Page 52 - Linkline Autumn 2016

• Linking physical goods to serial numbers, bar codes, digital tags like RFID, etc.
• Sharing information about manufacturing process, assembly, delivery, and maintenance of products with suppliers and vendors.
Furthermore, as Internet of Things (IoT) becomes more widely inte- grated, the range and versatility of what blockchain could allow will grow exponentially. Regardless of what applications we will see the technology being used for, there are certain advantages that it will definitely offer. It will offer enhanced transparency, with increased trust in supply chain documentation. It will offer greater scalability, with the possibility of any number of participants, accessing from any number of touchpoints. The indelible ledger will offer better se- curity, eliminating the need for audits required by internal systems and processes. It will offer the possibility of increased innovation within the industry, with new opportunities being made possible by the decentralised architecture.
How soon will we see blockchain being used in supply chain?
Efforts are already being made to use blockchain to streamline supply chain. A project called SmartLog is being undertaken by an economic development firm owned by the city of Kouvola in Finland, funded by the European Union INTERREG Central Baltic regional development fund.
The innovation will be used in part to connect various enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools used by the trucking industry, warehousing industry and freight operating industry to manage their supply chains. The project will also see smart contracts (trust and data integrity properties) being built into shipping containers themselves. This will give shipping containers limited decision making authority in regards to their shipping routes and tendering for transport contracts.
The project is the first of its kind being built on the newly developed IBM blockchain, but it surely won’t be the last. The blockchain field is still very much in its infancy. It will require a monumental amount of development before it has the infrastructure required to make a sig- nificant impact. However, if the world of cryptocurrency is anything to go by, despite the many challenges it has faced, the relentless progress of blockchain is as irreversible as the digital ledgers it main- tains. The technology is here. It now only needs its backers.
Kouvola is a key logistical destination for connecting the EU, Russia and Asia, hosting 200 logistics companies in the city alone and 500 logistics companies in the surrounding Kymenlaakso region.
52 The CharTered InsTITuTe of LogIsTICs & TransporT
BLOCKCHAIN