BMW Drives Blockchain Expansion in Auto Industry

BMW Drives Blockchain Expansion in Auto Industry

Blockchain News
April 23, 2020 by Editor's Desk
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The BMW Group is utilizing blockchain and other innovative technologies to bring added traceability to its international supply chain. The Munich-based luxury car company currently declared that it’s planning to extend PartChain, a project it launched last year to optimize tracking of various components “at the click of a button.” Supply chains in the auto
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The BMW Group is utilizing blockchain and other innovative technologies to bring added traceability to its international supply chain. The Munich-based luxury car company currently declared that it’s planning to extend PartChain, a project it launched last year to optimize tracking of various components “at the click of a button.”

Supply chains in the auto industry are complicated. They include suppliers from glass manufacturing for windshields and doors and rubber fabrication businesses for wiper blades, tires, belts, and hoses to elements such as brakes, clutches, parking lights, and filters. All of these suppliers require to interact seamlessly with the auto manufacturer.

According to Andreas Wendt, member of the board of management of BMW AG, “In 2019, we conducted a successful pilot project for purchasing front lights. This year, we want to expand the project to a large number of other suppliers.”

The auto giant will utilize the blockchain to optimize various processes, concurrently tracing a component’s origin or supply route, for instance, across multiple associates who typically trace their data separately. The blockchain-powered system will provide buyers, suppliers, and other associates to interface more efficiently, decrease manual reporting, and enhance transparency without any danger of data manipulation.

By extending tracking from “mine to smelter,” the company intends to take the digitalization of purchasing to the next level.

“Our vision is to create an open platform that will allow data within supply chains to be exchanged and shared safely and anonymized across the industry,” said Wendt in a statement.

Last year BMV and DHL, one of its largest logistics partners, associated with blockchain proof of concept for the automaker’s Asia Pacific supply chain operations to enhance traceability for parts exported from Malaysia.

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