RIF logoRIF IndustriesSharedMercantile Solutions Since 2009

RIF IndustriesBuy the base product.Process the material.Deliver the value-add.

RIF Industries was founded around 2007 to put the SharedMercantile model to work as an open-source Advanced Supply Chain Portal (ASCP): a supply chain built segment by segment, where operators who add value keep the value they add.⁠[1]⁠[2]

  1. Purchase the base productBuy the raw or base material the chain starts from.segment: source
  2. Process the materialSort, break up and process it, with options the purchaser selects online.segment: add value
  3. Deliver the value-add productHand over a finished product, tracked through every segment.segment: deliver
Founded
c. 2007⁠[1]
Implements
The SharedMercantile model (c. 2006)⁠[3]
Platform
Advanced Supply Chain Portal, open source⁠[2]
Key patent
WO 2010/105330, filed 18 Mar 2009⁠[4]
Brand line
“SharedMercantile Solutions Since 2009”
Banner reading 'RIFIndustries Supply Chain Search'. Enter industry or vertical (type of business) Just start typing… select… then click RIF SearchSearch icon: a magnifying glass with the letters RIF inside the lens.

This box is a demonstration of the portal’s operator search; the website itself cannot run searches. Follow it to a sample search engine results page for a supply chain operator.

Industry or vertical suggestions

  • Aerospace (aircraft manufacturing)
  • Agriculture
  • Livestock
  • Fishing
  • Timber
  • Tobacco
  • Meat & dairy
  • Chemical manufacturing
  • Pharmaceuticals research
  • Computers
  • Software, peripherals, repair, retail
  • Construction
  • Defense
  • Preschools and daycares
  • Education
  • Primary, secondary & tertiary higher education
  • Vocational education
  • Special education
  • Alternative home or cyber education
  • Energy (production, distribution)
  • Electrical power
  • Petroleum oil
  • Coal
  • Renewable, sustainable, alternative
  • Entertainment
  • Amusement parks
  • Animation
  • Circus
  • Event management
  • Film
  • Game manufacturing
  • Media
  • Music
  • Shops, toys, paraphernalia
  • Sports management and event promotion
  • Talent agency
  • Theatre production
  • Financial
  • Banks and credit unions
  • Insurance
  • Accountancy
  • Stock brokerages
  • Investment funds
  • Food
  • Agriculture: crops, livestock, seafood
  • Fruit production, horticulture
  • Manufacturing agrichemicals
  • Food processing
  • Grocery markets and retail
  • Foodservice: catering, restaurants, cafeterias
  • Food technology research and development
  • Health care
  • Hospitality
  • Travel
  • Information
  • Manufacturing
  • Transportation vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, commercial)
  • End products
  • Raw materials
  • Machining
  • Mass media
  • Broadcasting
  • News
  • Publishing
  • Telecommunications
  • Transport
  • Water
  • Drinking water: residential, commercial, industrial
  • Wastewater (sewage treatment)

The possibilities are endless. Each industry vertical is a ready-made starting point for creating a business instantly.

Heading graphic reading 'Vision & Future'.

About Maynard L. Dokken: Steps Wizard to a successful IP future

A different approach. A new market.

The model holds true: as research from Gartner and EY shows, in RIF’s words, “we had the future in our hands in 2009.”⁠[5] The vision remains an option for a forward-facing market solution. Key players in the global supply chain management market, including SAP SE, Oracle, The Descartes Systems Group, Infor, IBM, Manhattan Associates and Logility, dominate it.⁠[6] RIF is very different, yet just as global, or more.

The solution is simple: supply chains that end their reliance on centralized entities such as conglomerates.⁠[6] Centralized models can easily put stress on commerce, and ultimately on the economy, when operators are impaired by factors unrelated to their industry, vertical, product or service.

Read the full story of RIF Industries and the model

What the model replaces

Dependence on a few centralized platforms and conglomerates that control most value-add supply chains.⁠[6]

What it builds

An open, decentralized chain in which each segment is run, and rated, by the operator who adds its value.

The platform, segment by segment

Four parts make up the Advanced Supply Chain Portal: projects users build, the portal they run them from, the operator accounts behind each segment, and the repository that ties the data together.

Supply chain projects, segments & add value

The model works as a simple four-step process for adding segments to a supply chain project:

  1. Create project profile
  2. Add segments
  3. Complete knowledge profile
  4. Submit for quote

See the three walkthrough steps for adding a segment

Thumbnail of the four-screen mobile project flow held in a hand: select items, add item, add segment and add value options, linked by arrows.
Mobile project flow: select items, add item, add segment, add value options.

Advanced Supply Chain Portal (ASCP)

The portal is shown on a desktop platform, where most users are likely to carry out these actions. Its major components are project and segment management, and wizards for the qualification process.

Explore the advanced portal features

Thumbnail of the portal control panel with six tiles: Projects, Qualification, Trending, Goals, Meetings and Tickets.
Portal control panel: projects, qualification, trending, goals, meetings, tickets.

Operators: account settings for SCO/LOG, projects, segments and balances

In the “Accounts” section of the ASCP, the back end manages the connection to supply chain operators (SCO). Wizards with simple step-by-step and “Update All” functions make it as easy as buying any multi-option product online.

