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 emanating 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!
GE Turns to Blockchain to Verify 3D-Printed Parts
Ardent Partners recently learned that, like many other major household names, the General Electric Corporation (GE) is turning to Blockchain distributed digital ledgers in an effort to combat the proliferation of counterfeit 3-D printed parts within its vast supply chain to drive quality assurance / control and manage supply risks. Per CoinDesk, the Boston-based industrial and manufacturing heavyweight recently filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a Blockchain-based tracking system that will enable manufacturers to use the ledger to verify that 3D-printed parts adhered to “the correct build file” for that part, since the production method enables virtually anyone to produce any part but with high variability in quality and specification. This ought to help manufacturers reduce the likelihood that counterfeit or poorly manufactured components make their way into their supply chain.
Food Standards Agency Completes Blockchain Pilot Program for UK Slaughterhouse
Earlier this month, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the United Kingdom’s governmental body tasked with ensuring food safety and authenticity across the UK, announced that it has completed a pilot program using Blockchain distributed digital ledgers in a slaughterhouse in the UK. The initiative, conducted between FSA regulators and the slaughterhouse, intended to demonstrate that (and how) Blockchain distributed digital ledgers can be employed by government regulators and industry partners to drive and ultimately improve regulatory compliance and government-industry communication. The next step is for the program to be replicated with other slaughterhouses, as well as farms, to see if it is a scalable solution.
Sonoro Energy Partners with Blox Labs to Test PetroBLOX Platform
Just a couple of days ago, OilandGas360.com, a petrochemical industry blog, announced that Alberta-based Sonoro Energy has partnered with Toronto-based Blockchain developer, Blox Labs, to develop a Blockchain-based platform for the oil and gas industry. Dubbed “PetroBLOX,” the distributed digital ledger is being tested as a Blockchain-based platform for smart contracts, procurement, and supply chain management. Phase 1 of the pilot program will seek to digitize and automate processes and sub-processes related to procurement in the oil and gas industry, like sourcing, contract management, supplier management, and governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). It is hoped that PetroBLOX will drive efficiencies and cost effectiveness for buyers and suppliers during the RFP and bidding phases, transparency during the procurement and contract management phases, and will provide auditors with an auditable and immutable digital paper trail to examine.
Open Mineral and ConsenSys Prepare to Launch Blockchain-based Minerac
Earlier this month, SiliconAngle.com announced that Switzerland-based Open Mineral, which provides a cloud-based mineral marketplace for buyers and sellers, has partnered with U.S.-based ConsenSys to launch Minerac, a Blockchain-based “consortium” for mining companies and financial institutions. ConsenSys works with the Ethereum Blockchain platform to go to market with its own distributed digital ledger. As partners, Open Mineral will apparently adopt ConsenSys’s Blockchain platform and adapt it to digitize, automate, and streamline the mining trade.
When minerals are extracted from the ground, miners will place the minerals in a sealable bag and provide a host of unique identifiers (date of extraction, weight and quality of sample, and so on) in a digital, cryptographically secured tag that will be scanned at each stop along the supply chain. In doing so, the “bag and tag” process will allow Minerac consortium members to “identify, track, and verify shipments of minerals” as they make their way from mines to the next trading partner in the supply chain, and ensure that what was purchased is what was delivered and wasn’t tampered with, diverted, or substituted along the way. It will also provide auditors (corporate, governmental, or independent bodies) with an auditable and immutable audit trail to review and authenticate.
Minerac will also feature smart contracts written in such a way on the Blockchain that they will trigger events, like payment, when certain conditions are met — like when shipments have been recorded as received by the buyer. In the process, Minerac is expected to remove significant amounts of paper, such as bills of laden, letters of credit, and contractual documents, that follow such shipments.
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