand data or based on received material invoices.

[0125] Chemical production 204 may further include pigment paste preparation 304. Pigment paste preparation 304 may be supplied by a stream containing inbound materials and / or intermediate product(s) required to produce the respective pigment pastes. The intermediate product(s) may include resin(s) produced by resin production 302. The inbound materials may include pigments, such as color pigments and / or effect pigments, fillers, additives, and solvents. Pigment paste preparation 304 may be connected to resin production 302 via piping to allow for the supply of the produced resin as an intermediate product. Pigment paste preparation 304 may be connected to a material reservoir via lines or pipes, and the amount of each inbound material and / or intermediate product may be supplied using sensors so that operating system 208 can control the supply of raw materials based on sensor data. Pigment paste preparation 304 may also allow for the addition of ingredients having defined weights, e.g., weighted amounts of solid or liquid ingredients supplied as discretely packaged products such as bottles or bags. The pigment paste preparation 304 may be controlled by the operating system 208 described in connection with FIG. 2 based on received material request data or received material invoices.

[0126] The pigment paste preparation 304 may include a mixing unit (also called a dispersing unit), a grinding unit, and a material reservoir. The mixing and grinding units may be connected by pipes or lines to pass the mixed materials through the grinding unit(s). Raw material streams may be fed to one or more mixing units for mixing. The mixed materials may then be fed to one or more grinding units to prepare the respective pigment pastes. The prepared pigment pastes are adjusted to standardized color strengths and fed to the material reservoir.

[0127] Chemical Production 204 may further include Base Varnish Production 306. Base Varnish Production 306 may include one or more mixing units and material storage areas. Base Varnish Production 306 may be supplied with material streams containing materials necessary to produce each base varnish. The materials may include intermediate products, such as resins produced in Resin Production 302, as well as inbound materials, such as solvents and additives. The additives may include thickeners, anti-settling agents, anti-sag agents, light stabilizers, defoamers, adhesion promoters, and the like. Base Varnish Production 306 may be connected to Resin Production 302 via piping to allow the supply of the produced resins. The base varnish production 306 may be connected to a material reservoir via lines or pipes, and the amount of inbound material(s) and / or intermediate product(s) may be supplied using sensors such that the operating system 208 can control the supply of the inbound material and / or intermediate product(s) based on sensor data. The base varnish production 306 may also allow for the addition of inbound material and / or intermediate product(s) having defined weights. The base varnish production 306 may be controlled by the operating system 208 described in connection with FIG. 2 based on received material request data or based on received material invoices.

[0128] Chemical Production 204 may further include Coating Material Production 308. Coating Material Production 308 may include one or more mixing units, one or more filtration units, and one or more material reservoirs. Coating Material Production 308 may be supplied by a material stream containing materials necessary to produce each coating material. The materials may include intermediate products such as pigment paste produced by Pigment Paste Preparation 304 and base varnish produced by Base Varnish Production 306. Coating Material Production 308 may be connected to Base Varnish Production 306 and Pigment Paste Preparation 304 via piping to enable the supply of the produced base varnish and pigment paste. Coating Material Production 308 may be connected to material storage via lines or pipes, and the amount of each intermediate product may be supplied using sensors so that the operating system 208 can control the supply of the intermediate products based on the sensor data. Coating Material Production 308 may be controlled by the operating system 208 described in connection with FIG. 2 based on received material demand data or received material invoices.

[0129] Chemical production 204 may further include a packaging unit (not shown) for packaging the coating materials produced by coating material production 308. The coating materials may be packaged in containers, which may be stored in a material storage facility.

[0130] 3A shows an embodiment of a system boundary for a chemical production that includes a resin production 302. Inbound material flow forms the inlet to the chemical production. Coating material forms the outlet of the chemical production.

[0131] Figure 3B shows another embodiment of the system boundary for chemical production excluding resin production 302. Resin feed and additional inbound material feeds form the inlets to the chemical production. Coating material forms the outlet from the chemical production. The chemical production and system boundaries shown in Figures 3A and 3B are examples and should not be considered limiting.

[0132] 3C illustrates a portion of a discrete manufacturing system that produces discrete products from different materials. Discrete manufacturing system 322 includes a system boundary. In this example, an inbound material stream forms the entrance to discrete manufacturing system 322.

[0133] The inbound material stream may include coating materials, such as coating materials produced by chemical production 204 in Figure 3 or Figure 3B, and additional chemical materials, chemical products, or ingredients. The inbound material may be supplied by Tier 1 and / or Tier 2, as shown in Figure 3D.

[0134] The discrete products produced from the discrete manufacturing 310 form the output of the discrete manufacturing 310. The chemical discrete manufacturing 310 may include different manufacturing chains for the assembly of different components of the discrete products.

[0135] FIG. 3D shows part of a supply chain for manufacturing discrete products, such as automobiles, from chemical products, such as coatings, and further chemical materials, products, and components.

[0136] In the example of FIG. 3D , two tiers and an original equipment manufacturer are shown. Tier 1 may be a chemical manufacturer operating chemical production 314. Chemical production 314 may correspond to chemical production 204 described in connection with FIG. 2 . Chemical production 314 may be associated with system boundary 312. System boundary 312 may refer to the physical boundary of chemical production 314. Inbound material(s) entering chemical production 314 or the system boundary 312 of chemical production 314 at any stage of production may represent an entry point into chemical production 314. Material data can be accessed for each inbound material entering chemical production 314 upon entry of the inbound material(s). The material data can be received and stored in a manner such as that described in connection with FIG. 5 . Chemical product(s), such as coating material, may be produced by chemical production 314 from the inbound material(s) and / or intermediate product(s). The intermediate product(s) may be produced by chemical manufacturing 314 from the inbound material(s) or from other intermediate products previously produced by chemical manufacturing 314. Preference data associated with the produced chemical products may be determined as described in connection with Figures 11 through 14B and may be linked as described in connection with Figures 11 through 14B.

[0137] Linking the determined preference data to a product may be performed, for example, by linking the preference data to a product identifier associated with the manufactured product, as described in connection with FIGS. 4 and 5. A product passport may be generated that includes the decentralized identifier and data related to product data, including the generated preference data related to the chemical product, as described in connection with FIG. 5. The latter may enable the product data to be provided to upstream participants in the supply chain via a data providing service, as described in connection with FIG. 5. For example, Tier 2 may obtain product data that includes the preference data generated using the decentralized identifier and data related to the product data via a data consuming service. The retrieved product data including the preference data may be used to generate preference data for products manufactured by Tier 2, as described in connection with FIGS. 11 through 14B.

[0138] Manufactured chemical products associated with the preference data may be provided to the next tier as inbound materials. In the illustrated example, Tier 2 may be manufacturing 318, which manufactures discrete products from supplied chemical products and other ingredients or materials. A discrete product may be a product associated with a separate physical unit. In contrast to process manufacturing, discrete manufacturing uses such discrete products to assemble other discrete products. Chemical-to-Discrete-Product Manufacturing 318 may be associated with system boundary 316 as described above. Similar to chemical manufacturing 314, chemical-to-discrete-product manufacturing 318 may receive access to inbound material data related to the chemical products (inbound) manufactured by chemical manufacturing 314, for example, via a data consumption service. The inbound material data may include generated preference data related to the received chemical products. Discrete shipped product(s) may be manufactured by discrete manufacturing 318 from chemicals. Chemical to Discrete Manufacturing 318 may generate preference data associated with manufactured discrete products, as described in Figures 11 through 14B, for example, using an operating system of Chemical to Discrete Manufacturing 318. The manufactured discrete products may be linked to the generated preference data, as described above, and the preference data may be provided to customer equipment manufacturers via a data provisioning service, as described above.

[0139] The outgoing discrete product(s) produced by discrete manufacturing 318 from chemicals may be provided as inbound materials to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that produces a final product. As previously described, the OEM may obtain inbound material data associated with the received inbound material, such as a discrete product received from tier 2, and use the preference data included in the received material data to determine preference data associated with the manufactured final product. The determined preference data may be linked to an end product identifier that identifies the final product in the product supply chain.

[0140] Using inbound material data, including preference data associated with each inbound material, preference data for products manufactured from the inbound material can be determined from the preference data included in the accessed inbound material data, without the need for data integration of preference data associated with the provided inbound material. Furthermore, inbound material data accessed from a distributed network via data consuming nodes enables simplified and customizable data sharing and exchange from the chemical industry to additional supply chain participants. In this way, upstream supply chain participants can more reliably and efficiently determine preference data associated with products manufactured from the provided materials, while the inbound material data remains the ownership of the supplier providing the upstream participant. Combining data associated with the inbound material data directly with a decentralized identifier and, optionally, one or more authentication mechanisms, can provide more reliable and secure data sharing and exchange. Furthermore, using one or more authentication mechanisms allows multiple data consuming services from different supply chain participants to access the inbound material data, enabling more flexible data sharing and data exchange. By generating preference data for a manufactured product and attaching the generated preference data to the manufactured product as a digital asset, the production of additional products that use the manufactured product as inbound materials can be directed or controlled based on the associated preference data (e.g., the associated digital asset that includes the preference data). For example, the flow of manufactured products provided by a product manufacturer to downstream participants in a product ecosystem can be controlled or directed by the downstream participants based on the associated preference data such that additional products manufactured from such received product stream meet target preference data.

[0141] FIG. 4A illustrates an example apparatus for generating preference data associated with products manufactured from at least one inbound material.

[0142] In this example, one or more inbound materials are provided. At least one chemical product may be produced from the provided inbound materials by a chemical manufacturing process, such as the chemical manufacturing process of Figures 3A-3C. Product data may be collected by one or more data collection device(s) during and / or after the production of the product and may be stored on a data storage medium. The collected product data may be correlated with a product identifier to enable retrieval of the product data based on the product identifier.

[0143] The computing node 402 may be part of a manufacturing operating system that produces products from one or more inbound materials. The computing node 410 may be a laptop, desktop computer, or other computing device that includes at least one computing node. The computing node 402 may receive a request to generate preference data related to a product. The request may include product data 404, such as a product identifier, product configuration data, or other data described above. The request may be triggered by a barcode reader or scanner scanning a physical identifier, such as a barcode, QR code, or embossed code, present on the product's physical entity, e.g., the product's packaging. For example, a packaging line may include a detector that detects the physical identifier on each package. Based on such recognition, the chemical manufacturing operating system (see FIG. 2) may generate the request by determining a product identifier associated with the physical identifier and retrieving the respective product data associated with the determined product identifier. The product data may be retrieved from a database, such as a company's ERP system, using the determined product identifier, such as a unique ID or product name.

[0144] Each provided inbound material may be associated with inbound material data 406, which may include preference data related to the inbound material, such as the material's origin, the material's preference status, and optionally, any non-preferred substances contained in the material. The preference data may conform to a supplier declaration associated with each inbound material.

[0145] Inbound material data 406 may further include the aforementioned data, such as physical data associated with the inbound material, inbound material declaration data, inbound material safety data, certificate of analysis data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, inbound material discharge data, recycled material content data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, biobased content data associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, inbound material production data, and combinations thereof.

[0146] A data consuming node (not shown) may be used to collect inbound material data associated with the inbound material received from the distributed network, as described in connection with Figures 1D and 5 and 6. By using the data consuming node to collect at least a portion of the material data via the distributed network, the computing node 402 can use preference data associated with the inbound material without a prior data integration step, thus avoiding errors that may occur when integrating data into existing systems to generate preference data.

[0147] The retrieved inbound material data may be stored in a data storage medium, such as a database or dedicated storage, associated with the data consumption service. The retrieved inbound material data may be stored in a data storage medium, such as a database, associated with the data consumption service using the respective inbound material identifiers. The computing node 402 may retrieve preference data from the retrieved inbound material data. To this end, the computing node 402 may determine, based on the received product data 404, inbound material identifiers associated with the inbound materials used to manufacture the product, and use the determined inbound material identifiers to retrieve the respective preference data associated with the determined identifiers.

[0148] The computing node 402 may be connected to a database 408 containing rules of origin. The computing node 402 may be configured to generate preference data associated with a manufactured product 410 from the received product data 404, the preference data retrieved from the inbound material data 406, and the rules of origin retrieved from the database 408. The preference data may be generated by the computing node 402 using a method described below in connection with FIG. 11 . The generated preference data 408 may be provided to a display device via a communications interface, for example, for display on a screen. The generated preference data 410 may be correlated with a product identifier associated with the manufactured product and stored in a data storage medium such as a database. The stored preference data 410, along with additional product data, may be used to generate a product passport. The product passport may include the preference data, a digital product identifier, and optionally the additional product data. The digital product identifier may include a decentralized identifier associated with the product. A product passport may be associated with a digital access element. The digital access element may include a representation for accessing the product passport or a portion thereof. The digital access element may enable access to the associated product passport or a portion thereof. The digital access element may be stored in a distributed registry associated with the product passport's data owner. The data owner may control access to such a distributed registry, for example, via an associated distributed data providing network node. Examples of such digital access elements are shown in Figures 7 and 8.

[0149] When a product is manufactured or exits a chemical manufacturing process, product passport(s) associated with the manufactured product may be generated. The product passport(s) may be generated by an apparatus for generating product passport(s). The apparatus may correspond to, for example, the computing node 402 or another computing node associated with or during the operation of the chemical manufacturing process. The apparatus may be configured to receive a request to provide a decentralized identifier. A requestor may be configured to generate a request for a decentralized identifier. The request may be triggered by a labeling system, such as a QR code generator. The request to provide a decentralized identifier may be provided to a digital ID generator configured to generate the decentralized identifier. For example, a computing node (acting as a DID owner management module, user agent, ID hub, and / or certificate issuer) may receive instructions to generate the decentralized identifier. The instructions may include providing at least one authentication mechanism or selecting at least one of multiple authentication mechanisms. The decentralized ID generator may provide the generated digital identifier to a decentralized ID provider. The distributed ID generator and the distributed ID provider may be separate units or may be combined into a single unit.

[0150] The decentralized ID supplier may provide the decentralized identifier to a requestor. The requestor may be configured to associate the received decentralized identifier with a manufactured product. The requestor may include an ID assigner configured to assign the received decentralized identifier to a physical identifier. Such association may include encoding the decentralized identifier into a code and providing the code for labeling the product. Such association may include linking the decentralized identifier to a physical identifier present on the product. In this manner, a physical identifier may be provided that associates the provided decentralized identifier with the physical entity of the product.

[0151] The decentralized identity provider may provide the decentralized identifier to a product passport generator configured to generate a product passport based on the decentralized identifier and product data received from the decentralized identity provider. The generated product passport may include a digital identifier and the product data. The product passport may include or be associated with one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier and / or the product data. The authentication mechanisms may be used, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 9A. The product passport may be associated with one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier and / or the product data. The authentication mechanisms may be used, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 9B. The product passport may be stored in dedicated storage associated with a data owner, such as a product manufacturer. The dedicated storage may be associated with a data providing node configured to provide the product data over the decentralized network upon request from a data consuming node, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 5.

[0152] The product passport generator may further be configured to generate a digital representation associated with the product. The digital representation may hereinafter be referred to as an access element. The generated digital representation may include a digital identifier and a representation for accessing the product data (e.g., access data). The access data may include one or more digital representations pointing to the product data or portions thereof. The access element may include or be associated with one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier and / or access data. The authentication mechanisms may be used, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 9A. The digital access element may be associated with one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier and / or access data. The authorization mechanisms may be used, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 9B. At least a portion of the data included in the digital access element may be propagated to a distributed registry associated with the data provider node providing the associated product data. The distributed registry may be under the control of the data owner of the product data. The access element may be used to access at least a portion of the product passport, for example, as described in the context of FIGS. 5 and 6.

[0153] The generated product passport may be provided to a product passport provider. The product passport provider may be configured to provide the product passport for access by data consuming nodes of a distributed network, such as the distributed network 166 described in the context of FIG. 6. The product passport provider may control access by the data consuming nodes. The product passport provider may be a data providing node associated with product manufacturing. The product passport provider may be associated with or under the control of a data owner of the product data associated with the generated product passport. The data owner may be the product manufacturer.

[0154] FIG. 4B illustrates an example apparatus for generating preference data associated with a product manufactured from at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product. In this example, one or more inbound materials are provided. At least one intermediate product can be produced from the provided inbound materials. A product can be produced from the intermediate product and optionally the one or more inbound materials. Intermediate product data can be collected by one or more data collector(s) during and / or after production of the intermediate product and can be stored on a data storage medium. Product data can be collected by one or more data collector(s) during and / or after production of the product and can be stored on a data storage medium. The collected intermediate product data can be correlated with an intermediate product identifier to enable retrieval of the intermediate product data based on the intermediate product identifier. The collected product data can be correlated with a product identifier to enable retrieval of the product data based on the product identifier.

[0155] Computing node 402 may receive a request to generate preference data related to a product, as described in connection with FIG. 4A. A data consuming node (not shown) may be used to access inbound material data associated with received inbound material via the distributed network, as described in connection with Figures 5 and 6. Preference data included in the accessed and optionally stored inbound material data may be retrieved by computing node 402, as described in connection with Figure 4A.

[0156] The computing node 402 may be connected to a database 408 containing rules of origin. The computing node 402 may be configured to generate preference data for intermediate products. The computing node 402 may be configured to retrieve intermediate product data based on product data included in the received request. For example, the product configuration data may be used to determine intermediate product data, such as intermediate product configuration data. The data may be used to determine inbound materials used to manufacture the intermediate product. Further, the data may be used to determine whether preference data for the respective intermediate product has been previously determined. The computing node 402 may be configured to generate preference data related to the intermediate product from the retrieved preference data related to the inbound materials used to manufacture the intermediate product, the retrieved intermediate product data, and the rules of origin retrieved from the database 408. The preference data may be generated by the computing node 402 using a method described below in connection with FIG. 12 . The computing node 402 may be configured to generate preference data for a second intermediate product generated at least in part from the first intermediate product based on preference data previously generated by the computing node 402, optionally retrieved preference data associated with inbound materials used to generate the second intermediate product, the retrieved intermediate product data, and a rule of origin retrieved from the database 408. The preference data may be generated by the computing node 402 using a method described below in connection with FIG. 12. The first intermediate product and the second intermediate product are produced by the same chemical production, such as the production described in FIGS. 3A and 3B. The computing node 402 may be configured to generate preference data associated with the manufactured product based on the retrieved rule of origin, the retrieved preference data associated with the inbound materials, and / or the generated preference data associated with the intermediate product, and the received product data 406.The preference data may be generated by the computing node 402 using the method described below in connection with FIG. 12. The generated preference data 408 may be provided to a display device via a communications interface, for example for display on a screen. The generated preference data 410 may be correlated with a product identifier associated with the manufactured product and stored in a data storage medium such as a database. The stored preference data 410, together with further product data, may be used to generate a product passport. Examples of such a product passport are shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

[0157] FIG. 5 illustrates an example system for manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data. The system may include a manufacturing 204, such as a chemical manufacturing or chemical manufacturing network (see, e.g., FIGS. 3A and 3B ), and an operating system 208. Inbound materials 202 may be provided to the manufacturing 204. The inbound materials 202 may enter the system boundary of the manufacturing 204 at an entry point, such as a resin plant, a pigment paste plant, a coating material manufacturing, or a material storage facility. The inbound materials 202 may be used in the manufacturing 204 to manufacture one or more intermediate products and / or one or more finished products from the inbound materials. The finished products may be provided at an exit point of the manufacturing 204. The intermediate products and finished products may include chemical products, such as pigment paste, base varnish, thinner, rheology modifier, and coating material. The inbound materials may be associated with a distributed identifier(s). The distributed identifier(s) may be linked to or associated with the inbound material data.

