1. The document discusses how blockchain technology can increase supply chain resilience and transparency. It explains that blockchain creates an immutable record that allows all parties in the supply chain to access information, reducing fraud and inefficiency. 2. Blockchain incentives many computers to validate transactions in exchange for digital currency, making the record highly resilient. This allows each item in a supply chain to be traceable from origin to end user. 3. Several major companies are working to apply blockchain to track food supplies, reduce recalls, and improve access to information. Widespread adoption may take years but offers benefits like reduced costs and risks for supply chains.

1.  Make your supply chain more resilient
Until Covid-19 began wreaking its havoc, global companies run their supply chains on the
assumption that disruptions would be rare and short-lived, and that products should be sourced,
produced and distributed at the cheapest locations to be found, wherever in the world that may
be.
The pandemic has hit the business world in an unprecedented scale and speed. I has caused the
closures of business, the stoppage of factory outputs and disruption to global manufacturing
industries and their supply networks.
Major industries including automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and
supplies, consumer goods and more have been significantly affected. This is a result of China
having become a world production centre over the past two to three decates. When China went
into lockdown, some five million companies were impacted globally. Why? Because China is
the world’s leading supplier of components, raw or processed materials, and major
subsystems. With the vulnerability of such ultra-dependence on China now exposed, businesses
should be planning how to increase the resilience of their supply chains.
Future supply chain designs will need to be monitored using new performance measures such as:
Resilience
Re-configurability
Responsiveness
Cost
Quality
Delivery
Suggested ways to Improve your Supply Chain’s Resilience
1. Source Locally – Shorten your supply chain
It may be worth establishing production facilities with local sources of supply in each of your
company’s major markets. Not only does this spread the risk, but transportation costs are
lower.
Benefits of local sourcing:
Localising your supply chain has a positive effect on the environment as it reduces the
energy required for shipping, transport and storage
Local suppliers are typically more responsive than distant ones and can speed up the
delivery of products when needed
Localising your supply chain can significantly reduce transport costs
Buying local translates into an economic boost for your community, which will also
enhance your standing with your customers.
Face-to-face visits build good relationships with your suppliers who are more likely to
remember you when times are tough and your needs are great
2. Create transparency
This process involves determining the critical components for your operations and then, working
with production personnel, identifying which ones are sourced from high-risk areas and lack
ready substitutes.
Engage with all suppliers, across all tiers
Form a series of joint agreements to monitor lead times and inventory levels
Use this system as an early warning alarm for interruption

2. Establish a recovery plan for critical suppliers by commodity
With this in place, a company will be able to identify specific vulnerabilities across the multi-tier
supply chain.
3. Diversify your operations
The companies most likely to emerge strongly from the Coronavirus crisis are those that had
diversified their operations an implemented multi-sourcing strategies. It has been argued that
the marginal benefits of concentrating production geographically in order to save money are
diminishing and that by running a number of plants in different locations not much is lost in
efficiency but much is gained in resiliency. The reasoning behind this, is that the chances of all
plants being disrupted at the same time are significantly reduced. Instead of being forced to
scramble for product or components the next time global production lines are disrupted by a
major disaster, companies that now take steps to diversify their operations will rather direct their
energy towards maximising the deployment of the resources still available.
4. Create redundancy
An expensive and inefficient option, redundancy in this context means keeping excess capacity
or back-up across the entire supply chain in case of shock events, such as natural catastrophes
and epidemics. Typically it involves carrying extra inventory and hiring more workers than
absolutely necessary. The real challenge is to find the right balance between a lean, hyper-
efficient supply chain that carries no fat but is vulnerable to unexpected shocks and a slow
moving, ineffective one that may be ultra-resilient but is expensive to maintain.
5. Measure risks using latest technology
Performing regular supplier audits and measuring risks should be part of general business
practice, but until now, few companies have invested much time or money in this vital
activity. Smart software procurement choices, in areas such as business intelligence, risk
assessment, and data management, will allow you to make predictive models for supply and
demand in times of local, national or global uncertainty. Effective modelling can have a
significant impact on your supply chain’s resilience.
As a first step, you could have a chat with our business development consultants at
Cquential/Argility, providing remotely delivered assistance in developing new plans for supply
chain resilience.
 The Changing Manufacturing and Supply Chain Market
Manufacturingcompaniestodayare operatingina new worldwhere constantchangesingeopolitics,
the exponential speedof innovationandthe digitizationof everythinghasmade designingand
managinga supplychainmore complicated,yetmore importantthaneverbefore.We are now more
connected,we are always-onandwe are mobile.We are more environmentallysustainable andsocially
responsible.However,the marketsare more demandingandlesscommitted.Supplychainsare no
longerchainsbuta networkof opportunisticdemand,supplyandcapacityentities.
To get a perspective onthe true magnitude of recentchange,youdonothave to thinktoofar back to
whensupplychainswere linearwithfirmlyestablishedlinks.Relationshipsbetweentradingpartners
were long-standing.There wasmore brandloyaltyandmanyconsumerproductslivedlongstaticlives.
Longerlife cyclesandlessvarietymeantthathigherinventoriescouldbe maintainedwithoutconcern
for cost or obsolescence.Lifewassimpler.However, modernsupplychainsappearmore likea

