Trusted and extensible product master data hub based on the OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph and GS1 standards
Product master data — the foundation for supply chain visibility
Product master data is important in supply chain networks because it provides a consistent, accurate, and up-to-date set of information about the products that are being bought, sold, and moved through the supply chain. This data can be used by various stakeholders in the supply chain, such as manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, logistics providers, and consumers, to make informed decisions, optimize operations, and improve efficiency.
Having access to reliable product master data also sets the foundation for business partners to generate more advanced insights into their supply chains, including product supply chain visibility, authenticity verification, utilization reporting, and other insights that enable more sustainable supply chain management. For example, product master data, combined with LOT master data and supply chain event data, made interoperable using GS1 standards, is essential to getting a comprehensive end-to-end understanding of what transpired to products as they flowed through the supply chain towards the consumer — and make the necessary business decisions to address any identified issues.
There are several potential challenges that manufacturers face when it comes to sharing product master data with their business partners:
- Data quality — product master data shared with business partners needs to be accurate and up-to-date to avoid misunderstandings and making decisions based on outdated or wrong information. Maintaining data quality is therefore one of the key things for manufacturers to consider when setting up product master data-sharing mechanisms.
- Data standardization — manufacturers share product master data with numerous business partners, so they need to make sure it is standardized and not in different formats for every business partner. Standardization significantly reduces the effort associated with sharing product master data and ensures everyone understands it in the same way. This is where GS1 standards, specifically the GS1 Global Data Model (GDM) and GS1 Attribute Definitions for Business (ADB), play a crucial role.
- Data security — product master data may contain sensitive information about a manufacturer’s product and business operations. Sharing this data with business partners may increase the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access to the data, so manufacturers need to make sure that there is sufficient data security in place.
- Data ownership — sharing product master data is often done through third parties that aggregate master data from multiple manufacturers and enable access to their business partners. In these situations, manufacturers might have considerations about handing over the ownership of their data, as this data is inherently valuable.
Some existing frameworks for product master data exchange, such as the GS1 GDSN Master Data Pools where GS1-certified third parties provide infrastructure for sharing product master data between manufacturers and their business partners, help address the first three challenges. However, the data ownership issue still persists, as these third parties aggregate product master data from various manufacturers in centralized systems, making them the de-facto data owners. Additionally, product master data in such systems is relatively isolated from and can’t be linked to other relevant supply chain data, such as LOT master data, supply chain events, IoT data, and others. This prevents manufacturers and their business partners from utilizing product master data to its full potential.
Trusted sharing of product master data with the OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph and GS1 standards
The OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG) is an open-source infrastructure blending two powerful technologies, knowledge graphs and blockchains, to facilitate the trusted exchange of supply chain data. This is done by enabling businesses to transform their data into discoverable, verifiable, and interoperable knowledge assets. In the context of supply chains, a knowledge asset can be a variety of things, for example, a supply chain event, business location, trade document, or in this case product master data.
Turning their product master data into knowledge assets on the OriginTrail DKG, manufacturers essentially create an index of that data that their business partners can search to retrieve the required product information. This innovative and trusted way of exchanging product master data delivers value from multiple angles:
- Even though product master data is indexed on the OriginTrail DKG, the actual data can be kept on the manufacturer’s own IT real estate, allowing them to retain full data ownership and simply authorize their business partners to access it. When it comes to data privacy, the OriginTrail DKG allows for a full spectrum of options.
- Product master data on the OriginTrail DKG is trusted and verifiable, meaning business partners can be absolutely certain that the data they need was issued by the product manufacturer.
- Created knowledge assets are interoperable based on GS1 Global Data Model (GDM) standard, the same as in a traditional GDSN network, so they can be searched for and understood by all business partners.
- Knowledge assets on the OriginTrail DKG can be easily updated at any time, ensuring that the latest product master data is available to business partners at all times.
All of the characteristics above provide a powerful way to manage product master data, but this is only setting the foundation for a variety of other advanced business applications that can make use of it. As product master data in the form of knowledge assets on the OriginTrail DKG doesn’t live in isolation, it can be automatically linked to other relevant supply chain data across business partners. For example, it can be combined with instance/lot master data (GS1 CBV standard), relevant business locations (GS1 GLN Data Model standard), supply chain and consumer/end-user generated events (GS1 EPCIS standard), and other relevant data to provide comprehensive insights into supply chains, ranging from end-to-end product traceability to utilization reports, incident alerts, shipment risk profiling, insurance-related proofs, and many more.
