Supply Chain Revolution (How Blockchain Technology Is Transforming the Global Flow of Assets)

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken precious lives and devastated the global economy. It has also revealed chinks in our supply chains. Not only have manufacturers found themselves scrambling unsuccessfully to find new suppliers when their Asian sources shut down, but the Western world has experienced across-the-board shortages of essential consumer packaged goods for the first time in decades. Blockchain technology has the potential to minimize these kinds of pandemic disruptions. In this book, some of the world’s top experts show how blockchain—in combination with other innovations such as additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things—can address longstanding problems that make the business of getting goods to customers so slow and expensive, especially in crises. Today’s supply chains are complex, as they move resources through trucks, planes, boats, and trains. Too many parties rely on a hodgepodge of documents and intermediaries to do business, which make the whereabouts and custody of goods unclear. That’s why, in a pandemic, uninformed consumers might reasonably believe that toilet paper won’t be available for many months. Enter blockchain—the Internet of Value. For the first time in human history, individuals and organizations can manage and trade their assets digitally peer to peer. In doing so, they will reinvent global commerce and how we exchange value. This will transform the best practices of operations, logistics, procurement and purchasing, transportation, customs and border control, trade finance and insurance, manufacturing, and inventory management. Global supply chains are ripe for disruption at every level and in every role. Supply Chain Revolution identifies what leaders should be doing now to prepare their organizations for the inevitable decentralized future. Enterprise executives and entrepreneurs alike will find ideas and opportunities to discuss with their stakeholders and decide how best to participate in the blockchain revolution.