Visit our Content Hub!
Access free downloadable content curated by our editors.

Approaching blockchain

At this point, there’s little doubt that blockchain will be widely used to verify industrial supply chain transactions in the not-too-distant future. The question is how to prepare your business for this data intensive verification platform.

Davide Picciotto of Siemens Industry speaking at the Manufacturing in America blockchain panel discussion.
Davide Picciotto of Siemens Industry speaking at the Manufacturing in America blockchain panel discussion.

So, you’ve read a number of articles about blockchain (like those linked to at the bottom of this article) and you’re intrigued by its potential for your business. But since there is no well-known, widely used blockchain software package available, you’re not sure where to start.

If this sounds like you, I’ve got good news and bad news.

The bad news is that, as of today, there is no “easy” or direct way to ramp up with blockchain.

The good news is that some products are beginning to hit the market—and more are on the way. Among the first of these is Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain Workbench, which can be used to set up quick proofs of concept to determine what works best for you, according to Caglayan Arkan, global lead of Microsoft’s Manufacturing & Resources Industry. Some Azure blockchain samples are also available in Github.

At the Manufacturing in American event, sponsored by Siemens and Electro-Matic, a panel discussion featuring John Greaves of Sonaria (a supplier of software for tracking and management), Davide Picciotto of Siemens Industry, Aaron Ault of Purdue University, and Kevin Otto of GS1 US (a member-driven standards organization) addressed the issue of how food and beverage companies can start implementing blockchain. As noted in many of the articles linked below, blockchain is poised to impact the food and beverage and consumer packaged goods (CPG) first because of its unique and secure supply chain traceability capabilities.

Otto noted that, as of today, the core issue of making blockchain viable for industry revolves around accurate data capture and openness to sharing that data for everyone’s benefit. “Blockchain is not going to solve the problem of manufacturers not sharing data if manufacturers are not capturing it for use,” he said.

To address this, GS1 has launched a cross-industry blockchain discussion group in connection with its Foodservice GS1 standards initiative to share publicly available information about products as well as what is shared between trading partners. The group’s aim is to understand the links between GS1 Standards and blockchain to help better determine what needs to be truly transparent.