Establishing a New Level of Trust in Retail
For businesses, order reconciliation time is crucial for their success. But for giants like Coca-Cola, it is also about keeping their business in order and offering a superior experience to their B2B partners. Until a few years ago, Coke One North America), the IT Platform that manages the bottling business for North American Coca-Cola, had an order reconciliation time of 50 days. But now, thanks to blockchain technology, they have reduced it to just under a few days.
The blockchain solution powered by SAP changed their supply chain consisting of 160,000 orders per day. It enabled the company to track their bottles in real time from the raw material suppliers, food factories, cold rooms, refrigerated trucks, and retail stores. In the event of batch contamination, the company can trace contaminated food within seconds versus the weeks-long manual process. This is invaluable during times of product recall.
Coca-Cola is not alone. Walmart has been using blockchain technology to not only digitally transform its supply chain and reduce the time it takes to track the source of food contamination. Nestlé uses a blockchain to trace the growing origins of its Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee brand. This helps the brand guarantee the sustainability practices of the coffee growing. On the other hand, the consumer can simply scan a QR code on the packaging to view real-time information on farmers, the time of harvest, the roasting period, and even the transaction certificate for their coffee’s specific shipment. Bumble Bee Foods records its yellowfin tuna operations on a blockchain—from when it’s caught to when it’s sold in the shops. In this yearly special issue, we have curated some excellent stories from the retail arena of Singapore.