Vishal Gaur

Abhinav Gaiha

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">Idea in Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <h5>The Problem</h5>
  <p>Current approaches to recording the flows of information, inventory, and money in supply chain transactions leave a lot to be desired. There are blind spots, causing problems for the purchasers, suppliers, and banks involved.</p>
  <h5>A Potential Solution</h5>
  <p>Blockchain technology may help. Early explorations by seven major corporations show that blockchain record keeping can make product delivery faster and more cost-efficient, increase traceability, enhance coordination among partners, and streamline the financing process.</p>
  <h5>What Will Be Needed</h5>
  <p>Successful use of blockchain in supply chain management requires a trusted group of permissioned participants, a new consensus protocol, and protections to prevent the introduction of contaminated or counterfeit products.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>Blockchain, the digital record-keeping technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency networks, is a potential game changer in the financial world. But another area where it holds great promise is supply chain management. Blockchain can greatly improve supply chains by enabling faster and more cost-efficient delivery of products, enhancing products’ traceability, improving coordination between partners, and aiding access to financing.</p>

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<p>One of the most promising applications of emerging blockchain technology is supply chain management. Blockchain&#8212;the digital record-keeping system developed for cryptocurrency networks&#8212;can help supply chain partners with some of their challenges by creating a complete, transparent, tamperproof history of the information flows, inventory flows, and financial flows in transactions.</p>
<p>The authors studied seven large U.S. corporations that are exploring how blockchain might improve their supply chain operations. Their early initiatives show that the technology can enable faster and more cost-efficient product delivery, make products more traceable, streamline the financing process, and enhance coordination among buyers, suppliers, and banks.</p>
<p>There are special requirements for using blockchain in supply chain management: restricting participation to known, trusted partners; adopting a new consensus protocol; and taking steps to keep errors and counterfeits out of the supply chain. But if implemented thoughtfully, the authors suggest, blockchain could pay big dividends for companies in a host of industries.</p>

Building a Transparent Supply Chain

One of the most promising applications of emerging blockchain technology is supply chain management. Blockchain—the digital record-keeping system developed for cryptocurrency networks—can help supply chain partners with some of their challenges by creating a complete, transparent, tamperproof history of the information flows, inventory flows, and financial flows in transactions. The authors studied seven large U.S. corporations that are exploring how blockchain might improve their supply chain operations. Their early initiatives show that the technology can enable faster and more cost-efficient product delivery, make products more traceable, streamline the financing process, and enhance coordination among buyers, suppliers, and banks. There are special requirements for using blockchain in supply chain management: restricting participation to known, trusted partners; adopting a new consensus protocol; and taking steps to keep errors and counterfeits out of the supply chain. But if implemented thoughtfully, the authors suggest, blockchain could pay big dividends for companies in a host of industries.

Building a Transparent Supply Chain

Summary.

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