Many industries are looking at
blockchain technology to help
expedite, control and validate their
supply chain processes.
Supply chain, logistics, provenance: hot topics around the family dinner table,
for sure. Okay, maybe not. Yet all these things impact our lives daily, even
though we may be blissfully unaware of them. Take the dinner table, for exam-
ple. That savory grilled salmon filet on your plate may have come all the way
from China. Those carrots and asparagus? Possibly shipped in from Peru. The
fresh, out of season fruit? Chile or Mexico may have been their origination.
What brings all those items from their source to your dinner table, still fresh,
is the supply chain.
Food is a great example to look at because it is time critical. The product must
travel a vast distance, change hands many times, cross borders, pass various
inspections and reviews, be reported on customs forms and have its shipping
tracked from international to national to local locations, right down to the last
mile. Supply chain, logistics and provenance are all key to that food success-
fully making it to your dinner table. Following the “chain of custody” (who had
what when) and the “chain of events” (inspection, customs review) is critical for
the supply chain to succeed.
So What Does This Have to do With Blockchain?
While we used food as an example, the supply chain fundamentally underlies
every single physical item you possess. The plates you eat dinner on, the table
the plates sit on, the lumber and materials used to build the home you are eat-
ing the dinner in, all arrived there via the supply chain.
Supply chain cuts across all industry verticals, and involves processes that are
extremely complex and difficult to manage and support. Many industries,
therefore, are looking at blockchain technology to help expedite, control and
validate their supply chain processes.
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology. It is the underlying technology
supporting the cryptocurrency world. According to Gartner’s latest report on
the hype cycle of emerging technologies, blockchain has just passed the peak
of their hype cycle curve. If you read the news articles about it, you would think
SPRING 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 43