[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.

62/508,105, filed on May 18, 2017, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[0002] This invention was not made with federal government support.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Supply chains around the world are susceptible to theft of goods in transit. This is particularly true in the case of liquid petroleum products moving through high-risk regions such as Africa. This can have the effect of unusual dips and spikes in product demand and market manipulation. Systems and methods are therefore needed to improve the dispatch and tracking of shipments of such products from storage depots to retailers, for example, to ensure the integrity of the product markets.

[0004] The invention is that of an improved inventory management system, in particular liquid goods inventory, comprising a software application that allows for role-based approval of transactions taking place within the supply chain using a desktop computer or portable electronic device. Personnel at a storage depot located within a specified geo- fence may use the application of the present invention to create and enable an electronic waybill or equivalent, which can be tracked as it accompanies the freight identified on the waybill through the supply chain to an end user having role based approval to validate its receipt using the application. Role-based approval authorization may also be provided to various other supply chain managers, such as sellers of goods and storage depot managers. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Disclosed herein is a real-time inventory management system (IMS) and method for the tracking and managing inventory of goods, and in particular wet goods, as they pass through a supply chain, configured as a cloud-based system accessible via a computing device such as a computer, tablet or other portable electronic device, such as smartphone. This IMS is comprised of three main components: an enterprise platform, a mobile application and a consumer application. This solution replaces cumbersome manual and paper intensive processes.

[0006] In one illustrative embodiment, inventory information (such as Quick Response (QR) code information, stock keeping unit (SKU) information, product serial number, purchase order (PO) number, or other identifying information related to a product inventory item) is input into the IMS of the present invention for monitoring and tracking. At the various nodes of the supply and distribution chain the IMS is accessed for the entry of receipt and dispatch information on a real-time basis. For instance, a client may deploy the IMS for the monitoring and tracking of gasoline inventory transported from one country to another.

[0007] The present invention comprises a mobile software application that can be installed on computing devices, and in a preferred embodiment, smartphones. Users may be provided with different levels of authorization such that only authorized individuals in the supply chain may authorize the purchase, sale, release, export, import and receipt of goods in transit. The application is designed to help supply chain managers ensure that the freight in transit does not leave a specified geo-fence, and that delays and unusual movements of freight are detected in real-time. The application also allows government officials charged with the regulation of the movement of goods within and across international borders to have visibility to the freight movements and take preemptive actions when suspicious events occur, e.g., when the freight leaves the geo-fence or is unexpectedly held delayed. The present invention further provides a publicly available, downloadable consumer application to allow consumers to monitor price fluctuations in goods of interest.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Fig. 1 shows an overview of an exemplary system architecture of the present invention, including IMS 100 configured with a web application architecture comprising an access layer 101 a presentation layer 102 an application layer 103 an integration layer 104 and a data layer 105.

[0009] Fig. 2 shows an additional high level overview of the system architecture 200 comprising a presentation layer 201, a business layer 202 and a data layer 203. The business layer encompasses the application and integration layers of Fig. 1., which includes enterprise-specific business logic.

[0010] Fig. 3 shows an overview of an exemplary deployment architecture of an IMS 300 according to one embodiment of the invention comprising a user interface 301 router 302 one or more web servers 303 in communication with one or more application servers 304 and a database 305. [0011] Figure 4 shows an expanded view of an exemplary IMS 400 with a database 401 in communication with one or more application modules 402 accessed through web servers 403 or tracking servers 404, the servers being in communication with various user interfaces 405. The application modules 402 are further capable of generating notifications and reports, and are also in communication with a mapping application 406 to allow tracking.

[0012] Fig. 5 is a flow diagram detailing the main steps of deploying the IMS application of the present invention for use 501 and then using the IMS to release and track inventory from a storage depot to an end receiver such as a retail seller of the goods 502.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] The present invention is that of an IMS comprising a software application that can be downloaded to a computing device such as a computer, tablet or portable electronic device, such as a smartphone, which can be used to monitor the transit of goods through a supply chain. Of particular interest is the tracking of liquid goods, and in particular petroleum products, and the validation of their purchase, sale, dispatch, receipt into depots and receipt by retailers.

