WO2024012842A1

WO2024012842A1 - A method and a system for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device from an origin location to a destination location

Info

Publication number: WO2024012842A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/067074
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gisli HERJOLFSSON
Original assignee: Controlant Hf.
Priority date: 2022-07-14
Filing date: 2023-06-23
Publication date: 2024-01-18

Abstract

This invention relates to a method and a system for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device by a mode of transport from an origin location to a destination location, where the logger device is configured to measure an environmental related parameter for the asset and communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with the location data of the logger device to an external computer system, the method comprises: - generating a shipment order for the asset, where the shipment order comprises said origin location and destination location, - identifying the shipment order with a shipment order property, - defining multiple Point of Interest (POI) areas between the origin location and the destination location, the POI areas representing areas having a potential risk of excursion in the environmental related parameter, where the POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by their geofence properties, - identifying, when the mode of transport has entered one or more geofences selected from said geofences associated with the defined POI areas, properties associated with the one or more geofences, - determining which of the identified properties match with the shipment order property, and - associating the environmental related parameters to the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property.

Description

A METHOD AND A SYSTEM FOR ACCUMULATING DATA DURING REAL-TIME SUPPLY

CHAIN MONITORING WHILE TRANSPORTING AN ASSET HAVING AN ASSOCIATED

LOGGER DEVICE FROM AN ORIGIN LOCAHON TO ADESHNAHON LOCAHON

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and a system for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device from an origin location to a destination location.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the expansion and growth of global sourcing in a supply chain, more prevalent interest has been placed on a real time monitoring of position and environment related parameters to increase food and drug safety and improve food defense systems throughout all areas of production, processing, storage, transportation and operations. Food and drugs require proper handling of environment related parameters such as temperature during transport to assure quality, longevity, and safety.

Logger devices are electronic monitoring devices commonly used for these purposes, namely, to be associated to assets such as food, beverages or drugs to automatically monitor and record various environmental related parameters of the assets throughout a supply chain, including temperature, humidity, acceleration, and air pressure over time. A recent example of the importance of such logger devices is the critical temperature monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Systems such as “geofence” is an important tool in supply chain monitoring while tracking the location of the asset via an associated logger device within specific regions/areas during the shipping process from an origin location to a destination location. The geofence is also utilized to trigger certain actions when an asset enters/leaves certain areas. These actions may include automatically starting the real time monitoring process when the logger device/asset leaves the geofence at the origin location and automatically stopping the real time monitoring process when the logger device/asset enters the geofence at the destination location. A geofence can be described as an enclosed region/area around a POI (point of interest), where the POI may be any area or point, e.g. harbor, airport, warehouse and town/city. Once the logger device and thus the asset leaves/enters one of the geofence(s) a notification is sent to the customer or a support service confirming that the logger device and thus the asset has left/entered one of the locations.

A common environmental related parameter measured by the-logger devices is the ambience temperature around the asset. A pre-defined temperature threshold is set for an asset, which may be an upper boundary threshold and/or a lower boundary threshold which the asset is not allowed to be below/above these temperature thresholds for a certain also predefined time period. In case the measured temperature was above/below the upper/lower boundary level for a time period exceeding the predefined one an excursion is triggered and is linked with the POI of the detected geofence.

Presently, the method of linking excursions to the “right” POI’s e.g. in case a plurality of geofences are detected is by measuring the distance to the closest POI geofence and associating the excursion to that POI. This is considered a poor method and can lead to inaccuracies in the data given because the identified excursions may be associated with the wrong POIs. As an example, a detected excursion(s) in an industrial area having multiple of POI’s may be assigned to a wrong warehouse, airport, harbor ere.. Consequently, this will result in inaccurate accumulated dataset, when selecting the most optimal shipment route via the plurality of POI’s with the aim of minimizing risk of excursions during the transport in the supply chain.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of embodiments of the invention to improve the accumulation and reliability of the data during real time supply chain monitoring to ensure that the accumulated measurements of the environmental related parameters such as temperature, humidity, or the detected excursions, may be associated with the right Point of Interest (POI) e.g. in case of presence of multiple of POI’s.

In general, the invention preferably seeks to mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art singly or in any combination. In particular, it may be seen as an object of embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved method and system that solves the above-mentioned problems, or other problems.

