Leveraging Blockchain

                                                                                                          IMAGE SOURCE:FINANCIAL TIMES 

When an individual hears of  the decision of the World's largest retailer(WALMART) to suddenly leverage a new Technology to improve their already fine-tuned Supply-Chain system; one is forced to sit up and notice closely.

So why was it that Walmart suddenly decided to leverage a new technology (Blockchain) inside their supply-chain system?

What benefits could potentially be gained by other Corporations by leveraging a similar system?

First let's look at the Basic Premise of Distributed Ledger Systems/Blockchain

• Decentralization
• Removal of Middle-man
• Self-regulation
• removal of obsolete Systems/layers of Management

Are these features of benefit to a Large corporation like Walmart(especially in a fiercely competitive industry with extremely slim margins like Retail)?

Most definitely Yes!

Walmart is one of world’s largest retailers shipping Billions of Dollars of Fresh produce Globally across multiple Geographic Jurisdictions

The Major Pain-Points that they faced were

a)Food-Losses & lack of Food traceability

b)Contaminated Food which causes Loss of Brand Loyalty

Blockchain Solution used? Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 in a Distributed Database Fashion.

What benefits did they gain from deploying this solution?

a)Growers, suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers, regulators and consumers can gain access to known and trusted information regarding the origin and state of food.

b)Food providers and other members of the ecosystem to use a blockchain network to trace contaminated product to its source in a short amount of time to ensure safe removal from store shelves and stem the spread of illnesses

c)Reduce the time to identify the precise point of contamination.

For example, it took more than two months to identify the farm source of contamination in a recent incidence of salmonella in papayas; in a test environment (after deployment of the Hyperledger Fabric solution) they were able to bring it down to 24 hours.

More information can be found HERE-https://news.walmart.com/2018/09/24/in-wake-of-romaine-e-coli-scare-walmart-deploys-blockchain-to-track-leafy-greens