Claims:Claims
We claim:
1. An integrated system for optimized business item inspection and business activity management, the system (100) comprising:
a. at least one operational system (101) for business item inspection and business activity management, wherein the operational system (101) comprises:
i. at least one inspection element (101a) for generating business item metrics by inspecting business items pertaining to business activities;
ii. at least one processing element (101b) for processing and analysing the business item metrics generated by the inspection element (101a) and subsequently generating insights and solutions for business activity management;
iii. at least one data storage element (101c) for storing business item metrics, strategies for business activity management, and solutions and insights;
iv. at least one communication interface (101d) housed within the operational system (101) for facilitating communication and data transfer within the operational system (101).

2. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication interface (101d) enables the operational systems (101) to connect easily with each other, thereby making the system (100) modular in nature.

3. An integrated method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management, the method (200) comprising:
a. generating business item metrics pertaining to business activities by inspecting business items through at least one inspection element (101a);
b. generating a virtual model of the business activities from the gathered business item metrics for effortless integration of the business activities in at least one processing element (101b), thereby enabling efficient solutions and insight computation;
c. computing insights and solutions for the business activities and virtual model through pre-loaded optimization algorithms in at least one processing element (101b);
d. transmitting solutions and insights between the inspection element (101a), processing element (101b) and at least one data storage element (101c) to optimize the solutions and insights;
e. storing the generated solutions and insights in the data storage element (101c) for efficient accessibility of the solutions and insights for future business activity management.

4. The method (200) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the process of generating business item metrics involves dynamic improvement of metric gathering and inspecting strategies, thereby enabling iteratively efficient generation of metrics.
, Description:PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION:
[0001] The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Technical field of the invention
[0002] The present invention provides an integrated system and method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management. The present invention in particular relates to a system and method for providing optimized insights pertaining to business items and business activities for management purposes.
Background of the invention
[0003] The present-day systems for business activity management comprise networks for handling complex tasks pertaining to business activities. These tasks are addressed by independent functional blocks that solve one particular problem at hand and publish the generated solution which is then accessible by the other functional blocks in the system. The functional blocks thus communicate and link multiple solutions of basic problems to solve the main problem at hand. This is an idealized process flow which in reality is rarely maintained by present-day business activity management systems. The present-day systems are susceptible to significant time and capital overheads as a result of poor synergy and communication between different functional blocks that are responsible for managing business activities. Time overheads occur because of redundancy in the system, wherein functional blocks continue to work on similar problems over prolonged periods of time. This happens because of poor communication between functional blocks, leading to insufficient information reaching the functional blocks and instructing them to commence work on different problems.
[0004] Time is also lost when the functional blocks fail to act as independent systems. In certain situations, a primary functional block may encounter an issue while solving a problem and may choose to relay this information to a secondary functional block that is in charge of resolving such issues. In this event, significant time may be saved if the primary functional block is capable of resolving the issue within its own systems, saving the time that would have otherwise been consumed in communication delays between the primary and secondary functional blocks. Subsequently, the longer that ineffective systems are operational, capital is also lost as ineffective operational time increases. Capital is additionally lost as the redundancy in the system is tackled by employing more and more inefficient systems to compensate for the redundancy in business activity management, where the inefficiencies are further made worse by human errors arising during manual work. Additionally, present-day systems for business activity management lose a significant amount of capital during system updates and changes in the business systems whose activities are to be managed. Present-day systems are required to be reconfigured each time the system is employed for different clients, leading to further increase in time and capital investments.
[0005] The Patent Application number US8478633B2 titled “Method and apparatus of on demand business activity management using business performance management loops” discloses an architecture, system, and method are provided for a commitment loop solution for on demand business activity management. A Business Performance Management (BPM) loop is defined as a set of nodes each relating to different tasks for processing performance management trigger data generated by a business entity in real time, where the beginning or sensing element of the loop is triggered by a token (representing a business event from a business process) and the ending or executing element provides a business action to be implemented by the business entity. The token is passed from node to node sequentially in a particular order around the loop. Processing of the data represented by the token is governed by policies, which can be changed dynamically and follow a life cycle. On demand business activity management of larger aggregates of business entities (i.e. enterprises and value chains) is achieved by extending this architecture by building upon the BPM loops of the component entities to form a BPM net, adding nodes as necessary. This architecture, system and method can be implemented at multiple levels of granularity from operational or tactical business activities to enterprise wide strategic activities.

[0006] Hence, there exists a need for an integrated system and method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management.
Summary of the invention:
[0007] The present invention discloses an integrated system for optimized business item inspection and activity management. The system comprises at least one operational system, each operational system further comprising at least one inspection element for generating business item metrics by inspecting business items pertaining to business activities. The operational system also comprises at least one processing element for generating business insights pertaining to the business item metrics generated by the inspection element. The operational system further comprises at least one data storage element for storing data pertaining to the operational system as well as business metrics and generated strategies for efficient management of business activities. Communication within the operational systems is enabled by communication interfaces that are housed within the operational systems. The system is modular in nature and generates iteratively efficient insights for business activity management by adaptably and dynamically analysing generated insights which may be altered to optimize communication across interdisciplinary domains. The system also stores the generated insights for future business activity management to further optimize business activities.
[0008] The present invention further discloses a method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management. The method comprises the steps of generating business item metrics through at least one operational system, wherein the operational systems generate business item metrics by inspecting business items through at least one inspection element housed within the operational system. The generated business item metrics are used to generate a virtual model of the business activities to be optimized. Subsequently, the operational systems each address a finite aspect of the business activities to be optimized and generate partial insights and solutions that are then transmitted between the operational systems to generate a holistic solution for the optimization of business activities. The insights and solutions for the virtual models are computed through pre-loaded optimization algorithms that employ strategies for efficiently optimizing and managing the business activities. The strategies for business activity management are derived partly from the generated business item metrics and partly from the pre-loaded optimization algorithms for generation of optimized insights and solutions for business activity management. After generation of optimized insights and solutions, the system transmits generated insights and solutions between the components of the system for further optimization by repeated optimization iterations. The present invention additionally stores all information pertaining to business item inspection and business activity management for future business activity management.
[0009] The present invention overcomes several drawbacks encountered in current technologies by providing an integrated system for optimized business item inspection and business activity management and method thereof. Modular operational systems disclosed in the present invention collaborate with other operational systems and individually work on simplistic problems pertaining to business activity management, resulting in a higher order of problem solving with simple functional blocks. Communication interfaces disposed within each operational system ensure that insights and solutions generated are quickly accessible by other operational systems, which in turn ensures that the system is minimally redundant, and that dynamic optimization of business activity management is possible using the readily available updated information, transmitted from operational systems. The communication interfaces also ensure that pre-loaded optimization algorithms for generation of insights and solutions are quickly accessible to all operational systems within the present invention. The pre-loaded optimization algorithms may also be dynamically optimized to further enhance the performance of the present invention. The generation of the virtual model enables the system to generate insights and solutions for business activity management in a virtual space, enabling quick and easy optimization of the management of business activities.
Brief description of the drawings:
[0010] The foregoing and other features of embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like elements.
[0011] FIG 1 illustrates a process flow diagram for an integrated method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management.
Detailed description of the invention:
[0012] Reference will now be made in detail to the description of the present subject matter, one or more examples of which are shown in figures. Each example is provided to explain the subject matter and not a limitation. Various changes and modifications obvious to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and contemplation of the invention.
[0013] The present invention discloses an integrated system and method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management. The system comprises at least one operational system, each operational system further comprising at least one inspection element for receiving business item metrics pertaining to business metrics. The operational system also comprises at least one processing element for generating business insights and a data storage element for storing data pertaining to the operational system. The operational systems communicate with each other through communication interfaces housed within the operational systems. The system is modular in nature and generates iteratively efficient insights for business activity management by dynamically analysing and altering generated insights to lower turnaround times and improve communication across interdisciplinary domains.
[0014] FIGURE 1 illustrates a system (100) for business activity management. A business item is defined as any number of objects or items of interest, the interaction between which is required to be optimized for their adequate functioning. For instance, the business item being inspected may include logistic numbers for the manufacturing of certain components. The interaction between these business items is termed as business activities and it is an objective of the present invention to optimize and manage these activities. The present invention comprises at least one operational system (101), wherein an operational system (101) is the fundamental processing unit of the system (100). The operational system (101) comprises provisions for inspecting business items, generating virtual models of business items, generating insights and solutions for business activities pertaining to the business items that may be logistical, technical, financial and so on in nature, employing pre-loaded optimization algorithms for generation of the insights and solutions, transmitting the generated optimized insights and solutions between two or more operational systems (101) and publishing the insights and solutions generated for efficient accessibility for future business activity management. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the pre-loaded optimization algorithms utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the optimization efficiency of the pre-loaded optimization algorithms.
[0015] The system (100) comprises at least one operational system (101), wherein the operational system (101) further comprises at least one inspection element (101a). The inspection element (101a) receives information about business items and generates relevant business item metrics based on the business item information received. A business item metric is defined as a parameter of the business item inspected by the inspection element (101a) that is represented in the system (100) as a problem and must be optimized and managed through generated insights or solutions. In one embodiment of the present invention, the inspection element (101a) may be a visual inspection device such as a camera apparatus. The inspection element (101a) thus surveys the business item and generates relevant business item metrics which the system (100) generates insights and solutions for.
[0016] The operational system (101) further comprises at least one processing element (101b) for processing and analyzing business item metrics generated by the inspection element (101a). The processing element (101b) receives the business item metrics from the inspection element (101a) and converts the business item metrics into mathematically solvable problems which are resolved by the processing element (101b) by using pre-loaded optimization algorithms. Each operational system (101) comprises processing elements (101b) and thus each operational system (101) generates insights and solutions for the business item metrics it generates based on the inspected business item. The operational system (101) further comprises at least one data storage element (101c) for storing the business item metrics generated by the inspection element (101a), pre-loaded optimization algorithms for generating insights and solutions, generated insights and solutions, strategies for the implementation of the generated insights and solutions and final outcomes. The data storage element (101c) interfaces with the inspection element (101a) and processing element (101b) to provide necessary data from any part of the operational system (101) to another.
