Micro-Climate Sensor System for Perishable Goods Quality Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems fail to provide comprehensive data on perishable goods throughout their lifecycle, lacking integration of environmental and handling data with standard operating procedures, which limits retailers' ability to assess quality and identify contributing factors.
Innovation Solution
A system that includes micro-climate sensors associated with individual items to generate product flow data, processing circuits to analyze this data, and deviation detection from SOPs, enabling the transmission of deviation data for corrective actions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If micro-climate sensors are associated with individual items throughout the supply chain, then measurement precision and data comprehensiveness are improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the monitoring function into individual micro-climate sensors attached to each item or group of items. Each sensor independently tracks environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, shock, light) for its associated product, enabling precise quality assessment without requiring a single complex centralized system.
Solution Approach 2:
The micro-climate sensors are designed as multi-functional devices that simultaneously measure multiple environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, shock, light exposure) and communicate through universal protocols. This allows a single sensor type to serve multiple monitoring purposes throughout the supply chain, reducing overall system complexity.
2Reliability
If environmental and handling data are linked with SOPs and human behavior, then reliability of quality assessment is improved, but device complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes feedback loops where sensor data is continuously compared against pre-defined SOP thresholds. When deviations occur, the system automatically generates alerts and tracks corrective actions, creating a closed-loop quality management system that improves reliability through continuous monitoring and correction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary data processing layer that acts as a mediator between raw sensor data and SOP compliance assessment. This intermediary layer standardizes data formats, handles communication protocols, and presents processed information to users, reducing the complexity burden on both sensing and analysis components.
3Productivity
If real-time monitoring is implemented throughout the supply chain, then productivity of quality assessment is improved, but loss of energy and data transmission requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic sampling of environmental parameters rather than continuous monitoring. Sensors take measurements at defined intervals (e.g., every 15 minutes or upon specific events like door opening), which maintains adequate quality assessment productivity while significantly reducing energy consumption and data transmission requirements compared to truly continuous monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary data processing and filtering at the sensor level before transmission. Sensors pre-process raw measurements, filter out normal variations, and only transmit data when thresholds are exceeded or significant changes occur, reducing overall energy consumption while maintaining rapid quality assessment capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for generating visual disposition data and identifying causal event are disclosed. An example system may include an electronic mobile device to generate visual disposition data from a plurality of items in a store. The example system may further include a server to generate processed disposition data via image processing the visual disposition data and determine disposition analysis data for an item of sale from the processed disposition data. The server may further transmit the disposition analysis data, where the disposition analysis data includes an indication of a causal event for the disposal of the item of sale.