Supply Chain - Reading Assignment

Blockchain Business Course
#81

  1. To keep tack of the source and status of each food product

  2. Customers can confidently buy product knowing where each product is coming from and the status

  3. Tracing all the product logistics allow Walmart to quickly remedy if a problem occurs

  4. Lack of immutable tracing system anyone can check

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#82

1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
The ability to digitally store permanent records of transactions that trace food products from farms through the supply chain and a way to identify the consumer who purchased the product.
This permanent, digital record of full traceability could serve as a step-change alternative to traditional paper tracking systems, which leave supply chains vulnerable to mistakes and fraud.

2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
Transparency and traceability for products is highly improved.

3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
More efficient and simple protocol to communicate with different entities and share data between them, a trusted and transparent environment can now be achieved reducing complex verification process through different authorities since all can use the same protocol, the agreement on the use of the same protocol highly reduce the cost of some operations, improving confident on the data and the ability to track and solve any kind of issue is highly increased.

4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
Transparency and traceability on a product description/fabrication was a truly headache for companies to trust each others on provided data about the product each offer.
With blockchain now business can build a shared structure to solve this issue.

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#83

  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Reduce the time and improve accuracy of tracking food sources and pathways

  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    Walmart can quickly identify what food should be pulled and may be at risk due to a source contamination issue.

  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Reduced risk, improved supply chain communication and improved perception by the public

  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    They had no way to quickly or effectively track food sourcing within their supply chain.

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#84

@filip Hi Filip, Wanted to let you know as I attempted to access this video: http://fortune.com/2016/10/19/walmart-ibm-blockchain-china-pork/ in the Supply-chain reading assignment, no more than the first two paragraphs were available and then one has to subscribe to fortune to see the rest. This is also true for the bloomberg link in toshitimes for this assignment.
Here is one article that I will most likely answer my questions from:https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/from-farm-to-store-walmart-improves-food-safety-with-blockchain-technology-2/
Just FYI so everyone can get the most out these lessons.
Thanks for all you do!
Vicki

#85
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution? Walmarts collaboration with IBM was motivated by the goal to improve the way food was tracked, imported and sold to consumers from farm to store.
  2. How will this new solution benefit us as customers? B;ockchain will help to solve traceability issues in food supply chain management which is slow and difficult currently. All particiipants from growers, suppliers, processers, retailers and regulators to consumers have access to the same information.
  3. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation? Using a single blockchain that wach user in the supply chain accesses and records entries promotes efficiency and trust in this instance. It will further be a highly efficient way to instanlty view the entire route of a product in a matter of seconds, not days or weeks and potentially prevent food borne illnesses.
  4. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain? Mulitple and alterable ledgers and cumbersome paperwork of which all participants did not have access.
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#86

Thank you for letting us know. I’ll make sure to pass this on. :grinning:
Ivo

#87

Hi, can you post the other bloomberg link to?

Thanx for the info, we will update both links. :wink: :+1:

#88

Hi Ivo,

I tried to go back just now and find the bloomberg link and it doesn’t seen to be there? I haven’t figured out yet (if its possible) to go back to the already completed course page for that particular link. If I’m able to, I will pass it it on.

Thanks for all you do!

Vicki

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#89
  1. Reducing trancing produce from days or weeks to seconds. This means that they can react much quicker when there is a food-event and items need to be taken off the shelves. Auditing is become a trivial task in terms of complexity.
  2. Transparency to the consumer is drastically improved. Customers can verify the origin of the produce and its health safety.
  3. See answer 1
  4. Integration their multiple steps in the supply chain into one overseeable system.
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#90

  1. To make the tracking of product shipment become more secure and efficient without the problematic manual paper tracking and authorizations.

  2. The shipment of products will be faster and this resolve the stock shortages. The source of the products can also be made known to the customers.