[0014] In one embodiment, the IMS of the present invention is web-based and configured specifically for the management of wet goods as they pass through the supply chain. This solution is traditionally implemented as a cloud-based solution but can also be installed at a client site. In one embodiment, the system may be, in part, hosted on client hardware but a separate service provider or operator (referred to herein as TIMS) would have remote access to the application on the server in order to oversee the day-to-day operations and

maintenance of the application. This solution may be deployed anywhere in the world and supports English and French languages, among others, for user input, prompts, and feedback (including reports generated in a preferred language). Each independent component of the system's features are interrelated and implemented holistically, rather than a modular fashion.

[0015] An enterprise platform is installed on one or more network or cloud servers independently from the mobile and consumer applications, which are dependent on the enterprise platform being in place. The mobile application can be configured to manage the movement of goods through the supply chain. In one embodiment, the IMS of the present invention comprises an enterprise platform, a mobile application, and a consumer application, arranged and configured for real-time supply change management.

[0016] The IMS of the present invention is provided with a geo-fence such that when goods that have been tagged with a unique identifier such as a SKU or Q code, users of the mobile application are alerted in the event freight moves outside the geo-fence. The identifier is associated with an electronic waybill that is created by a user supplied with credentials that allow for the dispatch of freight to a freight handler such as a truck driver. The freight handler will be equipped with the mobile application and electronic waybill so that the electronic waybill accompanies the freight and can be tracked remotely, using available technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS) by users of the

application, such as a purchaser, seller, or government official responsible for the oversight of freight movements, such as a Customs official.

[0017] In the case of ocean freight movements, once a transport vessel carrying the inventory is on territorial waters of the country of importation and the inventory is in route for delivery to a destination, a tracking module of the system is accessed and supply chain information, such as but not limited to delivery vessel name, inventory transported, destination port, or delivery vessel status, is collected by an authorized user and entered into the IMS via web-based service on a client terminal of the system. Once entered, an email notification is sent out from a notification system of the IMS to all relevant parties associated with the inventory (for example, distributors, importers, and exporters) providing them with status information on the vessel. As the vessel sails to berth, the delivery vessel status is monitored by a tracking application and delivery vessel status (for example, location or time to arrival) is updated and the relevant parties are continually notified of status updates.

[0018] After the vessel has berthed and the inventory is offloaded into a storage facility (referred to herein also as a depot), information on the receipt activity related to the inventory, such as but not limited to receipt date, receipt quantity and received product type, can be entered into the IMS using the IMS web based application. Inventory information undergoes an approval process to ensure the integrity of the data entered, and upon successful completion of the approval process, the relevant parties are notified, for example, via email or Short Message Service (SMS) text message. The IMS then updates an inventory balance of a receiving client in the system and credits the receiving client with the received quantity of inventory.

[0019] When a client wishes to obtain the product from a manager in receipt of the inventory from the vessel, the client sends an instruction via the web service on the client terminal to the manager, such as a depot manager, identifying the carriers to be expected at the depot for dispatch of the inventory received from the delivery vessel and in storage with the manager. This information is entered into the IMS to provide loading advice to a depot manager, stating the quantity to be loaded on a particular truck and the destination (for example, the location of a retailer, distributor, customer, or secondary storage facility) of the truck. After loading activities, an electronic waybill is generated using the IMS system and the depot's balance is debited thereafter once the inventory is loaded for transit from the depot to the destination.

[0020] Information can be retrieved from the application via reporting, notifications or from an interactive dashboard using the web-based IMS application. Reports such as but not limited to client balance reports, dispatch summaries, product retailer reports or delivery reports can be spooled manually or automatically configured for delivery on a periodic basis as defined by the user. In one embodiment, the dashboard provides the graphical summary of the various supply chain levels such as but not limited to product levels, total receipts or total dispatches on a given day using histograms, donut charts or other user-selected graphics options. Using a provided "search" feature, information on clients, receipts, dispatches, transporters and retailers during a specified period can be spooled and documented. This feature is very useful for auditing purposes.

