Within the TRICK project, first shipments tracked on Blockchain was carried out
15/12/2022
Description
The activity, based on the concept of e-CMR (the electronic Waybill), involved in the shipments companies of Italy, Turkey and Romania and was managed by ACCUDIRE, innovative software platform enabling the dialogue between the stakeholders and the digital management of the documentation.
Details
The activity, based on the concept of e-CMR, was managed by ACCUDIRE, innovative software house, and involved in the shipments companies like Filidea (Turkey, yarn manufacturer and exporter company), Marina Textil (Romania, fabric manufacturer and receiver of the semi-finished batch), D.B. Group (Italy, as forwarding company in charge of the international transport) and ACCUDIRE (Italy) as the platform enabling the dialogue between the stakeholders and the digital management of the documentation.
Specifically, within the TRICK European project, ACCUDIRE managed for the first time in Italy and Europe, a Groupage Shipment with the help of more geolocated e-CMRs (electronic Waybills). This approach granted:
- Full regulatory and fiscal compliance for all parties involved - Transparency and traceability on the shipment in all its components - Information useful for the calculation of the environmental footprint of the shipped product
ACCUDIRE is a collaborative digital platform that exploits Blockchain and Edge Computing technologies to digitise logistics documents, making the supply chain more fluid and less opaque, and simplifying the work of the players involved. ACCUDIRE’s aim in the project is to connect the world of logistics and international shipping, contributing to the creation of transparent and secure ecosystems through a fully digital end-to-end approach for retrieving data and various information.
More specifically, it will be useful firstly for product traceability, and specifically will be tested, jointly with the Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency and ENEA within TRICK, for accelerating the procedures for requesting the PCO (Preferential Certificate of Origin, a certification aimed at supporting the traceability of materials, parts, components, and products along the supply chain, attesting their origin). Jointly with ENEA, it will also be tested for collecting data to be used for the evaluation of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) of the shipped product.
The CMR (International consignment note, or waybill) is a document required to manage road transports within the European Union. In Italy, this document not only has a logistical value but also a fiscal one, as it allows exporting companies to prove with certainty to the authorities that the goods have been delivered outside the country of departure, thus guaranteeing companies exemption from paying VAT on those goods. The e-CMR is the electronic version of the international consignment note, and is managed through the platform in complete security and transparency, with the support of geolocation and notarisation on blockchain of the advanced electronic signatures affixed by the parties involved.
Yarn processing (Image credits Filidea)
The process and operations of the shipments are described below:
- Preparation of the batch of goods to be shipped by the sender (Filidea, yarn producer); quantity of goods not sufficient to fill an entire truck and therefore request to freight forwarder (D.B. Group) for the organisation of a Groupage Shipment (groupage is a particular type of transport consisting in bundling goods from different companies in a single shipment managed by an appointed freight forwarder. This is a type of transport widely used in international trade, whereby goods from different shippers are grouped together in a single means of transport as they share the same destination country). - Preparation of the documentation accompanying the goods during the entire journey - Retrieval of the goods from Filidea's warehouse by the carrier contracted by D.B. Group; organisation of the cargo for international transport from the Italian logistics hub to the Spanish logistics hub; relocation of Filidea's lot on the final carrier for the delivery at the consignee's warehouse (Marina Textil)
The document management of the shipment was organised as follows, always using methods compliant with European regulations for the correct affixing of the electronic signature, the identification of the signatory, the date of signature, and the contextual notarisation on Blockchain:
- On November 18, Filidea generated the first e-CMR through the ACCUDIRE portal. This first e-CMR was electronically signed by the manager of Filidea as ‘Shipper’ and by the driver who picked it up at the warehouse as ‘Transporter’, - On November 22, the Freight Forwarder generated the second e-CMR through the ACCUDIRE portal. This second e-CMR was then signed by the manager of D.B. Group as ‘Shipper’ of the transport, by the driver of the vehicle departing for the Spanish logistics hub as ‘Transporter’ and, on November 23, by the Spanish sorting hub as ‘Receiver’, - Finally, on November 25, Marina Textil received the goods and signed the Filidea's e-CMR as final ‘Consignee’.