  3. The reduction of manual paper records and faster shipment tracking. Costs reduction is obvious.

  4. Lack of a platform to consistently keep records and be able to retrieved by various parties at the same time.

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#91
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
  • Food Safety
  1. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
  • tracable source of food and easy to follow up if there is any food problems.
  1. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Imporve Efficiency in Logistic
  2. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
  • time processing is too long
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#92
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
  • Tracking supply chain to get a better overview about data and finding issues in the process
  1. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
  • Reducing the likelihood that infected food will reach the consumer.
  1. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
  • making auditing the supply chain a trivial activity
  1. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
  • By placing a supply chain on the blockchain, it makes the process more traceable, transparent and fully digital. Each node on the blockchain could represent an entity that has handled the food on the way to the store, making it much easier and faster to see if one of the affected farms sold infected supply to a particular location with much greater precision.
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#93
  • What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a block-chain solution?
    Enables them to more accurately and quickly identify problems in the supply chain. For example, sourcing the problem of food poisoning cases.
  • 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.
  • How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    Improved public relations, faster identification of problems within supplier chain. Less disruption to revenues.
  • What was the missing piece in their solution before they found block-chain?
    Transparency of transactions which also enable the development of trust.
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#94

  1. Walmart wanted a tool that helped track perishable foodstuffs - in this instance pork - and a blockchain type solution augments greatly the ability for supply chain data like this to be both immutable - no one can tamper with the records, so if bad pork got into the chain, you could see exactly where it came from, [or perhaps see where a cold storage device had broken down], as well as being transparent and readily available. Everyone involved can access this data which is tracking where/when the food has been, as well as the more granular details such as recorded sampling of food temperature at a specific location and specific time etc.

  2. Customers can truly see where their food comes from. All the way, in this case, from farm to plate - genuine provenance that can be trusted.

  3. This solution will help Walmart identify where and when problems arise, specifically in the Chinese pork market, in order to mitigate against bad product reaching the shelves in the first place, as well as to expedite dealing with this type of problem if it does arise.

  4. The missing piece was this multifaceted ability to have an accessible, trackable, unchangeable and easily interrogateable shared data chain. Or as they put it - ‘the ability to have a shared forum where companies can see each others’ transactions . . and begin to develop trust.’

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#95

They had problems with spinach where harmful bacterias caused illness/even deaths and couldnt trace back the supply chain. Now they want to use a blockchain solution to solve this problem of bad transpariency

We have a better overview of where our products come from

Restaurants for example refused to buy spinach. Know they know where it comes from and walmart doesn’t have to deal with unsure customers

They lacked transparincy, order and had to rely on trust

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#96
  1. What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
  • It allows them to track details in their supply chain closer, in order for consumers to know the origins of where their product were produced and how it traversed within the supply chain from points X, Y, & Z etc. to them
  1. How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
  • Customers will have more confidence knowing where their food is coming from, and what quality of food they are getting. (Key here is transparency)
  1. How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
  • Cost effective
  • Improvement in transparency between suppliers and also for the customers to see the origin of where their food is coming from
  • Able to pinpoint problems faster
  • Tractability of products and problems is easier
  1. What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
  • Transparency
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#97

  • What is the motivation behind Walmart investing in a blockchain solution?
    Placing a supply chain on the blockchain, it makes the process more traceable, transparent and fully digital

  • How will this new solution benefit us as customers?
    Having a more transparent supply chain customers can see and be sure about the origin of the food they buy.

  • How will this new solution benefit Walmart as a corporation?
    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. That means less spending for the companyes.

  • What was the missing piece in their solution before they found blockchain?
    The capability of all parts of o supply chain of recording the data on a database that cant be atlered or and modifyed after.

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#98
  1. Do to consumers increasing concerns over safety and corporate memories of past food safety failures, has been the motivating factors for Walmart’s decision to explore blockchain as a solution to its supply chain problems.
  2. The premiery benafit to consumers is the ability to know where, how and by whom of all of the ingredients as well as all the processes that were used to create the product, will have been time-stamped as proof a products pedigree.
  3. Walmart benefits in the efficiency, and it ability to track down unforeseeable problem in the future.
  4. The missing piece was a platform where all of the companies could share and confirm intricate transaction data to the minute, as is possible with blockchain technology.
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#99

  1. They had problems with dangerous food because of contamination ad they want to use blockchain to trak products in a trustless way.

  2. Customers would increase the trust of the quality and the origin of products

  3. This new solution permit to trace any defective product. this will reduce wasting of time and products and it will reduce problems with customers.

  4. integrate all the participants into the supply chain in a trustless way is the missing piece of this solution.

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#100

  1. Because customers request to know from where and how a product come to be.

  2. Blockchain stands for tracebility and transparance and customers can rely on blockchain showing what ingridiens a product consists of and also where and when the product has been in a certain place and for how long during shipment.

  3. The blockchain make it much harder for sub suppliers to cheat and come up with inaccuracies that don’t benefit Walmart at all.

  4. A shared forum where companies could begin to “see each other” and the companies different activities.

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