Supply Chain Blockchain®

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for Downstream Manufacturing Supply Chains
SUPPLY CHAIN BLOCKCHAIN ® USPTO
Registered Trademark Serial # 87928296
Non-Provisional Patent Pending 20200210946
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The Leaders in Blockchain Development for the Supply Chain

SyncFab is the industry pioneer building blockchain technology for digital transformation of the space, aerospace & defense, automotive and medical manufacturing industries since 2017.

SyncFab combines the efficiencies of digitally distributed manufacturing with distributed ledger blockchain technology. Supply Chain Blockchain ® refers to the downstream segment of the supply chain supporting prime manufacturers that assemble finished goods.

Downstream supply chain refers everything that goes out of your company after the production cycle. Usually goods ready to sell. It also defines the processes required in order for your produced goods to reach the end-uder customers in an efficient manner (time, cost etc.)

The digitization of the supply chain enables companies to address the new requirements of the customers, the challenges on the supply side as well as the remaining expectations in efficiency improvement. Digitization brings about a Supply Chain 4.0 powered by blockchain.

Digital waste prevents supply chains from leveraging the potential of Supply Chain 4.0

In today’s supply chains many sources of digital waste can be found (in addition to the existing waste) that prevent the potential of Supply Chain 4.0. It is crucial to understand the sources of waste and develop solutions to reduce/avoid it in the future state. The sources of digital waste can be classified in three types:

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Data capturing and management. Often, available data is handled manually (data collection in a system, paper-based data handling, etc.) and not updated regularly, e.g., master data on supplier lead time that is entered once (sometimes even only dummy numbers) and then remains unchanged for years. Another example in warehousing is advanced shipping notifications, which are received but not used to optimize the inbound process.

On top of these examples, it is typically not clear which additional data could be leveraged to improve processes, e.g., sensing of supply disruptions – if the lead time of a supplier is continuously increasing, a warning should be sent out to make planners aware of the situation and enable them to mitigate supply disruptions at an early stage. In current systems, this signal will not be recognized and will lead to a lower supplier service level reported at the end of the month. If the worst comes to the worst, the issue will cause trouble in the assembly line replenishment and operational problems.

Integrated process optimization. Many companies have started to implement an integrated planning process, but very often this is still done in silos and not all information is leveraged to achieve the best planning result possible. In addition, it can frequently be observed that automatically determined planning or statistical forecast data is manually overwritten by planners. Especially for parts moving at medium or high speed, the manual overwrites usually have a negative impact on the forecasting accuracy. Beside the intracompany optimization, the process optimization between companies has not been fully leveraged yet and improvement potentials created by increased transparency are not realized.

To get to the advanced level of integrated process optimization, the organizational setup, governance, processes, and incentives need to be aligned within and between partners in the supply chain.

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Physical process execution of humans and machines. Nowadays, warehousing, assembly line replenishment, transport management, etc. is often done based on gut feeling, but not leveraging available data, e.g., to improve pick paths in the warehouse. Warehouse operations are still managed in batches of one to two hours, not allowing the real-time allocation of new orders and dynamic routing. Also, opportunities arising from new devices, such as wearables (e.g., Google Glass) or exoskeletons, are not leveraged.

Early generations of blockchain did not support industrial applications effectively, owing to limited developer understanding of elaborate manufacturing engineer workflows and complex industry standards. SyncFab has architected blockchain applications specific to the needs of manufacturing supply chain (Supply Chain Blockchain) borrowing from the core feature functionality at its core combined with the superior cybersecurity of protocols at scale. SyncFab is currently developing its own protocol specific to the same industry workflows for later release once industry adoption is further progressed to ensure the same level of continued ironclad cybersecurity. SyncFab’s future protocol optimizes network scalability, interoperability and processing speed to match industry workflow.

Implementing Blockchain in Supply Chain

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Upstream

Manufacturer's Supply Chain

Downstream

Customer's Supply Chain
N Tier 2 Icon
N-Tier 2+ Suppliers
3rd Party Icon
3rd party logistics and material suppliers
Tier 1 Icon
Tier 1 Suppliers
Manu OEM Icon
Manufacturer or OEM
Distributor Icon
Distributor
Customer Icon
Customer
After market Icon
After market warranty and maintenance
arrows upstream and downstream

Upstream

Manufacturer's Supply Chain
N Tier 2 Icon
N-Tier 2+ Suppliers
3rd Party Icon
3rd party logistics and material suppliers
Tier 1 Icon
Tier 1 Suppliers
Upstream arrow
Manu OEM Icon
Manufacturer or OEM

Downstream

Customer's Supply Chain
Distributor Icon
Distributor
Customer Icon
Customer
After market Icon
After market warranty and maintenance
Downstream arrow

IIOT Asset Tracking and Monitoring Program

Problem

Companies rely on manual checks to identify problems with industrial machinery and track processes – which is slow and typically reactive

Solution

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Benefits

Regulatory Compliance, PPAP, QMS & Conflict Minerals Programs

Problem

Compliance costs and fee penalty discussion

Solution

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Benefits