ACG blockchain service to bridge ‘digitally broken’ supply chains
The platform is part of the company’s VeriShield suite of services, designed to provide manufacturers with serialization and aggregation solutions for cartons and bottles at primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging levels.
According to the company, the blockchain technology leveraged by the service ensures that all medicines, buyers, sellers, logistics partners, and manufacturers are registered to one network, with ‘outsiders’ being unable to manipulate the supply chain at any point without detection.
Apart from the blockchain technology, the platform also utilizes Internet of Things (IoT) technology, which allows for all participants to access the network through any compatible application, such as ACG’s mobile or desktop applications.
Finally, the platform’s capabilities are amended with the use of artificial intelligence, which ensures that participants are constantly informed with real-time data about the conditions of the shipments, and take decisions in case of any deviations identified, ACG explained.
According to the company, manufacturers can make use of the above capabilities by tracking their packages using a unique serial number, QR Code, or datamatrix, to safely and timely access data including packages’ humidity, temperature and location.
From linear to blockchain
ACG stated it aims to address ‘digitally broken’ supply chains, which are prevalent in the industry and cause significant hurdles to manufacturers, according to the company.
When asked about these supply chains, CEO of ACG, Ettore Cucchetti, explained to us that those are the conventional supply chains, linear in nature, which transact information in separate ‘batches/clusters’ residing separately without allowing the participants to inform each other in real-time.
“This discrete progression of supply chain leads to increased transaction costs, latency issues, cascading of inefficiencies, loss of products, counterfeiting and delayed action-reaction process,” said Cucchetti, adding that digitally broken supply chains “deprive organizations of gaining any insights into the customer and supplier demand patterns.”
The use of ACG’s blockchain-enabled service is expected to help manufacturers integrate an ‘interconnected supply chain’ into their strategies, Cucchetti concluded.
