Supply Chain - Reading Assignment

Blockchain Business Course
#201

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
Traceability of the supply chain. If the supply chain becomes more transparent, fraud cases can be avoided (e.g. declaring food as organic at some step in the supply chain even though it isn’t) and issues with contaminated food can quickly be solved.

2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
Transparency about origination of food & beverages. More trust in authenticity of origin of food and beverages.

3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
Gain trust from the public (should lead to more sales and profits) and lower costs by avoiding law cases due to fraudulent or bad food on the shelf. It also avoids bad reputation which itself leads to lower sales and profits.

4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
The shared database where every party involved in the supply chain can see the flow of the goods from one party to the other until it reaches the store and eventually the end consumer.

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#202

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    to be able to see the whole supply chain

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    customers can see the whole supply chain, though know where the products are coming from. More transparency

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    with more transparency, customers will trust Walmart more. It will save costs and admin work.

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    A DB that can’t b changed by one single entity.

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#203

What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
Most supply chains are bogged down in manual processes. This makes it difficult and time consuming to track down an issue should one like the E. coli romaine lettuce problem from last spring rear its head.
How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
For example, with Blockchain it substantially reduces the likelihood that infected food will reach the consumer.

How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
By placing a supply chain on the blockchain, it makes the process more traceable, transparent and fully digital, with higher food safety standards.

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

It was difficult and time consuming to track down an issue. Before moving the process to the blockchain, it typically took approximately 7 days to trace the source of food. With the blockchain, it’s been reduced to 2.2 seconds.

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#204

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    faster traceability, fulfill standards (Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    safer products, transparency, trust

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    fulfill standards, increases customer-trust in good products, faster access on bad/contaminated foods
    the company is also requiring that suppliers adhere to one of the
    Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which have been internationally recognized as food safety standards

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    (an onboarding system for suppliers, they have to switch from paperwork to BC)*1
    a shared ledger/platform where each stakeholder (supply, logistics, walmart and customer) can find trustworthy information about the
    supply chain process

*1(One of the issues in a requiring the suppliers to put their information on the blockchain
“IBM will offer an onboarding system that orients users with the service easily.
Essentially, suppliers will need a smart device and internet to participate,” she said.)

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#205

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    To ensure that transparency and tracebility is much easier.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    Walmart can very easily trace contaminated food ensuring the safety of its customers

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    eliminate cumbersome process and make it quick and easy

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    a shared system between all parties

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#206

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
To be able to prove that their products are sourced in appropriate and safe ways that assures their customers of the quality of the food being sold in Walmart stores.

2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
Customers will be able to see the farm to fork process that their food products went through so they can make informed decisions about which food choices they make.

3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
It will become a selling point - customers may prefer to shop at Walmart if they are able to see the journey of their food as they feel more knowledgeable and in control about their food choices.
It will also help to protect them in the case of legal disputes if all transactions are recorded on the blockchain.
They may be able to make their supply chain more efficient as they will have full transparency at each step.

4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
A shared forum where companies could see each other’s transactions and develop trust.

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#207

  1. There was a deadly E. coli outbreak in the US back in 2010 that negatively affected 26 states with tainted spinach supplies. People of course stopped eating spinach. The response from many grocers and restaurants was to immediately remove all spinach from menus and inventories in general without knowing the true source of the problem.
    Following this outbreak consumers became more adamant about demanding to know the origins of the food/products they consume. Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety at Walmart mentioned, “Consumers today want more transparency about where and how a product came to be…If you shine a light on the food system, that leads to transparency.” Walmart listened to the demands of modern consumers and were motivated to invest in a blockchain solution that would allow more transparency of the origin of their products and how they move within the supply chain.

  2. A blockchain solution benefits customers because they would have more insight into the whole supply chain involved with their product from producers all the way to their shopping cart.

  3. Walmart and other retailers benefit because they can easily pinpoint specific locations in a supply chain where a problem may occur, mitigate the problem, and build more trust with consumers.

