Blockchain Representative Article for Component Substitution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inaccurate material content disclosures occur due to component substitutions in the supply chain, particularly in electronic circuit boards, leading to inconsistent and outdated information when these components are integrated into downstream products, as changes upstream are often communicated slowly or not at all.
Innovation Solution
A method and system utilizing a blockchain to generate a representative article that accounts for Substances of Note (SN) across comparable components, ensuring accurate and current material content data is shared among supply chain actors, even with component substitutions, by retrieving disclosures from a blockchain, determining comparable components' SN values, and generating a representative article that represents the use of either component.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If component substitutions are made in the supply chain to maintain form, fit and function, then component availability and manufacturing flexibility are improved, but material content disclosure accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing a blockchain ledger that records material content data for multiple comparable components before substitutions occur. When component substitutions happen, the system can immediately retrieve accurate material content information from the pre-recorded blockchain data, eliminating the need for slow upstream communication and ensuring disclosure accuracy is maintained despite substitution flexibility.
2Device complexity
If traditional disclosure methods are used without blockchain, then system complexity is reduced, but information update speed and reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by creating a distributed blockchain ledger where all supply chain participants continuously update and verify material content data. This creates a self-correcting system where discrepancies are automatically detected and resolved through consensus mechanisms, ensuring high reliability of disclosure information while maintaining manageable system complexity through standardized protocols.
3Productivity
If multiple comparable components from different vendors are used, then manufacturing options and supply chain resilience are improved, but tracking and verifying material content becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by creating a standardized blockchain ledger structure that can accommodate material content data from multiple vendors and component types using a common format. This universal system allows the same tracking mechanism to handle diverse components from different suppliers, making material content tracking equally easy regardless of vendor or component variety, thus maintaining supply chain efficiency without increasing tracking difficulty.
Data Source
AI summary
An example operation may include one or more of retrieving a first disclosure for a first component, the disclosure including one or more first substances of note (SN) and corresponding first SN values from a blockchain, and determining a second disclosure for a second component comparable to the first component, the disclosure disclosing one or more second SN and corresponding second SN values. An example operation may further include one or more of generating a representative article including a common group of SN and representative SN common group values for each SN of the common group, a first remaining SN group of first SNs not included in the common group of SN and corresponding representative first SN values, and a second remaining SN group of second SNs not included in the common group of SN and corresponding representative second SN value, where the representative article represents the use of either the first component or the second comparable component.