Simultaneously, all the necessary data to contribute to the calculation of the PEF have been collected; specifically, those related to the means of transport, fuels used, kilometres travelled, and loading percentages on the trucks. The data and information gathered in the execution of this part of the technical pilot will flow to the TRICK project blockchains (the public blockchain Quadrans and a Hyperledger instance managed by Ubitech for the project) and then made available to the TRICK platform.
A small but crucial step forward in the realisation of the EU TRICK Project!
A presentation of eBIZ benefits for the fashion supply chains explained by entrepreneurs and technician of the firms already adopting it:
IN.CO, Cariaggi, Piacenza, Loro Piana, Albini and others.
eBusiness is based on digital data and documents exchanged between IT systems of firms.
Adoption of a standard language and of shared procedures offers to firms immediate advantages,
like costs and errors reduction as well as time and labour savings.
In respect of proprietary formats, a standard language facilitates the creation of new eBusiness relationships and cuts maintenance costs, in parallel it assures
good scalability for future uses.
The current eBIZ Reference Architecture has a chapter dedicated to RFID technology adoption.
Who uses RFID technology for logistic optimisation gets great advantages by connecting RFID and eBIZ technology.
RFID enables logistics optimization (picking, goods delivery, ecc.), the parallel adoption of eBIZ
allows to share advantages with the commercial partners, from inventory reporting to despacth advice anticipating the physical flow o freights.
Sinergy between flows of digital information supported by eBIZ and traceability actions for anti-counterfeiting initiatives and for contrasting parallel sales channels are highly interesting.
'If I have sell-out data…'
'If I have a faithful inventory report, I could activate a never-out-of-stock service …'
'If the warehouse systems had the list of freights going to be delivered …'
'Se non dovessi continuamente richiamare al telefono per avere le date delle consegne …'
'Suppliers fill data on IT systems when they have the time, often in a uncomplete way …'
'Each order is uploaded manually and sometimes we get an error…'
'The solution could be nice but our supplier does not want to invest so much for me only …'
'each customer ask for the same information but with a different format and different procedures …'
In order to setup eBIZ you should, firstly, identify the collaboration processes that have to be implemented prioritarily.
Later, through the Reference Architecture of eBIZ, the job of the IT manager to adapt the company information system to eBIZ is facilitated.
ENEA CROSS-TEC laboratory aims to support firms in new technologies adoption.
In the framework of its institutional activities, the laboratory can help you and your IT providers to understand opportunities and advantages of adopting eBIZ in your business.
For more information or to receive further material you can contact the laboratory responsible: piero.desabbata@enea.it
Launched by European Commission, eBIZ-TCF project (2008-2010) was co-ordinated by EURATEX (European Confederation of textile and apparel
industry) with the support of CEC (European Confederation of footwear industry) and ENEA, and developed a
Reference Architecture for data exchanges that is publicly available and based on the harmonisation of experiences and results from Moda-ML,
Shoenet and GS1.
Launched at CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) in 2012, CEN Workshop eBIZ is an European standardisation
initiative, promoted by EURATEX with the support of ENEA, with the aim of improve eBIZ results and
foster a more extended adoption in the fashion industry. The Workshop lasted for 18 months and was the opportunity for stakeholder to work jointly and propose new developments
(for example to better support RFID usage).
eBIZ 4.0 is an European COSME project, launched on December 2016 and addressing the joint adoption of eBIZ and RFID in the European supply chains. The project is based on three industrial pilots in Spain, Italy and France.
Since June 2013 the Reference Architecture, version 2.0, is available as CEN WS Agreement (CEN CWA 16667), up-to-date and supporting new market requirements, as identified
by an international experts group working in the framework of CEN. Among the other novelties, beyond RFID, there contributions from GS1 about business
collaboration models between producers and retail organisations.
Compared with previous 2010 version (click here ),
the new eBIZ Reference Architecture 2.0 for eBusiness harmonisation in Textile/Clothing and Footwear sectors"
has new contents related to:
A method to represent and classify Business Models,
Production Scenarios for customised footwear products for fashion and for health,
Cross-organisation RFID adoption support,
Electronic eInvoice,
Test and compliance checking,
Yarn techical properties modelling and management in supply relationships,