To better address one or more of these concerns, in a first aspect of the invention a method is provided for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device by a transport means from an origin location to a destination location, where the logger device is configured to measure an environmental related parameter for the asset and communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with location data of the logger device to an external computer system, the method comprising:

• generating a shipment order for the asset, where the shipment order comprises said origin location and destination location,

• identifying the shipment order with a shipment order property,

• defining multiple Point Of Interest (POI) areas between the origin location and the destination location, the POI areas representing areas having a potential risk of excursion in the environmental related parameter, where the POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by geofence properties,

• identifying, when the transport means is located within one or more geofences selected from said geofences associated to defined POI areas, geofence properties associated to the one or more geofences,

• determining which of the identified geofence properties match with the shipment order property, and

• associating the environmental related parameters to the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property.

In this way, an automated solution is provided to accurately relate the measured environmental parameter(s) to the correct POI. The shipment order property may in one embodiment be selected from:

• a customer or an owner identifier identifying the customer or the owner of the asset, or

• a carrier type identifier identifying the carrier type or carrier service type during the transport from the origin location to the destination location, such as DHL®, FedEx®, or

• a mode of transportation type identifier, such as ship, aircraft, train, vehicle, identifying the mode of transportation, or

• a distribution center type identifier identifying the type of distribution center at a POI, or a warehouse/storage identifier identifying warehouse/ storage for the asset at a POI, or a combination of two or more of the above mentioned.

As an example, identifying the shipment order with shipment order property may be carrier type identifier + mode of transportation type identifier”, where DHL® may be the carrier type identifier and aircraft and thus airport as mode of transportation. The step of determining which of the identified properties associated with the one or more geofences match with the shipment order property would then be a match if the property associated to one of the identified geofences would be DHL® at an airport, but e.g. non-match if it would be FedEx® at an airport or DHL® at a harbor.

Another example is where the property is mode transportation type identifier + customer or owner identifier, such as a vessel (harbor) and Pfizer®, where a match would be harbor and Pfizer®.

The term transport means may according to the present invention also be understood as any type of transport such as, but not limited to, train, car, truck, ship, aircraft, drone, motorcycle.

The term carrier type identifier is, as mentioned above, a company that undertakes the transport of the asset at least partially during the transport of the asset from the origin location to the destination location.

In an embodiment, the method further comprises:

• comparing said measured environmental related parameter with a pre-defined reference value or a reference value window, where in case of an excursion event in the measured environmental related parameter from the pre-defined reference value or reference window,

• associating the excursion event to the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property.

The measured environmental related parameter may as an example be, but is not limited to, temperature data, humidity data, acceleration/vibration data, light intensity data, and pressure data.

As an example, an excursion event may be where the temperature is above a pre-defined temperature threshold, e.g. 15°C, over a pre-defined time period. Accordingly, it is now possible to assign such a critical situation accurately with the correct POI even if several such POIs may be present. In that way, such an accurate data accumulation for excursion allows for accurate data mapping for identifying “weak” POI and “stable” POI.

Another example is where the logger device associated with the asset is in a vehicle located in an external geofence having a property being different from the shipment property, i.e. non-matching properties. The measured environmental parameter and/or an excursion event would then be assigned to the vehicle and not to the POI of this geofence.

In an embodiment, the method further comprises retroactively analyzing the measured environment related parameter by identifying a trend or a deviation of the measured environment related parameter to identify the origin position leading to said excursion event at a later time point. Such an excursion may take some time, e.g. several minutes, tens of minutes, or hour(s) meaning that the position causing the initial steps resulting in said excursion event may be determined, i.e. the “origin of the subsequent excursion event”. This is important when planning future supply chain routes for subsequent transports, e.g. in order to be aware of which POI should be avoided as an example.

In an embodiment, the method further comprises measuring dwelling time of the transport means at the POI areas. The dwelling time, e.g. the time a vessel spends at a harbor, is valuable additional information that may be highly relevant in identifying potential issues at different POI’s, e.g. determining why is the vessel typically spending a long time at one POI but a shorter time at another POI. In that way, the global supply chain route may be further improved, e.g. by avoiding this particular POI when scheduling a new route.

In an embodiment, the measured excursion event optionally together with the measured dwelling time is utilized in determining a performance indicator for the POI areas. The performance indicator may in an embodiment further be associated with a date and optionally the time of when the measured dwelling time and the measured excursion event took place. The performance indicator may further be configured to be utilized as input in determining optimal transport route between POI areas with minimal excursion rate. Accordingly, an improved method is provided for real time supply chain monitoring where the risk of excursion may be minimized by utilizing the improved data collected. Moreover, the optimal transport route may be seasonally dependent, such as monthly or weekly dependent meaning that an optimal transport route in January may be different from the optimal transport route in July. Thus, the present invention enables proposing the most optimal transport routes depending on the time of the year, and this may even be done dynamically in real time, and thus minimize possible excursion events during the transport of the asset.