[0158] Inbound material data associated with an inbound material can be accessed from a data providing node 148 via a distributed network, for example, by a data consuming node 150 using a distributed identifier associated with the inbound material 202. The data consuming node 150 and the data providing node 148 may be part of a distributed network, such as the distributed network 166 shown in FIG. 1D . The data providing node 148 may be associated with an entity that produces the input material, such as an input material supplier 134. The data consuming node 150 may be associated with a data consuming entity, such as a chemical product manufacturer 130, that uses the inbound material(s) to produce a chemical product and consumes material data associated with such inbound material. The inbound material data may be obtained at an entry point to a production 204 when, before, or after one or more inbound materials are provided.

[0159] The distributed identifier may be assigned to a physical identifier connected to each provided inbound material. The connection between the physical identifier and each inbound product may be provided by a physical connection of each inbound material to the physical entity. The physical identifier may be physically attached to each inbound material via an identifier element, such as a marker embedded in the material, a tag such as a barcode, a QR code, an RFID tag, or a similar physical arrangement capable of digitally identifying a chemical product.

[0160] The physical identifier may be provided from a sensor reading a physical identifier element associated with each inbound material. The sensor data may be provided to the operating system 208, which may use the provided sensor data to determine a distributed identifier. The provided sensor data may include the physical identifier. The provided sensor data may include a digital material identifier associated with the inbound material. For example, the operating system 208 may be able to determine the distributed identifier directly from the received sensor data. The determined distributed identifier may be stored in a database associated with the operating system 208. In another example, the operating system 208 may obtain the distributed identifier via a distributed network. The operating system 208 may be configured to generate query data for querying the distributed network 166 for a distributed identifier associated with the provided sensor data. The query data may include at least a portion of the provided sensor data, such as the physical identifier or the digital material identifier. The query data may be used by a data consuming node 150 connected to the operating system 208 to query the distributed network 166. The data consuming node 150 may be associated with a data user, such as a production 204 or a legal or natural person operating the production 204. The query data may be used to query a distributed registry associated with a data providing node operated by a data owner, such as a material data owner. The distributed registry may store data related to the material data. The digital representation may include a distributed identifier and a representation for accessing the respective material data associated with the distributed identifier. In response to providing the query data to the distributed network 166, the distributed identifier received by the data consuming node 150 may be provided by the data consuming node 150 to the operating system 208.

[0161] The operating system 208 may use the decentralized identifier to retrieve a DID document associated with the decentralized identifier and provide data related to the inbound material data contained in the DID document, such as an endpoint address of a data providing node associated with the inbound material data linked to the decentralized identifier, to the data consuming node 150. The operating system 208 may be configured to request the DID document associated with the decentralized identifier, for example, via a DID resolver service. The DID resolver service may resolve the endpoint address contained in the DID document based on the received decentralized identifier and provide the resolved endpoint address to the operating system 208.

[0162] The data consuming node 150 may be configured to collect data related to the inbound material data, such as a representation for accessing the inbound material data, using the distributed identifier. The representation for access may include an endpoint address of a data providing node, such as the data providing node 148, associated with each inbound material data from a database in the distributed network, such as the distributed registry 514. The distributed registry may store access elements including data related to the inbound material and a distributed identifier associated with the material. The access elements may be associated with each inbound material via the distributed identifier. The distributed registry 514 may be associated with a data owner of the inbound material associated with the access element. The distributed registry 514 may be associated with a data providing node 148 that is associated with or under the control of the data owner of the inbound material data, such as the input material supplier 134. Access to the distributed registry 514 may be controlled by the data owner via the associated data providing node 148.

[0163] Based on the received decentralized identifier(s) and data associated with the material data, a request to access the inbound material data associated with the respective decentralized identifier(s) may be initiated by the data consuming node 150. The decentralized identifier may be provided to the data providing node 148 associated with the producer of the respective inbound material 202. Additionally, authentication and / or authorization information may be provided. Access to the inbound material data may be based on an owner identifier associated with a data owner, such as the data owner of the respective inbound material data. Access to the inbound material data may be based on a decentralized participant identifier associated with or related to the data consuming node 150. The decentralized participant identifier may be associated with the entity operating the data consuming node 150. The decentralized participant identifier may uniquely identify a participant within the decentralized network 166. Received material data 406 may be exchanged between the data owner interface and the data user interface via the data providing node 148 and the data consuming node 150. The data providing nodes 148 and the data consuming nodes 150 may each include a data connector that enables a secure and reliable exchange of material data. The exchange or sharing of data may be performed according to a predefined authorization mechanism, as described in connection with Figures 8A and 8B.

[0164] The request may be authenticated and / or authorized to access the inbound material data associated with the distributed identifier. If the authentication and / or authorization is successful, access to the inbound material data associated with the distributed identifier is granted by the data providing node 148.

[0165] To access the inbound material data 406, the decentralized identifier received by the data providing node 148 may be used by the service to retrieve the inbound material data associated with the decentralized identifier. The inbound material data may be retrieved from dedicated storage 506 associated with the data providing node 148 upon successful authentication and authorization of the data consuming node 150. The inbound material data 406 associated with the decentralized identifier provided to the data providing node 148 may be provided to the data consuming node 150. The inbound material data 406 provided by the data owner interface may be associated with an authorization mechanism, such as a usage policy, that specifies authorization rules, such as data usage rules. The inbound material data 406 provided by the data owner interface via the data providing node 148 may be accessed by the data consumer interface in accordance with the usage policy attached to the inbound material data 406 provided by the data owner interface. This may require contract negotiation between the services, and the inbound material data 406 may be provided only upon successful negotiation. For example, the preference data included in the material data 406 may be access-restricted (i.e., associated with an authorization scheme) and access may be granted only if the data consuming node 150 agrees to the terms of use of the access-restricted data proposed by the data providing node 148.

[0166] The data consuming node 150 may store the inbound material data 406 received from the data providing node 148 in a data storage 508 connected to the data consuming node 150 in accordance with data usage rules.

[0167] Inbound materials 202 supplied to production 204 may be used to produce one or more intermediate products and / or one or more finished products. For example, the inbound materials may be raw materials used to produce a coating material, as described in connection with Figures 3A and 3B, where production 204 produces the coating material. The supply of inbound material(s) needed to produce the intermediate product(s) and / or finished product(s) may be controlled and / or managed by operating system 208 based on material demand data, as described in connection with Figure 2. The supply of additional intermediate product(s) and / or finished product(s) needed to produce the finished product(s) may be controlled and / or managed by operating system 208 based on material demand data, as described in connection with Figure 2.

[0168] A manufactured product may be assigned a product identifier. The product identifier may be a tag attached to the product's physical entity or a virtual identifier included in the manufacturing data. The tag may be scanned, and a portion of the product data (i.e., the product identifier) ​​may be provided to the operating system 208, for example, via a computing interface. The provision of the product identifier to the operating system 208 may be triggered by a request to generate preference data 410 for the manufactured product. The request may be received by the operating system 208, which may trigger provisioning of the product identifier. The request may be included in a manufacturing order ordering the manufactured product, for example, if preference data is required to be provided for the manufactured product or if the manufactured product will be shipped to one or more predefined countries. The manufacturing order(s) may be received by the chemical operations operating system 208, which may determine whether preference data should be generated for the manufactured product. Providing the product identifier to the operating system 208 may trigger a request to generate preference data 410 for the manufactured product. The request may include product data such as a product identifier, product configuration data, tariff classification, or a combination thereof. Triggering the generation of the preference data may involve retrieving the product data included in the request. For example, triggering the generation of the preference data may result in the operating system 208 retrieving the product data included in the request.

[0169] The operating system 208 may retrieve inbound material data 406 associated with each inbound material used to manufacture the product. The inbound material data 406 may be retrieved from data storage 508 using the distributed identifier(s) or material identifier(s) associated with the inbound material used to manufacture the product. The inbound material used may be determined by the operating system 208 based on a bill of material or recipe associated with the received product identifier. The operating system 208 may generate preference data for the intermediate product used to manufacture the product by retrieving intermediate product data based on the received product data. The inbound material data 406 associated with the inbound material used to manufacture the intermediate product may be determined from the intermediate product data and retrieved from data storage 508. The operating system 208 may retrieve previously determined preference data associated with the intermediate product used to manufacture the product from a database, such as data storage 408. For example, the product may be manufactured from a second intermediate product, which may be manufactured from the first intermediate product. In this case, the preference data for the first intermediate product may be determined using the inbound material data, as described below in connection with Figure 12. The preference data for the second intermediate product may be determined using the determined preference data for the first intermediate product.

[0170] Operating system 208 may further retrieve the rules of origin from data storage 508, which may be the same data storage that stores inbound material data 406 or a different data storage (not shown). The rules of origin may be retrieved by operating system 208 based on country data. The country data may be retrieved by operating system 208 from data storage using a product identifier, may be retrieved from a production order, or may be provided to operating system 208, for example, by a user triggering the generation of preference data 410. The rules of origin may be retrieved by operating system 208 based on the product identifier. Operating system 208 may use the product identifier to retrieve further product data, such as price data and / or tariff classification, which may be included in the received request.

[0171] Using the inbound material data 406, and / or the generated preference data for the intermediate product, and / or the retrieved preference data for the intermediate product, the rules of origin, and the product data, the operating system 208 may generate preference data 410 associated with the product, as described in connection with FIGS. 11 through 14B. The generated preference data 410 may be correlated with a product identifier and stored in a data storage device. The generated preference data may be correlated with a distributed identifier, as described in connection with FIG. 4A, and optionally with other product data, to generate a product passport. The product passport may be provided to downstream participants to whom the physical entity of the manufactured product is supplied. The product passport may represent a digital asset associated with the physical product. The generated preference data correlated with the product identifier may be provided to downstream participants to whom the physical entity of the manufactured product is supplied via the product passport.

[0172] By generating such digital assets related to manufactured products, the production of further products that use the manufactured products as inbound materials may be controlled or directed based on associated preference data contained in such digital assets. For example, the flow of manufactured products delivered by a product manufacturer to downstream participants in a product ecosystem may be controlled or directed by the downstream participants based on the associated preference data such that further products manufactured from such received product streams meet targeted preference data.

[0173] FIG. 6 illustrates generally one example of a method or apparatus for providing prioritized data related to inbound materials and products across a value chain via a distributed network.

