Introduction
First developed in 2008, the blockchain was established by Satoshi Nakamoto as the public transaction ledger for Bitcoin, serving as the primary infrastructure supporting the cryptocurrency. Soon after its inauguration, the blockchain’s wide-application and seemingly unlimited potential became apparent, turning the heads of business owners across all industries. Companies across the globe began integrating the revolutionary network consensus algorithms and advanced mathematics into their applications and software. In just the first ten months of 2015, venture capital firms invested an astounding $921 billion into blockchain-based companies. The growth and potential truly are amazing, with applications and uses spread over nearly every industry.
Blockchain in Supply Chain Management
In a modern era of vast technological advances, the supply chain industry has been somewhat “left behind”. The supply chain gained its popularity in the mid-’90s and since then has seen very little improvements to its processes. To make things worse, supply chains have become immensely more complex since their creation, now working at extremely high demands, coordinating complicated contractual agreements, and monitoring product development. This highly-complicated process causes immense delays in operations, high fees to owners, and often untraceable errors. The supply chain industry is in desperate need of help.
Enter blockchain. Acting as a peer-to-peer decentralized network that controls an immutable ledger, the blockchain can easily monitor, track, and record any changes in possession of goods or money with minuscule fees and high speeds. A blockchain-based supply chain solution would save businesses time, money, and bolster the economy in general.
How Will Blockchain Benefit Supply Chain Management?
Supplier Payments
When businesses exchange money with one another, they usually are forced to utilize the baking system. This process takes time and incurs high fees. The blockchain, however, allows more nearly instantaneous transaction speed and minimal fees. Businesses will not only save the time and effort of going through the banking process but also save money by reducing the fees they pay. These benefits alone have caused manufacturers across the world to accept bitcoin as payment, allowing for easier transactions between suppliers and retailers.
Product Traceability
Walmart, the famous global retailer with over $230 billion in total assets, uses the blockchain in its everyday operations to ensure transparency in product transfer. The company uses a blockchain system to trace the pork meat being sold from its Chinese outlets, tracking the location and status of all materials with ease. Based on the IBM Food Trust support system, this use of blockchain technology is drastically changing its operations, lowering the time it takes to discover an issue with products from around seven days to 2.2 seconds.
Increase Transparency
Since the blockchain is a distributive ledger seen by all, the origins and steps to the production of each product can become known with ease. This would reduce the possibility of having a black market or counterfeit trading as well as ensure the reliability of the products. By using blockchain in this fashion, corporations would increase their brand reputation by providing transparency and product quality assurance.
Reduced Paperwork and Administrative Costs
Blockchain’s ability to track the product along each stage allows for a smaller amount of paperwork to be done. Administrators utilizing blockchain technologies will have an easier time tracking products and materials than they would have with current supply chain technology. Current processing involving credit compliances takes long hours and incur fees. Blockchain will streamline this process through its distributive ledger.
Moving Forward
Block 11 a young and passionate blockchain startup looking to build the infrastructure of a decentralized future with Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies. Our products will not only have all of the benefits of blockchain technology but also improve on it through revolutionary Lightning Network technology. Block 11 and blockchain have tremendous room for growth, and we invite you to join the revolution!
Sources
https://www.logisticsbureau.com/how-blockchain-can-transform-the-supply-chain/
https://www.logisticsbureau.com/how-blockchain-can-transform-the-supply-chain/
https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/solutions/food-trust
https://consensys.net/blockchain-use-cases/supply-chain-management/
https://www.block-11.com/blockchain-for-the-supply-chain-block11-blog
