Every day, solution providers continue to research, develop, and integrate “Industry 4.0” technologies, like 3-D printing, Blockchain distributed digital ledgers, cognitive capabilities, connected devices, and robotics within sourcing, procurement, and payables / accounts payables business tools, giving rise to a new generation of supply management tools, dubbed “Procurement 4.0.” Blockchain ledgers, in particular, now rival “artificial intelligence” as the tech trend of modern business era, making the Blockchain solutions market fertile ground for big tech companies and enterprising start-ups, alike. As a result, there is a nearly constant stream of Blockchain news eminating every week. And so, the CPO Rising editorial team thought that it’d be fun and worthwhile to cover these developments in a separate and semi-regular technology round-up, dubbed, When Blockchain Meets Supply Chain. Enjoy!

ShipChain Partners with CaseStack to Drive Supply Chain Track and Trace

Los Angeles-based shipping and logistics solutions provider, ShipChain, has partnered with Arkansas-Based supply chain management provider, CaseStack, to bring track and trace capabilities to its services. Under the terms of the partnership, CaseStack will integrate ShipChain’s open, Blockchain-based supply chain management platform in order to track and trace millions of loads of goods that CaseStack processes on a yearly basis. It will enable CaseStack to provide end-to-end supply chain visibility and assurance into its services.

Eximchain Partners with YOOsourcing

Eximchain, a digital blockchain supply chain management startup, recently announced a new partnership with YOOsourcing, a sourcing platform that helps buyers address their supply risk needs. Eximchain currently offers a blockchain solution that uses smart contracts and tokens to enhance supply chain management and the connectivity between buyers and suppliers. Eximchain will link its business users to YOOsourcing’s mobile app offering, to allow them to assess different suppliers’ profiles, and to help them get a better understanding of a supplier’s authenticity and reliability. The mobile app allows buyers to perform sourcing inquiries directly from a supply company’s profile. There is also a crowdsourced factory verification built into the platform. This will ensure validity to a displayed businesses identity. This partnership should also help suppliers using the Eximchain platform as they will be able to monitor inquiries, promote new products, and grow their reputation.

IBM Launches TrustChain Initiative – a Blockchain Consortium for Jewelry

Last week, our friends at IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the launch of a new Blockchain-based consortium among jewelry miners, suppliers, refiners, certifiers, and retailers. Dubbed the TrustChain Initiative, it brings together Asahi Refining (a precious metals refiner), Helzberg Diamonds (a U.S. jewelry retailer), LeachGarner (a precious metals supplier), The Richline Group (a global jewelry manufacturer) and UL (an independent, third party verification company) on IBM’s Hyperledger-based Blockchain Platform, which is hosted on the IBM Cloud. It provides a secure, permissioned, immutable, and distributed Blockchain platform to track and authenticate the mining, refining, manufacturing, and trading of diamonds, gold, and other precious gems and metals.

Like other Blockchain projects (e.g., Everledger), IBM’s TrustChain Initiative was conceived as way to enable multiple stakeholders in the diamond and jewelry supply chain to establish and validate the provenance (point of origin) of a piece of jewelry, like a diamond engagement ring, as it moves from mine to customer. It enables trading parties to record and certify their physical characteristics and track and trace products as they move across the global supply chain. The TrustChain Initative will initially track six styles of diamond and gold engagement rings, and by the end of 2018, enable consumers to access TrustChain in retail stores.

Alibaba Launches Blockchain-based Food Trust Framework

Also last week, Alibaba, the China-based eCommerce heavyweight, announced the launch of its Blockchain-based Food Trust Framework, which seeks to use distributed digital ledgers to drive transparency and trust into food products traded in Asia. Alibaba will join four other companies – two in Australia (Blackmores and Australia Post), and two in New Zealand (Fonterra and New Zealand Post) – in a joint effort to place the food supply chain on its Blockchain-based platform to enable companies and consumers to have full transparency into where food originates and travels before it is purchased. Alibaba’s Blockchain initiative will leverage a combination of its cross-border marketplace, Tmall Global, product tagging with QR codes, and presumably RFID technology, in order to “ping” food shipments as they make their way from Australia and New Zealand up to China — in essence, “from farm to table.”

OmniChain Solutions Hits the Blockchain Scene

Just this week, Ardent Partners learned of another enterprising startup looking to disrupt the supply management world through Blockchain. Meet OmniChain Solutions, a Los Angeles-based provider of Blockchain-based supply chain management solutions. Co-founders, Ray Young and Pratik Soni, established OmniChain’s cloud-based solution built atop a Blockchain platform to enable enterprise procurement and supply chain management teams to gain visibility into and holistically manage their purchasing, supply chain, warehouse, inventory, and replenishment management processes. Users can tap into the Blockchain platform’s intelligent algorithms to gain real-time insight into inventory levels, and use that insight to plan and forecast at the store, manufacturer, and retailer levels. Enterprise procurement teams can use this kind of insight, plus business rules, to proactively (“continuously”) replenish stock before they run out and cripple business operations. OmniChain advertises that users can have a Blockchain-enabled “sandbox” in 30-40 days, and have a fully functional solution within 90 days of “going live.”

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Tagged in: Ardent Team, Innovation, Networks, Process, Solution Providers, Sourcing, Strategy, Suppliers, Supply Risk, Tech Round-Up, Technology