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GSCW chat recap: How blockchain can transform tire distribution

‘It’s not easy to distribute heavy tires. … Delivering those in the most optimal way takes another cut of analytical prowess’

Rak-Joon Choi, a vice president with American Tire Distributors, says blockchain technology can bring more efficiency and transparency to supply chains.

This fireside chat recap is from Day 4 of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week. Day 4 focuses on automotive.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Applying blockchain to tire distribution 

DETAILS: Going beyond buzzwords, Rak-Joon Choi, an American Tire Distributors vice president, talks with FreightWaves’ Clay Katzman about how blockchain technology can bring more efficiency and transparency to supply chains through data sharing. 

SPEAKER: Choi of American Tire Distributors 

BIO: Choi is the vice president for blockchain and supply chain digitization at American Tire Distributors and a former IBM executive.

KEY QUOTES FROM CHOI:


“Tires are probably not the sexiest product out there compared to your iPhone. … It’s not easy to distribute heavy tires. Those tires are big, clunky products that get stacked up into trucks. Delivering those in the most optimal way takes another cut of analytical prowess.”

“There’s a hypothesis that blockchain will help transform the supply chain by building a common data platform, helping transform some of the inefficient processes, potentially automate them and then drive more value for the participants.”

“If there’s a way to do business better by sharing certain data in our ecosystem, to make things a little bit more clear, a little bit more automated and more valuable, there’s a huge potential to bring more efficiency to the market and create new business models.”

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Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at [email protected].