End-To-End Tutorial to Trace Asset on Supply Chain with Blockchain and IoT
Blockchain technology is making new opportunities in terms of tracking physical goods and assets in the supply chain. When IoT is combined with blockchain, the exchange partners will get timely and new insights into the supply chain in real-time with more reliable and precise information about the key processes, product attributes, and events.
The fusion of Blockchain mechanisms and IoT will contribute to improving traceability. This article will discuss how Blockchain and IoT can boost traceability.
Supply chain management and its challenges:
Supply chain management may seem easy. But, if you are looking at things from a bird’s eye, you will realize it is not so. If a supply chain faces mismanagement, it can cost organizations zillions. Additionally, the reputation will be damaged as well.
Thus, it is essential to address all the problems that surround blockchain supply chain management. With the onset of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology), and IoT (Internet of Things), the supply chain can be managed efficiently.
The primary supply chain challenges in the modern world are described below:
- Increments in global connectivity and globalization have taken place, and more complicated supply chains have been led by it.
- The current market environments are encountering unexpected and drastic changes. Businesses must learn to react to such changes quickly. And the truth is, it is difficult to align the supply chain quickly.
- Several parties of producers, suppliers, consumers, and distributors are there. All of them are making the supply chain highly complex. This makes it difficult to coordinate.
- Only a handful of firms have considered the tools for predicting and managing risks for reacting promptly.
- Transparency is unclear. You cannot be sure about whether the basic protocols are being followed or not.
- There is a lack of trust between multiple stakeholders. Thus, all data is not shared. This further makes data reconciliation a monotonous task.
The impact of Blockchain technology and IoT on traceability:
When it comes to the trust economy, blockchain has been considered a hallmark. In short, it is the lifeblood of the supply chain. A decentralized method is offered by the Blockchain mechanism for recording digital moments. Blockchain technology is transparent, secure, auditable, efficient, and robust as well. All these are what blockchain supply chain management needs.
If IoT is combined with blockchain, it will become complete. IoT will be providing a path for connecting the digital world and the physical world through hardware. The sensors of IoT are potential enough to record temperature, humidity, speed, and every other physical parameter. All of these can be conveyed effectively across the entire network. And this will facilitate drawing out the analytics.
Apart from offering a decentralized migration, Blockchain technology also addresses the problem associated with information and data quality that exists in the other IT platforms. Blockchain complements the requirement to maintain continuous data provenance that discusses where is the origination of the data of interest, who are the data owners, and what type of transformations were done to the data. This protects the metadata that is posted on the blockchain from compromising and unauthorizing disclosure.
For example, the Blockchain mechanism suits distributed cloud storage. When Blockchain technology is blended into the world of the cloud, it will enhance data provenance where the nodes of the clouds record the data across a distributed network with strong cryptography and a fault-tolerant ledger. This way, the combined usage of cloud technology and blockchain makes the way to self-sovereign data ownership and management by permitting contextual and private access to IoT data hosted all over the cloud layers.
To employ IoT, the Blockchain mechanism can be merged easily with the big data application in the use cases of Blockchain supply chain solutions. It implies supply chains’ shift from being digitally enabled to digitally-led and process-centric.
Via the attached sensors, initiation activates the information source. The raw information that is collected from the sensors is transferred across the entire network to the IoT hub. Here, data consolidation and integration occur. Risk management and prediction are completed in the analysis section. Based on the derived insights, machine/human behavior is activated.
Features of a perfect supply chain:
Blockchain development for the supply chain is considered ideal when it offers the following features:
- 100% information must be visible and available to every stakeholder. In short, transparency must be maintained.
- An improved trust must be there upon the system on which the stakeholders will be operating commonly. This will establish high trust.
- The Blockchain supply chain solutions must empower all the stakeholders for taking quick actions to the ever-evolving environments. It will contribute to the elasticity.
Conclusion:
The combination of IoT and Blockchain technology can trigger newer opportunities for enhancing the integrity of the supply chain and enhance operational performance. It becomes easy to trace the assets. However, combining both of them may also develop new problems. So, exploration, prediction, and explanation about different scenarios are highly essential. In case you are a newbie, seek expert advice from a reputed supply chain development company.
