WINNER of last quarter IBM
In April, IBM and a consortium of leaders in the gold and diamond indus- try announced their collaboration on TrustChain, the first global cross-indus- try initiative to use blockchain to bring full transparency for consumers about the origins of their jewellery. The TrustChain consortium involves Asahi Refining (precious metals refiner), Helzberg
Diamonds (US jewellery
retailer), LeachGarner (precious metals supplier), The Richline Group (global jewellery manufacturer) and UL (inde- pendent, third-party verification), and is being powered by the IBM Blockchain Platform and delivered via the IBM Cloud.
The consortium’s goal is to build con- sumer trust in the origin and ethi- cal sourcing of jewellery by bringing
LOSER of last quarter KFC UK
On 19 February, fried-chicken chain KFC was forced to close more than half its 900 restaurants in the UK due to sup- ply chain problems with fresh chicken deliveries. DHL, who only recently took over the delivery contract for KFC, described the problems as “operational issues”, while KFC called them “teeth- ing problems”. Until
recently, South African-owned
distribution group Bidvest had handled KFC’s chicken deliveries. DHL won the contract in November 2017 as part of a three-way partnership with special- ist foodservice logistics provider Quick Service Logistics (QSL). QSL is handling demand planning and stock manage- ment, with dedicated IT solutions, as well as managing operational purchas- ing for KFC and accounting for its oper-
ations. The delivery disruption occurred less than a week into the new operation. When the partnership was announced, DHL claimed it intended to “re-write the rule book” and “set a new industry benchmark by delivering outstanding service to all KFC’s restaurants and its consumers”.
KFC UK apologised to customers in a light-hearted tweet, saying “The chicken
crossed the road, just not to our restau- rants…” The company also explained that, since it was not prepared to com- promise on quality, some restaurants were closed and others were operating a limited menu or shortened hours. In an effort to appease disappointed consum- ers, KFC also set up a web page to help them locate their nearest outlet that was still open.
The GMB union, which has almost 639,000 members working in every part of the UK economy, described the cause of the chicken shortage as a “bird- brained decision” to award the contract to DHL in order to save money. Accord- ing to GMB, Bidvest had a network of distribution centres across the UK whereas DHL is now trying to do the job with just one.
together a community of responsible and ethical organizations across the complex and multi-tiered jewellery sup- ply chain – from miners and manu- facturers to wholesale suppliers and retailers – on a single digital platform. That platform is built by IBM Services on open-source tech nology and based on the IBM Blockchain Platform and the
Hyperledger Project. TrustChain
applies distributed ledger technology to establish a shared, tamper-proof record of transactions that take place within a network and enable authorized parties access to trusted data in real time with- out compromising details, privacy or confidentiality. The initiative tracks and authenticates diamonds and precious metals through every stage of the sup- ply chain towards becoming a piece of finished jewellery to provide consumers
with a trusted product with documented provenance. “Consumers care deeply about the quality and source of the jew- elry they purchase,” said Bridget van Kralingen, IBM Senior Vice President, Global Industries, Platforms and Block- chain. “This is evidenced by the fact that 66 percent of consumers globally are willing to spend more to support sus- tainable brands.”
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SUPPLY CHAIN MOVEMENT, No.29, Q2 2018
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