Is Your Supply Chain Blockchain-Ready?

It’s been called “transformative,” “revolutionary,” and “likely to change the world,” but is Blockchain the right technology for your supply chain? 

The ultimate goals of supply chain management are Traceability (the ability to track a product from raw material to consumer) and Transparency (continuous visibility from end-to-end, including real-time data on performance, quality, risk, and other key performance indicators). Conscious consumers, emerging regulations, and operational best practices are all pushing for this change. 

Blockchain can help brands achieve both Traceability and Transparency – but some important steps need to be taken before the technology can be adopted supply chain-wide.  To begin with, you can't make your suppliers adopt a groundbreaking technology unless you know who they are - both direct (Tier-1) and indirect (Tier-2, 3, down to raw materials). Then you need to align with your suppliers on transparency and traceability - that is, assuming they're ready to jump on board. That's why we've put together this simple questionnaire to determine if your supply chain is blockchain-ready.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Have you mapped your supply chain, including names, contact information and locations of all suppliers from raw materials to finished goods?
2. Have you identified risks and opportunities across the end-to-end supply chain where traceability and transparency could bring important ROI?
3. Have you assessed your suppliers' supply chain technology maturity, for example, whether their ERP/PLM is cloud-enabled?
4. Have you defined and communicated your supply chain transparency expectations with every stakeholder in your supply chain?

If you answered "yes" to all of these, then your supply chain is blockchain-ready, and will likely benefit from the enhanced security, authenticity, and the distributed costs of distributed ledger technology. But if you’re one of many who didn’t get beyond question 1 or 2, then you need to enhance your supply chain visibility and communications before you and your suppliers can take advantage of blockchain.

Blockchain might very well be “the next internet.” But like the internet in its early days, the killer applications of blockchain have not been well-defined. Before you implement blockchain, consider whether your supply chain is blockchain-ready – and if you’re not sure, ask an expert if it’s the right solution for you.

Any questions? Get in touch.