Kering Eyewear has launched its blockchain-based Verified, Integrated, Reliable, Trustworthy, Unique and Secure (Virtus) data exchange platform to enable improved assessment and tracing of its manufacturing operations.
The company explained that it had incorporated blockchain technology to allow it to record each point of its manufacturing process across disparate companies and locations in an easily accessible, digitally distributed ledger that could not be amended. A statement from Kering explained that this was intended as a ‘major step forward in its sustainability strategy’.
Kering Eyewear recently implemented a sustainability strategy based on what it called ‘sustainability pillars’. These included care for the planet, collaborating for people, and create innovation grounded in low-impact solutions. The blockchain system was intended to support sustainability by allowing Kering to track all of the materials and processes used in the manufacture of its frames, allowing the company to assess its environmental impact and then improve it.
‘The blockchain is a centralised, distributed ledger that will allow all parties to contribute to the creation of Kering Eyewear’s product-specific database through univocal and unalterable transactions,’ the statement explained.
Blockchain capabilities
The new Virtus system allowed Kering to ‘measure and quantify the impact of all parties’ throughout its production process. To enable this, Kering has asked its manufacturing partners to record their own data on the blockchain platform to demonstrate adherence to Kering’s environmental, social and ethical requirements.
Kering explained that the Virtus platform had been incorporated within its business model and represented a pioneering example of a luxury company implementing a tool to ensure the ‘vertical mapping and scrutiny of its value chain throughout an extremely widespread organisation’ including more than 20 key suppliers that worked with many contractors and sub-contractors themselves.
Blockchain technology meant that all data uploaded to the Virtus platform would be entirely traceable, allowing each product manufactured by Kering to be evaluated from its raw materials all the way through the manufacturing process to final assembly and certification.
Kering’s head of global supply chain, Barbara Lissi, added: ‘We are now able to start building a clear and transparent roadmap of our entire supply chain, achieving detailed analysis and knowledge about the provenance and characteristics of each composition and manufacturing technique behind what we do.’
The Virtus platform was initially piloted in 2018 with participation of five manufacturing partners, but Kering has now expanded the programme to 16 and planned to extend it to the entire supply chain starting in 2022.
‘We believe that collecting and sharing truthful information, tracking down the source of the raw materials and components used, is the most consistent way to corroborate the quality of our products and their full compliance with our ethics and aesthetic standards.’
Blockchain: The basics
Blockchain is a database technology that emerged in 2009 as the distributed ledger behind Bitcoin transactions. The data distribution and access technology has since expanded beyond the cryptocurrency, however, and has been used in sectors as disparate as global finance, voting, real estate, fitness tracking and intellectual property rights.
A blockchain database is distributed across a peer-to-peer network and is made up of ‘blocks’ that represent verified transactions in a chain that can be stored in the cloud, rather than via local digital storage.
For this reason, considerable research has been done into the possibilities of utilising blockchain technology to store patients’ medical histories. Practice management software (PMS) providers would, on the face things, seem well placed to implement this technology into their platforms, but there were limitations that could limit its implementation.
Trevor Rowley, managing director of PMS developer, Optix, poured cold water on the use of blockchain technology in optical PMS systems any time soon.
‘Blockchain storage is a way of saving data in a decentralised network, which utilises the unused hard disc space of users across the world to store files,’ he said.
‘Irrespective of any technical factor, our customers would be very nervous if we told them that their critical data was spread around the world on random computers’ spare hard disc space. There are also several major questions marks as to the speed at which data can be accessed.’
Rowley concluded: ‘Blockchain storage is claimed to save up to 90% of costs associated with enterprise level storage, but storage cost is only part of what our users pay for when using Optix and from our perspective, only the best is good enough. In short, we have no interest in adopting this technology.’