Supply Chain - Reading Assignment

Blockchain Business Course
#1

Welcome to the discussion about this reading assignment.

Leave your answers to the questions below in this thread. If you have any questions or you want to discuss something connected to the assignment feel free to do it in this thread as well, but please everything to the topic.

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
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#2

  1. To make the information in a supply chain system for tracking products being shipped more secure, efficient and reliable.

  2. It will track the shipping of products and provide better and faster information about the products as they work themselves from shipper to consumer.

  3. Keep their products safer and reduce time and cost to do the same.

  4. An immutable database that keeps tracking information safe and can be accessed by all interested parties.

8 Likes
#3

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?

To track the details in their supply chain closer, in order to provide the consumer with product that is safe for consumption and

2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?

Provides transparency of the products journey from distributor to the consumer. (We are what we eat.)

3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?

  • Circumvent a lot of law suits!
  • Walmart will gain a lot of trust with their customers.
  • They will have more access to information from each entity involved in the shipping chain.
  • Cost effective
  • Quality product

4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found Blockchain?

Lack of trust in preservation of goods from one party to the next, also lacking a consistent platform to keep records of each step of the shipping chain.

10 Likes
#4
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Enables them to more accurately and quickly identify problems in the supply chain. For example, sourcing the problem of food poisoning cases.
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    We, as customers, will have more confidence that the food we eat is fit for consumption and free of contamination or disease due to the faster method of identifying problems in the supply chain.
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Improved public relations, faster identification of problems within supplier chain. Less disruption to revenues.
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    Transparency of transactions which also enable the development of trust.
9 Likes
#5

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Supply chain tracking and verification is a vital business concern, and key to avoiding future food contamination.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    Customers might have more transparency into where their food quality and other items are sourced.

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Walmart can reduce costs and raise quality for time sentitive items. Also, fraud and inaccuracies are much harder to get away with, and details related to farm origins, factory data, expiration dates, storage temperatures, and shipping are available.

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    The missing piece was a shared forum where companies could begin to see each others’ transactions and develop trust,” he said. “That missing piece is something like the blockchain.”

4 Likes
#6

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
To ensure the consumer confidence, avoiding possible sources of contamination and to be able to track the movement of pork in China.
2. How will this new solution benefits us as customers?
We can have more transparency about where and how a product came to be. How meat has flowed through a commercial network form producers to processors to distributors to grocers and to consumers.
3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
Eliminating layers in the supply chain, that exist today and add very little value to the industry, waste, better manage of contamination cases and improve transparency.
4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
It was a shared forum where companies could begin to see each others’ transactions and develop trust.

3 Likes
#7

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
Create consumer confidence, avoiding sources of contamination and be able to track the movement of pork in China.
2. How will this new solution benefits us as customers?
More transparency about where/how a product came to be. How meat has flowed through a commercial network from farm to -producers to -processors to -distributors to -grocers and to -consumers. Full transparency and much better trust.
3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
Eliminating layers in the supply chain that exist. Add better management of contamination cases and improve transparency.
4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
There was a shared forum where companies could begin to see each others’ transactions and develop trust

3 Likes
#8

What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
To prevent food contamination. Take controle over the production and chipping process.

How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
Customers will be able to trace their products. They know what they are buying and from where it comes. More transparency. If there is a problem annonunced. its easy to see if my product are affected by my own very fast.

How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
They can very fast stop a product comparing with earlier process. They know directly when the products arrived and where they can find affected products. More safe for people and in the same time more transparant.

What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
No controle. And if there was problem it could take several days/week to trace affected food. Both ways. Meanwhile. many people risk being affected unnecessarily.

3 Likes
#9

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Having a shared ledger/forum where all information is transparant to all stake holders.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    Walmart will definitively know the source of their products (meat, in this case) and how it traveled to their store.

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    It helps their brand build trust. If they can prove the origin and handling of their meat products, it only helps in their quality. If it’s highly transparent, then it’s that much better.

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    A shared forum/ledger.

2 Likes
#10
  1. Probably the real motivation, is the potential cost savings from a giant law suit or recall that could arise from a poorly managed, or less than optimally managed supply chain. Blockchain, would essentially take much of the onus off of walmart and onto the others (Suppliers, farmers ect) by having better records of such things as say ‘storage temperature’ of pork during transport, walmart could then show that it was not them, but others that were responsible for the bad pork. Essentially, it provides a better, more secure way that is efficient and reliable to store data that allows others to query and see each others involvement.
  2. It will benefit us as consumers, as now there would be more transparancy, and therefore more pressure to comply with the rules, so we ‘could’ get a better product.
  3. As mentioned in (1) above, the potential cost savings, and more control.
  4. The missing piece was the ability to see others transactions, and exert control over farmers by extending a longer arm…
3 Likes
#11

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Reduced to find bad products. This can save lives and save a lot of money in not throwing out good product. Saving on staff man hours checking products that don’t need to be checked.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    The customer will know where the product came from and be sure it’s not a recalled items. As removing recalled items from selves will be a much faster simpler process.

