Renewable Material Traceability With Provider Feedback Incentives

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing traceability systems for renewable materials fail to incentivize providers to contribute recycled materials effectively, lacking mechanisms to reward and recognize their contributions.

Innovation Solution

A traceability system that associates renewable materials with providers, tracks their use in production processes, and provides evaluation data and incentives based on contribution ratios, using a support system to notify providers of their impact.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If a traceability system tracks renewable materials from disposal to reproduction, then material circulation information is acquired, but providers are not incentivized to provide renewable materials

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetraceability informationVSAvoidmaterial circulation efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements feedback by notifying providers of evaluation data derived from traceability information. The notification unit sends results to providers, creating a closed-loop system where providers receive information about their contributions, enabling incentivization while maintaining complete traceability records

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The traceability system serves multiple functions: it tracks material flow, evaluates provider contributions, generates incentive data, and notifies providers. By integrating these functions into one system, it simultaneously achieves information preservation and circulation promotion without requiring separate incentive mechanisms

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Productivity

If evaluation data is calculated and notified to providers, then provider incentive is achieved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvematerial circulation efficiencyVSAvoidtraceability system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The evaluation data calculation and notification functions are merged into the existing traceability system infrastructure. The storage unit stores traceability data, the calculation unit processes this data to generate evaluation metrics, and the notification unit delivers results - all integrated components that leverage existing system capabilities rather than adding entirely new subsystems

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system automatically calculates evaluation data from traceability information and notifies providers without requiring manual intervention. The calculation unit autonomously processes stored data to generate incentive metrics, and the notification unit automatically delivers results, reducing operational complexity while maintaining incentivization functionality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP4704005A1Renewable material traceability system and renewable material traceability method
Publication Date: 2026.03.04 HITACHI LTD
  • EP4704005A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4704005A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4704005A1 patent drawingFigure 3~4

AI summary

A renewable material traceability system acquires information on a renewable material provided by a provider and information on the provider, allocates a lot of the renewable material to a product in a production process of the product, and notifies the provider of evaluation data obtained based on data associated with the provider from among a traceability data group, the evaluation data being data as an evaluation related to the provision by the provider, the traceability data group including material traceability data, which is data including a set of information on the renewable material and information on the provider, and production traceability data, which is data including information indicating a lot allocated to each product for each of one or more types of renewable materials used as materials for the product.