Editor’s Note: In 2019, just about everyone in the technology world is talking about and writing about Blockchain distributed digital ledgers, including the supply management world. It’s not the cool new thing everyone’s talking about but hardly anyone’s doing — it’s real, and it’s happening. When mated with other emerging technologies and innovations, like connected devices (aka, “The Industrial/Internet of Things”), digital currencies, mobility, and virtual assistants, the sky is literally the limit for Blockchain. It has enormous potential to disrupt supply chain, risk management, procurement, and finance/accounts payable operations. Because of this potential we’ve been following Blockchain’s rise, development, and news cycle carefully. That is part of my job here at Ardent Partners — a job that I embrace as our resident “Tech Futurist.” So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the latest installment of When Blockchain Meets Supply Chain!

Blockchain-Based Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Pilot Takes Flight

Last month, Arkansas-based retail giant, Walmart, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has chosen it, along with pharmaceutical heavyweight, Merck, consulting firm, KPMG, and tech mainstay, IBM, to develop a Blockchain-based pharmaceutical supply chain pilot program. The partnership is the result of the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), signed into law in 2013, which mandates that pharmaceutical companies, retailers, and the FDA to explore “electronic and interoperable” ways to electronically track, trace, and verify prescription drugs and vaccines distributed within the U.S. The companies are looking to create a permissioned Blockchain system that enables them to quickly conduct trace and trace activities, as well as verify authenticity of product and other critical variables, like the temperature of certain shipping containers for drugs and vaccines that must be kept within certain temperatures. As noted within the press release, Walmart, KPMG, and IBM have been working on Blockchain distributed digital ledgers for a while now to boost supply chain trace-and-trace capabilities.

Target Pilots Blockchain Program, Joins Hyperledger Grid

Earlier this year, Joel Crabb, vice president of architecture at Target, announced that the Minnesota-based retail giant began a Blockchain-based “proof-of-concept” program in mid-2018 involving supplier certification for its Target-branded paper products. The program saw Target supply chain managers working with forest managers and certification boards, presumably to ensure that their products and sourcing were compliant to supplier codes of conduct or government regulations. However, in the intervening years, Target has signed onto the Hyperledger Grid Project (read our coverage of it, here), along with one of its largest food suppliers, Cargill, in an effort to bring more of Target’s supply chain partners onto an open-source distributed digital ledger. While the proof-of-concept program demonstrated that Target and its industry partners could transact and share information with each other, joining Hyperledger Grid will test the retailer’s ability to work with multiple parties on an open-source distributed digital ledger and build trust with each new party — two of the central challenges of and hesitations with developing or adopting Blockchain-based solutions.

Western Growers Looks to Blockchain to Manage Food Supply Chain Risks

Late last month, Western Growers, a California-based agricultural collaborative that represents growers primarily in the Western U.S., announced that it has launched a Blockchain-based Supply Chain Risk Management Solution to increase growers’ ability to track and trace produce across their supply chains. This comes on the heals of a spate of e coli and listeria contamination found in leafy greens in the U.S., like romaine lettuce, and as the FDA has called for the agricultural industry to adopt electronic methods to increase food safety. As a result, Western Growers has partnered with two technology firms, iFoodDecisionSciences and HarvestMark, a division of Trimble, to develop the Supply Chain Risk Management Solution. The Solution in part leverages an open-source Blockchain platform to enable fast tracking and tracing. The program is in a pilot testing phase now with several Western Growers members, and pending successful completion, will be made available to other industry members.

Cannabis Cultivators Get a Trace of the ‘Chain

Finally, Vermont-based Blockchain solutions provider, Trace, has developed a digital ledger to help cannabis cultivators track, trace, and verify their products across the U.S. supply chain. Trace Exchange connects hemp producers on a digital network and enables them to connect, transact, track, and trace their products “from seed to shelf.” This comes at a time when hemp is now legal in all 50 states, and medicinal and recreational cannabis consumption is increasingly becoming legalized. This growing market for raw cannabis materials is making it all the more critical for technology solutions to enter the market and ensure that players, big and small, have access and can drive accountability and trust.

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