Yesterday, engineering and technology services provider Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced plans for a blockchain pilot with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company to secure supply chain transactions.
Based in Virginia, SAIC is a leading U.S. government services contractor. It is currently the sole contractor of the Global Tire Program, providing total supply chain management solutions of tires for the Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and Foreign Military Sales. SAIC said it had delivered over 1.5 million tires in the past eight years, with a fill rate of 97%. The company has revenues of $6.5 billion.
Ohio-based Goodyear is one of the top tire manufacturers in the world and had a revenue of $14.7 billion in 2019. The tire-maker has been on the Fortune 500 list for 25 years now.
In 2016, SAIC started exploring blockchain for supply chain management and product track and trace. It worked on a blockchain proof-of-concept for research data provenance and securing voting systems.
Currently, it is working on integrating blockchain with its supply chain management solution. SAIC said the integration would utilize Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) message standards to enable secure communication between permissioned parties. It also aims to enable customers and other participants to track a shipment in real-time.
“Accurate and secure supply chain solutions are critical to SAIC’s work of providing our customers with the commodities they need when and where they require them,” said Jim Scanlon, SAIC EVP and general manager of the Defense Systems Customer Group. “Blockchain technology will offer secure methods for transmission of mission-critical, sensitive data and information to our Armed Forces and U.S. government personnel around the world.”
Earlier this year, SAIC announced a collaborative pilot program to support the Global Tire Program and government customers. The goal is to integrate data from IoT sensors for real-time track and trace and take precautionary steps to eliminate delivery delays.
The blockchain pilot will use Microsoft Azure Blockchain services.
Previously, SAP and GS1 released a blockchain prototype to manage the tire-retreading process.
Meanwhile, The U.S. Department of Defense has granted contracts to several companies for developing blockchain solutions such as secure communication, cybersecurity, parts procurement, and chip protection.
