Blockchain Planning Interchange for Supply Chain Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current supply chain management systems lack efficient coordination of production plans between facilities, entities, and geographies, relying heavily on manual methods like spreadsheets and phone calls, leading to suboptimal data sharing and excessive working capital and capacity buffers, despite investments in enterprise ERP and communication technologies.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a blockchain planning interchange (BPI) object that enables decentralized, time-synchronized data sharing and reconciliation of production plans across nodes, using a decentralized ledger system to create a scalable and efficient data structure for sales and operations planning, allowing for rapid interchange and conversational negotiation between buyers and sellers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual methods (spreadsheets, emails, phone calls) are used for supply chain coordination, then implementation complexity is low, but productivity and data sharing efficiency are poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a centralized exchange platform as an intermediary that mediates between multiple supply chain entities. This exchange uses blockchain technology to facilitate secure, transparent, and efficient data sharing and coordination, resolving the contradiction by providing a sophisticated solution that manages complexity centrally while enabling improved productivity across the distributed supply chain network
Solution Approach 2:
The exchange platform performs multiple functions including data collection, validation, broadcasting, and coordination of supply chain activities. By creating a universal platform that handles various coordination tasks (production planning, inventory management, order fulfillment) in a standardized manner, the system improves overall productivity without requiring each entity to implement complex individual solutions
2Productivity
If centralized exchange platforms are implemented for supply chain coordination, then productivity and data sharing improve, but working capital exposure and capacity contingency buffers increase
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain-based exchange provides real-time, transparent feedback on supply chain status, inventory levels, and production capacity across all entities. This visibility enables more accurate demand forecasting and planning, allowing companies to reduce safety stock and capacity buffers while maintaining service levels, thus improving productivity without increasing working capital exposure
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables preliminary coordination and commitment of production capacity and inventory allocation before actual transactions occur. By securing commitments and agreements in advance through the exchange platform, companies can plan more accurately and reduce the need for contingency buffers, thereby improving productivity while maintaining or reducing working capital requirements
3Loss of information
If data is copied and shared in a third party location, then coordination between entities is enabled, but data becomes stale, old, and disjointed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a distributed ledger where each participant maintains a copy of the complete blockchain ledger. This copying mechanism ensures that all entities have access to the same up-to-date information without requiring complex real-time synchronization protocols, as each node independently validates and updates its copy based on consensus, thereby maintaining data freshness while managing complexity through standardized blockchain protocols
Data Source
AI summary
A data structure for a decentralized ledger interchange object includes: a first data field containing an identifier for an item; a set of second data fields linked to the first data field, each second field containing one of a set of time periods; a set of third data fields, each third data field linked to a corresponding second data field, each third data fields containing a requested quantity of the item for a corresponding time period; and a set of fourth data fields, each fourth data field linked to the corresponding second data field, each fourth data field containing a committed quantity of the item for the corresponding time period. The decentralized ledger interchange object can used in a computer system, a computerized method for time-based manufacturing, a computerized method for time-based pricing and other systems, devices and methods.