[0021] After a truck or other carrier vessel has been successfully loaded with an ordered quantity of product, an electronic waybill is pushed to a mobile device configured with the mobile application and associated with the vessel receiving the load. The mobile device is used for tracking the position of the truck as it journeys to its delivery point. By accessing the IMS, the journey of the truck can be efficiently monitored by selecting the desired truck on a live map page of the web service on a client terminal. This process ensures that the truck driver maintains the advised journey route and delivers the freight to the designated recipient. Definitions [0022] As used herein Inversion of Control (IoC) means an object-oriented programing practice whereby the object coupling is bounded at runtime by an "assembler" object and are typically not knowable at compile time using static analysis.

[0023] As used herein MVC means a model-view-controller.

[0024] As used herein, Representational State of Transfer (ReST or RESTful) is an architectural style used for web development.

[0025] As used herein, RDBMS means a relational database management system.

[0026] As used herein ACID is the acronym for the four properties guaranteed by transactions: atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability. Atomicity means a transaction must execute completely or not at all. This means atomicity guaranteed that operations with in a transaction undergo an all-or-nothing paradigm: either all the database updates are performed, or nothing happens. Consistency means a transactional characteristic that must be enforced by both the transactional system and the application developer. Consistency guarantees that a transaction leaves the system's state to be consistent after a transaction completes. Consistency refers to the integrity of the underlying data store. Atomicity helps enforce the system always appears to be consistent. Isolated means makes a transaction to execute without interference from another process or transactions. Isolation protects concurrently executing transactions from seeing each other's incomplete results.

Isolation allows multiple transactions to read or write to a database without knowing about each other because each transaction is isolated from each other's. Durability means that all the data changes made during the course of a transaction must be written to some type of physical storage before the transaction is successfully completed. [0027] As used herein, IT means information technology.

[0028] As used herein, IMS means inventory management system.

[0029] As used herein, LAN means local area network.

[0030] As used herein, WAN means wide area network.

[0031] As used herein, GPS means global positioning system.

Exemplary Enterprise Platform

[0032] In one embodiment, the enterprise platform of the IMS is implemented via the cloud and accessed via the Internet on a computer, tablet or internet-enabled portable electronic device, such as a smartphone. In another embodiment, the enterprise platform may be deployed on a client's local IT network and accessed via LAN or WAN.

[0033] In each embodiment, three environments of the enterprise platform environment are installed: Development, Quality and Production. The first phase after installation is configuration of the application to the client's specific business in the Development environment, which is an intensive process involving the input of data from the client's inventory database, creating user roles and providing users with appropriate levels of access, inputting data on preferred freight forwarders and carriers, etc. After installation and configuration, a training and testing period takes place in the Quality environment and the application's configuration and functionality is verified. Upon validation, the

Production environment is launched and the hyper-care phase begins. Finally, the solution is transitioned to an operations command center and the client's business analysts for day- to-day operations and maintenance.

[0034] In one embodiment, the IMS as disclosed herein is configured with a management status dashboard permitting inventory management, including stock monitoring, data archiving, remote scheduling, transaction reconciliation and online electronic document access and storage of supply chain transaction documents. The IMS is further configured with both on demand and scheduled reporting capability allowing for reports on outturn, truck receipts, waybills, transit loss and data archiving and visibility. Real-time information is made available online by location, improving transaction transparency across locations, visibility of product in transit, product stock at different locations and real-time sales data.

[0035] The reporting functionality of the IMS described herein is useful in improving the control of inventory and cashflow as well as the accuracy of audits. The client can easily use the IMS for stock reconciliation by product, and to trace product and account for every transaction in the supply chain by user. The IMS further allows for the implementation of approval workflows that provide management controls as inventory moves through the supply chain, including role-based access permissions. The IMS described herein may be further configured to provide users with notifications such as notifications of dispatch, receipt, swaps and delays.

