Curtis Grosskopf

Bio: Senior Engineer for IBM in System Supply Chain (SSC) Engineering.  Over 31 years of experience in IC packaging and the interaction of IC packages with electronic card assembly, with emphasis on moisture sensitivity and process/temperature sensitivity issues.  Technical lead for IBM component procurement team for environmental (RoHS, REACH, etc.) and Pb-free issues; and member of SSC Blockchain Engineering Council. Curtis actively participated in industry standards generation for 30 years, initially with the release of IPC-786 (Moisture Sensitivity) and still with J-STD-020 in IPC’s B-10a working group, to also now chairing IPC 2-15f, Product Discontinuance.  Chairman of the JEDEC JC14.4 Quality Processes and Methods committee for the past 13 years.  He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a BS and MS in Engineering Mechanics

Abstract: Counterfeiting affects a wide range of industries and comes in many different forms. In the end-to-end electronics supply chain, counterfeit parts may be encountered early on when a manufacturer has to go out for an open market buy due to a component shortage; however, counterfeit parts could also enter the supply chain in the reverse supply chain when product is returned from a customer, costing significant financial damage in warranty, logistics and labor cost. Blockchain technology provides an ideal solution to tackle the problem by providing traceability and single-source-of-truth to each business network to achieve a secured end-to-end supply chain. The presentation will provide an update on supply chain blockchain project status, with the purpose of engaging others to discuss how the industry can partner to combat counterfeiting using blockchain technology.