[0174] The example of Figure 6 illustrates a fully connected value chain that includes a chemical manufacturing network 204. In this example, inbound material supplier(s), product manufacturers, and final product manufacturers may be connected via a distributed network, as described in the context of Figures 1C and 5. Preference data may be provided in the form of a passport or digital asset associated with the physical entity of the inbound material, product, any intermediate product, or final product, via an ID-based schema as described in the context of Figure 5.

[0175] Inbound material suppliers can provide inbound materials. The inbound materials may include chemical materials, discrete materials, or a combination thereof (see, e.g., FIG. 3D ). Preference data associated with the inbound materials may be provided through data providing node(s) 148 associated with the inbound material suppliers and connected to the distributed network as described in the context of FIG. 5 . A product manufacturer may manufacture a product at least in part from the inbound materials provided to the chemical manufacturing network 204. The product manufacturer may manufacture an intermediate product from some of the provided inbound materials. The product manufacturer may use, at least in part, the manufactured intermediate product to manufacture a product. The product manufacturer may access preference data associated with the inbound materials used to manufacture the product through a data consuming node 150 connected to the distributed network as described in the context of FIG. 5 . The preference data may be obtained from the data providing node 148 associated with the respective inbound material supplier. A product manufacturer may generate preference data for a manufactured product via the operating system 208, as described in the context of Figures 2 through 4B. A product producer may assign the generated preference data to a manufactured product, as described in the context of Figures 13 through 14B. A product manufacturer may provide preference data associated with a manufactured product via a data providing node 150 connected to the distributed network, as described in the context of Figure 5. A product consumer or end product manufacturer may access preference data associated with a manufactured product via a data consuming node 154 associated with the respective product consumer or end product manufacturer and connected to the distributed network, as described in the context of Figure 5.

[0176] The respective preference data owners in this example may be the inbound material manufacturer, the product manufacturer, and the final product manufacturer. A data owner may include any entity that generates data. A data generating node may be coupled to a data owner or an entity that owns or produces the physical inbound material(s), product(s), intermediate product(s), or final product(s) for which data is generated. Data may be generated by a third-party entity on behalf of the entity that owns the physical inbound material, product, intermediate product, or final product.

[0177] In the example of Figure 6, a decentralized identifier may be associated with an end product. Such decentralized identifier may be provided to value chain participants. Preference data for specific decentralized identifiers associated with end products manufactured from the end product may be generated throughout the manufacturing chain and assigned to the end product's unique decentralized identifier. For example, preference data associated with an end product may be generated from preference data associated with the product.

[0178] In this way, preference data for materials used to manufacture a product can be used to easily determine preference data for the manufactured product, while still allowing supply chain participants to control the flow of information. Furthermore, preference data can be handled by the manufacturing operating system according to the needs of individual participants, as described in the context of Figure 2.

[0179] 7 illustrates an example of ID-based owner data, ID-based digital representations of material or product data, and a distributed ID manager. The digital representations may indicate access elements for accessing the material or product data, respectively.

[0180] The ID may be a decentralized identity (DID). The digital representation of the ID-based may be a DID document associated with the DID. ID-based owner data may include an ID associated with a subject, such as inbound material data or product data, and may include an authentication mechanism. ID-based owner data may include owner data electronically owned and managed by a DID owner. In this context, electronically owned data may refer to data stored in an owner repository or wallet. Such data may be securely stored and / or managed on an organization's server or client device. ID-based owner data may include a DID, a private key, and a public key. An ID-based owner may own and manage a DID representing the identity associated with a DID subject, and a private and public key pair associated with the DID. A DID may be understood as an identifier and authentication information associated with or uniquely linked to the identifier.

[0181] The target of a DID can be a raw material, a base material, a chemical product, an intermediate product, a component, a collection of components, or a final product. The target of a DID can be a machine, system, or equipment used to produce a raw material, a base material, a chemical product, an intermediate product, a component, a component assembly, or a final product, or a collection of such machines, equipment, and / or systems. The owner of a DID can be a supply chain participant or a manufacturer, such as a chemical manufacturer, that produces chemicals. The DID owner can be an upstream participant in a chemical manufacturer's supply chain, such as a supplier that provides raw material chemicals or precursors to produce a chemical product. The DID owner can also be a downstream participant in a chemical manufacturer's supply chain, such as a customer that consumes chemicals to produce an intermediate product, component, component assembly, or final product. The DID owner can be any participant in the supply chain, such as a raw material chemical supplier, intermediate chemical manufacturer, intermediate component manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, or final product manufacturer.

[0182] A DID may be any identifier associated with a DID subject and / or DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID subject and / or DID owner. The identifier may be unique, at least within the scope of the expected use of the DID. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier for a raw material, precursor, base material, chemical product, intermediate product, component, component assembly, final product, or collection thereof; a machine, system, equipment, or collection of such machine, equipment, and / or system used to produce a raw material, base material, chemical product, intermediate product, component, component assembly, or final product; a supply chain participant, or collection thereof, including a chemical manufacturer that produces a chemical substance, an upstream participant in the chemical manufacturer's supply chain, a downstream participant in the chemical manufacturer's supply chain, or collection thereof, a raw material chemical supplier, an intermediate chemical manufacturer, an intermediate component manufacturer, a component manufacturer, a component assembly manufacturer, or a final product manufacturer.

[0183] A DID may be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). A DID may be a random string of numbers and letters for added security. In one embodiment, a DID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers following the scheme did:methodname:methodspecific-did, e.g., did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1c276e12ec21. DIDs may be decentralized, independent of centralized third-party management systems and under the control of the DID owner.

[0184] A digital representation as a DID document may be associated with a DID. Thus, the digital representation may contain a reference to the DID associated with the DID subject described by the DID document. A DID document may also contain authentication information, such as a public key. The public key may be used by a third-party entity granted permission by the DID owner / subject to access information and data owned by the DID owner / subject. The public key may also be used to verify that the DID owner actually owns or controls the DID. A DID document may also contain authentication information, authorization information to allow a third-party entity to read the DID document or parts of the DID document (e.g., if the third party is not granted the right to prove ownership of the DID).

[0185] The digital representation may include one or more representations digitally linked to the inbound material or product data, for example, by a service endpoint. The service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, the service endpoint may represent a service, such as a data provisioning node of the DID owner, that provides access to the inbound material or product data. Such services may include services that read and analyze the inbound material or product data. The inbound material or product data may include preference data related to the inbound material or product, and may further include chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, certificate of analysis data, emissions data, product carbon footprint data, product environmental footprint data, chemical product specification data, product information, technical application data, manufacturing data, or any combination thereof.

[0186] The digital representation may include various other information, such as metadata that specifies when the digital representation was created, when it was last modified, and / or when it expires.

[0187] The DIDs and digital representations may be associated with a data registry node of a centralized or distributed data service system, such as a distributed ledger or blockchain or a distributed file system. Possible blockchain systems include Quorum, Hyperledger Fabric, etc. The distributed ledger or blockchain may be used to store a representation of the DID that points to the material passport or product passport. The representation of the DID may be stored on distributed computing nodes of the distributed ledger or blockchain. For example, a DID hash may be stored on multiple computing nodes of the distributed ledger and point to the location of the material passport or product passport. In some embodiments, the material passport or product passport may be stored in the distributed ledger. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the DID document may be stored in data storage associated with the distributed ledger or blockchain or distributed file system.

[0188] A distributed ledger or blockchain may be any decentralized, distributed network that includes various computing nodes in communication with each other. For example, a distributed ledger may include a first distributed computing node, a second distributed computing node, a third distributed computing node, and any number of additional distributed computing nodes. A distributed ledger or blockchain may operate according to any known standard or method for distributed ledgers. The distributed ledger or blockchain 1806 may include known technology stacks such as Bitcoin (see, e.g., the Bitcoin documentation dated November 11, 2022, published at https: / / en.bitcoin.it / wiki / Protocol_documentation), Ethereum (see, e.g., the Ethereum documentation dated August 15, 2022, published at https: / / ethereum.org / en / developers / docs / ), Solana (see, e.g., the Solana documentation dated November 11, 2022, published at https: / / spl.solana.com / ), Polygon (see, e.g., the Polygon documentation dated November 11, 2022, published at https: / / wiki.polygon.technology / ), or other implementations with varying degrees of data transactions performed on a distributed ledger. The description of the exemplary framework is for illustrative purposes and should not be considered limiting. 8 shows an example of an ID-based certificate data, a digital representation of ID-based material or product data, and an ID manager. The digital representations may indicate access elements for accessing the material or product data, respectively.

[0189] In contrast to the example of FIG. 7, the example of FIG. 8 is certificate-based. ID-based certificate data may include authentication data for the certificate owner and the certificate issuer. For example, a cryptographic signature from the issuer may bind the data owner's public key to an ID. The ID may be a unique ID (e.g., a UID) as described in connection with the DID of FIG. 7. The certificate may be an X.509 certificate, such as X509v3. The ID-based digital representation may be associated with a data source for the data owner. The ID-based digital representation may include an identity, authentication data, and an endpoint associated with inbound material or product data. Such an endpoint may include any digital representation that connects to or points to a data source. The data source may store and provide inbound material and / or product data.

[0190] In this certificate-based example, the ID-based digital representation includes one or more certificates associated with the data owner. The certificates may be associated with an identity manager, including, for example, a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service that provides dynamic attribute tokens (e.g., OAuth access tokens). The information necessary to validate the certificates is provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or the dynamic provisioning service. For example, in the April 2019 IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0, connectors associated with the data owner, a certificate authority (CA), a dynamic attribute provisioning service (DAPS), and connectors associated with the data consumer node are used to verify identities before performing data exchange (not shown). For this purpose, such connectors include one or more certificates, such as X.509 certificates. In this way, connectors possess a unique identifier embedded in an X.509 certificate that identifies the connector instance.

[0191] 9A and 9B each illustrate an example of an authentication method for accessing material data via a distributed identifier(s) and, optionally, data associated with the material data. In the authentication process, various communication patterns can be implemented to verify identity.

