By Anant Kadiyala, Director: Blockchain and IoT Industry Solutions, Oracle
Shrinkage, wastage, counterfeiting, contamination, mishandling, logistical delays and other challenges continue to plague today's supply chains − despite decades of investments and improvements along the way.
Companies have limited visibility into who their end-users are and how end-users actually use/handle their products on a day-to-day basis. Recent recalls with romaine lettuce, Takata airbags, and a myriad of others, have shown that supply chains have room to tighten further and improve visibility across the board.
In addition, new technology developments have been triggering rapid transformations across all industry verticals. Cloud computing, mobile, the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), machine learning and, recently, blockchain, have all brought a wave of new possibilities to customer experiences and expectations. Consumers prefer high-quality options, safer products, ethical sourcing, accountability, transparency and quicker delivery − along with flexible ways to buy and use products. The click-and-collect paradigm in retail is a result of such technology-enabled possibilities.
To accommodate customer and industry demands, supply chains are doing the heavy lifting of managing a transformation that is nothing short of epic.