Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise

More on Enterprise Blockchain, Maersk

Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise

The Wall Street Journal

Isabelle Bousquette, December 15, 2022

Blockchain technology's widespread enterprise adoption has failed to materialize, with a project by Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk and IBM's TradeLens to create a shipment-tracking platform the latest to be discontinued. Blockchain's complexity, the time needed to get a blockchain running, and problems recruiting participants have stymied major initiatives. IBM's Kathryn Guarini said blockchain demands changes to technology and business models that are difficult to drive forward, adding that enterprise blockchain has taken longer to bring change to business than originally predicted. Some experts maintain smaller projects involving fewer participants, with definite returns on investment and no sector-wide transformative ambitions, could reap greater success.

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IBM, Maersk Pull the Plug on Blockchain-based TradeLens Shipping Platform

Had followed this for some time, I thought it was a good example, used it in talks The 'why' seems weak.  Unless the fundamentals were just not there. 

IBM, Maersk pull the plug on blockchain-based TradeLens shipping platform  By Kyt Dotson in SiliconAngle

Computing giant IBM Corp. and Danish shipping company A.P. Moller – Maersk are discontinuing their blockchain-enabled shipping platform, TradeLens, which was jointly developed by the two companies for tracking shipments and managing supply chains in the container industry.

Maersk announced late Tuesday that the platform had failed to meet its commercial goals necessary to sustain itself, and thus the two companies are now pulling the plug on the platform. It’s expected to go offline by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

“TradeLens was founded on the bold vision to make a leap in global supply chain digitization as an open and neutral industry platform,” said Rotem Hershko, head of business platforms at Maersk. “Unfortunately, while we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved.”

TradeLens was launched in 2018 as a collaborative project between the two companies using IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology. It’s used to connect shippers, shipping lines, freight forwarders, port and terminal operators, transportation and customs authorities in order to reduce costs by tracking shipping data and documents.

The objective was to revolutionize the way that documents were transferred between different entities in the supply chain in order to smooth out operations and thus streamline efficiency.   Speaking to SiliconANGLE today, Neeraj Srivastava, co-founder and chief technology officer of DLT Labs, a blockchain firm that develops solutions for fintech and supply chains, argued that TradeLens failed because it spent too much time on hyping itself and too little time on innovation.

“TradeLens’ failure was not that the blockchain wasn’t worthwhile,” said Srivastava. “It’s that it spent too much effort on marketing the platform and hyping up its benefits and not enough time developing the technology to deliver on what the company promised. Too much hype is not good.”

Maersk said it intends to continue efforts to digitize supply chains even after shutting down TradeLens in order to optimize shipping and trade speeds.

Blockchain technology has been tested widely to track and protect supply chains, examples include IBM’s Food Trust Network for food safety, GrainChain for grains and Tradewind Markets Origins for minerals. ... ' 

Shipping Containers as IoT

Used to deal with lots of shipping containers that contained valuable perishable items.  So saw the need for this early on.     Tests were already underway then, and makes sense that they have progressed.  See also the Maersk work recently mentioned here.

IoT-enabled shipping containers sail the high seas improving global supply chains. in 7wData

Global trade flows through shipping containers. Manufacturers depend on them to get raw materials in time and to ship finished products to market. IoT is being applied to monitor containers and make sure that their contents aren’t damaged or stolen.

Containers have standardized dimensions, which lets transporters easily ship, stack and store them. There are over twenty million containers in motion right now. Containers are pre-filled which reduces the time that trucks need to get loaded. Their standard size allows them to be easily transferred between trucks, planes, ships and trains.

Global supply chains based on containers enable manufacturers to minimize their costs with ‘just-in-time’ inventory. This makes it important to track containers’ location and the condition of their contents.

Containers are made of steel and stacked several deep making communications a challenge. LoRa and WiFi are used for shipboard communication with sensors. Container sensors monitor several parameters:    ..... "

IBM, Maersk link with TradeLens And Thai Commerce

A continuation of IBM's work with Maersk.  The basic idea here is to provide reliable information about supply chain activity in real time.  Another example of how companies are experimenting successful with the emergent technology .

IBM-Maersk Logistics Blockchain to Be Used by Thai Customs Agency   By Daniel Kuhn in CoinDesk

Thailand is integrating IBM and Maersk’s blockchain project to streamline its shipment tracking procedures, according to a local news source.

The Bangkok Post reported Thursday that the Customs Department of Thailand will adopt TradeLens, the logistics platform jointly supported by IBM and Maersk as part of the country’s Thailand 4.0 policy. Thailand will be the second member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to use the platform, following Singapore.

More than 90 different companies have joined TradeLens since its launch.

According to the Post, customs officials in Thailand will receive notifications when shipping containers leave their ports of origin, allowing them to better prepare for arrival.  ... "

More on IBM, Maersk Supplychain and Blockchain

I see that a number of companies that have to take supply chain management very seriously are involved.    So they believe in the use of this technology.  Includes my former company, Procter & Gamble, where we were involved in using very deep analysis of the supply chain via analytics of many kinds.  It also very good that the problem addressed is supply chain operational management.  Note also the integration of Smart Contracts. Worth a deep look,  following.

IBM and Maersk launch TradeLens blockchain shipping platform to lower costs and ship faster By Kyt Dotson in Siliconangle.