[0192] Figure 9A shows an example of a communication pattern that may occur between a data providing node and a data consuming node. Data providing node 148 and data consuming node 150 may be part of a distributed network as described in the context of Figures 1D and 5. In this case, the data providing node acts as the validating entity, and a separate service may not be used for authentication.

[0193] A data consuming node 150 may request a service from a data providing node 148. The request may include a decentralized identifier for the data consuming node 150.

[0194] Upon request, the data providing node 148 may access a registry, such as a central or distributed authentication registry, to obtain data related to the authentication mechanism associated with the distributed identifier. For example, a central authentication registry may provide data related to the authentication mechanism via an authentication service that issues access tokens. Further, for example, a distributed authentication registry may provide data related to the authentication mechanism by generating a request token. The data related to the authentication mechanism may include the public key of the data consuming service.

[0195] Based on the retrieved data associated with the authentication mechanism(s), the data providing node 148 may generate an authentication request (e.g., corresponding to an authentication request token or a dynamic attribute token). The authentication request may be generated based on the public key or certificate of the data consuming node 150 and / or the private key or certificate of the data providing node 148. The generated authentication request is sent to the data consuming node 150.

[0196] Based on the received authentication request, the data consuming node 150 may generate authentication data to respond to the authentication request, which may be sent back to the data providing node 148.

[0197] Upon receiving a response including authentication data from the data consuming node 150, the data providing node 148 may verify the authentication data. In response to the verification, the data providing node 148 may grant or deny the service request from the data consuming node 150. If access is granted, the data consuming node 150 may provide a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data retrieved and a decentralized participant identifier associated with the data consuming node 150, and the data providing service may verify the provided decentralized identifier and decentralized participant identifier and, after verification, provide the data associated with the decentralized identifier, such as the inbound material data associated with each inbound material.

[0198] The verification may include approving access to the inbound material data based on access policy data associated with the inbound material data. The access policy data may define distributed participant identifiers authorized to access the inbound material data. The access policy data may define one or more authorization rules associated with use of the inbound material data. The access policy data may define one or more actions that data consuming nodes are authorized to perform on the inbound material data. This allows for filtering of distributed data consuming nodes requesting access based on the distributed participant identifier associated with the network node and the requested action to be performed on the accessed inbound material data. If the request is not authorized, for example, if the distributed data consuming network node 122 is not authorized to access the inbound material data, the peer-to-peer communication channel is terminated by the data providing node 148 and the inbound material data is not provided.

[0199] If the request is approved, the data providing node 148 may initiate contract negotiation with the data consuming node 150 before providing the inbound material data. The data providing node 148 may provide an electronic contract to the data consuming node 150. The electronic contract may include one or more authorization rules associated with the decentralized identifier, allowing the data consumer to determine the terms of use associated with the provided inbound material data. The data providing node 148 and the data consuming node 150 may be configured to negotiate the electronic contract and sign the negotiated electronic contract. The use of the electronic contract ensures that the data consuming node 150 and any further systems processing the inbound material data comply with at least one authorization rule associated with the inbound material data. Once the electronic contract is signed, the inbound material data is collected based on the provided decentralized identifier, and access policy data is applied to the collected data. The inbound material data resulting from applying the access policy data to the collected inbound material data may be provided by the data providing node 148 to the data consuming node 150.

[0200] 9B illustrates another example of a communication pattern that may occur between a data providing node 148, a data consuming node 150, and an authentication service. The data providing node 148 and the data consuming node 150 may be part of a distributed network such as those described in the context of FIGS. 1D and 5.

[0201] First, the data consuming node 150 may request a service from the data providing node 148 and may initiate communication with the data providing node 148. The request may include a decentralized identifier, such as the DID or certificate of the data consuming node 150.

[0202] Upon receiving the request, the data providing node 148 may access the distributed ledger to obtain one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier. Based on the obtained authentication mechanisms, the service provider may generate an authentication request. Upon receiving the request, the data providing node 148 may generate an authentication request.

[0203] Here, at least one of the retrieved authentication mechanisms may be provided via authentication service 910. Thus, in some embodiments, the generated authentication request may be sent directly to authentication service 910. Upon receiving the authentication request from data providing node 148, authentication service 910 may generate authentication data.

[0204] The authentication data generated by the authentication service 910 may be transmitted to the data consuming node 150 .

[0205] The data consuming node 150 may then pass the authentication data to the data providing node 148. Upon receiving the authentication data, the data providing node 148 may verify the authentication data. In response to the verification, the data providing node 148 may grant or deny the service request of the data consuming node 150, e.g., as described in the context of FIG. 9A . If access is granted, the data consuming node 150 may provide a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data to be retrieved and a decentralized participant identifier associated with the data consuming node 150, and the data providing node 148 may verify the provided decentralized identifier and, in response to the verification, provide data associated with the decentralized identifier, such as material data associated with each inbound material, e.g., as described in the context of FIG. 9A .

[0206] Alternatively, in some embodiments, after the data providing node 148 generates the authentication request, the data providing node 148 may send the authentication request to the data consuming node 150. The data consuming node 150 may pass the authentication request to the authentication service 910.

[0207] Furthermore, after the authentication service 910 generates the authentication data, in some embodiments, the authentication service simply contacts the data consumer node 150 to acknowledge receipt of the authentication request and obtain consent. Once the data consumer node 150 receives the notification, the data consumer node 150 may consent and send the consent back to the authentication service 910. Upon receiving consent, the authentication service may send the authentication data directly to the data providing node 148.

[0208] Finally, in many transactions, authentication may be performed mutually by both nodes. In such mutual authentication situations, each node involved is both the authenticated entity and the verifying entity. The data consuming node 150 and the data providing node 148 can control their decentralized identities. First, the services may exchange their decentralized (decentralized) identities. Next, each service may access a distributed ledger or authentication service to obtain each other's authentication mechanism. Each service may then generate an authentication request based on the other service's identity authentication method. The generated authentication data may be sent to the other node. Each node that receives each other's authentication data may verify the received authentication data. For example, one node may grant or deny the other node's service request.

[0209] 9A and 9B show only an example of an authentication protocol, and although the communication arrows are described or illustrated in a certain order, unless otherwise specified, no particular order is required or is required because a communication is dependent on other communications being completed before it can be sent.

[0210] 10A-10C illustrate different example configurations of digital representations of inbound material and / or product data anchored by decentralized identifiers, including different parent, child, grandchild, etc. relationships of the digital representations generated along the chemical value chain to the final product.

[0211] FIG. 10A illustrates the individual configurations of different digital representations generated in a chemical value chain. Individual digital representations may be generated for multiple stages in the chemical value chain. Generating the digital representations may include providing a decentralized identification and authentication mechanism for each of the multiple stages. The digital representations for the multiple stages may be based on cryptographic signatures. For example, the digital representations of multiple stages may be linked through hash values ​​based on the different digital representations. As shown in FIG. 10A, Hash 1 may be based on data from the inbound material digital representation, Hash 2 may be based on data from the chemical product digital representation, and Hash 3 may be based on data from the inbound material digital representation plus data from the chemical product digital representation. The hash values ​​may be generated via a hash algorithm such as MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2, or SHA-3, or other suitable algorithms based on one-way functions that cannot be reverse-engineered. The hash values ​​may be generated based on data included in or connected to each digital representation. The hash value Hash 1 can be used by participating nodes in the chemical supply chain to check the integrity of data packages being transferred, for example, from a raw material supplier to a chemical manufacturer.

[0212] Links associated with multiple decentralized identifiers may be associated with decentralized identifiers associated with chemical products and raw materials. For example, a chemical product digital representation associated with a chemical product may include hash2 and hash3. Such linking may be achieved by hashing data associated with or included in each digital representation. The combined hash value may then be used by participating nodes in the chemical supply chain to determine the relationships between products at different stages and verify the integrity of those relationships. Linking via cryptographic signature hashes is just one example of linking. Other examples include permission aggregation with different scopes of data that may be embedded in child digital representations, public key aggregation with different cryptographic signatures, or service endpoint aggregation with different links.

[0213] FIG. 10B illustrates an anchor configuration for various digital representations generated in the chemical value chain. For the final product, a final product digital representation is generated. For multiple further stages in the chemical value chain, individual digital representations may be generated and embedded in or linked to the final product digital representation. Generating the digital representations may include providing a decentralized identification and authentication mechanism for each of the multiple stages. The digital representations of multiple product stages may be based on cryptographic signatures. For example, the digital representations of multiple further stages may be linked through hash values ​​based on different digital representations. As shown in FIG. 9B, Hash 1 may be based on data from the inbound material digital representation, Hash 2 may be based on data from the chemical product digital representation, and Hash 3 may be based on data from the inbound material digital representation plus data from the chemical product digital representation. Further linking may be performed for other combinations of digital representations up to Hash n, linking the digital representations up to the final product digital representation. Linking through hashes of cryptographic signatures is only one example of linking. Other examples include an aggregation of permissions that differ in the scope of data that can be embedded in a child digital representation, an aggregation of public keys that differ in cryptographic signatures, or an aggregation of service endpoints that differ in links. FIG. 10C illustrates a fully embedded architecture for various digital representations generated in the chemical value chain. Individual digital representations may be generated for multiple stages in the chemical value chain. Generating the digital representations may include providing a decentralized identification and authentication mechanism for each of the multiple stages. The digital representations for the multiple stages may be based on cryptographic signatures. For example, the digital representations of multiple stages may be linked through hash values ​​based on different digital representations. As shown in FIG. 10C, Hash 1 may be based on data from the inbound material digital representation. Hash 2 may be based on data from the inbound material digital representation and the chemical product digital representation. Further linking may be performed for other combinations of digital representations up to Hash n, linking the digital representations up to the final product digital representation. Linking by hash of cryptographic signatures is only one example of linking. Other examples include the aggregation of permissions with different scopes of data that can be embedded in child digital representations, the aggregation of public keys with different cryptographic signatures, or the aggregation of service endpoints with different links.