The logger device according to the present invention is a logger device configured to communicate in real time the measured environment related parameter with e.g. a fixed frequency together with the position of the logger device (and thus the asset) to the external computer system, where the environmental related parameter includes one or more of, but is not limited to: temperature, light intensity, air pressure, humidity, acceleration. Moreover, in case an excursion is detected during the transport, the logger device deviates from the fixed frequency and communicates the excursion event to the external computer system. The position of the logger device may be determined based on WIFI positioning, or GPS, or cellular triangulation.

The term geofence may according to the present invention be defined as a pre-defined area of any shape, which e.g. be circular around a POI with a certain radius, or have a certain non-circular shape, and may e.g. cover certain areas, regions, cities and even a country.

The geofences around the POIs may have different sizes, e.g. different radii, and/or shapes around the POI.

In a second aspect of the invention, a system is provided for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device by a transport means from an origin location to a destination location, where the logger device comprises at least one sensing device configured to measure an environmental related parameter for the asset and a communication module configured to communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with location data of the logger device to an external computer system, the system comprising:

• an input unit for receiving: o a shipment order for the asset, where the shipment order comprises said origin location and destination location, o a shipment order property for identifying the shipment order, o input data for multiple Point Of Interest (POI) areas between the origin location and the destination location, the POI areas representing areas having a potential risk of excursion in the environmental related parameter, where the POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by geofence properties, wherein the system comprises at least one processing device configured to:

• identifying, when the transport means is located within one or more geofences selected from said geofences associated with the defined POI areas, geofence properties associated to the one or more geofences,

The sensing unit is selected from one or more of, but is not limited to:

• a temperature sensor where the environmental related parameter is temperature data,

• an accelerometer where the environmental related parameter is acceleration data,

• a barometer where the environmental related parameter is pressure data,

• a light sensor where the environmental related parameter is light intensity data.

In an embodiment, the system further comprises a processing device such as said at least one processing device or a processor comprised in the logger device configured to:

• compare said measured environmental related parameter with a pre-defined reference value or a reference value window, where in case of an excursion event in the measured environmental related parameter from the pre-defined reference value or reference window,

• associate the excursion event to the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property.

In an embodiment, the system further comprises a timer, a clock, or similar means, for measuring a dwelling time of the transport means at each of the POI areas, wherein the measured excursion event together with the measured dwelling time is utilized in determining a performance indicator for the POI areas.

In general, the various aspects of the invention may be combined and coupled in any way possible within the scope of the invention. These and other aspects, features, and/or advantages of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the drawings, in which

Figure 1 shows a flowchart of an embodiment method according to the present invention for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device by a transport means from an origin location to a destination location,

Figure 2 is an example of the present invention wherein the asset associated with a logger device is transported by a vessel,

Figure 3 is another embodiment of the invention wherein an asset has a shipment order property defined as being mode of transportation type identifier being vehicle/truck + mode of transportation which is DHL® in this case,

Figure 4 illustrates an origin location and a destination location, where between these begin and end locations there are several POI areas, and

Figure 5 shows a system according to the present invention for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device by a transport means from an origin location to a destination location.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 shows a flowchart of an embodiment method according to the present invention for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset having an associated logger device by a transport means from an origin location to a destination location. The asset may as an example include any type of medicine, food products, or beverages that may be sensitive to environmental parameters such as temperature, acceleration, angular/tilting position, air pressure, light intensity and humidity. The logger device is configured to measure an environmental related parameter of the asset, such as temperature, humidity, acceleration/vibration, light intensity, and air pressure of the asset and communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with the location data of the logger device to an external computer system in real time, meaning e.g. every hour or every two hours or with higher or lower frequency.

The location data may be determined using well known prior art technology, such as cellular triangularization, or via WiFi access points.

In a first step (SI) 101, a shipment order is generated for the asset, where the shipment order comprises said origin location and destination location.

