At a time when manufacturers are trading with the impact of COVID-19, Marelli Automotive Lighting is operating with the BMW Group on the introduction of blockchain technology to compare suppliers’ and carmakers’ plants to enhance the administration of automotive supply chains.

The technology has been executed in a joint project between Marelli, formed last year when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sold its parts unit, Magnetti Marelli, to Japan’s Calsonic Kansei, and BMW, which lately declared it would extend the usage of blockchain technology for the buying of components.

Collectively, the companies have created and developed the PartChain application, which is being utilized originally as a pilot concentrated on the traceability of headlamps, rear lamps, and lighting modules supplied by Marelli Automotive Lighting to several BMW Group vehicles.

Three Marelli Automotive Lighting plants placed in Jihlava (Czech Republic), Tolmezzo (Italy) and Juarez (Mexico), and two BMW Group plants in Spartanburg (US) and Dingolfing (Germany) were compared by PartChain. In the first project, the platform is maintaining the data of more than 100,000 parts and vehicles, according to a Marelli company statement, which stated the technology would occur in the optimization of logistics and production costs.

“Ensuring transparency, authenticity, reliability and efficiency in the management of supply chains are crucial goals for all the automotive players,” stated Sylvain Dubois, CEO, Marelli Automotive Lighting in a statement.

“The increasing complexity of products, in conjunction with globally diversified value chains, is presenting the automotive industry with growing challenges, and technologies like blockchain, which represents the forefront of innovation in this field, brings a crucial contribution to improve the system.”

The next step for the PartChain application will be to assure a higher data authenticity grade, which defines the danger of counterfeit parts in the supply chain, stated Marelli.

Forged parts in the automotive industry will quickly be equal to more than the annual gross domestic product of Brazil, Canada, or Italy. According to World Trademark Review, the supposed global economic cost of counterfeiting in the automotive industry could approach $2.3 trillion by 2022.

In Europe, it is expected that €2.2 billion ($2.4 billion) is spent yearly to counterfeit tire sales alone, while fake battery sales efficiently steal €180m ($198m) from OEMs.