Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2018/JANUARY 2019 15 or cluster of assets that it's having difficulty tracking or where maintenance and repair costs are disproportionately high to serve as a focus for developing and applying a POC. Developing a POC generally involves three steps: preparing materials for design- thinking sessions, holding design-thinking sessions, and documenting use cases high- lighted in these sessions. A design-think- ing approach begins with intensive, multi- day collaborative sessions to perform a market/competitive scan and identify op- portunities. All stakeholders are involved, bringing together business, technology and the human experience. After defining the problem space, ideas and potential so- lutions are generated. Various frameworks can then be used to assess these solutions according to criteria, such as feasibility, costs and benefits, in the short and long term. Finally, a strategy is developed. The result is two or three POCs that align with the company's strategic initia- tives and can be applied easily, quickly and with high impact. The path forward is set out in concrete steps. The PwC network has already been involved in several POCs to integrate blockchain technology into supply chains. PwC Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Port of Brisbane have collaborated to develop a Trade Community System to link supply chain information using blockchain tech- nology. The system looks to solve issues associated with increasing trade volumes, transparency of goods, process inefficien- cies and other pain points. PwC Australia is also working on a blockchain supply strategy for a major su- permarket chain. The supermarket wanted to explore the use of blockchain to track the provenance of its products to make sure goods meet its standards. An agile approach was used to develop priority ar- eas of investigation. The first phase of this project will focus on the key requirements and development of a roadmap that will see functionality rolled out through a se- ries of iterations. Meanwhile, PwC China is developing Air Trace, its own solution to guarantee the integrity of products. With support from its Solution Delivery Center, PwC China used blockchain, smart tagging and IoT to build and commercialize a meta platform encompassing tag-and-trace so- lutions, smart products, an information management system and a digital com- mercial platform. A full working prototype has been built and tested with customers like Li & Fung and Alibaba, and the core team is currently building a minimum vi- able product. Defence contractors Globally, projects to integrate blockchain into military supply chains are already underway. In its 2016 Innovation Chal- lenge, the NATO Communications and Information Agency invited innovators to propose solutions on the application of blockchain technology to military logistics and to procurement and finance. In 2017, Lockheed Martin announced it was adopting blockchain as part of its secu- rity approach. Using the Guardtime Feder- al Core blockchain infrastructure, the U.S. defence contractor plans to realize more efficient and secure software development and supply chain risk management. SAP, a market leader in enterprise ap- plication software, has also been working with Guardtime to create a supply chain POC for its defence customer base. In a blog post, SAP stated this will be the first supply chain track-and-trace application for the defence vertical powered by block- chain technology. Strategic insights For supply chain management, blockchain offers the benefits of end-to-end trace- ability and immutability of data. Detailed maintenance and usage information can be linked to each component, allowing for preventive maintenance and full life-cycle management of the asset, while IoT sen- sors can provide real-time data. Gaining visibility of the data associated with all the assets in an organization's supply chain can lead to untapped insights and the ability to make strategic decisions based on analytics. This being said, blockchain is not a catch-all solution. Organizations should examine their value chain to determine the pressure points. Where is there a lack of trust? Are there places where cost savings can be achieved by cutting out the middle- man or digitizing trust? Ultimately, defence organizations will need to assess their processes and pain points to determine whether a blockchain solution can strengthen their supply chain. Jeffrey D. Rodney is a Managing Director in Consulting & Deals, Government Defence and public Security, at pwC Canada. Noah Zuckerman is a Senior Associate in Consulting & Deals at pwC Canada. Blockchain Figure 3 Discover Identify Ideate Path Forward RESEARCH SYNTHESIS IDEATION WORKSHOP STRATEGIZE The Problem Space The Solution Space Document Market & Competitive Scan Generate Solutions Develop Strategy Identify the Opportunities

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