Building such a supply chain data management hub with the OriginTrail DKG and GS1 standards can start off simple, focusing only on product master data, and be extended in stages — it is easy to introduce additional components, i.e. supply chain data, IT systems, and business partners. In fact, to streamline the creation and management of assets on the OriginTrail DKG, Trace Labs developed the Network Operation System (nOS) that makes it easy to connect to IT systems, apply the appropriate GS1 standards to the data, and create discoverable, verifiable and interoperable assets. Once those assets are available, specific business applications that make use of them can be built quickly.
AidTrust: A BSI and Trace Labs solution
Ensuring the transparency and traceability of medicine distribution is important, but it can be challenging. Pharmaceutical supply chains are increasingly complex and often don’t have standardized management controls, leading to issues with security, inventory management, and other aspects of distribution. If product distribution is not properly managed, it can result in suspicious loss, diversion, damaged and wasted products, and uncertainty about whether the medicines reached their intended patients.
AidTrust increases transparency and trust in the distribution of medicines by bringing together BSI’s global presence and supply chain risk management expertise with the OriginTrail DKG, developed by Trace Labs. As a business application built on the OriginTrail DKG, it enables visibility (product flows and utilization, inventory levels, etc.), risk alerts, and real-time decision-making at all stages of the supply chain while protecting the integrity, security, and privacy of data. Ultimately, the goal of AidTrust is to help donor organizations and NGOs demonstrate that donated medicines were handled properly and reached the intended patients, even in challenging environments.
BSI and Trace Labs have been working with the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH), an NGO distributing donated hemophilia medicine to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to deploy AidTrust across 25+ treatment centers in India. The main objective is to better understand product utilization through increased supply chain visibility, particularly after products arrive at the in-country distribution center and are distributed to treatment centers across India. To achieve this, knowledge assets on the OriginTrail DKG are created from existing data locked in IT systems, amended by supply chain data generated by warehouse staff, treatment center staff, and physicians using the AidTrust scanning app:
- Product master data (GS1 GDM standard), such as manufacturer, GTIN, product description, and packaging level. This is the foundation that enables all other supply chain data to be linked and understood in a comprehensive manner,
- Product LOT master data (GS1 CBV standard), such as LOT numbers and expiry dates,
- Supply chain events (GS1 EPCIS standard), such as shipping, receiving, destroying, and dispensing to patients. Some events are generated from data already stored in IT systems, while others are created using data captured by users with the AidTrust scanning app.
These verifiable and interoperable knowledge assets from across the supply chain network power the AidTrust business app, where WFH can log in and get real-time utilization reporting, diversion alerts, inventory overview of treatment centers, and other insights. This enables them to manage their donations much more efficiently and helps ensure products reach their intended patients. After successful deployment in India, BSI and Trace Labs are now in discussion for rollout to further countries.
👇 More about OriginTrail 👇
OriginTrail is an ecosystem dedicated to making the global economy work sustainably by organizing trusted AI — grade knowledge assets. It leverages the open source Decentralized Knowledge Graph that connects the physical world (art, healthcare, fashion, education, supply chains, …) and the digital world (blockchain, smart contracts, Metaverse & NFTs, …) in a single connected reality driving transparency and trust.
Advanced knowledge graph technology currently powers trillion-dollar companies like Google and Facebook. By reshaping it for Web3, the OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph provides a crucial fabric to link, verify, and value data on both physical and digital assets.
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👇 More about Trace Labs👇
Trace Labs is the core developer of OriginTrail — the open source Decentralized Knowledge Graph. Based on blockchain, OriginTrail connects the physical world and the digital world in a single connected reality by making all different knowledge assets discoverable, verifiable and valuable. Trace Labs’ technology is being used by global enterprises (e.g. over 40% of US imports including Walmart, Costco, Home Depot are exchanging security audits with OriginTrail DKG) in multiple industries, such as pharmaceutical industry, international trade, decentralized applications and more.
