How blockchain is making exchanges between all supply chain actors more fluid

On July 2nd, France Supply Chain and its partner Wavestone organised a live webinar on Blockhain applied to the supply chain. Focus on the application of the technology in the sector, presented in a pragmatic and practical way.

Blockchain - a transparent and secure transaction validation and archiving technology that operates without a central control body - has been the subject of much discussion since its concept emerged in 2008. According to the 2021 edition of the Digitalisation Panorama, 36% of the companies surveyed consider it a priority, but it is still a subject that has not been widely exploited in the supply chain sector.

This is why, around Marc Dauga, Supply Chain partner at Wavestone and member of the Digital & Technologies Lab of France Supply Chain, three startups - Ownest, KeeeX and Crystalchain - came to present concrete cases of use of Blockchain in supply chain.

Improving stock management and making the supply chain more fluid

A real lever for creating value for the supply chain, capable of reducing risks and optimising ecosystems, Blockchain and its advantages - security, disintermediation and decentralisation - are slowly proving themselves in the sector. The proof is in the client case presented by Thibault Glaunez, CPO of Ownest, about SNCF Réseau, which has chosen to implement a solution developed by Ownest on its Moulin Neuf industrial site for the assembly of track elements (EIV), allowing the transfer of tokens, digitally transferable assets with a unique and unalterable identifier, content and an owner. Thus, each part exchanged between the site and the Moulin Neuf EIV warehouse is associated with a transfer of responsibilities: "When we transfer products, we also transfer the associated responsibility tokens. We have created a consensus with individual interests for each product transfer, in order to be able to trace them and secure the logistical flows," explains Thibault Glaunez. The results? Better stock management, a rate of non-conformity linked to the loss of a product divided by two, a reduction in product loss and the implementation of concrete KPIs of what is happening on the ground.

Facilitating the synchronisation of flows in multimodal transport

Then came the turn of the KeeeX company, which presented a project for the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille, based on multimodal transport. The objectives? To increase traffic while reducing transport times and costs and improving the environmental impact. To achieve this, KeeeX has developed a secure application that can be used by all types of users. "It allows users to connect to the system, flash the container number, perform various operations and add information to the chain in real time. Each addition made is signed by the person making it. Finally, among the major ROIs of this solution, we note a reduction in the number of transactions, a very strong increase in visibility rates and a synchronization of exchanges from 14% to 100%", underlines Cyprien Veyrat, VP Marketing and Pre sales at KeeeX.

Towards consumer products will be traced from end to end 

Finally, to close this round table discussion, Maxime Michelot, head of agri-food projects at Crystalchain, unveiled a project conducted with the company Raynal & Roquelaure. Here, from the farmer to the point of sale, all the players record their traceability information autonomously on a secure, reliable and distributed system. This information is then distributed to all the links in the chain. Together, the companies connect the data and add value to it in order to respond, among other things, to the problems of controlling health risks and making the supply chain more fluid. " Not only does this meet the consumer's need for transparency, but in addition, the platform makes it possible in just a few clicks to trace the entire traceability chain and to expose potential inconsistencies in terms of the quantity or even the origin of products," explains Maxime Michelot. "Our vision? Within 5 to 10 years, all consumer products will be traced from end to end," he concludes.

Finally, in order to provide more details on this increasingly important subject in the supply chain sector, France Supply Chain and Wavestone have also published a white paper which can be found below: