In the chemical industry, the complex, multistage and globally distributed production processes make tracing the flow from the raw material to the final product a tough task. In many cases there is a striking lack of transparency about the sources of raw materials, and their quantities and critical importance in intermediate or end products. The lack of transparency poses serious thre- ats to inventoryeffectiveness, compliance, and supply security, slows downplanning processes and impedes efficient risk, business continuity, and quality management.
Conventional digital approaches & tools quickly reach their limits when it comes to collecting stock and process information from the widespread production network, consolidating data from heterogeneous IT systems and efficiently manage access rights. They require high amounts of time and budget to implement and run, operate platforms with low-level data standards, increase cyber security risks through, or are vulnerable to manipulation Ensuring automated, holistic, tamper-proof and near-real-time tracking of the material flow requires a radically different approach.