This article was originally published on ManufacturingTomorrow
The power of trust is what binds manufacturers and their distribution channel partners to honor their commitments with each other’s best interests. Lately, however, that trust is strained as revenue growth shrinks across the supply chain.
According to McKinsey & Company, consumer packaged goods manufacturers saw revenue growth drop from 9.7% in 2011 to a dramatically lower 1.2% in 2018. While facing this decline, manufacturers have also contended with retailers’ attempts to stem their own lost revenue; after all, retailers are under pressure to keep up with the same levels of demand or face steep fines for late or incomplete shipments.
Over the last several years, however, blockchain has proven an effective salve for the dwindling trust in today’s supply chains. It enables a network-wide protocol that helps reduce “trust tax,” or the costs of maintaining trust. The cryptographically hashed, consensus-driven data stored on blockchain across multiple nodes provides immutable provenance and audit trails — a single source of truth that becomes the foundation of trust.
We’ve already seen this in action with initiatives such as the IBM Food Trust, a blockchain-powered ecosystem of companies all along the food supply chain. The Food Trust records provenance, builds transparency, and engenders trust at every stage of each food product’s value chain. The success of such initiatives compels more companies to adopt blockchain and the Internet of Things. This year, trusted real-time data sharing will take a huge step toward becoming the norm.
Although fewer than 5% of the highest-grossing manufacturing companies piloted Industry 4.0 projects with blockchain in 2018, that number is projected to jump to 30% by 2023. Likewise, some experts predict the market for blockchain in manufacturing will exceed $566 million by 2025.
Adoption will continue to accelerate in 2020 as manufacturers implement blockchain solutions to streamline operations. Some manufacturers seek more visibility into their supply chains, and others focus on tracking assets with enhanced precision and timing. As each solution excels at its purpose, blockchain’s overall potential to foster trust across both objectives will become increasingly valuable.
Some major features rolling out include transparent supply chain monitoring and digital supplier identity and management (think the Trust Your Supplier platform). In another example, Circulor recently used Hyperledger’s blockchain to ensure complete mine-to-manufacturer traceability for a conflict mineral mined in Rwanda.
In another Hyperledger application, Honeywell Aerospace launched an Amazon-like service dedicated to warranty management, components tracking, and regulatory compliance on the sale of used aircraft parts. In less than a year, more than 50 vendors have used the marketplace, which sets a higher standard of trust than we’ve seen in recent years.
The trust that current blockchain-based manufacturing applications can generate will be especially important this year as the space continues to mature and innovate. To make this transition easier to manage, many companies now offer blockchain solutions as a service to manufacturers in the ecosystem.
Like other software-as-a-service solutions, companies can sign on for provenance, traceability, and/or warranty management as separate services rather than building their own blockchain networks. The key innovation, however, is the combination of IoT and artificial intelligence with blockchain technology to provide real-time data and improve forecasting.
Most blockchain solutions automatically collect immutable data regarding operational conditions such as temperature changes or normal wear and tear. Adding AI on top of this data provides analytics that companies can trust to guide their policies and decision-making processes.
Blockchain solutions now pave the way toward greater implementation. Using traditional blockchain technology requires bringing on talent to manage its capabilities, database, security, privacy, and network. Further, blockchain requires policy to ensure governance among stakeholders using the solution.
Blockchain solutions allow enterprises to enter the value pyramid at a measured pace, which helps encourage buy-in across an organization. The typical value pyramid includes a foundation of integrating and sharing data, a smart contract layer in the middle, and — the ultimate goal — an innovation of business models at the top.
Before you can reach the innovation stage, you should prepare for the inevitable changes coming to blockchain in manufacturing. Use these five tips to get ahead:
Whether blockchain works as a service or as an entirely new business model, it’s already a significant part of the manufacturing industry. Before long, the power of trust that binds manufacturers and their supply chains will rest securely in blockchain-powered ecosystems.