• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Blogs » Think Tank » The Element That Can Make or Break Blockchain for the Supply Chain

Think Tank
Think Tank RSS FeedRSS

Technology / Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain) / Supply Chain Visibility / Food & Beverage

The Element That Can Make or Break Blockchain for the Supply Chain

November 11, 2019
Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain
The Element That Can Make or Break Blockchain for the Supply Chain

Everywhere you turn these days, there’s a blockchain pilot underway for the supply chain. But they’re all missing one crucial element: a single, coherent set of standards.

Blockchain technology as we know it is already 11 years old, conceived as a transactional ledger in support of bitcoin. But businesses quickly realized that it was good for something more than recording the transfer of cryptocurrencies. With its promise of storing data among multiple computers, thereby ensuring against tampering or unauthorized changes to the record, blockchain seemed an ideal tool for validating the provenance and progress of goods throughout the supply chain.

Blockchain pilots are well underway, steered by big names such as IBM, Walmart, SAP, Maersk Line, Panalpina and Nestlé. Early beneficiaries of the technology include small farmers in Africa, a wine and spirits marketer, and purveyors of luxury goods.

Missing from all those projects, however, is an overarching set of standards for communication that can propel blockchain into everyday use. In fact, the lack of standards is one reason why Gartner has predicted that 90% of current blockchain-based supply-chain initiatives will experience “blockchain fatigue” by 2023.

Enter GS1, the not-for-profit entity that gave the world standards for formatting and placement of the ubiquitous barcode. Now, through the GS1 US Blockchain Discussion Group, the organization is pursuing a similar path on behalf of blockchain.

Just under a year ago, GS1 US members in apparel, general merchandise, foodservice, healthcare and retail grocery met with GS1 experts in Chicago to discuss the prospects for deploying blockchain in data exchange. Among their goals was the establishment of GS1 standards for blockchain development across industries. Food production executives were particularly interested deploying the technology to ensure product safety.

“We set up a cross-industry group to start driving some of the hype out of blockchain,” says Kevin Otto, senior director of community engagement with GS1 US.

Standards are essential to the technology’s wider use, he says. “If you don’t have underlying data in a standardized fashion, you can’t just go out and buy a blockchain.”

The GS1 US discussion group consists of more than 120 members, representing some 90 companies, as well as associations and software vendors. Their initial target, Otto says, is managing the data that provides supply-chain visibility.

GS1 customarily focuses its work on individual industries, but has taken a broader approach for this initial set of blockchain standards. Says Otto: “It’s a good time for an industry-agnostic look.”

Various blockchain pilots are moving forward without the participation of GS1, but Otto sees no inherent conflict. He views the organization’s work as “a natural fit” with efforts such as that of IBM, especially with respect to cementing standards for communicating with external partners. (A need, to be sure, that exists within every global supply chain.)

Some efforts underway are drawing on the early work of GS1, while others are choosing to take another route. The latter, says Otto “are doing themselves a disservice. That solution is just not scalable.”

GS1 isn’t exactly starting from scratch. The organization’s existing EPC Information Services (EPCIS) Standard for sharing visibility event data can serve as a starting point for creation of the blockchain standards, Otto says.

“One of the misconceptions that people have is they think they’re going to have to change everything they’re doing,” he says. “Blockchain is just another way of sharing data.”

Past efforts to forge standards for the supply chain haven’t always resulted in consensus. Witness the emergence of parallel message formats in the U.S. and Europe for electronic data interchange. But Otto is optimistic that various independent efforts at creating blockchain standards won’t force supply-chain partners to choose which “language” they want to speak. The Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) originally set out to craft its own standards for the transportation industry, but ended up partnering with GS1. “We had a couple of calls with them to make sure they’re not spending time reinventing the wheel,” says Otto.

GS1 hopes to publish its initial set of cross-industry standards for blockchain in December. But standards alone won’t guarantee success for companies eager to deploy the fledgling technology for achieving supply-chain visibility. First, they need to ensure that the necessary information is in place.

“If you want to have a discussion around supply-chain visibility as a core for blockchain, there are masses of data you need before you even get started,” says Otto. “It’s not going to be a case where the technology creates the data for you.”

Nevertheless, standards can’t come to the table too quickly. Already some companies are beginning to question the long-term value of blockchain. On Gartner’s “Hype Cycle”, tracing the adoption of new technology, Otto locates blockchain within the “trough of disillusionment.” (To be followed, if the cycle plays out properly, by the “slope of enlightenment.”) Further progress depends on broad agreement over the underlying means of communicating key data between supply-chain partners.

“Blockchain could be here to stay,” Otto says. “It’s at an inflection point right now. If they don’t start talking interoperability, the technology could fall by the wayside.”

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Wake up to Coronavirus Updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Coronavirus-watch-Armada

    Virus Update: Biden Sees Shots Widely Available by Spring; Third of Staffs Will Work From Home Permanently

    Coronavirus
  • Car Industry

    A Year of Poor Planning Led to Carmakers’ Massive Chip Shortage

    Technology
  • U.S. Vaccine Rollout Hindered by Faulty Coordination, Messaging

    WHO Fumes at Western Drugmakers As China Fills Vaccine Void

    Coronavirus
  • Third-Party Cybersecurity

    What Vaccine Supply Chains Must Do to Protect Against Cyberattack

    Coronavirus
  • COVID-19 Vaccine

    Vaccine Disparities Raise Alarm as COVID-19 Variants Multiply

    Coronavirus

Digital Edition

Scb home issue 27

2020 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • LSP Saves Customer $1.5 Million a Year With MPO Global Inbound Management

  • Auto Supplier Wows Key Client Using riskmethods Supply Chain Savvy

  • Integrating Shipping and Compliance Saves Conglomerate Millions

  • How a Consumer Goods Giant Upped Its On-Time Delivery Performance

  • LSP Wows Global Client, Quickly Advances to Become End-to-End Provider

Visit Our Sponsors

6 River Systems ArcBest Armada
aThingz BluJay Burris Logistics
DSC Logistics DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) DHL Resilience360
Genpact GEP Honeywell Intelligrated
Infor Logility Magnitude Software
MPO Old Dominion Oliver Wight
OpenSky Ports America Purolator
QAD Precision Red Classic Riskmethods
TGW Systems Transportation Insights Watson Land Company
Westfalia Technologies Workjam Yang Ming
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright © 2016 - 2018 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing