The IT firm behind Coca-Cola’s bottle manufacturing supply chain processes looks for getting a taste for blockchain technology.

On November 5 (Tuesday), it has been reported by Business Insider, that Coke One North America (CONA) says its pilot project with software provider SAP is now set to be expanded from two to 70 of the manufacturers that deliver the 160,000 bottles Coca-Cola shops daily.

However, the blockchain project promises to improve distribution for the participants, as all manufacturers can access a permissioned blockchain that contains each others’ orders, capabilities, and requirements.

For example, if a bottle maker is short of stock for a looming order, the network quickly provides options for filling the shortfall. CONA told that it hopes to reduce order reconciliation days from weeks to just days.

Andrei Semenov, the Senior Manager at Coke One North America, told:

“There are a number of transactions that are cross-companies and multi-party that are inefficient, they go through intermediaries, they are very slow. And we felt that we could improve this and save some money.”

Andrei Semenov

As per the report, the pilot program’s initial positive results meant not only more bottles shipped, but more companies coming to SAP’s platform. Semenov said that CONA has its eyes set on working with commerce giants Walmart and Target as a result, though scaling to work with those firms’ supply chains would be a difficult undertaking.

Torsten Zube, the Head of SAP’s Innovation Center Network, said:

“What we achieved here with blockchain is creating a document flow across the supply chain.”

Torsten Zube

Thus, PepsiCo, the prime competitor of Coca-Cola, also conducted a blockchain trial that the firm claimed in May had raised efficiency by 28 percent.

Source: businessinsider.com | coindesk.com