From Pakistan to Dubai — Testing our blockchain for humanitarian supply chain system
This is the 5th blogpost on the blockchain for humanitarian supply chain. If you’re interested in following our journey here are the others:
Since last time, we’ve been pushing the system to its limits. The goal of this pilot was firstly to define in what way blockchain can improve the humanitarian supply chain, then to explore the feasibility of actually building out that system and finally to create a working prototype to be tested in an as-real-as-possible setting. This last chapter took place this summer, with a DFID-scheduled shipment of goods. It was 304 DFID family tents which were to be sent to a warehouse in Dubai from a manufacturer in Pakistan. The logistical organisation was done by the domain experts and officers at DFID, who also had managed to source parties looking to try out a new way of tracking their goods.
Before the shipment was even initiated we performed workshops and demos of the system with each partner so that all their questions were answered and so that they were adequately prepared. Since all partners were dispersed all across the globe, we used screen-sharing software to display how the web application worked and went through a simulated process of a shipment, with focus on the role of the respective partner.
As expected and highlighted in my most recent post, the most difficult part for the users was the ones where interaction with blockchain was required. In our case, that meant uploading a key-file and entering the password to unlock the key-file into the user interface. We received most questions on this aspect during the demos, and in the follow-up survey this was the source of the most uncertainty with respect to the usability.
The actual shipment started with us learning about something we could improve, which was the whole purpose of the testing phase!
The actual shipment started with us learning about something we could improve, which was the whole purpose of the testing phase! Luckily it was a rather minor detail, namely that goods to be shipped need to be inspected before they can be marked as ready for pick-up. The implementation of this was nothing more than adding an option in a drop-down menu, but the time the goods were waiting to be inspected was significant. Then as the goods were to be handed over from the supplier to the logistics service provider we received our first question on how to use the key-file. However, even before we could respond to the email, they figured it out themselves, so no intervention was necessary.
From there on the shipment flowed like expected, the last handover was frictionless and all goods arrived safely. But since one of the goals was that we learn as much as possible and try to get our partners to share as much of their insider knowledge about the supply chain as possible, we decided to issue a survey to them. There we collected impressions and scores on usability, perception of blockchain in the system and general feedback.
All of the partners responded to the survey, including the logistics officer from DFID.
All of the respondents found the briefing beforehand to have been relevant, sufficient, clear and precise. Although, one could say we should have put more focus on the key-file and it’s importance.
The usability overall was rated highly with an average score of 4.2/5. Potential improvements noted as comments were mainly about added information points such as ETA and increased visibility. Additionally, the relatively high security was perceived by one respondent as confusing. However, not a single party found that any necessary functionality was missing, which meant that we’d set the level of prototype-abstraction correctly.
Most respondents found it too early to comment on any potential advantages or disadvantages the blockchain-based system would pose, due to it being a system where a broader range of actors could collaborate.
According to the survey, it was clear to all actors how the blockchain improved accountability across the supply chain, which meant that we’d achieved another of our goals: to have blockchain only where needed and empower the user.
From the perspective of a technical partner on this project, it has been a great journey where we’ve gotten to learn the processes, language and culture of our users, and eventually to apply a ground-breaking (frontier, if you will) technology to an important problem of the humanitarian supply chain. In spite of our relative inexperience and ignorance of the sector, we have been warmly welcomed by all partners and received nothing but helpful feedback when demoing, in discussions and workshops.
