In this post we present the blockchain based platform to be offered for supply chain scenarios within the advanced services of the NIMBLE platform.
Blockchain technology usage is relatively new but interest in it is growing in many fields. The first such field is the financial services arena, but more areas are exploring the usage of this technology, with supply chain being in the forefront. In various analysis reports it can be seen that Banking / Financial Services and Supply Chain remain top industries for blockchain activity. In fact, a lot of attention and funds are being devoted to exploring blockchain contribution to supply chain scenarios, both by industrial partners, as well as large IT providers.
For the purposes of NIMBLE project we make use of Hyperledger Fabric (see https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/latest/), a permissioned ledger, which is suitable for the business environment we are targeting. The blockchain enables a network of business partners to perform transactions across organizations without resorting to a single unified trusted authority. Transactions are governed by smart contracts, which govern the rules and responses to invoked transactions. Blockchain provides a shared, replicated, permissioned ledger ensuring trust, provenance, immutability and finality, to replace inefficient, expensive, and vulnerable processes.
A manufacturer can create a blockchain-based system for holistically managing all its relationships with suppliers of parts and components, and having all necessary stakeholders share the exact same information. Moreover, manufacturers can use a blockchain-based system for managing the financial relationships and transactions connected to each step with all its suppliers. All stakeholders will be able to enjoy elevated levels of trust and accountability provided by the blockchain integration, by having the blockchain as the single source of truth supporting immutability and non-repudiation.
As a result, a Blockchain network can offer various benefits in a supply chain scenario by establishing a trusted mechanism.
Chief among these: Saving time – Lowering cost – Reducing risk – Automating processes.
In future posts we will report you about possible concrete usage scenarios of blockchain for supply-chain management, focusing on those we are actually implementing in NIMBLE.