[0214] FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of an example computer-implemented method for generating preference data associated with a product. The product may be produced from at least one inbound material by a manufacturing process such as those described in FIGS. 2-3C. The product may be a chemical product such as those described in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3D. The product may be a discrete product such as those described in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3D. The manufactured item may be associated with an operating system, such as operating system 208 described in connection with FIGS. 2 and 5. The method illustrated in FIG. 11 may be performed by operating system 208. The preference data may include preferential or non-preferential origin status for at least one country or at least one region. The preference data may further include product data included in the received request, such as a product identifier, price data, tariff classification, and / or product configuration data. The preference data may further include data related to inbound materials used in the manufacture of the product, such as a description of each inbound material, a tariff classification of each inbound material, and / or a value (e.g., price) of each inbound material.

[0215] At block 1102, a request to generate preference data associated with a manufactured product may be received. The request may be received by operating system 208. The request may be triggered as described in connection with FIG. 5. The received request may include product data. The product data may include a product identifier, product configuration data, pricing data, a product tariff classification, or a combination thereof. For example, the received request may include a product identifier associated with a manufactured product for which preference data is to be generated. The product data may include data associated with one or more countries or regions for which preference data is to be generated. For example, the product data may include an indication of the rules of origin with which the product must comply for preferential trade.

[0216] At block 1104, the operating system 208 can obtain preference data associated with inbound materials used to manufacture the product based on the received product data. The operating system may determine inbound material identifiers associated with inbound materials used to manufacture the product based on the received product data. For example, the operating system may be configured to obtain product configuration data based on the received product data and determine material identifiers using the determined product configuration data. In another example, the operating system may be configured to determine inbound material identifiers based on product configuration data included in the received request.

[0217] Preference data may be retrieved from inbound material data associated with the inbound material. The inbound material data may be accessed by data consuming nodes via a distributed network based on a distributed identifier, as described in connection with FIG. 5, and optionally based on data associated with each inbound material data. Access to the inbound material data may be under the control of a data providing node associated with a data owner, such as a data owner of the inbound material data, as described in connection with FIGS. 5, 6, 9A, and 9B. The preference data may be retrieved from the accessed inbound material data using the respective distributed identifier or inbound material identifier determined as described above. The preference data associated with each inbound material may include data regarding the inbound material's preferred or non-preferential origin status with respect to at least one country and the price of the inbound material. Apart from the preference data, the inbound material data may include the data described above in connection with FIG. 4A.

[0218] At block 1106, rules of origin for attributing a country of origin to products manufactured from at least one inbound material may be retrieved by the operating system 208. The rules may be stored in a data storage medium, for example, as described in connection with FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 5. The rules may be retrieved based on the product data received in block 1002. For example, rules of origin may be retrieved based on country data included in the product data. In another example, rules of origin may be retrieved based on tariff classifications included in the product data. The retrieved rule(s) may include at least one rule related to a wholly sourced product and / or at least one rule related to substantial transformation of materials used to manufacture the product, as described above.

[0219] At block 1108, the operating system 208 may generate preference data associated with the manufactured product based on the rules of origin retrieved at block 1106, the preference data retrieved at block 1104, and the product data received at block 1102. The preference data may be generated by determining the country of origin of the manufactured agricultural product based on the rule(s) retrieved at block 1106, the preference data retrieved at block 1104, and the product data received at block 1102. The determined country of origin may then be used to determine a preference status based on the determined country of origin. At block 1108, the operating system may be configured to obtain price data associated with the product and / or a tariff classification associated with the product if such data is not already included in the received product data.

[0220] In block 1110, the preference data generated in block 1108 may be provided by the operating system 208, for example, via a communications interface. For example, the generated preference data may be provided to a display device for display. The generated preference data may be provided to a data storage medium for storage. Providing the generated preference data to a data storage medium may include correlating the data with a product identifier. The generated preference data may be used to generate a product passport, as described in connection with FIG. 4A.

[0221] Using inbound material data, including preference data associated with each inbound material, preference data for products manufactured from the inbound material can be determined from the preference data included in the accessed inbound material data, without the need for data integration of preference data associated with the provided inbound material. Furthermore, inbound material data accessed from a distributed network via data consuming nodes enables simplified and customizable data sharing and exchange from the chemical industry to additional supply chain participants. In this way, upstream supply chain participants can more reliably and efficiently determine preference data associated with products manufactured from the provided materials, while the inbound data remains the property of the supplier that supplies the upstream participant. Combining data associated with inbound material data directly with a decentralized identifier and, optionally, one or more authentication mechanisms, can provide more reliable and secure data sharing and exchange. Furthermore, using one or more authentication mechanisms allows multiple data consuming services from different supply chain participants to access the inbound material data, enabling more flexible data sharing or exchange.

[0222] By generating preference data for a manufactured product and attaching the generated preference data to the manufactured product as a digital asset, the production of additional products that use the manufactured product as inbound material can be controlled or directed based on the associated preference data (e.g., the associated digital asset that includes the preference data). For example, the flow of manufactured products provided by a product manufacturer to downstream participants in a product ecosystem can be controlled or directed by the downstream participants based on the associated preference data such that additional products manufactured from such received product stream meet target preference data.

[0223] FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of an example computer-implemented method for generating preference data associated with a product. In contrast to FIG. 11, the product is produced from at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product by a manufacturing process, such as the manufacturing process described in FIGS. 2-3C. The product may be a product described in connection with FIG. 11. The method of FIG. 12 may be implemented by an operating system as described in the context of FIG. 11. The intermediate product(s) may include intermediate product(s) manufactured from the inbound material(s) (hereinafter referred to as first intermediate product(s)). The intermediate product(s) may include intermediate product(s) manufactured from the first intermediate product(s) and, optionally, one or more inbound material(s) (hereinafter referred to as second intermediate product(s)). The manufacturing process may be associated with an operating system, such as operating system 208 described in connection with FIGS. 2 and 5. The preference data may include the data described in connection with FIG.

[0224] In block 1202, a request to generate preference data related to a manufactured product may be received, as described in connection with Figure 11. The request may include product data, as described in connection with Figure 11.

[0225] At block 1204, preference data associated with the inbound materials used to manufacture the product is obtained from the inbound materials data associated with the inbound materials, as described in connection with FIG.

[0226] In block 1206, the operating system 208 may determine whether a chain of intermediate products is used in the manufacture of the product. A chain of intermediate products may indicate the use of two different intermediate products in the manufacture of the product, where at least one intermediate product (e.g., a second intermediate product) is at least partially manufactured from an intermediate product (e.g., a first intermediate product) previously produced by the manufacture. The determination may be made based on product data included in the received request. For example, product composition data may be used to retrieve intermediate product composition data associated with each intermediate product used to manufacture the product. From the intermediate product configuration data, the operating system 208 may determine whether a chain of intermediate products is used. Following a determination that a chain of intermediate products is used, the operating system may proceed to block 1210; otherwise, the operating system may proceed to block 1208.

[0227] At block 1208, the operating system may generate preference data associated with the intermediate product(s) used in the manufacturing (e.g., a first intermediate product). The operating system may retrieve the intermediate product data based on the received product data. The intermediate product data may include an intermediate product identifier, price data, intermediate product configuration data, and / or a tariff classification associated with the intermediate product. The intermediate product configuration data may be used to determine an inbound material identifier associated with the inbound material used. The inbound material identifier may be used to retrieve the preference data, as described in connection with FIG. 11 .

[0228] The operating system 208 may retrieve at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to the intermediate product. The rule of origin may be retrieved as described in connection with FIG. 11 using the retrieved intermediate product data.

[0229] The operating system may generate preference data associated with the first intermediate product based on the retrieved rules of origin, the preference data retrieved in block 1204, and the retrieved intermediate product data. The preference data may be generated as described in connection with Figure 11. The generated preference data may be stored on a data storage medium.

[0230] At block 1110 , the operating system 208 may generate preference data associated with the first intermediate product, as described in connection with block 1108 .

[0231] In block 1112, the operating system 208 may generate preference data associated with a second intermediate product at least partially manufactured from the first intermediate product. The operating system 208 may retrieve the second intermediate product data based on the received product data. The second intermediate product data may be used to determine the first intermediate product(s) and, optionally, the inbound material(s) used to manufacture the second intermediate product(s). For example, the second intermediate product data may include second intermediate product compositions including respective identifiers. The identifiers may be used to retrieve previously generated preference data for the first intermediate product (e.g., see block 1208) and preference data associated with the inbound materials, as described in connection with block 1204. The operating system 208 may retrieve rules of origin, as described in connection with block 1208.

[0232] Preference data for the second intermediate product may be generated as described in connection with FIG. 11 based on the retrieved preference data associated with the first intermediate product, optionally the retrieved preference data associated with the inbound material, the retrieved rules or place of origin, and the retrieved second intermediate product data.

[0233] Block 1214 may look up rules of origin to attribute a country of origin to the product, as described in connection with FIG.

[0234] In block 1216, preference data associated with the product may be generated by operating system 208, as described in connection with FIG. 11, based on the rule(s) of origin retrieved in block 1216, the preference data retrieved in block 1204 and / or generated in blocks 1210 and 1212, or generated in block 1208, and the product data received in block 1202.

[0235] At block 1218, the generated preference data may be provided as described in connection with FIG.

[0236] 13 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for producing a product associated with preference data. The product may be the product described in connection with FIG. 11. The product may be the product described in connection with FIG. 11. The preference data may include the data described above in connection with FIG. 11. The method illustrated in FIG. 13 may be implemented by an operating system, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 11.

[0237] In block 1302, one or more inbound materials may be provided to a manufacturing facility. The manufacturing facility may manufacture a product at least in part from the inbound materials provided to the manufacturing facility. The manufacturing facility may be a manufacturing facility such as those described in Figures 2 through 3C. The manufacturing facility may be associated with an operating system, such as operating system 208 described in connection with Figures 2 and 5.

[0238] At block 1304, a request may be received to generate preference data related to a manufactured product, as described in connection with FIGURE 11. The request may include product data, as described in connection with FIGURE 11.

[0239] In block 1306, preference data associated with the inbound material used to manufacture the product can be obtained from inbound material data associated with the inbound material, as described in connection with FIG.

[0240] In block 1308, rules of origin for attributing a country of origin to the manufactured product may be retrieved by the operating system 208, as described in connection with FIG.