3. fragmentednetworkof knownandspeculativesupply,demandandcapacity.Consumerexpectations
are nowverydifferentregardingdeliverytimesandproductcustomization.
Make Blockchain a Priority. It is time to move from proof of concept to reality an capitalize
on the potential.
Blockchain is the New Supply Chain. Tracing how goods are made. Supply chains are global
and growing more complex. Materials and products travel across multiple geographies before
they reach the consumers’ hands, while governments an consumers are demanding greater
visibility into sources of the materials used in manufacturing. This requires data to be both
captured and aggregated.
Global competitive markets are eclipsing local economies and jurisdictions by forcing supply
chain ecosystems to evolve. Enterprises are following suit and digitally transforming their
businesses in order to broaden their reach on the world-stage.
Blockchain is more than a technology but a movement that is transforming how transactions are
processed. It is also rapidly gaining momentum outside technology circles and fuelling
innovation in next-gen supply chain systems. At the basic level, blockchain is a digital technology for
securely recording, storing and verifying transactions. It provides a distributed
database, or ledger, with records of data and transactions that does not require a centralized point of
control. The database is easily accessible for users to review and audit, without
providing the ability to alter or delete previously recorded transactions.
Altogether, blockhain technology enables a permanent history for data or transactions, resulting in
greater
transparency and resiliency of the digital records.
Takinga deeperlookinto blockchaintechnology,several definingcharacteristics are found:

4. A blockchain can be describedsimplyas a distributeddatabase. Unlike mostdatabaseshousedona
corporate server,a blockchaindatabase maybe replicatedacrosstensof thousandsof locations.Asa
result,itishighlyresilientandcannotbe easilytakenoffline.
Anytime a newtransaction needsto be added to a blockchain,scoresof computersaroundthe world
individuallyauthenticate itbeforethe transactionisvalidated.Once authorized,atransactionisadded
to the chain of informationblocksandcannotbe alteredorremoved,makingitatrustworthy,
unalterable record.
To incentivize more computersto become part of a blockchainnetwork, makingitmore robust,
memberscanearn tinyamountsof digital currency(suchas Bitcoin) forverifyingandprocessing
transactions.
How doesblockchain technologyimpactsupplychainsandwhyisitcritical foroperationmanagersto
quicklygetupto speedwiththistechnology?
The supplychainsectoris oftenmentionedasaprime candidate forblockchainintegration.For
example,considerthe multitudeof companiesinvolvedinthe processof manufacturing,warehousing
and distributingasingle pair of shoes.Each linkinthe supplychainissusceptibletofraud,waste,and
delay;tosay nothingof the duplicate dataand paperworkthateachcompanymust processand
maintain.
Imagine the benefitsof apublicblockchaininthe supplychain.The original manufacturerorproducer
adds an entryforeach item;eachsubsequentpartyinthe supplychaincouldfreelyaccessthatdata,as
well ascontribute theirowninformationtothe record.Everyitemwouldbe completelytraceable,end
to end,andno one companycouldexertcontrol overaccessto the information.
Moving Forward with Blockchain
In economics,the “networkeffect“describeshow the value of asystemdependsonthe numberof
people usingit.Forexample,the finestmobile phoneisuselessif noone else hasaphone.Similarly,for
a logistical blockchaintobe useful,there mustexistanecosystemof companieswillingandable to
share data on the blockchain.Sucha unifiedmovementdoesnotyetexist,butthere are encouraging
signson the horizon.
Many SiliconValleystartupsare buildingblockchainplatformstosimplifyaccesstothe
technology. IBMandMicrosoft bothare now offeringblockchainsolutions.

5. Most exciting,however,is recentnewsthatNestle,Walmart,Costco,GoldenState Foods,McCormick
and Co.and TysonFoodsare forminga consortiumtoresearchhow a blockchaincouldbenefitthe
global foodsupplychain.These companiessee view blockchainasameansto reduce productrecalls
and improve accesstoinformationandtraceability.
The move to blockchaininthe supplychainisnottrivial andwill take yearsif notdecadesto be
successfullyintegratedintoenoughindustriestoprove itsfull potential.Software vendorswillhave to
integrate blockchainfunctionalityintothe applicationsusedbythe largestsupplychainscompanies,in
turn creatingan incentive forotherpartnersinthe ecosystemtocome aboard. Blockchainhasthe
potential toupendthe waymanyindustriesconductbusiness;the benefitsare enticing.