Walmart’s supply chain network stretches globally, managing approximately 1.3 billion SKUs (stock-keeping units) and a volume of 90 million square yards of inventory annually. Platforms just See site have a robust algorithm that performs the research for bitcoin traders and makes trading easy. Also, it has helped many beginners to get started with bitcoin trading. Blockchain is an emerging technology for supply chain management that can provide significant benefits to retailers and suppliers alike in terms of transparency, trustworthiness, and cost savings.
This post will cover blockchain and how Walmart plans to apply it to its supply chain management. The significance of blockchain for Walmart lies in the transparency that this emerging technology offers, allowing Walmart to track and manage its inventory with minimal costs and substantial transparency.
Blockchain technology allows Walmart to track every asset that leaves its operations, whether a shipment from an international supplier or a product returned from Walmart stores. This technology also will enable Walmart to monitor its global network in real-time, providing insights into any disruptions or delays before they occur.
Current operations of Walmart to implement blockchain technology
Walmart is currently working with IBM and Tsinghua University National Engineering Laboratory for E-Commerce Technologies in Beijing, China, as part of a blockchain solution that will track its pork from China to the United States. Walmart’s efforts with blockchain technology focus on transparency, trustworthiness and cost savings.
Transparency is created through the ability to track assets at all nodes in the supply chain process. Trust is established through the immutability of blockchain technology and immutable compliance checks throughout each transaction. Users can reduce costs through the reduction of time spent auditing and traceability checks which are automated in a blockchain environment. Walmart’s supply chain has a global reach and complexity.
The vast amounts of data collected from this network are vast in number, which makes optimization and tracking difficult. Using blockchain technology, Walmart can achieve efficiency by reducing the time spent auditing and traceability checks while optimizing its processes across multiple international locations. Walmart is currently testing its solution with suppliers to verify cost savings in the region of $100 million per year over the next three years.
Below are four steps Walmart is taking to implement blockchain technology into its supply chain:
1) Implementing Blockchain for Shipping Inventory to the U.S.:
The user can implement blockchain technology at any point of the supply chain process; however, in the case of Walmart’s implementation, with this technology, Walmart will be able to track every step of this process on a blockchain-based record. For example, once a shipment has reached its destination (either by air or sea), a similar IoT solution will scan the product and verify its compliance with federal standards relating to food safety and quality.
Once the product has reached its destination, Walmart’s new blockchain solution will be able to track this asset across the supply chain process to verify that every step of the way, from production to receipt at a U.S. Walmart store, this asset has remained in good order and compliance.
Blockchain technology dramatically improves tracking and managing inventory in its stores. Like many other retailers, Walmart’s low-cost products subject to frequent returns are an issue. However, using this technology in its stores, inventory can be monitored at all times – including days past when products are still being sold – which offers significant benefits over current solutions.
2) Implementing Blockchain for Receiving inventory in the U.S.:
By tracking and monitoring its global inventory, Walmart can save thousands of dollars daily. With blockchain technology, Walmart can time-stamp every list at the point of origin and use these time-stamps to track it through the supply chain process, including back through its network of suppliers.
Walmart can verify compliance at every step. In addition, by documenting where and when every item was received from suppliers into Walmart’s system in real-time, Walmart gains additional insight into disruptions to its supply chain process before they occur.
3) Developing a Use Case for Retail Stores:
With time stamping, Walmart can audit every component of its supply chain process in real-time. It includes identifying any disruptions or delays before they occur. For example, Walmart can use this technology to identify inventory that has yet to be adequately staged in its stores and therefore is subject to potentially being wasted. With this information and the additional insight gained by using blockchain technology, Walmart can then adjust its operations (e.g., add a new shipment) as needed to prevent unnecessary waste and reduce costs in the future.
4) Reducing Product Returns:
In addition to these benefits for suppliers and shipping operations, blockchain technology also has tremendous potential for reducing product returns from Walmart stores. With this technology, Walmart can identify when a customer returns an item purchased online at the time of sale. Blockchain technology can track the inventory back to its original shipment in real-time.
It provides Walmart with valuable, formerly unavailable insight into where and how to adjust for future shipments. This transparency offers Walmart a tremendous advantage over traditional methods of auditing its inventory that require days or weeks after the fact to identify where and why returns are occurring.
Blockchain Walmart
