Product Description

The Smart-Trace Web Application is the web component of the Smart-Trace Online Monitoring System™, which also includes disposable, wireless networking tags and GPS-enabled gateways installed on refrigerated trailers.

Suppliers attach Smart-Trace tags to pallets when dispatched from the warehouse. The tags regularly transmit temperature and identity information to the trailers’ gateway, which then transmits it to the Smart-Trace server along with GPS information.

The Smart-Trace application gives suppliers and trucking companies access to this live temperature and location data from pallets in transit to the retailer.

The web application includes temperature alerts, detailed temperature charts, location maps, historical data, product recall procedures, and performance reports.

Innovation

The Smart-Trace Online Monitoring System™ offers near real-time tracking of perishable goods during delivery. The Smart-Trace Tags record and send time, temperature, identity, and location information every 15 minutes. We are not aware of any other pallet-level system that provides this sort of continual monitoring. 

The Smart-Trace Web Application captures this ongoing tag data and combines it with dispatch information to determine if a temperature alert needs to be raised.

A barcode scanner is used to collect dispatch information when the tag is attached to a pallet. The user scans both the pallet and tag and also nominates a pallet profile such as “Chilled Beef”.

Each pallet profile has various alert rules defined by the user. For example, one of the alert rules for the Chilled Beef profile might be “Raise an alert if the temperature is more than 7ºC for more than 60mins”.

When alerts fire, a Notification Schedule is used to determine the appropriate user to be notified via either SMS or email.

Once notified, the user enters the Smart-Trace Temperature Trace web page to view a time/temperature graph of the problem tag. The Temperature Trace provides additional popup information and also lets users plot the temperature of assets and other tags on the same vehicle.

Once the user determines that temperature abuse has occurred, they can pinpoint the location using the GPS Location screen.

Once armed with this information, the user can take action to prevent further temperature abuse from occurring. The application acts as both an early warning system and a long-term performance-monitoring tool.

Performance

The Smart-Trace Web Application is a .NET2 C# solution built upon Microsoft’s Enterprise Application Blocks and SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (including Service Broker).

A multi-threaded, message-based design ensures the application can be built both up and out as the business expands. Individual components communicate via a loosely coupled messaging system. The Communication Server receives network traffic, the Data Processor interprets that traffic, and the Notification Server sends out messages to users.

Performance testing with our emulator rig shows the Communication Server is capable of consuming 8000 transactions per second and shooting data out to the database at 100 records per second.

The application currently integrates with Minorplanet’s VMIgreenlight™ server software, which provides GPS location information from the vehicles in the field.

GPS maps in the Smart-Trace application are generated via Microsoft MapPoint Web Service.

Potential

The Smart-Trace Online Monitoring System™ has been designed as a cost-effective, global solution for monitoring and improving food safety in the cold chain. It’s been developed in response to increased global demands for food safety, traceability, enhanced integrity and actionable transparency of cold chain performance. The system provides customers with the 'first to know' advantage in the event of product abuse.

The international market for Smart-Trace™ includes the temperature sensitive food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and refrigerated transport industries. Quality control is vital for the more than 60 million tonnes of refrigerated products shipped around the world each year.

Smart-Trace™ is developed by Australian company, Ceebron Pty Limited, in partnering relationships with Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Motorola Inc., and Minorplanet Asia Pacific.

Other information the judges should know

The screen shots below are the 2 most significant screens from the Smart-Trace Application: