Patent ID: 7482931

Claim:
A method of tracking an object in a supply chain using an auto-ID node, comprising: receiving an event associated with an object from a tracking device at an event message dispatcher, the event including an event description, and the event description including an event type, a time stamp, and an event location; analyzing the event description at the event handler; transmitting the event to one of a plurality of activity handlers based upon analyzing the event description at the event handler; searching for a rule in a rule set of a business process workflow model to apply to the event, at a rule engine of the activity handler; applying the rule to the event at the rule engine; determining an action to be taken in response to the event at the activity handler based upon applying the rule; calculating a new expected action for the object based upon the event; updating static and dynamic data for the object based upon the event description, at an association data management module, the dynamic data including an expected action component storing the calculated new expected action for the object, a current state component storing the event description, and a history component storing data previously stored in the current state component; and transmitting the action for execution.