[0036] Key benefits of the present invention include access to online real-time information; the ability to generate multiple types of user-defined transactional reports; a data repository for all client transactions; offshore vessel tracking capability; product tracking and visibility from vessels to depots and final product destinations, such as but not limited to gas stations; mobile access; and web-based application.

Exemplary Mobile Application

[0037] In one embodiment of the present invention, a mobile application is implemented in the cloud and deployed to portable electronic devices to track the progress of goods from depot to depot or to retail stations. This application is not configured as a stand-alone application, but rather configured as an extension of the enterprise platform. In one embodiment, an enterprise server generates an electronic waybill and sends it to a forms server. This cloud-based forms server sends the waybill to the mobile device via the mobile data network to a delivery client comprising a mobile device assigned to the driver that is responsible for the load associated with the waybill. The load's waybill is then tracked and monitored via GPS waypoints and the mobile network of the delivery client, as the load travels to its destination. The delivery client device sends regular updates back to the forms server that relays a status update to the enterprise server on a periodic basis (this is configurable and will normally be between 3-15 minutes depending on the specific application). In cases where the delivery client device travels outside of the mobile network coverage area, the GPS waypoints are stored and forwarded back to the forms server once the device comes back into the coverage area. One or more validation steps and security protocols validate the delivery process, i.e., confirming a valid delivery of the goods to the proper recipient.

[0038] The delivery client device must be within a particular geo-fence for the waybill delivery function to be active. This is controlled by the geographical position of the device and the location of the destination. Secondly, in a preferred embodiment there is a unique three-dimensional barcode or QR code associated with the freight that must be scanned at the delivery point to complete the waybill receipt process. Next, there is a timer that monitors the delivery once the waybill is generated and sent to the delivery client device. The timer generates a system alert if the delivery does not take place in the expected time frame. Finally, a security code, which is sent to the recipient, must be entered into the delivery client device to authenticate the receipt of the goods. Upon completion of receipt of the goods and the security validation steps, the completed information is transmitted to the forms server, which communicates and closes the transaction within the enterprise platform. Due to the risk of a lost device or other unplanned interruption in the process, a manual process is available that will reduce the layers of security offered by the intended process. This generates an exception report and these exceptions are monitored to track driver reliability and potential fraud in the supply chain.

Exemplary Consumer Application

[0039] In one embodiment, a consumer application is configured for use on a portable electronic device, such as a smartphone, and serves as a value-added information service for consumers as well as a community policing tool to manage demand shortages or price discrepancies in the market. The application provides real-time location and pricing information for retail goods to the consumer. This application is particularly valuable when dealing with commodities where there are pricing controls or shortages due to supply issues, spikes in demand, or fraudulent activity in the supply chain.

[0040] The innovative aspect of this application is two-fold. In one embodiment, the application is configured to collect data from retail providers through a business process requiring daily updates for pricing and quantities, data which is then stored in a database of the system. Based on this data collection process, the consumer application updates information for near real-time access by the consumers via the portable electronic device running the mobile application. In cases where the system shows data anomalies, the consumer is able to report pricing and product availability gaps. This information is provided to the necessary regulators for handling and auditing. This is of particular use in regions such as certain parts of Africa where petroleum theft is common.

[0041] In another embodiment, the consumer application is configured to show the location of a particular retail station and provide the user with directions to the retail provider through the application's interface with the navigation functionality that is common to mobile applications.

Overview of Exemplary System Architecture

[0042] Fig. 1 shows an overview of an exemplary system architecture according to one embodiment of the present invention. An inventory management system 100 is configured, in part, with a Java™ EE web application architecture comprising an access layer 101 comprising a computing means in communication with an HTTP server, presentation layer 102 comprising programmable presentation logic, application layer 103 comprising programmable business logic and adapters to external systems contained within an integration layer, integration layer 104 containing external systems, and data layer 105 containing a database of inventory and logistics information.

