In the wake of the recent amends made to Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) that introduced COR (Chain of Responsibility) Laws in Australia in October 2018. The law states that every party in the supply chain shares the responsibility of ensuring the safety of transport activities involved in the completion of the entire supply chain. This puts an obligation on every stakeholder within the supply chain to work towards eliminating or minimising potential risks, losses or harm by undertaking reasonable steps and performing safe practices to ensure that the law is complied with.

The Need for Automation

Manufacturer, retailer, logistics provider, distributor, broker or other supply chain parties may be involved in the act of directly or indirectly engaging a transporter, which in turn gives them the power to influence the delivery time, route, and even pricing. These simple acts have a trickle-down effect that may have significant consequences when seen from the perspective of safety during road transportation.

Having automated procedures in place that take care of your CoR obligations keeps freight transportation safe and makes it easy for businesses to avoid legal liability. This is achieved by ensuring that your business supply chain is implementing all that it can to prevent incidents, which could be a result of abusive substances, fatigue, or speeding to achieve overly demanding targets and timelines, you are protecting you and your business from contravention.

It is time to take ownership of your role in the supply chain and implement Chain of Responsibility, a step that is at its core the ethical business choice to make.

How AgriChain helps you automate your CoR obligations?

The software plays an important part in ensuring that all the documentation pertaining to the driver, vehicles as well as the logistics company are up-to-date. It also issues alerts and warnings wherever required.

Company-wide documents like state registrations for heavy vehicles and licenses, driver accreditations including mass, fatigue, and fleet maintenance management, insurances, as well as site-specific inductions, are all managed and readily available to the consignor/consignee ahead of the truck’s arrival (for either pickup or delivery).

Other features that make AgriChain the best choice for your business are

• regular alerts to the driver if they haven’t taken a break in over three hours
• warning to keep the carrying capacity in check in case of excess,
• notification if the actual travel is 15% below the estimated travel time,
• specific instructions when the driver is about to reach the site.

The last step of the inload or outload process requests the truck driver, consignor and consignee to digitally sign a simple CoR declaration in line with CoR best practices.

AgriChain protects you, your business, as well as the entire supply chain that you are a part of, by easily making CoR a part of your everyday business operations.

Related tags: Chain of Responsibility Policies

Every business, new or old, often faces an impending question of whether to build an in-house software from scratch or to use an existing one off the shelf. While it always depends on the kind of solution your business is trying to provide, here is a list of pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.

Cons to building software in-house:

1. The total lifecycle cost of building an enterprise software solution can be a lot higher than expected. It is important that you account for the costs for the entire life of the initiative, not just for the initial deployment and pilot phases. This includes long-term costs, such as staff turnover, refresher training, support services and software updates and ongoing maintenance.

2. Businesses often want their product to reach the market/target audience through the fastest means. But building software takes time, effort, resources, and intensive research, thereby pushing the creation of software second on the priority list and gathering the prerequisites as the primary task.

3. As a business, you may often feel the need of building an innovative software from scratch but chances are that an iteration of that software already exists. Starting from scratch and investing your blood and sweat in a software only to later find out that it exists can be disheartening.

4. Chances are that this off the shelf software is tried and tested, has gone through multiple stages of iterations, is well-researched, understands the business problem, maximises user experience touch points, and can be customised to suit the needs of your business, without putting in too much time and effort.

5. Picking an already existing software also ensures that you have ready community support and domain expertise that can provide you with all the help that a growing business needs and minimise your errors in your upwards journey. This way you can focus on spearheading the growth of your business while a designated expert takes care of maintaining the software for you.

6. If the software that you pick is already associated with a well-established brand name, chances are that you can get associated with this brand and leverage their footprint to create a name for yourself.

7. An already existing software that is in line with your problem solution helps you cut down on research and execution time and makes it possible for your product to reach the market in the safest and quickest way possible.

8. Running a business means wearing different hats, often at the same time. Using a software off the shelf means that you will have one less thing to worry about.

Benefits to building software in-house:

1. The biggest and only upside of building an in-house software is the complete control and ownership you exert over its functioning and intellectual property rights. This software can keep in mind the dynamic and unique nature of your business needs. Of course, the trade-off is always time and resources.

Why AgriChain?

AgriChain, a seamless software solution for agricultural supply chains, is the only platform that connects all the participants involved in the supply chain – right from the grower to the end consumer, covering the entire gamut of players – manufacturers, brokers, importers and exporters, bulk handlers, and transporters.

With a sizeable footprint, the software is not limited to only a web application but also has a native mobile apps, for both iOS and Android users, fully integrated with real-time location service, pickup and delivery notifications by mapping geographies, and sharing of information for ease of process.

An easy to use software that minimises manual efforts – the software reads a picture and fills the required fields itself, thereby making it user-friendly, especially if you are on the go.

Built on the principle of supply chain management, the platform can potentially support any commodity. The idea and approach don’t stop only at agricultural products or specific geographies. As long as it involves a supply chain, AgriChain will provide the solution!

Related Tags: Grain Storage Solutions, Agri Supply Chain Management

Simple in theory but extremely tedious in practice, supply chain and logistics operations are one of the most time-consuming tasks for most businesses. The interdependence of goods, services, and information in a supply chain often entails detailed paperwork and multifold information that often becomes a breeding ground for fraud and corruption.

The key elements of an efficient supply chain are transparency and accessibility, something that is often lacking in the current infrastructure of things. As a business grows, its supply chain network becomes more and more inefficient and vulnerable. Damages and delays become part of the supply chain and this impacts scalability of the business in the long-term.