In a second step (S2) 102, the shipment order is identified with a shipment order property. The shipment order property may be selected from: a customer or an owner identifier identifying the customer or the owner of the asset, a carrier type identifier identifying the carrier type during the transport from the origin location to the destination location, or a mode of transportation type identifier, such as sea, air, train, vehicle, identifying the mode of transportation, or a distribution center type identifier identifying the type of distribution center at a POI, or warehouse/storage identifier identifying the warehouse/ storage for the asset at a POI, or a combination of two or more of the above.

In a third step (S3) 103, multiple Point Of Interest (POI) areas are defined between the origin location and the destination location. These POI areas represent areas having a potential risk of excursion in an environmental related parameter, where the POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by their geofence’s properties. These points may as an example include intermediate stops, such as warehouses, harbors, airports, distribution centers and the like, or they may also represent non-stop areas such as cities, towns, where e.g. there may be several traffic lights or heavy traffic.

Such a geofence which is well known to a skilled person in the art and may be understood as a virtual fence or a perimeter around the POI, where this virtual fence may be a circular fence having a radius that may as an example be tens or hundreds of meters, up to several kilometers in size. An example of using such a geofence is when a logger device and thus the asset leaves/enters one of these physical locations and a notification is sent to the customer or a support service confirming that the logger device and thus the asset has left/entered one of the locations.

In a fourth step (S4) 104, properties from one or more geofence is/are identified when the transport means is located within one or more geofences selected from said geofences associated to the defined POI areas. This may as an example be where a cargo vessel starting from a harbor in Hamburg/Germany is heading to Sidney/ Australia and has one or more intermediate stops during this transport, where there may be one or several POI areas having associated geofences characterized with such properties. Such POI areas may as an example include one or more warehouses at the harbor, one or more distribution centers (one or more POI), and a nearby airport, but the radius of the geofences may as an example vary from 1km to 25km.

In a fifth step (S5) 105, it is determined which of the geofences in S4 has a property matching the shipment order property for the asset. The geofence with e.g. the same carrier type identifier and mode of transportation has a matching property to the shipment order.

In a sixth step (S6) 106, the environmental related parameter, e.g. measured temperature, vibration, light intensity etc., is associated with the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property. It is thus ensured that the measured environment related parameters are associated with the correct POI. This of course also applies when an excursion event is detected and associated with a POI. The measured environmental related data are namely compared with a pre-defined reference value or a reference value window, where in case the measured environmental related parameter deviates from the pre-defined reference value or reference window over a given time period, the excursion event is associated with the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property. Accordingly, both the measured environmental related parameter and the excursion event (in case that happens) are associated with the correct POI.

To further enhance the accuracy of the association, the measured environmental related parameter or an excursion event may retroactively be linked to an exact position where the measurement/excursion took place since it may take several minutes, tens of minutes or even longer until the actual excursion event is detected. This may be done based on utilizing a time-stamp of the measurement and utilizing the speed of the transport means to make this correction.

Other data accumulation at the POI areas may further include measuring the dwelling time of the carrier at each of the POI areas.

Moreover, performance indicators may be associated with the POI areas, so as to indicate the rank of each POI areas as stable, i.e. very few or none excursion events, and/or having e.g. low dwelling time etc., whereas other POI areas may be poorly ranked because of high excursion rates and/or high dwelling time. They may even further be associated with a date and optionally the time of when the measured dwelling time and the measured excursion event took place. This may be highly relevant in mapping out optimal transport routes with minimal excursion rates. This might even be done for different seasons or months, meaning that for January the optimal shipping route is different from the February shipping route etc..

Figure 2 is an example of the present invention wherein an asset having an associated logger device is transported by vessel 218.

The shipment order property 212 for the asset includes a transportation mode type identifier which is vessel/harbor and a carrier type identifier which is DHL®.

In the scenario depicted here, vessel 218 is enclosed within two geofences 210 and 211 which are associated with two POI areas between the origin location and the destination location, namely harbor 217 and airport 216 respectively. As depicted here, the radius of the geofences overlaps meaning that the two geofences are going to be identified by the logger device. In this scenario, both airport 216 and harbor 217 are DHL® warehouses.

The shipment order property 212 is compared with the geofence properties 215, and 225 associated with the geofences 210, and 211, this comparison may be done via an external computer system 213, e.g. an internet cloud platform.

In this case, the POI being the harbor has a matching property 214 and all the environmental related parameter(s) being measured (and possible excursion events) are assigned to the POI-harbor 217.

Figure 3 is another embodiment of the invention wherein an asset 301 has a shipment order property 325 defined as being a mode of transportation type identifier being vehicle/truck + carrier type identifier which is DHL®.