[0017] The operational system (101) additionally comprises at least one communication interface (101d) for enabling efficient communication between the components of the operational system (101). The communication interface (101d) additionally facilitates modularity within the system (100) by enabling the connection of multiple operational systems (101) with each other in any desirable configuration.
[0018] FIGURE 1 further illustrates a process flow diagram for an integrated method for optimized business item inspection and business activity management. The method (200) comprises at least one operational system (101) for business item inspection and business activity management, wherein the operational system (101) further comprises at least one inspection element (101a). The inspection element (101a) is employed to inspect business items and convert the detected business items into business item metrics in step (201). The generated business item metrics are then transmitted to at least one processing unit (101b) in the operational system (100), wherein the processing unit (101b) generates a virtual model based on the business item metrics in step (202). The virtual model is generated to simulate how the generated insights and solutions will interact with real-life business items without actually performing any processes on the business items. The virtual model is generated based on the business item metrics and constraints pertaining to business activity management are simulated to observe how the insights and solutions will affect the business items in real-time. This enables the system (100) to interact with the business items as per convenience and also to analyze the business items at any desired depth of detail. The virtual model may also be used to run any number of simulated iterations of insights and solutions to optimize the insights and solutions without tampering with the real-life business items.
[0019] Further, the method (200) comprises generation of insights and solutions for the virtual model through pre-loaded optimization algorithms in step (203). The generation of insights and solutions takes place in at least one processing element (101b) and the optimization algorithms are stored in at least one data storage element (101c). The method (200) additionally comprises transmitting data between the inspection element (101a), processing element (101b) and at least one data storage element (101c) in step (204). The data transmitted comprises insights and solutions for optimization and management of business activities. The insights and solutions generated are repeatedly made to interact with the virtual model generated and the results of these interactions are observed. Pre-loaded optimization algorithms also interact with these results to iteratively optimize the insights and solutions over successive interactions, thereby optimizing the insights and solutions for the management of business activities. Further, the method (200) comprises storing of the business item metrics generated by the inspection element (101a), pre-loaded optimization algorithms for generating insights and solutions, generated insights and solutions, strategies for the implementation of the generated insights and solutions and final outcomes in step (205).
[0020] The method (200) comprises inspecting business items through the inspection element (101a) and converting the inspected business items into business item metrics. These business items metrics are representative of the business items inspected and are generated so that the system (100) can analyze the business items and optimize the interaction between business items by generating insights and solutions. The interaction between business items is termed as business activities and it is an object of the present invention to optimize these business activities by employing insights and solutions. The business item metrics generated by the inspection element (101a) is used to generate a virtual model of the business item metrics in the processing unit (101b). The virtual model enables the system (100) to carry out iterative insight and solution testing on the business item metrics and inspect how the insights and solutions interact with the business item metrics. This is done to test the generated insights and solutions and to see if the insights and solutions are effective at managing and optimization business activities without directly interacting with the business items and possibly adversely affecting them. In this way, the virtual model provides the system (100) access to the business items without actually coming in direct contact with the business items.
[0021] Further, the insights and solutions are generated in the processing unit (101b) by implementation of pre-loaded optimization algorithms stored in the data storage element (101c). Each operational system (101) addresses a finite aspect of the business activity to be optimized and generates partial insights which are then transmitted between the operational systems (101) to generate a holistic insight for the optimization of business activities. The insights and solutions are constantly tested to ascertain if the insights and solutions are effective in managing and optimizing business activities. The transmission of insights and solutions is enabled by communication interfaces (101d) which continually ensure that every component of the system (100) has ready access to any information at any time. Further, the inspection element (101a) transmits business item metrics to the processing unit (101b) in real-time to ensure that the system (100) is not redundantly working on outdated business items. The processing unit (101b) is capable of dynamically generating insights and solutions when new business item metrics are generated to reduce turnaround times regarding the generation of insights and solutions. This enhances the efficiency of the business activity management capabilities of the system (100) and makes it possible for the system (100) to adjust its functioning in a short duration of time to meet the immediate requirements of business items.
[0022] The generated insights and solutions for optimizing business activity management is primarily driven by a need to reduce turnaround times, reduce costs of operation of business activities and to increase fidelity of the system (100). The generated insights and solutions are thus computed by the pre-loaded algorithms to constantly, iteratively and dynamically improve the performance of the system (100) to generate more accurate insights and solutions at a faster rate. The computation process of insights and solutions is also subject to these improvements, thereby resulting in quicker generation of insights and solutions which in turn optimize the business activities for which the insights and solutions are generated. The generated insights and solutions are stored in the data storage element (101c) as stored data, wherein the stored data may be easily accessed for the optimization of future business activities. The stored data serves as a repository of information from which relevant data may easily be extracted as per needs of the system (100). The gathering of insights and solutions enables the system (100) to evolve based on the business activities to be optimized and thus further enhances the optimization capabilities of the system (100).
[0023] While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist.
Reference numbers:
Components Reference Numbers
System 100
Operational system 101
Inspection element 101a
Processing element 101b
Data storage element 101c
Communication interface 101d