[0043] The access layer comprises a user interface (computing means) such as a computer or smartphone in communication with an HTTP server, which is in communication with a presentation layer residing on an application server, further comprising the application and integration layers (collectively the "business layer"). The business layer further comprises presentation and business logic coded into the application that enables the user interfaces and the processing of instructions for supply chain personnel to take various actions to move inventory. The application layer contains adapters to external systems such as Java™ Transaction Adapter (JTA), Java™ Database Connectivity (JDBC), Hibernate and Java™ Mail, all present in the integration layer 104. The integration layer enables use of the data contained in the database in the creation of documents (e.g., reports and email),

transactions, notifications and other functionalities.

[0044] Fig. 2 shows an additional high level overview of the system architecture 200 comprising a presentation layer 201 a business layer 202 and a data layer 203. In one embodiment, Spring Framework - application framework for the Java™ platform - is leveraged to accelerate development. Web pages are designed to be responsive, which means that the same design can be used for rendering on phones, tablets or desktops.

In one embodiment, the business layer 202 is configured for rendering the graphical user interfaces on the user's web browser. The web browser could be running on a desktop, tablet or a cell phone. Therefore, this tier is configured to be compatible with multiple devices. Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an approach that enables creation of web pages that can respond to a user's screen size without designing separate pages for each screen size. Bootstrap is one of the most popular component libraries that supports RWD, and is present in the presentation layer of a preferred embodiment of the invention. AngularJS is an MVC framework for a browser and helps binding, retrieving or posting the data. The Bootstrap-AngularJS is a popular combination and has a fair user base and support, and is present in the embodiment shown in Fig. 2.

[0045] In one embodiment, the business layer 202 is configured for serving all the requests emanating from the user interface, along with other tasks like scheduled job processing and reporting. Spring Framework provides a platform for rapid application development. It supports a declarative IoC framework which enables designing reusable and replaceable components and enforces a neat interface-based design. Spring MVC provides a framework for handling web requests. It also has a good support for defining

ReST-based services. Spring Security provides the authentication and authorization support. Spring Data along with hibernate, handles the data persistence aspects. It enables querying and updating the database through simple interface definitions, mereby reducing most of the boilerplate code. In one embodiment, a Quartz scheduler is used for scheduling and triggering jobs. In another embodiment, JasperReports ^® are used for designing and generating various reports in the system. In one embodiment, the data layer

206 is configured for persistence and management of data. RDBMS like Oracle or

MySQL™ is used due to the ACID requirements of the system.

[0046] Fig. 3 shows an overview of an exemplary deployment architecture of an inventory management system 300 according to one embodiment of the invention with user interface (UI) 301, which in a preferred embodiment is a smartphone, a router 302 for load balancing, one or more web servers 303 (shown in the figure as Web Server 1 and

Web Server 2, each of which are associated with a different server and or client device), one or more application servers 304 (shown in the figure as App Server 1 and App Server

2, each of which are associated with a different machine), and a database 305. The multiple web and application servers provide redundancy in case any server or the machine on which it resides goes down, the other can provide backup. [0047] In one illustrative example, an IMS desktop application is the core application within the inventory management system. It provides the functionality for the client, user and product management (receipts, product at rest, delivery and multi-user approvals).

Fig. 4 shows the main functionalities of the IMS 400 visible to users, such as email notifications 407, reporting 408, mobile shipment tracking 409 and retailer business information regarding demand and pricing 410. Tracking is based on standard applications like GPS applications 406. The IMS reports application allows a user to generate and view a variety of reports for previously completed and ongoing operations. Reports may also be generated through the scheduler function in a preferred embodiment of the IMS desktop application. The retailer is the endpoint who receives the product from the depot and sells it to the end users. Whenever a dispatch is created to the retailer, the IMS desktop application notifies the retailer by sending an email or SMS text message 410.

Retailers can also interact with the IMS using email and SMS to update their available product balances and current prices. Fig. 5 is a flow chart that shows the main steps of deployment 501 and use 502 of the IMS desktop application.