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    This will help there public image and also make them a leader in the blockchain governed transparent food space.

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    Data being shared between participants. They can start making it mandatory to be on the blockchain http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart-lettuce-20180925-story.html

4 Likes
#12

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
To track food from original source to consumer in its entire supply chain using distributed ledger that is immutable to ensure food safety and easier to find the source of problem should a contamination situation happens.

2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
Knowing the products they buy are safe to use with increased transparency in the food source and quality.

3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?

  • Trackable supply chain increase product safety
  • save costs on paper admin, establish trust in products
  • able to pin point source of problem if contamination is detected so early interference could be put in place to prevent further outbreak.
  • Build trust with consumers through transparency in product information and quality.

4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
Shared forum where companies in the entire supply chain can see all transactions and develop trust.

3 Likes
#13
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    The article states that incidents like the contaminated spinach have inspired the retail giant Walmart to invest in ways to keep track of product and allow companies to share information in a timely fashion that will enable this new transparency.
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    The article states that Walmart is looking to boost consumer confidence and deliver product that has been tracked throughout the delivery cycle
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Walmart will have more logistical control as well as much more data at their disposal
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    Transparency
4 Likes
#14
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
  • Increase the supply chain efficiency,
  • provide more transparency and trust,
  • eliminate the froud and mistakes

  1. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    The food quality and customer trust will increase, the health risks will be reduced.

  2. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    The risks associated with the export products especially for food industry is very high. In order to keep the min. quality, lots of effort needs to be spent. With the additional transparency the risks will be reduced to a minimum. This new ecosystem will reduce the overall costs of the supply chain.

  3. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    Trust, transparency, traceability from production until the delivery of the product.

2 Likes
#15

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
Transparency, accountability in the supply chain of food. Its source, transportation and the conditions how it is transported and stored. This provide confidence to consumers due to its transparency.
2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
Transparency in the process which builds confidence.
3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
Customer loyalty due to process of developing confidence due to transparency of the process of food supply chain.
4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
Previous solution involved barcode and RFID scanning which had central control which is open for fraud and misinformation. Now transactions are stored to ledger by the peers, which leads to a more trusted system.

1 Like
#16
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    After many scandals that happen in the agro-alimentary business, Walmart wanted to gain trust. To insure the traceability of the product and and transparency of the supply chain
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    The customers want more transparency about how, when and from where the product is coming from
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Walmart can master all the supply chain of the product so if a virus infection of a product happen, Walmart can quickly know what happen and where it came from. So, if in case of a law suits, Walmart can find rapidly the guilty handler
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    A database that identify all the suppliers and provide trust to costumers
1 Like
#17
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    • Better supply chain tracking and validation, providing trusted sourcing of goods from end to end
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    • Consumer confidence and safety, greater transparency product original and supply chain
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    • Consumer confidence and easier supply chain management, reporting, and optimization
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    • a common platform (ledger) with established trust between all companies involved in the supply chain
1 Like
#18

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    The motivation is to get products from China that are not counterfeid or poisoned due to lack of control. Also they want more transparency which is good for the brand and the customer. Plus its more efficient.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    We now know where the product comes from, what stages it went through and if it was monitored the right way

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Its keeps their products safer and benefits the brand since they are now more transparent which the consumer wants.

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    An immutable database that keeps tracking information safe.

#19

What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?

To protect Walmart customers from both contaminated food as well as the fear of contaminated food purchased from Walmart.

How will this new solution benefit us as customers?

The customer will be able to know the path of there food from farm to shelf from its transparent recording on the blockchain. When contamination is reported in the news they will know if the contamination is in any way associated with their product in question.

How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?

I benefits Walmart in two ways: 1. Customers will have greater confidence in Walmart sold food items and when contamination is report, Walmart will quickly know if it applies to any of their items for sale, thus less good food will be needlessly thrown away.

What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?

Transparency in the farm to shelf process.

1 Like
#20
  • What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?

Ensuring food safety by tracking its origin. Being able to track the bad products to extract only these from the market so that the consumers would still be able to safely buy the unaffected goods.

  • How will this new solution benefit us as customers?

Easy to check the product quality by scanning the product’s barcode with the mobile app (which pulls the data from the blockchain).

  • How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?

Avoid the expensive paperwork and hence reduce the costs. Improve the products safety.

  • What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?

Here is the quote from the article :

“The missing piece was a shared forum where companies could begin to see each others’ transactions and develop trust,” he said. “That missing piece is something like the blockchain.”

Not sure what that really means ((

1 Like