Blockchain is revolutionising supply chain management on a local as well as a global scale by making it impenetrable, transparent, reliable, scalable, and secure whilst offering real-time updates and status. Here are 4 areas where a blockchain enabled supply chain can make all the difference:

Record Keeping & Provenance Tracking

Using embedded sensors and RFID tags, product information can be easily accessed in a blockchain enabled supply chain management software. The blockchain system will record the entire lifecycle of a product’s transactions, right from its source to all the stakeholders and touch points involved, which can be tracked and reviewed with complete transparency at any point in time.

Scalability & Security

Blockchain, essentially a digital ledger recording all transactions and movements, also allows for unlimited participants accessing from multiple touch points.This means that the supply chain can grow tenfold but still maintain its effectiveness. By decentralising the infrastructure, blockchain ensures that no one person can change the information without all the participants validating the change.

Time & Cost Reductions

Middlemen and redundant processes often tamper with the efficiency of the supply chain network. With the application of blockchain, extra costs in the system, time delays, duplicity, and financial loss at the hand of human errors will be replaced by an accurate and shared set of data. Better tracking and management of resources will lead to less standby inventory, ultimately resulting in substantial cost reduction.

Establishing Trust

The transparency of the entire supply chain confirms the origin, quality, and processing of the product, thereby building trust for both sides – the supplier as well as the consumer.

Through a blockchain enabled supply chain, suppliers can directly cater to domestic as well as international markets through secure and seamless transactions using smart contracts. By integrating delivery and payment through automatic invoicing and payments, blockchain closes the payment gap between customers and suppliers, thereby creating a secure and trustworthy global marketplace.

While blockchain is revolutionising many industries, its contribution to the complex supply chain of the agriculture sector is vital. Growers, manufacturers, distributors, consumers, retailers are all beneficiaries of a blockchain enabled supply chain. Through end-to-end transparency, a blockchain ecosystem ensures fair payments for the grower, exact knowledge of the origin of their food for the consumer, and the legitimacy of a retailer’s purchase.

As such, AgriChain’s seamless deployment of blockchain into simple-to-use mobile and web software solutions aims to transform the real-world agricultural supply chain by improving productivity, increasing visibility, managing stocks, automating freight orders, and eliminating manual paperwork.

Related tags: Logistics Software

AgriChain working to establish critical agricultural infrastructure across Ghana

AgriChain is currently in discussion with the Ghana government regarding the establishment of critical agricultural infrastructure across Ghana.

AgriChain will work together with Grain Storage Silo Bags Australia to implement co-operative silo bag storage points across the country which utilises the AgriChain platform.

The platform, which is the first in West Africa and the third in Africa, will link food crop producers to buyers to secure competitive prices for their produce, provide a guaranteed market and storage of quality graded grains and cereals.

With an estimated one million farmers set to be rolled onto the system in the next 18 months, farmers will gain access to secure storage for their harvest and good warehousing management practices.

This will reduce post-harvest losses, improve farmers’ take-home sales, provide them with affordable short-term loans, using their commodities as collateral, as well as managing borrowers’ credit and default risks.

This platform will contribute to the transformation of the Ghana economy, especially by offering farmers respectable prices for their toil and, at the same time, creating jobs through the value chain.

Related Tag: grain storage management software

Blockchain in Agriculture

The application of blockchain technology in agricultural supply chains is increasing. With its ability to serve as an immutable “ledger” for the recordkeeping of all possible transactions, its value in agricultural supply chains extends to all stakeholders, especially to Growers. Thus, be it in the grain, wool, chia, fruit or vegetable industry, blockchain technology has it benefits.

Firstly, blockchain technology provides stock management for Growers. With its ability to create and retain immutable records, it functions as a track and trace for all the contracts and logistic movements occuring against on-farm stocks. This means, all stocks are updated, in real time against the contracts and movements that occur ex-farm, thereby allowing the Grower to know their current positions and plan for future movements.

Secondly, blockchain technology will enable Growers to increase the value of their produce through food provenance. By being able to track, trace, and maintain immutable records on the blockchain, Growers will be able to supply end-users with reliable and verifiable Proof of Origin information. This allows Growers to extract the maximum value for their produce as they are now able to provide evidence to confirm the origin, quality, and processing of their produce, which in turn allows Growers to build their own “origin” brand to increase their value-add.

Finally, blockchain technology will connect Growers directly to domestic and international marketplaces with technology-powered trust. Using a blockchain-powered platform such as AgriChain, domestic and international buyers and sellers can be securely connected for seamless transactions using smart contracts. Thus, due to the immutability and traceability of the smart contracts on the blockchain, both sides of the sale are protected, thereby creating a secure, transparent, and trustworthy global marketplace.

To find out more on how blockchain on the AgriChain System can benefit Growers, register for a live webinar.

Related Tag: farm record keeping app

As our company expands and the demand for our product, BlockGrain 2.0, going beyond the grain industry, our team and advisors have made the strategic decision to rebrand from BlockGrain to AgriChain. With interest from industries such as chia, wool, cotton, fruit and vege, our rebrand to AgriChain will be better aligned with our vision to become the largest industry-wide platform in agricultural supply chains.

AgriChain will connect sellers and buyers, provide full paddock-to-plate traceability, and allow bulk logistic companies to manage and grow their operations. We have also formed strategic partnerships with a large number of food and manufacturing companies globally to set up proof of concepts for widespread adoption.

But most importantly, AgriChain will bring value back to farms by enabling transparent and trackable products, reduce risks, and increase sales with technology-powered trust.

With this, we are very excited to be transitioning to our new identity AgriChain, and we would like to thank our community in the agriculture, blockchain, and technology sphere.

Related Tag: grain management software