The truck 318 together with the asset having an associated logger device 300 is enclosed within a single external geofence 311 in the exemplary scenario shown here. This may as an example be a scenario where the truck is parked outside of a warehouse.

In the embodiment shown here, the logger device 300 comprises a power source such as a battery 303, optionally an accelerometer 305 to measure acceleration/vibration of the asset, a processor 302, a communication module 306 to send information to a third-party system, a sensor such as a thermometer 307 that measures temperature and a memory 304 that records and stores amongst others the temperature measurements. The thermometer 307 may measure the temperature every 10 minutes, where the recorded measurement is stored within the memory 304 and is sent out using the communication module 306 e.g. every 1 hour via e.g. a cellular network which may be 3G, 4G, or 5G.

In the scenario shown here, excursion is detected by the thermometer 307. The shipment order property for the asset is now compared with the property associated with the external geofence 311 to determine whether there is a match or not.

This example illustrates the case where there is no match, which might e.g. be because the geofence 311 surrounding this POI may have the property of being an airport, which is not what the shipment order property for the asset contains. Thus, this excursion is associated with the truck instead of being wrongly associated with the external geofence 311 and it’s POI. In that way, valuable information is gathered stating that e.g. the cooling elements in the truck need to be checked.

Figure 4 illustrates graphically an embodiment of the present invention showing the above-mentioned data accumulation process, where measured environmental related parameter(s) such as one or more of: as temperature, humidity, acceleration/vibration, light intensity, air pressure have been associated to the correct POI areas during the transport of an asset having an associated logger device while being transported through multiple of POI areas 404.

In addition to what has been discussed in relation to figures 1 to 3, additional data such as the dwelling time of the transport means 403 at the POI areas may be measured, where the dwelling time may be understood as the amount of time the transport means spends at different POI areas, or the time it takes for a transport means to pass through the POI area. This is valuable additional information that may be highly relevant in identifying potential issues at different POIs, e.g. determining why is the vessel typically spending a longer time at one POI but shorter at another POI, noting that typically the shorter the dwelling time is better it is.

Other information such as the date and optionally time may be further utilized as relevant data in the data accumulation during the stops at the POI areas.

Figure 4 further illustrates origin location 401 and a destination location 402, where during these begin and end locations, there are several POI areas 404a, b, but these areas may be defined as areas where there may be a potential risk of an excursion, e.g. because the transport means stops there for some time period during the transport from the origin location 401 to the destination location 402.

Said data accumulation optionally together with the dwelling time, time and date, may be performed over some period of time, e.g. weeks, months, or years, and may be accumulated in real time on per customer basis. Such customers can be pharmaceutical companies, where some of them want to have highly accurate data accumulation, or a record of all the stops of the mode of transport from the origin location to the destination location.

In an embodiment, the measured environmental related parameter(s) and excursion event(s) optionally together with the measured dwelling time are utilized in determining a performance indicator for different POI areas 404.

The performance indicator may in an embodiment further be associated with said date and optionally the time of when the measured dwelling time and the measured environmental related parameter(s) and possible excursion event took place. The performance indicator may further be configured to be utilized as input in determining the optimal transport route between POI areas with minimal risk of excursion rate. As illustrated here, utilizing these performance indicators, the most optimal route is via POI areas 404a and may be selected, whereas POI areas 404b is a nonoptimal route according to the indicator and hence has not been selected.

These POI areas may as an example be selected from different distribution centers, harbors, airports, warehouses, and towns/cities, but they may be understood as any number of stops or all stops during the global supply chain transport of an asset until it reaches the final destination location.

Moreover, this route shown here may apply for e.g. January, whereas in February the route may look differently because of the deviations in the performance indicators for the POI areas in February.

Figure 5 shows a system 500 according to the present invention for accumulating data during real time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset by a transport means having an associated logger device from an origin location to a destination location. As discussed previously, the logger device comprises at least one sensing device configured to measure an environmental related parameter for the asset and a communication module configured to communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with the location data of the logger device to an external computer system.

The system comprises an input unit 501 for receiving a shipment order for the asset, where the shipment order comprises at least the origin location and the destination location of the asset and the logger device. The input unit may be comprised of a computer device, which may be operated by an operator 503 that creates the shipment order. A shipment order property is further generated by operator 503 for the shipment order.