[0241] In block 1310, preference data associated with the manufactured product may be generated by operating system 208 based on the rules of origin retrieved in block 1308, the preference data retrieved in block 1306, and the product data received in block 1304, as described in connection with FIG. 11.

[0242] At block 1312, the preference data generated at block 1310 may be associated with the manufactured product by the operating system 208. Associating the generated preference data with the manufactured product may include linking the generated preference data to an identifier associated with the manufactured product. For example, a product identifier associated with the manufactured product may be linked to the generated preference data. The product identifier may be included in the product data received at block 1304. This allows the preference data to be searched using the respective product identifier. The product identifier may include a decentralized identifier. For example, a product passport may be generated that includes the decentralized identifier associated with the generated preference data and the product data, including the product data, as described above with reference to FIG. 4A. A digital access element may be generated that includes the decentralized identifier and access data. The digital access element may be used to access the preference data related to the product, for example, via a data consuming node associated with the product consumer (see FIG. 6).

[0243] 14A and 14B show a flowchart of an example method for manufacturing a product associated with preference data. The product may be the product described in connection with FIG. 11. In contrast to FIG. 13, the product may be manufactured from at least one inbound material and / or at least one intermediate product by manufacturing, such as the manufacturing described in FIGS. 2-3C. The intermediate product(s) may include intermediate product(s) manufactured from the inbound material(s) (hereinafter referred to as first intermediate product(s)). The intermediate product(s) may include intermediate product(s) manufactured from the first intermediate product(s) and, optionally, one or more inbound material(s) (hereinafter referred to as second intermediate product(s)). The preference data may include the data described above in connection with FIG. 11. The method illustrated in FIGS. 14A and 14B may be implemented by an operating system, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 11.

[0244] In block 1402, one or more inbound materials may be provided to a manufacturing. The manufacturing may manufacture a product, at least in part, from the inbound materials provided to the manufacturing. The manufacturing may manufacture an intermediate product from the provided inbound materials. The manufacturing may manufacture a product, at least in part, from the manufactured intermediate product. The manufacturing may be a manufacturing such as those described in Figures 2 through 3C. The manufacturing may be associated with an operating system, such as operating system 208 described in connection with Figures 2 and 5.

[0245] At block 1404, a request may be received to generate preference data related to a manufactured product, as described in connection with Figure 11. The request may include product data, as described in connection with Figure 11.

[0246] In block 1406, preference data associated with the inbound material used to manufacture the product may be obtained from inbound material data associated with the inbound material, as described in connection with FIG. 11 .

[0247] In block 1408, the operating system 208 may determine whether an intermediate product chain is used in the manufacture of the product, as described in connection with Figure 12. Following a determination that an intermediate product chain is used, the operating system may proceed to block 1410; otherwise, the operating system may proceed to block 1414.

[0248] In block 1410, the operating system 208 may generate preference data associated with the first intermediate product, as described in connection with FIG.

[0249] In block 1412, the operating system 208 may generate preference data associated with second intermediate product(s) at least partially manufactured from the first intermediate product(s), as described in connection with FIG. 12 .

[0250] In block 1414, the operating system may generate preference data associated with the intermediate product(s) used in manufacturing (e.g., the first intermediate product(s)), as described in connection with FIG. 12 .

[0251] In block 1416, rules of origin may be retrieved to attribute a country of origin to the manufactured product, as described in connection with FIG.

[0252] In block 1418, preference data associated with the product may be generated by operating system 208, as described in connection with FIG. 11, based on the rules of origin retrieved in block 1416, the preference data retrieved in block 1406 and / or generated in blocks 1410 and 1412, or generated in block 1414, and the product data received in block 1404.

[0253] At block 1420, the preference data generated at block 1418 may be associated with the manufactured product by the operating system 208, as described in connection with FIG.

[0254] FIG. 15 illustrates an example system for manufacturing products associated with preference data, including an example method for generating preference data associated with products manufactured from inbound materials.

[0255] The inbound material may be a chemical material, such as a polymer, a pigment, a solvent, and additional components required for preparing a coating material. The inbound material may be a discrete material (see, e.g., FIG. 3D). The inbound material may be a chemical material or a discrete material (see, e.g., FIG. 3D). The inbound material may be provided to chemical production 204. The chemical production may be a chemical production as described in connection with FIGS. 2 through 3C. The inbound material may enter the system boundary of chemical production 204 at an entry point, such as a resin plant, a pigment paste plant, a coating material production, or a material storage facility. The inbound material may be used in chemical production 204 to produce one or more products from the inbound material. The products may be provided to an outlet of chemical production 204. The products may be chemical products. The chemical products may be pigment pastes, base varnishes, thinners, rheology modifiers, coating materials, etc.

[0256] The virtual layer may access inbound material data associated with received inbound materials. The inbound material data may be accessed, for example, via a data consuming node using a distributed identifier and, optionally, data associated with the inbound material data, as described in connection with Figures 5 and 6. The inbound material data may be accessed at an entry point to chemical manufacturing 204 when, before, or after one or more inbound materials are provided.

[0257] The distributed identifier(s) may be associated with the physical entity of the inbound material entering chemical manufacturing 204, as previously described.

[0258] The inbound material data may include preferential data associated with each inbound material, such as the inbound material's country of origin, preferential status, data regarding non-native compounds used in the production of the inbound material, or a combination thereof. The inbound material data may further include the aforementioned characteristic data, emissions data, recycled material content, biobased content, and / or production data. The inbound material data may be correlated with a distributed identifier(s) and stored in a data storage medium, such as dedicated storage, connected to a data consuming node associated with the data owner of the inbound material data (see FIG. 5). This allows the stored inbound material data to be searched using the distributed identifier over the distributed network under the control of the data owner of the inbound material data. The inbound material data may be transferred from the computing system to the operating system 208 or retrieved by the operating system 208 using the distributed identifier.

[0259] Inbound materials supplied to chemical production 204 may be used to manufacture one or more chemical products 1502. For example, the inbound materials may be raw materials used to manufacture a coating material, as described in connection with FIGS. 3A and 3B, and chemical production 204 manufactures the coating material. The inbound material(s) needed to manufacture the chemical product(s) may be provided based on material demand data, as described in connection with FIGS. 3A and 3B. The material demand data may identify a manufacturing chain for chemical production 204. The material demand data may include a bill of material for one or more manufacturing chain(s) of chemical production 204. The material demand data may include one or more recipe(s) specifying one or more materials for a manufacturing process(es) of chemical production.

[0260] On the virtual layer, the operating system 208 may receive a request to generate preference data related to a manufactured product 1510. The request may be triggered as described in connection with FIG. 4A. The request may include product data related to the product for which preference data is to be generated (see, e.g., FIGS. 11-14B). The product data may include a product identifier. The product identifier may be associated with the physical entity of each product manufactured by chemical manufacturing 204. In this manner, a virtual identifier for the product may be uniquely linked to the physical product. Such a link may include a physical or virtual link of an identifier uniquely associated with the physical product. The request may further include data related to one or more countries for which the preference data is to be generated. Such data may be used by the operating system 208 to determine appropriate FTAs ​​and retrieve correlating rules of origin as described above. The request may also include pricing data, such as ex-factory price data, and / or tariff classifications associated with the product.

[0261] In response to the request, the operating system 208 may retrieve preference data contained in accessed or stored inbound material data based on the received product data 1512, for example, as described in connection with Figures 4A and 5 and Figures 11 through 14B.

[0262] The operating system 208 may retrieve the rules of origin 1514. The rules of origin may be obtained before or after receiving the product data. Retrieving the rules of origin after receiving the product data allows for the search of appropriate rules of origin based on the received product data, thereby enabling a smaller amount of data to be searched, thus avoiding the search of inapplicable rules of origin. The rules of origin may be retrieved by the operating system 208 from a data storage device, such as a database, that includes data related to respective free trade agreements and correlated rules of origin. The database may be a database related to chemical manufacturing 204 or may be a data storage device, such as a cloud database, provided by a third party. Using a cloud database may avoid the need to frequently update the rules of origin to ensure correct preference data is generated. The data related to the free trade agreement may include identifiers, such as names and numbers, and / or data related to the contracting parties associated with the FTA. For example, if the product data received by the operating system 208 includes data related to the country for which preference data is to be generated, data related to the contracting parties may be used to search for the appropriate rules of origin. In this case, operating system 208 uses the data about the country to determine the applicable free trade agreement and retrieves the rules of origin associated with the determined country.

[0263] Operating system 208 may generate preference data 1516 based on the retrieved preference data, the received rules of origin, and the received product data, for example, as described in connection with Figures 5 and 11-14B. Operating system 208 may associate the generated preference data with product data, such as a product identifier. Operating system 208 may store the generated preference data in data storage medium 1518. The stored preference data may be correlated with product data, such as a product identifier, to facilitate retrieval of the data.

[0264] A product associated with a product identifier may be physically provided to downstream participants in a product ecosystem, such as a customer of the entity that manufactures the product, and preference data associated with the product identifier may be virtually provided, for example, in the form of a digital asset. By associating a physical product and preference data with a product identifier, the physical entity of the product is connected to a virtual entity of preferences (such as a preferred or non-preferred origin of the product). The virtual provision of preference data may include correlating the data with a decentralized identifier to generate a product data set that is provided by a data providing node associated with the data owner of the preference data to a data consuming node associated with a downstream participant, as described above.

[0265] The above-described system allows material data associated with inbound materials to be used to generate preference data for products manufactured in a chemical manufacturing network without integrating the material data into existing systems used to determine the preference data. Instead, the material dataset allows for the use of included material data as is, without requiring time-consuming and error-prone data integration of material data provided by suppliers of the inbound materials being supplied.

[0266] By attaching the generated preference data as a digital asset to a manufactured product, the production of additional products that use the manufactured product as inbound materials may be controlled or directed by downstream participants based on the associated preference data (e.g., the associated digital asset containing the preference data). For example, the flow of manufactured products provided by a product manufacturer to downstream participants in a product ecosystem may be controlled or directed by the downstream participants based on the associated preference data such that additional products manufactured from such received product stream meet the target preference data.