[0048] An overall system for inventory management comprises a client terminal application (such as a laptop, desktop, tablet or portable electronic device), a consumer application, a mobile application, a reporting application and a tracking application.

In one embodiment, the client terminal application comprises a web portal application, and is the core component of the system.. The client terminal application comprising an enterprise platform that is configured for the following functionalities, which are intended to be illustrative and not exhaustive: dashboard; receipt; swap; release; transfer; dispatch; ticketing; waybill; tank dip; inventory management (creating an opening balance and keeping an inventory balance); end of day management (transaction history, balance checking); vessel tracking; scheduling; tank configuration; region management; retailer management; retailer balance update management via SMS or email; retailer product price update management via SMS or email; truck management; carrier management; depot management; client management; role management; user management; audit logging;

reporting; dual approval; and notifications.

[0049] In one embodiment, the mobile application comprises a web application which acts as an interface between the client terminal application and a mobile tracking server. In one embodiment, the client terminal application posts the electronic waybill information to the mobile application, which in turn sends this information to the tracking server for delivery tracking. The tracking server sends the waybill status information updates and truck coordinates to the tracking server, which in turn stores those in a tracking server database. In another embodiment, the vehicle transporting goods can also be tracked by way of collecting GPS coordinates from the mobile device associated with the truck, and transmitting the coordinates to the tracking server or tracking server database.

In another embodiment, a consumer application is configured to provide the end user or consumer the ability to search for retailers within a given locality and view inventory and price information of the products at the retail locations.

[0050] In one embodiment, a tracking application manages the truck delivery and the waybill for goods. In another embodiment, the tracking application is configured for: I) pushing waybills to trucks via portable electronic devices, such as a mobile smartphone, configured with a waybill application; 2) collecting truck location coordinates via the tracking application and sending the same to the system server; and 3) sending the waybill status updates and delivery confirmations to the mobile application.

Exemplary System Components

[0051] As is suggested in Fig. 3, a router acts as a first level load balancer. It routes requests from the user interface to one or more web servers. In one embodiment, it is configured for sticky sessions to achieve session affinity.

[0052] Web servers host all the static content. They play multiple roles, i.e., of a cache server for static content and second level load balancer. They route the dynamic content requests to the application servers.

[0053] Application servers are responsible for serving the dynamic requests. They execute the main business logic and also communicate with the database for persistence.

All relevant system data is stored and managed in one or more databases.

[0054] Table 1 provides recommended software for preferred embodiments of the present invention. The router performs a round robin to route the requests to the web servers.

However, session affinity is maintained, which means that all requests for a given user would always go to the same the web server. Session affinity removes the need for session replication, which is a fairly expensive process. One or more web servers serve the static content themselves, but route the dynamic content to the application servers. The reason for separating static content and dynamic content is to reduce the load on the application servers. Web servers always route the request to the same application server. In case of a node failure, they would route the request to an alternate application server. As illustrated in Fig. 3, Web Server 1 would always route the requests to App Server 1 unless App Server 1 fails, then Web Server 1 would route the requests to App Server 2. Similarly, Web Server 2 would route the requests to App Server 2 and only upon failure would it route the requests to App Server 1. This configuration provides a robust failover mechanism.

Table 1

[0055] Databases should be backed up regularly (more than once per day). If greater availability is required, then a mirror database should be configured, which could be used when the primary database is down, thus reducing the overall downtime and data loss. The best option for availability would be something like Oracle ^® RAC, which provides a cluster of databases and ensures highest availability. There is almost no downtime. The greater the number of machines, the better the availability of the system. The number of machines can be reduced, but that would also reduce database availability.

[0056] It will be clear to a person of ordinary skill in the art that the features described in relation to any of the embodiments described herein can be applicable interchangeably between the different embodiments. The embodiments described herein are examples to illustrate various features of the invention. Any of the features disclosed in this application, as well as any of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of the features or steps are mutually exclusive. The invention is not necessarily restricted to the details of any foregoing embodiments. The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this application, or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.