In 2018, a disruptive technological revolution is coming crazily, and the protagonist is - blockchain.

Blockchain technology is considered to be the next generation of disruptive core technology after steam engines, electricity, and the Internet. If steam engines release people’s productivity and electricity solves people’s basic living needs, the Internet Completely changing the way information is transmitted, then blockchain, as a machine for building trust, will likely completely change the way value is transmitted throughout human society.

The "blockchain+" revolution has begun in the medical, financial, intelligent manufacturing and other industries, and will undoubtedly have an important impact on the supply chain. Supply chain management and supply chain finance, because the market scale is large enough and meet the characteristics of multi-trust entities, multi-party collaboration, medium and low-frequency transactions, and complete business logic, are natural places for blockchain to come into play.

1. Problems with traditional supply chains

Supply chain management spans a large area and information asymmetry

The current supply chain spans upstream and downstream, and the enterprises involved There are many, and the core enterprises have limited management capabilities and scope of influence on the entire supply chain. Management efficiency has dropped significantly and management costs have increased.

Product production cycles and supply cycles have become complex, fragmented, and geographically decentralized. Traditional technologies and concepts can no longer adapt to today's commodity production and supply.

General enterprises can manage up to level 1 to 2 suppliers. As the global division of labor continues to refine, the number of suppliers has doubled, continued to extend, and spread all over the world. Core enterprises cannot achieve real-time control over the goods circulated by upstream and downstream supply enterprises.

In the era of big data, information asymmetry will put enterprises at a disadvantage and even reduce the value of the entire supply chain ecosystem.

The ability to trace information is weak

Due to the lack of transparency among companies in the supply chain, buyers and sellers lack an effective and reliable method to verify the authenticity of the products they buy and sell. value.

This means that the price paid by the buyer cannot truly reflect the cost of the product, which invisibly increases the overall cost of the supply chain.

At present, the supply chain is still unable to trace the sources of counterfeit and shoddy goods, illegal labor, money laundering and other illegal activities in each link of the supply chain.

It is difficult to obtain data from the entire supply chain

The information systems of the companies involved in the supply chain are scattered in the hands of different suppliers, including procurement, production, circulation, sales, logistics and other information Complete separation, without an information platform to store, process, share and analyze this information, limits the potential value of rich data and information, and a large amount of information is unable to be collected or accessed.

At the same time, it also makes the verification and review of this information difficult and cumbersome, and the information exchange is not smooth, requiring manual repeated reconciliation, which also increases the audit cost of transaction payment and account period.

2. Blockchain + supply chain can solve many problems

Information is updated in real time and third parties are eliminated

Blockchain can build a network that includes suppliers, A platform for all supply chain links such as manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and logistics. On this platform, all enterprises form an alliance to record logistics, information flow, and capital flow on the chain, and track and supervise all developments in the supply chain in real time. , and achieve collaborative work.

The entire supply chain is made transparent and visible. Multiple participants in each transaction can view the same transaction records, verify identities and confirm transactions without the need for third-party intermediaries.

Facilitates traceability

Transformed into ledger information for all participants to enjoy the entire life cycle of the transaction. It is communication based on the status of information rather than the delivery of information. Information that was obscure in the past is now clearly visible.

At the same time, the blockchain is a publicly issued ledger. The ledger is a decentralized structure. No party has ownership of the ledger, nor can it manipulate the data as it wishes. Blockchain can trace the entire process of commodity production.

3. New Model of Supply Chain Finance

Since the blockchain breaks the data silos of each enterprise, the big data provided to the supply chain will have more data sources. This greatly improves the inventory and quality of data, allowing big data to better play its role. At the same time, the non-tamperability of blockchain data also enhances the credibility of the data, making it possible for enterprises to use data for credit reporting, thereby promoting the establishment and prosperity of the big data trading market.

In supply chain finance, the bill platform built with blockchain technology can be combined with supply chain finance business to realize bill financing, issuance, payment bill splitting, statistical reports, clearing and settlement and other functions. Realizing that digital bills can be paid and split quickly and openly and transparently under the witness of multiple parties, the credit of core enterprises can be transferred to the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, creating a new model of supply chain finance.

Blockchain can benefit every link in the supply chain and improve the efficiency of supply chain management. Product supply chain collaboration model based on blockchain After the blockchain is added, data is shared among supply chain participants, and a complete and smooth information flow can be formed on the entire supply chain to ensure that participants discover the supply chain in a timely manner Problems that exist during the operation of the system and targeted solutions are found to improve the overall efficiency of supply chain management.

In this regard, blockchain technology has greatly accelerated product traceability and product recall, and reduced product quality risks. They will make manufacturing more responsive, enabling customizable customer orders—in effect, transforming supply chains into demand chains. As supply chains operate more like demand chains in this scenario, trust dilemmas like these may force manufacturers to look at blockchain solutions.

In the future, supply chains will be more dynamic, flexible and customer-oriented than today, and geographical location and long-term relationships will no longer be so important.