Learn about the setup wizards

Thumbnail of the ASCP Account Settings panel, with SCO & API Settings, Projects-Segment and Qualified Balance sections and a Config Wizard button.
ASCP account settings: SCO & API, projects-segment, qualified balance.

Repository model & architecture

The RIF public and private repository has four components:

  • SCO/LOG best practices with SOP integration
  • Account database API connect with SDK
  • Remote database creation
  • Real-time public access to supply chain status

See the repository details

Thumbnail of the SCO-LOG control panel with Database & API Settings, SCO-LOG SOP Flow and Qualified & Balances columns.
SCO-LOG control panel for operators.

From proof of market to a value-add portal

The work moved in stages: first prove the market by buying, processing and delivering; then automate the value-add online.

Heading graphic reading 'Next - Proof of Market'.

Purchase product

The first step was purchasing the base product. The next was processing the material and delivering the value-add product.⁠[2]⁠[7]

Add value

Adding value is a critical piece of any business. The first stage of the project emulated the Alibaba model, with a more automated structure that takes the complexity out of the process.⁠[2]⁠[8] Much as aggregate vendors process material, it added an online twist: options selected by the purchaser, then sorting, breaking up and processing the material into a value-add product.

Heading graphic reading 'Next - Online Add Value'.

Value-add online portal

The next step was an automated online value-add portal to replace the Alibaba model: a more complete picture of the supply chain process and its levels of stress, shown with warning colors and reviews from verified sources.⁠[2]

Heading graphic reading 'Developing Intellectual Property: Protecting Idea & Managing Vision'.

Developing intellectual property

RIF protected and managed its vision with MarkCrest’s ten-step method, from the first idea to documentation ready for due diligence.⁠[4]⁠[9] Each step is retold here for a supply-chain portal.

  1. Step 1: IdeaThe starting point is an idea, a vision, an architecture: the intellectual property that may be unique, and could be valuable if protected.
  2. Step 2: ProtectIs the idea unique? If it is, you need to decide how to create a framework to protect it.
  3. Steps 3 to 10: Plan, Policies, Access, Agreements, Ownership, Audits, Infringement, DocumentKeep the protection current, control who can reach the IP, prove ownership, and document it all.

Finish what we started

RIF set out ahead of the curve: automation, the digital supply chain twin, analytics everywhere, an open-source security mesh, ecosystem collaboration and sustainability. “We can become the leaders again.”

The vision and the work to replace today’s outdated model will restart. RIF is ready to complete the “Next Generation” supply chain model.⁠[10] As they say, earlier is better.

Learn more about RIF

The record

The dates below follow RIF Industries in the record on maynardldokken.com, the reference for every fact on this site.

  1. c. 2006The SharedMercantile model: own a productive physical asset directly, add value to it, trade it on your own terms.⁠[3]⁠[11]
  2. c. 2007RIF Industries is founded to implement the model as a supply-chain platform.⁠[1]
  3. 18 Mar 2009Patent application filed: “Method of processing a natural resource”, a purchaser acquiring identified lots of a resource through a web portal for processing.⁠[4]
  4. Oct 2009Development is interrupted.⁠[5] Read what happened.
  5. 23 Sep 2010The application is published as WO 2010/105330 A1.⁠[4]

Questions answered on this page

What is RIF Industries?

A supply-chain platform venture founded by Maynard L. Dokken around 2007. It implements the SharedMercantile model as an open-source Advanced Supply Chain Portal, where aggregate vendors buy a base product, process the material and deliver a value-add product directly.

What is the Advanced Supply Chain Portal (ASCP)?

The portal at the center of RIF’s model. Users build projects from segments, qualify for each industry vertical, and track goals, meetings and tickets; supply chain operators connect their databases through an API and SDK; a public and private repository publishes real-time supply chain status.

Founded c. 2007, yet “since 2009”?

Both are part of the record. RIF Industries was founded around 2007 to implement the SharedMercantile model; “SharedMercantile Solutions Since 2009” is its brand line. 2009 is also the year its key patent application, WO 2010/105330, was filed (18 March 2009).

Can I search for operators here?

Not on this website: it is a static site and cannot run searches. The search box opens a sample results page that shows what an operator result in the portal looks like.

References

  1. a b c RIF Industries (introduction). Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com
  2. a b c d e RIF Industries: The Advanced Supply Chain Portal. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/rif-industries/#ascp
  3. a b Maynard L. Dokken: SharedMercantile (2006). Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/#sharedmercantile
  4. a b c d RIF Industries: Technology and intellectual property. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/rif-industries/#technology
  5. a b RIF Industries: The 2009 interruption. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/rif-industries/#interruption
  6. a b c RIF Industries: An alternative to resource monopolies. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/rif-industries/#alternative
  7. ↑ Supply-Chain: From raw material to value. SharedMercantile. sharedmercantile.com
  8. ↑ Business-to-business. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
  9. ↑ MarkCrest: The intellectual-property practice. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/markcrest/#practice
  10. ↑ RIF Industries: Legacy. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/rif-industries/#legacy
  11. ↑ SharedMercantile: Own it. Work it. Keep it. SharedMercantile. sharedmercantile.com

Every source above was opened and checked on 3 November 2026.

Further reading

Background on the subjects of this page, not cited above. Each link was opened and checked on 3 November 2026.