Yesterday Californian startup SyncFab announced it signed a deal with aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin for its manufacturing procurement and supply chain solution that uses blockchain.
The solution initially started out as a matchmaking service between large manufacturers with small parts suppliers. Since then, the functionality has expanded.
In January, Swissmem, the association of manufacturers in Mechanical engineering, Electrical and Metal industries (MEM), announced a deal with SyncFab. The aim is to enable smaller Swiss manufacturers to subcontract for larger foreign ones or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). At the time, Lockheed Martin was announced as a partner for the pilot phase.
This summer, the Swiss Armed Forces will procure a new fighter jet and air defense system. The four contenders for the jet are either American (Lockheed Martin, Boeing) or European (Dassault, Airbus) but not Swiss. The winning bidder will have to spend between 60 and 100 percent of the investment in Swiss contracts. Swissmem is interested in leveraging this opportunity to help SMEs to bid for the contracts.
Previously SyncFab partnered with the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) in the U.S. and their more than 1,400 SME supplier members as well as defense suppliers such as Thales, RUAG, and Mercury.
Technicalities
SyncFab’s uses enterprise blockchain Hyperledger Fabric for both quotations as well as tracking parts and their provenance.
Below is an excerpt from SyncFab’s blog explaining how it uses blockchain.
“SyncFab essentially integrates blockchain technology for data-driven optimized and smart manufacturing. The platform uses smart contracts to facilitate payments and give manufacturers greater control of pricing and capabilities in their supply chain. Smart contracts incentivize Requests for Quotation (RFQs) and quotes, track POs and purchase order milestones encrypted on the smart manufacturing blockchain, but only allow access to those with allocated rights to track, record, and monitor a manufacturer’s assets.”
“Through the smart contract, manufacturing and transaction data are immutably secured and verifiable between the contracted parties involved. Data regarding purchasers’ and manufacturers’ profiles and their successful production orders will be recorded to the ledger, with each order leaving a digital paper trail of a company’s performance. Blockchain-centric features are powered by the MFG token for unique bid auctions, loyalty rewards and tokenization of unique parts in the supply chain for provenance and traceability.”
Other procurement blockchains
ChainYard launched its Trust Your Supplier supplier management blockchain with IBM, Vodafone, GlaxoSmithKline and numerous other big users.
In Thailand, Siam Cement is one of the highest profile examples of a procurement blockchain. Others examples are from Accenture and EY.
