Most paper is wasted by an industry that has nothing to do with paper
Way #54 “modern” supply-chains are still ridiculously inefficient: Actual paper (seriously)
Or is primitive a better word than “inefficient”? When I first entered the supply-chain world, I was introduced to a torrent of facts I had never previously known, and I admit had probably would never have previously found particularly interesting… but some of them sounded to me so bizarre that as a newcomer I almost couldn’t believe nobody how talks about how insane it is.
If you’re not someone who has worked in logistics since forever, try answering the following question, straight from the hip:
How many trees are needed EVERY YEAR to supply the paperwork used to document changes of custody on shipments on the supply chain?
a) 1,000
b) 5,000
c) 8,000
d) Umm I donno… 400,000?
If answer D looks normal to you, you’re as crazy as the current state of affairs in the industry… but also correct: It has been estimated that 400,000 damn trees used every year in printing traditional B/L and other essential documents.
What’s especially backwards about this situation is that none of the logistics companies in the world really needs to use paper at all; these organizations spend millions of dollars on becoming more and more efficient and suffice to say the good news of online paperless solutions has long been integrated into these independent systems. The real problem stems with the nature of the industry: Supply chains demand companies work with OTHER companies. Here lies the problem.
You see, you can have the most advanced trucking company in the entire universe… your system is lean and automated where possible, your IT is slick and your timetables are a thing of art. But alas, you’re about to transfer this container of pharmaceuticals to a shipping company, completely separate entity who has no access to your state-of-the-art IT. So now, your state-of-the-art internal IT system is worth bubkes when it comes to passing your rich information onward. At best, you pass on the information printed out on a PDF (because you’re some kind of computer whiz from the future), but for the most part you rely on a gosh-darn piece of literal paper, an insult to the current state of modern technology. Even e-books are offended by you.
At the end of the day, end consumers don’t want your excuses. As we all learned in the early days of classroom group assignments, “my part of the work was done efficiently!” won’t cut it, because chains are linked.
This is exactly the kind of bloated nonsense Olam Foundation is working on fixing finally and forever. By using blockchain technology, any supply-chain player will soon be able to effortlessly yet securely share their systems with their peers on the chain to allow for smooth logistics for everybody.
In the meantime, we’ll need to find some other use for these tree things.
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Olam Foundation is an international project aimed at eliminating waste in supply chains by means of an open-source platform operating on blockchain. To learn about the project or its upcoming ICO, visit olam-platform.org
