The Purple Tornado Announces DHS Report Exploring Weaknesses in the Global Supply Chain
Report Calls for Greater Global Supply Chain Oversight and Investments into Digital Identifiers
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif., Jan. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Purple Tornado, a foresight and strategic intelligence consultancy that delivers thinktank research insights for corporate and government use, has announced a report on digital identifiers in the supply chain. Commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the report explores the current state of the supply chain, the role of digital identifiers within the ecosystem as well as how physical products are identified and how their data is shared. In its conclusion The Purple Tornado calls for the expansion of research into digital identity technologies including persistent identifiers, the development of data structure standards and harmonized global regulations.
The Supply Chain and Current Trends
Supply chains are complex ecosystems with many participants, including governments, transnational companies, brokers, farms and factories, in addition to middlemen and suppliers. Further complicating the chain are multinational borders, multiple jurisdictions (global, national and local) and constantly shifting politics.
Many companies have dreamed of a digitized supply chain for years, however adoption and integration has been slow. Companies are using IoT sensors, data sharing models, and blockchain technologies to solve proof-of-origin and identify counterfeit products, but these have largely been conceptual or proof-of-concept—there are no examples deployed at scale yet.
"Future privacy and integrity of supply chains, including supplier and customers data, must be secured," said Heather Vescent, CEO of The Purple Tornado. "Digital identity and blockchain technology offers promising solutions to be able to securely share data that was previously unavailable. This liberates provenance data collected in the supply chain, making it securely available to end customers who increasingly choose to purchase sustainably produced products, while at the same time maintains supplier privacy."
Systemic Problems in the Supply Chain
Supply chain problems are global problems and the collective result of the actions of every participant of the supply chain, including end consumers who make purchase decisions based on available product data. The Purple Tornado highlights four top areas of concern for the state of the global supply chain:
- Numerous Jurisdictions: The lack of harmonization of local, national, and global rules increases complexity and compliance costs, and leads to slow adoption of digital standards.
- Industry Collaboration: Supply chain collaboration is not about getting one industry to work together, like the financial industry developing an interoperable messaging system; it means getting all the industries, from mining to apparel to farming to pharmaceuticals, to work together and use the same set of standards.
- Technology Interoperability: Without standards it is difficult to interoperate and harmonize systems, as vendors are not transparent about how their data is collected or stored, and all companies must deal with some sort of legacy technology systems.
- Economic Problems: The Purple Tornado notes that supply chain problems occur when the market system incentivizes profit above all and does not include all costs, including market externalities, in their profit equation. Irresponsible resource consumption and a lack of accountability continue to wreak havoc on areas of the supply chain.
Solving for the Future
The Purple Tornado asserts that in order to address supply chain problems we must work together to upgrade the systems outlined in its report to ones that function and thrive in a digital world. It will take time and resources to correct vulnerabilities in the supply chain, and governments and companies must be committed to working together long term.
Among its recommendations The Purple Tornado calls for the expansion of research into digital identity technologies including persistent identifiers, the development of data structure standards and harmonized global regulations. The report states the private sector can leverage these innovations to develop competing products, while government systems can use the same innovations for confident and secure vetting of trade passing through our borders.
"If we're going to secure and authenticate the oceans of data that circulate through our global markets, we need to reinvent our classification systems," says Vescent. "We have to fundamentally shift our understanding of how data is generated, identified, stored and retrieved. And to do that, we need a new taxonomy that meshes with the latest in blockchain digital identification and encryption."
The full report on 'Sensors, Identifiers and Digital Twins: Tracking Identity on the Supply Chain' can be found online at https://bit.ly/GSCreport.
About The Purple Tornado
The Purple Tornado is a foresight and strategic intelligence consultancy that delivers thinktank research insights for corporate and government use. In addition to winning multiple awards from the Association of Professional Futurists, The Purple Tornado produces films and has authored and co-authored multiple volumes on cyber issues and digital identity. The firm's research has been covered by the New York Times, CNN, American Banker, CNBC, Fox and the Atlantic. Learn more about The Purple Tornado, its ongoing research and future reports at: www.ThePurpleTornado.com. Follow The Purple Tornado on LinkedIn or on Twitter @purple_tornado.
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SOURCE The Purple Tornado
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