Case Study: Walmart and other food giants team up on IBM’s Blockchain

Walmart and a group of food giants are teaming up with IBM to explore how to apply
blockchain technology, also known as distributed ledger technology, to their food supply
chains.

The coalition includes retailers and food companies such as Unilever, Nestle, Kroger and Dole.
They will be aiming to use blockchain, a technology that facilitates crypto- currencies, such as
Bitcoin, to maintain secure digital records and improve the trace-ability of their foodstuff, like
chicken, chocolate and bananas. Walmart has already run two blockchain experiments in
partnership with IBM. The first involved tracking Chinese pork. The second involved tracing
Mexican mangoes. For the trials, Walmart used Hyperledger Fabric, a blockchain originally
built by IBM, which was housed by the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger group. This is the
preferred blockchain of IBM, who have been encouraging clients to try the tech across
industries as varied as private equity, banking, government and health care. The vice president
of food safety at Walmart was so pleased by the pork and mango trials that he rallied peers to
join the cause. “We were so encouraged that we really quickly started reaching out to other
suppliers and retailers as well.”

Kroger’s VP of corporate food technology and regulatory compliance, said that Walmart’s
experience with the software gave the tech ‘legitimacy’. The food industry is ripe for a solution
like that’, he said. Indeed, the food giants like the idea of simplifying their supply chains with
automatic tracking of important information, such as temperature and quality of goods,
shipment and delivery dates, and safety certifications of facilities. IBM, meanwhile, is keen on
selling subscriptions to blockchain-related services that integrate with its cloud business.

“We’re asking companies to join to help evolve the solution and guide and steer its direction”,
said HP’s vice president of blockchain at IBM. “We’ll do PoCs (proofs-of-concept) later down
the line.”

Businesses are already putting blockchain technology to the test in a variety of industries,
including cargo shipping, poultry, and diamonds. The new food group set to bring the
technology one step closer to production.
End of the case
Assignment: Critically discuss the constraints, opportunities, and threats that blockchain
(distributed ledger) technology bring in business operations of the one of the case study
organisations (Walmart, Unilever, Nestle, Kroger or Dole).