Immutable Object Tracking in Supply Chain Ledgers
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Value chains, such as supply chains, face challenges in tracking the identity, provenance, and flow of items across multiple organizations, which can lead to inefficiencies and bottlenecks due to the lack of a comprehensive and secure method for recording transactions and transformations.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing an electronic processor to create and modify objects with identifying metadata, link them, and generate histories, which are stored in a shared digital ledger like a blockchain, allowing for secure and transparent tracking of items and events within the value chain.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a shared digital ledger is used to track items across multiple organizations, then transparency and security of tracking are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments tracking information into discrete objects with identifying metadata, where each object represents a specific item or event in the value chain. This segmentation allows complex tracking data to be broken down into manageable, standardized units that can be independently verified and linked, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer of standardized objects and metadata that mediates between multiple organizations and the underlying digital ledger. This intermediary structure simplifies interactions by providing a common framework for recording transactions and transformations, reducing the complexity that would otherwise arise from direct multi-organization coordination.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive transaction data is recorded for every item transformation, then provenance tracking accuracy is improved, but data storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential identifying metadata from comprehensive transaction data, storing only the critical information needed for provenance tracking in each object. This extraction approach maintains tracking accuracy by preserving key identifiers and transformation information while eliminating redundant data, thereby reducing storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Each object in the system contains only the specific metadata locally relevant to that particular item or event, rather than storing complete transaction histories everywhere. This local quality approach ensures that each data unit contains precisely the information needed for its specific tracking purpose, optimizing storage efficiency while maintaining overall provenance accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for tracking items within a value chain, the system comprising an electronic processor. The electronic processor is configured to create a first object in response to an input, the first object including first identifying metadata, receive an action, and apply the action to the first object to modify the first object into a second object and modify the first identifying metadata into second identifying metadata. The electronic processor is further configured to link the second object to the first object, receive a request to retrieve a history of the second object, and generate the history, wherein the history includes the first object, the first identifying metadata, the action, the second object, and the second identifying metadata.