Cold Chain Route Selection SaaS Module
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cold chain route management systems do not adequately consider factors specific to temperature-controlled supply chains, such as refrigeration efficiency, driver effectiveness, and weather impacts, leading to suboptimal route selection and potential product quality issues.
Innovation Solution
A software as a service (SaaS) module that analyzes and selects cold chain routes by integrating refrigeration unit data, driver data, and weather data to predict route efficiency, freshness, and quality, using a graphical user interface to display collected and predicted data for user input and route selection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If general mapping services are used for route selection, then route provision is simple and fast, but cold chain specific factors such as refrigeration efficiency and weather impacts are not considered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines general mapping services with cold chain specific data systems, integrating weather data, refrigeration unit data, driver data, and route data into a unified route selection framework that maintains speed while adding cold chain reliability considerations
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces a cold chain route manager as an intermediary layer between general mapping services and route selection, which processes and filters cold chain specific factors to provide optimized routes that maintain both efficiency and quality assurance
2Reliability
If cold chain specific factors are integrated into route selection, then product quality and refrigeration efficiency improve, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cold chain route manager is designed as a universal platform that handles multiple functions including weather analysis, refrigeration monitoring, driver behavior tracking, and route optimization within a single integrated system, reducing overall complexity despite the multifaceted nature of cold chain requirements
3Measurement precision
If multiple data sources are collected and analyzed, then route optimization accuracy improves, but data processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing and storing cold chain specific data in databases before route selection is needed, allowing for rapid retrieval and analysis during actual route planning without significant processing delays
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where actual route performance data is continuously collected and used to refine future route selections, improving accuracy over time while reducing the computational burden of real-time analysis through pattern recognition and machine learning
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for analyzing and selecting a cold chain route of a cold chain system is provided. The method includes determining, using a cold chain network, a route that forms a cold chain from a current location of a cold transport vehicle to a destination, receiving, at the cold chain network, collected route data about the determined route, calculating, using the cold chain network, predicted route data based on the collected route data, displaying, using a display, the collected route data and the predicated route data using a graphical user interface (GUI), and receiving, from a user input device, a route selection based on the displayed collected route data and predicated route data.