Xsights is developing scalable product provenance solutions for enhancing supply chain transparency.
Global marketplaces have created many exciting opportunities, however as goods and services are traded, background information detailing their complete journey from origin to consumer has traditionally been obfuscated or inaccessible. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of company supply chains and demanding greater accountability to better understand the products they buy, where they have been, and who has worked on them. There is a growing demand for full product provenance in this regard such that consumers can make more informed choices and exercise preferences for products that can authentically demonstrate that they are of a specific quality and sourced from a particular location.
Moving towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future also necessitates greater supply chain transparency, where companies must have insight into every input that goes into their products as well as what happens to them beyond the point of sale. At the same time, continual growth in the trade of counterfeit goods (estimated to be to the value of $2 trillion as of 2022) and the resulting erosion of consumer confidence and destruction of brand reputation also demonstrates the value of traceability and the need to move towards complete, end-to-end visibility over supply chains.
In this way, there is a clear business case for provenance which is now technologically feasible such that detailed product information can be surfaced and combined across supply chains in ways that are both secure and accessible to retailers and consumers. Provenance thus provides a new stream of value via a detailed account of the who, where, when, and how of a product and companies that can do this to effectively demonstrate their positive impact stand to benefit substantially.
The Xsights provenance solution
Xsights is working with key industry stakeholders to develop a scalable product provenance solution to accommodate a range of industries and verticals. Through the application of Xsight’s innovative XIoT tags, this system will enable raw inputs to be tracked at every stage of production as they are processed and transformed into completed products, functioning seamlessly across organisations and empowering retailers and consumers to make informed purchasing decisions via an authentic and verifiable data trail. This will provide the ability to track uniquely identifiable product characteristics at a granular level as well as key product data detailing when, where, and by whom a product was made in a way that cannot be cloned or tampered with.
The Xsights product provenance solution will thus provide a range of far-reaching benefits to product producers, retailers, and consumers and accommodate a wide variety of use cases. Consider for example, global food supply chains and the combination of increasing consumer demand for year-round product availability and expanding regulatory requirements regarding the quality, authenticity, and traceability of agricultural produce. Likewise, the rise of electrical vehicles and corresponding demand for reliable, high-quality batteries places an increasing emphasis on being able to verify the source of key inputs such as lithium, the quality of which can differ greatly depending on where it has been sourced from around the World. Associated challenges within this domain concerning the sustainable production and disposal of batteries can also be addressed using the Xsights solution to develop circular supply chains which enable batteries and their material components to be sourced, recycled, and reused responsibly.
For further information on this initiative or to discuss any other projects or initiatives of interest within the product provenance, Sensing-as-a-Service, IoT, agricultural and mining technologies, asset tracking, and audience measurement spaces, please Contact – Xsights
You Can Only Manage What You Measure!
Further reading
Five elements of a successful supply chain provenance strategy
Five ways traceability technologies can lead to a safer, more sustainable world
How can E-Provenance transform supply chains into value chains?
The economic costs of counterfeiting and piracy: Report prepared for BASCAP and INTA
Three ways traceability can fulfil the sustainability promise