Supply chain blockchain initiatives stuck in pilot stage

Blockchain technology was heavily tipped to transform supply chains, but 80% of initiatives in this space will remain at a proof of concept (POC) or pilot stage through to 2022, according to Gartner.

“Modern supply chains are very complex and require digital connectivity and agility across participants,” says Andrew Steven, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.

“Many organisations believed that blockchain could help navigate this complexity and pushed to create robust use cases for the supply chain. However, most of these use cases were inspired by pilots from the banking and insurance sector and didn’t work well in a supply chain environment.”

This should not discourage companies from experimenting with the technology, however. Blockchain use cases simply require a different approach for supply chain than for other sectors.

Retail pioneers

Walmart, Starbucks and Carrefour have been busy when it comes to supply chain blockchain projects.

The latter is, for instance, applying the technology for tracking milk. Walmart is “leading unparalleled transparency in the food supply chain”, according to the Hyperledger consortium. Whilst Starbucks has implemented Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain Service to track coffee production.

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