An existing database may be stored in a storage medium 504, which may be comprised in a computer device or in an external storage medium, where the database includes multiple Point Of Interest (POI) areas between the origin location and the destination location, and as already discussed, the POI areas represent areas having a potential risk of excursion in the environmental related parameter. These POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by their geofence properties, but these geofences may have different sizes and shapes e.g. they may be circular and have a radius varying from a few hundred meters up to tens of kilometers.

The system further comprises at least one processing device 502 configured to identify, when the carrier has entered one or more geofences selected from the said geofences associated with the defined POI areas, by use of the properties associated with the said one or more geofences, hence determining which of the identified properties match with the shipment order property, and then associating the environmental related parameters to the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and the foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive; the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art of practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Claims

1. A method for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset (301) having an associated logger device (300) by a transport means (318) from an origin location (401) to a destination location (402), where the logger device is configured to measure an environmental related parameter around the asset and communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with the location data of the logger device to an external computer system (213), the method comprising:

• generating a shipment order for the asset (101), where the shipment order comprises said origin location and destination location,

• identifying the shipment order with a shipment order property (102),

• defining multiple Point Of Interest (POI) areas (103) between the origin location and the destination location, the POI areas representing areas having a potential risk of excursion in the environmental related parameter, where the POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by geofence properties,

• identifying, when the transport means is located within one or more geofences selected from said geofences associated with the defined POI areas, geofence properties associated to the one or more geofences (104),

• determining which of the identified geofence properties match with the shipment order property (105), and

• associating the environmental related parameters to the POI of the associated geofence having the matching property (106).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the property is selected from:

• a carrier type identifier identifying the carrier type during the transport from the origin location to the destination location, or

• a mode of transportation type identifier, such as sea, air, train, or vehicle, identifying the mode of transportation, or

• a distribution center type identifier identifying the type of distribution center at a POI, or

• a warehouse/storage identifier identifying the warehouse/ storage for the asset at a POI, or a combination of two or more of the above mentioned.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising,

• comparing said measured environmental related parameter with a pre-defined reference value or a reference value window, where in case an excursion event in the measured environmental related parameter from the pre-defined reference value or reference window is detected,

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprises retroactively analyzing the measured environment related parameter such as by identifying a deviation deviation trend in the measured environment related parameter as to identify the origin position leading to said excursion event.

5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising measuring the dwelling time of the carrier at each of the POI areas.

6. The method according to claims 4 or 5, wherein the measured excursion event optionally together with the measured dwelling time is utilized in determining a performance indicator for the POI areas.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the performance indicator is further associated with a date and optionally the time of when the measured dwelling time and the measured excursion event took place.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the performance indicator is configured to be utilized as input in determining optimal transport routes between POI areas with minimal risk of excursion rate.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the optimal transport route is seasonally dependent, such as monthly or weekly dependent.

10. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the logger device is configured to communicate in real time the measured environment related parameter with a fixed frequency together with the position of the logger device and thus the asset to an external computer system, where the environmental related parameter includes one or more of: temperature, light intensity, air pressure, humidity, acceleration.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein in case of an excursion being detected, the logger device deviates from the fixed frequency and communicates the excursion event to the external computer system.

12. A system (500) for accumulating data during real-time supply chain monitoring while transporting an asset by a transport means having an associated logger device from an origin location to a destination location, where the logger device comprises at least one sensing device configured to measure an environmental related parameter for the asset and a communication module configured to communicate the measured environmental related parameter together with location data of the logger device to an external computer system, the system comprising:

• an input unit (501 ) for receiving : o a shipment order for the asset, where the shipment order comprises said origin location and destination location, o a shipment order property for identifying the shipment order, o input data for multiple Point of Interest (POI) areas between the origin location and the destination location, the POI areas representing areas having a potential risk of excursion in the environmental related parameter, where the POI areas have associated geofences uniquely identified by their geofence properties, wherein the system comprises at least one processing device (502) configured to: • identify, when the carrier has entered one or more geofences selected from said geofences associated with the defined POI areas, properties associated with the said one or more geofences,

• determining which of the identified properties match with the shipment order property, and

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the sensing unit is selected from one or more of:

• a barometer where the environmental related parameter is pressure data,

• a light sensor where the environmental related parameter light intensity data.

14. The system according to claim 12 or 13, further comprises a processing device such as said processing device or a processor comprised in the logger device configured to:

15. The system according to claim 14, further comprises a timer for measuring the dwelling time of the carrier at each of the POI areas, wherein the measured excursion event together with the measured dwelling time is utilized in determining a performance indicator for the POI areas.