The Challenge

The business of logistics will change drastically in the coming decade as society drives change towards reduced environmental impact, less waste, higher predictability, clear ownership and accountability, the always present cost reduction based on optimization and more. Digitalisation is a fundamental element of the ability to drive change and is often named Supply Chain 4.0. McKinsey estimates savings of 15% to 80%. Governments demand action to reduce CO2 emissions and by digitising the supply chain there is more control and data to drive policy making and enforcement.

The main objective is to create transparency amongst stakeholders on key logistics data in the logistics chain which does not exist today in a fully integrated and trusted fashion. Even though transport is executed daily there is no exact tracking of goods, there is no control over the goods condition, handovers between parties are not digitised and there is no tracking of the CO2 footprint of the transport. By digitalising the logistics flow there is a substantial amount of data created which can be trusted by all parties in the chain and shared between authorised parties. This digital twin of the logistics chain is highly valuable to stakeholders but is complex to realise. The objective is therefore to have a minimal viable product to track a shipment and share the data between the identified stakeholders.

The Solution

The DiLLaS platform is the foundation of the Internet-of-Cargo digital infrastructure which will make Supply Chain 4.0 a reality in NL. This is supported strongly by a group of companies and governments. The Colodas initiative will provide an improved data sharing element to the DiLLaS platform by InnoTractor which will be offered as a SaaS service to participants based on a fee per transaction on top of a base fee.

The main objective of the experiment is to demonstrate a minimal viable product of the DiLLaS platform which enables trusted data sharing amongst the key stakeholders of the supply chain at hand.

Business projections – scalability

The benefits of a connected supply chain are multifold but dependent on the supply chain to which it is applied. To quantify them we refer to the research conducted by McKinsey which projects up to 80% savings when reaching a supply chain 4.0 state. These are the operational and indirect business savings and gains. In Colodas we will demonstrate a proof of concept of a connected supply chain which also tracks the modality used in transport, which allows for trusted CO2 emission reporting. When fully operational the DiLLaS platform which facilitates supply chain 4.0 and is the trusted ledger for the supply chain data, will be offered as a SaaS service to the parties in the supply chain.