IBM Corp. and A.P. Moller-Maersk Group are establishing a new jointly owned company to promote and sell a blockchain-based system for managing global shipping.

The yet unnamed company will use a platform developed by the two companies as part of trial announced in March last year that involved digitizing Maersk’s shipping manifests and operations. The initial offering will include two blockchain-based options: a shipping information pipeline that provides a real-time, transparent view of merchandise movement and smart contracts that replace traditional paper-based processes.

“The objective of the platform is to connect and provide benefits to the supply chain ecosystem,” IBM said in a statement. “A global network of interconnected shipping corridors linking the ports and terminals, customs authorities, shipping lines, third-party logistics (3PLs), inland transportation, shippers and other actors, all together.”

Multiple parties are said to have already piloted the platform, including DuPont, Dow Chemical, Tetra Pak, Port Houston, Rotterdam Port Community System Portbase, the Customs Administration of the Netherlands, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A number of others are said to have expressed interest in trying out or working with the platform, including Singapore Customs, Peruvian Customs, General Motors Co. and Procter & Gamble Co.   ... " 

Supply Chain Enterprise Blockchain

Nicely done, well-explained, non-technical.

Supply Chain
Enterprise-ready blockchain brings transparency to supply chains
Written by: Todd Scott

Categorized: Blockchain Explained | Conference | Supply Chain

There are over 17 million shipping containers in the world, of which five to six million are currently being transported on oceans, rails and roads. In the shipping process, inconsistent information and limited transparency across organizational boundaries can sometimes hinder the efficient movement of goods. These costly inefficiencies could soon be eliminated by blockchain supply chain solutions.

Estimates say trade document processing and administration currently add a staggering 20 percent to the physical cost of shipping a single container. With more than $4 trillion in goods shipped each year, blockchain supply chain solutions such as the planned joint venture between Maersk and IBM could reshape the shipping industry — if not every other industry connected to it.  .... " 

Maersk Shipping on Blockchain

More on this example, previously reported:

Blockchain Is About to Revolutionize the Shipping Industry   By Bloomberg

Maersk, APL, Hyundai race to build paperless cargo system
Adoption of blockchain could generate $1 trillion in trade .... "

Blockchain and the Supply Chain

Another example of the technology.   Similar it seems to what Wal-Mart has been experimenting with.  Still don't don't see why this is necessarily better than a well designed database, notably the speed aspect.

IBM Watson with blockchain boost adds visibility to supply chain disruptions  By Mark Albertson in SiliconAngle   ....A new, shared visibility ledger  Excerpt below with more detail at link.

" .... A key component of IBM’s focus involves its Supply Chain Business Network. This separate B2B connectivity offering has 6,000 clients, 400,000 trading partners and 8 million transaction documents per day, according to Suh. With that kind of engagement, it’s no surprise that IBM was interested in providing new technology solutions for its network of business clients.

The company took advantage of its conference in March to promote the benefits of a shared visibility ledger for its clients and partners in the Supply Chain Business Network. “We’re adding blockchain to that as a way to ensure transparency, as well as speed of operation,” Suh explained. “The shared ledger will allow you to see where in the process your transaction document is.”

IBM Watson enables “internet of things” devices to become active participants in transactions. The Watson platform processes and analyzes device-reported data or barcode-scan events. IoT-connected devices can talk with blockchain-based ledgers to validate smart contracts.

An example of this process in action can be found in the shipping industry. A.P. Moller–Maersk Group, one of the largest container ship operators in the world, recently formed a joint venture with IBM to digitize the global shipping ecosystem. Using the blockchain and Watson, the goal is seamless tracking of goods and shipments around the world, with updated paperwork in seconds instead of weeks.

“Small bits of optimization, meaning one percent improvement or resolving invoice and settlements, have such huge ripple effects downstream,” Suh said. “We’re excited because we’re now adding in not just AI capabilities, but also collaboration capabilities, which then allow groups of people to interact in-time and in-moment to address alternative decisions and routes.”

IBM’s application of cognitive processing to supply chain tracking is yet another example of the firm’s major bet on Watson. Suh’s organization is continually looking at new ways to integrate AI applications into business or consumer use cases. ... "

Maersk, IBM Launch Blockchain

Good to think about the value proposition here,  how it is beyond a simple ledger database approach.  The stated value is to have controlled data sharing among those shippers and other parties that sign up for the service.  Back to the idea of verified transparency which should lead to better data and thus analytics.  No mention of Smart Contracts, but seems to be a logical next step.

Maersk, IBM to launch blockchain-based platform for global trade  By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Reuters

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The world’s largest container shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk is teaming up with IBM to create an industry-wide trading platform it says can speed up trade and save billions of dollars. ... " 

Tracking Ships, Containers with Blockchain

Another example of the used of blockchain as a database, a secure open distributed ledger.

The blockchain heads out to sea as IBM and Maersk develop ship tracking platform By Duncan Riley   In SiliconAngle:

The blockchain is heading out to sea with IBM Corp. and shipping operator A.P. Moller–Maersk Group (most commonly known as Maersk) teaming up to track shipping transactions using the technology that powers bitcoin.

The tracking system is being built on top of The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger platform and will link shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers, ports and customs authorities with a goal to track 10 million shipping containers by the end of this year, some 14 percent of the 70 million containers shipped globally each year.

IBM estimates that the digitization of the supply chain process from end to end could save shipping carriers a whopping $38b billion a year.  .... "