[0267] 16 illustrates an example system for manufacturing products associated with preference data, including an example method for generating preference data associated with products manufactured from inbound materials and / or intermediate products. The intermediate products may be manufactured from one or more inbound materials.

[0268] The inbound material may be a chemical material, as described in FIG. 15 . The inbound material may be a discrete material, as described in FIG. 15 . The inbound material may be a chemical material and a discrete material, as described in FIG. 15 . The inbound material may be provided to chemical production 204. The chemical production may be a chemical production such as those described in connection with FIGS. 2 through 3C . The inbound material may enter the system boundary of chemical production 204 at an entry point, such as a resin plant, a pigment paste plant, a coating material production, or a material storage facility. The inbound material may be used in chemical production 204 to produce one or more intermediate products and finished products from the inbound material. The one or more intermediate products may be used to produce one or more finished products. The product(s) may be provided at an outlet of chemical production 204. The product may be a chemical product. The chemical product may be a pigment paste, a base varnish, a thinner, a rheology modifier, or a coating material.

[0269] The virtual layer may access inbound material data 1610 associated with received inbound materials, as described in Figure 15. The inbound material data may include preferential data associated with each inbound material, such as the inbound material's country of origin, preferential status, data regarding non-origin compounds used to manufacture the inbound material, or a combination thereof. The inbound material data may further include the data mentioned in connection with Figure 15. The inbound material data may be transferred from the computing system to the operating system 208 or may be retrieved by the operating system 208 using a material identifier.

[0270] Inbound materials supplied to chemical production 204 may be used to produce one or more chemical products 1602. For example, the inbound materials may be raw materials used to produce a coating material, as described in connection with FIGS. 3A and 3B, and chemical production 204 produces the coating material. The inbound material(s) needed to produce the chemical product(s) may be provided based on material demand data, as described in connection with FIGS. 3A and 3B. The material demand data may identify a production chain for chemical production 204. The material demand data may include a bill of material for one or more production chain(s) of chemical production 204. The material demand data may include one or more recipe(s) specifying one or more materials for a production process(es) of chemical production. The inbound material needed to produce an intermediate product may be provided based on the aforementioned material demand data.

[0271] On the virtual layer, the operating system 208 may receive a request to generate preference data related to a manufactured product 1610, as described in connection with FIG. 15. The request may be triggered as described in connection with FIG. 4A. The request includes product data related to the product for which preference data is to be generated (see, e.g., FIGS. 11-14B). The product data may include a product identifier, as described in connection with FIG. 15. The request may also include data related to one or more countries for which preference data is to be generated. Such data may be used by the operating system 208 to determine appropriate FTAs ​​and to look up correlating rules of origin, as described above. The request may also include pricing data, such as ex-factory price data, and / or tariff classifications associated with the product.

[0272] In response to the request, the operating system 208 may retrieve preference data contained in the accessed or stored inbound material data based on the received product data 1614, for example, as described in connection with Figures 4A and 5, and Figures 11 to 14B.

[0273] The operating system 208 may generate preference data associated with the intermediate product 1616. The preference data associated with the intermediate product may be generated as described in connection with Figures 12, 14A, and 14B.

[0274] The operating system 208 may retrieve the rules of origin 1618 as described in connection with Figure 15. The rules of origin may be retrieved before or after receiving the product data. Retrieving the rules of origin after receiving the product data may allow for searching a smaller amount of data because the appropriate rules of origin can be retrieved based on the received product data, thus avoiding searching for rules of origin that are not applicable.

[0275] Operating system 208 may generate preference data 1620 based on retrieved preference data 1614 and / or generated preference data 1618, the received rules of origin, and the received product data, for example, as described in connection with Figures 5 and 11-14B. Operating system 208 may associate the generated preference data with product data, such as a product identifier. Operating system 208 may store the generated preference data in a data storage medium. The stored preference data may be correlated with product data, such as a product identifier, to facilitate retrieval of such data.

[0276] The operating system 208 may associate the generated preference data with the generated product 1622, for example, as described in connection with Figures 12, 14A1, and 4B. The product associated with the product identifier may be physically provided to downstream participants, such as customers of the entity that manufactures the product, and the preference data associated with the product identifier may be virtually provided. Through the association of the product identifier with the physical product and the preference data, the physical entity of the product is connected to the virtual entity of preferences, such as the preferred and non-preferred origins of the product. The virtual provision of the preference data may include correlating the data with a decentralized identifier, as described above, to generate a product data set that is provided by a data providing node associated with the data owner of the preference data to a data consuming node associated with the downstream participant.

[0277] This system allows material data associated with inbound materials to be used to generate preference data for products manufactured in a chemical manufacturing network without integrating the material data into existing systems used to determine the preference data. Instead, the material dataset allows for the use of included material data as is, without the need for time-consuming and error-prone data integration of material data provided by suppliers of the inbound materials supplied.

[0278] By attaching the generated preference data to the manufactured product as a digital asset, the production of additional products that use the manufactured product as inbound material may be controlled or directed by downstream participants based on the associated preference data (e.g., associated digital assets that include the preference data). For example, the flow of manufactured products provided by a product manufacturer to downstream participants in a product ecosystem may be controlled or directed by the downstream participants based on the associated preference data such that additional products manufactured from such received product stream meet target preference data.

[0279] This disclosure has been described in connection with preferred embodiments and examples. However, other variations can be understood and achieved by those skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, this disclosure, and the claims. In particular, any steps presented may be performed in any order; i.e., the invention is not limited to a particular order of these steps. Furthermore, different steps are not required to be performed at a particular location or at one node of a distributed system; i.e., each step may be performed at a different node using different equipment / data processing.

[0280] As used herein, "determine" also includes "initiate or cause to be determined," "generate" also includes "initiate and / or cause to be generated," and "provide" also includes "initiate or cause to be initiated determining, generating, selecting, transmitting, and / or receiving." "Initiating or causing to be performed an action" includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action.

[0281] In the claims and the description, the word "comprises" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite articles "a" or "an" do not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in accordance with advantageous embodiments.

[0282] The disclosures and embodiments described herein relate to the above methods, systems, devices, and computer program elements, and vice versa. Advantageously, any advantages provided by any of the embodiments and examples apply equally to all other embodiments and examples, and vice versa.

[0283] All terms and definitions used in this document are to be understood broadly and have their ordinary meaning.

Claims

1. 1. A computer-implemented method for generating preference data associated with a product, the product being manufactured by manufacturing from at least one inbound material and comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a request to generate the preference data, the request including product data related to the product; (b) retrieving preference data associated with said inbound material(s) from inbound material data associated with said inbound material(s) based on the received product data, wherein said inbound material data associated with each inbound material is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with each inbound material data and optionally based on data associated with each inbound material data; (c) searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to a product made from at least one material; (d) generating preference data associated with the product based on the retrieved rule(s), the retrieved preference data, and the received product data; and (e) providing the generated preference data via the communication interface.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the preference data associated with the product includes a preferential or non-preferential origin status of the product with respect to at least one country or at least one region.

3. 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the product data includes a product identifier, pricing data, product configuration data, and / or a tariff classification associated with the product.

4. 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the decentralized identifier is associated with the data owner and / or the inbound material to which the inbound material data relates.

5. 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the preference data is retrieved using the distributed identifier and / or inbound material identifier(s) associated with the inbound material(s).

6. 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the preference data associated with each inbound material includes data regarding the material's preferential or non-preferential origin status with respect to at least one country, and material price.

7. 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the data associated with the inbound material data includes one or more digital representation(s) that refer to the inbound material data or portions thereof.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one rule of origin is retrieved based on received product data.

9. 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one rule of origin comprises at least one rule related to a wholly obtained product and / or at least one rule related to a substantial transformation of a material used to produce the product and / or a substantial transformation of a component used to produce the material.

10. Generating preference data involves the following steps: - determining the place of origin based on the received rule(s) of origin and the received preference data; - determining a preference status based on the determined place of origin; 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, comprising:

11. 1. An apparatus for generating preference data associated with a product manufactured from at least one material, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, cause the apparatus to perform the method of claim 1; An apparatus comprising:

12. 12. A computer element having instructions configured to perform the steps of the method according to claim 1 or 2 when executed on one or more computing node(s), or configured to be executed by the apparatus according to claim 11.

13. 1. A method of manufacturing at least one product associated with preference data, the product being manufactured by manufacturing from at least one inbound material and comprising the steps of: (a) providing said inbound material(s) to a manufacturing process and using the manufacturing process to produce at least one product from at least a portion of the provided inbound material(s); (b) receiving a request to generate preference data, the request including product data associated with the product; (c) retrieving preference data associated with at least a portion of the inbound material(s) from inbound material data associated with said portion based on the received product data, wherein inbound material data associated with each of said portions of the inbound materials is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with the inbound material data and optionally based on data associated with the inbound material data; (d) searching for at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to the manufactured product; and (e) generating preference data based on the received product data, the retrieved preference data, and the received rule of origin(s), and associating the generated preference data with the manufactured product; A method comprising:

14. 1. A system configured to manufacture a product associated with preference data from one or more inbound material(s), and to provide the manufactured product associated with the preference data, the system comprising: (a) A manufacturing line configured to manufacture products from inbound material(s) and provide manufactured products, the products being connected to or including physical identifiers; (b) a collector configured to collect product data related to the product; (c) a request receiver configured to receive a request to generate the preference data, the request including product data associated with the product; (d) a preference data provider configured to derive preference data associated with at least a portion of the inbound material(s) from inbound material data associated with said portion based on the received product data, wherein the inbound material data associated with each of said portions of the inbound materials is accessed by a data consuming service under the control of a data providing service associated with a data owner based on a decentralized identifier associated with the inbound material data and, optionally, based on data associated with the inbound material data, the data owner being associated with each inbound material data; (e) a rules provider configured to retrieve at least one rule of origin for attributing a country of origin to a product manufactured from at least one inbound material; (f) a preference data generator configured to generate preference data associated with the manufactured product based on the received product data, the retrieved preference data, and the retrieved rules of origin; and (g) an assigner configured to assign a physical identifier to the generated preference data; A system including:

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