  4. According to Paul Chang, a global supply chain lead at IBM, “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.”

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#208
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Food safety. It makes the supply chain quickly traceable.
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    By quickly source tracing, contaminated product can be intercepted before it is put on the shelves.
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Fewer lawsuits, better customer confidence
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    A central place for all the transaction data. A place to find out who did what and when.
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#209

[quote=“filip, post:1, topic:6393”]

  • What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    The motivation was food safety and instant traceability due to the Romain lettuce ecoli outbreak previously.
  • How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    It will ensure that an item can be removed immediately , ensuring the health and welfare of the customer. It will also ensure that the whole supply chain are members of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI),
  • How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    It will have Less process and make items more traceable, transparent and fully digital. If there was an outbreak of a disease it would be much easier and faster to see if one of the affected farms sold infected supply to a particular location with much greater precision. Ultimately it would increase the customers trust in Walmarts food safety and ultimately increase the shareholders didvidends.
  • What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    It creates transparency through out the supply chain and previously it took 7 days to find the source of food, now its takes seconds.
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#210

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    An E. coli outbreak, three deaths, and the improper tracing of contamination.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    As consumers, we benefit from the Walmart Hyperledger Project because of the transparency of the foods’ history that it presents.

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Increased consumer trust and verifiable quality of products.

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    "A shared forum where companies could begin to see others’ transactions and develop trust." A way to combat fraud and inaccuracies in the current system.

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#211

Excellent answers sir, well documented! Please keep them like that :muscle:

Carlos Z.

#212
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    A decade ago a deadly strain of E-coli from spinach killed and sickened a lot of people and they stopped eating spinach. The VP of food safety at Walmart thought that if Chinese pork could be tracked consumer confidence could be ensured.
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    It could prevent a future nationwide fatal outbreak.
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Total transparency with information stored on the blockchain. Fraud and inaccuracies are much harder to get away with.
    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”
2 Likes
#213
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Ecoli in products and the fact that consumers changed their mind about that product, due to the unknown trace
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    Transparency
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Trust
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    Shared forum to create trust
1 Like
#214
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution? Transparency for the safety of its food
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers? Fast ability to respond when there is an issue or outbreak
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation? Ability to pull the correct products out quickly, able to pulse items in the supply chain quickly and identify issues; reduce risk of lawsuits
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain? Transparency throughout the supply chain due to siloed information
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#215

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    One of the main motivations in this use case is traceability. Walmart can now check where a food type has been along each step of its supply chain in seconds rather than days. So if there is any food that is found to be unsafe for consumption, that food can be isolated and pulled from the shelves right away. It also allows them to give their consumers greater assurance that if a food is being sold as, for example, organic, they can give stronger assurances of that claim. All this goes to reducing mountains of paperwork and makes the food production process transparent.

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    When a customers buys something claiming to be organic, they can see if it actaully is or not. Also if any food is not safe for consumption it can be removed from the shelves right away meaning the consumer will not buy it but will be able to buy other foods because Walmart will not be in a position where they have to take all the foods from the shelves for days until they find the contamination source.

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    It saves a lot on time spent tracing any foods that have been found not to be safe for consumption. They can remove it from the shelves right away minimising the risk of consumers getting sick. Also means they do not have to remove all foods from the shelves for days while they try to find the source of the contamination. So hey do not oloose out on sales of foods not affecting by the contamination.

  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”

1 Like
#216

Excellent answers miss, well documented! Please keep them like that :muscle:

Carlos Z.

1 Like
#217

1: Faster information gathering I E source ,date, producer shelf life etc reliable and secure

2:We know where the products are from and the date of censurability and also we can be warned faster should a bad product be detected. Traceabilty

3:Imoroved PR, quicker Identification of issues, improved revenue regularity

4: Transparency of TRxs and info trust

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#218
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Deliver safe food to the consumer
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    We as customers can be sure that we purchase fresh and healthy food
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    The company becomes more transparent and trustworthy. The blockchain solution results to be more cost effective and fast. Customers will be more satisfied, which can hopefully lead to more sales.
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain? There was no control over the supply chain, as well as the lack of transparency and traceability of all the parties involved in food storage and delivery.
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#219

  1. To digitise the food supply chain process. Previously took 7 days to trace source for food now with Hyperledger Fabric it reduced that to 2.2.

  2. If they ca source food faster customers can always have what they want in stock and have it fresh as its ever been on time everytime.

  3. Quicker established sourcing or products.

  4. Inputting the data to the blockchain, trust and transparency. Tracing production until the delivery of the goods.

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#220
  1. Enables them to more accurately and quickly identify problems in the supply chain. For example, sourcing the problem of food poisoning cases.
  2. 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. 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. 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.
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