[2018-05-24]Manufacturing and Blockchain: Prime Time Is Yet to Come

Maja Vujinovic, a member of CoinDesk's advisory board, is the CEO of OGroup LLC and a former Chief Innovation Ofﬁcer of Emerging Tech & Future of Work at General Electric.

The following article originally appeared in Consensus Magazine, distributed exclusively to attendees of CoinDesk's Consensus 2018 event.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, manufacturing has exponentially increased in volume and demand; supply chains have grown ever more complex, and industry has progressively required less direct manual labor.

To add even more complexity, we now have a need not only for supply chain management (SCM) but also for business process outsourcing, as well as for corporate social responsibility and sustainability. To succeed, one must continuously innovate and keep up with a rapid technological change.

One outcome of this radical uncertainty for businesses is that they face an increasingly wide and diverse cast of counterparties, which is forcing them to rethink their trust infrastructure. Existing, time-consuming approaches to compliance and on-boarding can't keep up.

Blockchain technology, with its decentralized, consensus-based approach to proving the veracity of each users claims and statements, offers a promising solution - with the added bonus that it might also foster a more equitable world. Manufacturers cannot depend on blockchains alone to make their operations more manageable -- no one technology or business model will singlehandedly solve these issues - but they should all be looking closely at their potential.

See More:https://www.coindesk.com/manufacturing-blockchain-prime-time-yet-come/