How can blockchain power industrial manufacturing?

Manufacturers are leveraging this powerful technology to enhance products throughout their lifecycle.

Industrial companies are showing there’s more to blockchain than cryptocurrencies.

Manufacturers are developing blockchain implementations that have the potential to help them streamline operations, gain greater visibility into supply chains and track assets with unprecedented precision. Blockchain has potential to revolutionize how manufacturers design, engineer, make and scale their products. What’s more, because of its power to foster trust among competitors who must nonetheless cooperate within common ecosystems, it’s rewriting how firms interact.

¹ PwC’s Global CEO Survey 2019, ² PwC’s Global Blockchain Survey

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Blockchain’s industrial impact

From sourcing raw materials delivering the finished product, blockchain can increase transparency and trust at every stage of the industrial value chain. Pain points it could help address include:

  • Supply-chain monitoring for greater transparency
  • Materials provenance and counterfeit detection
  • Engineering design for long-duration, high-complexity products
  • Identity management
  • Asset tracking
  • Quality assurance
  • Regulatory compliance

Blockchain-powered solutions can seamlessly aggregate all of this information, delivering significant value for industrial companies, and can also help unlock the full potential of other advanced technologies like augmented reality, IoT and 3D printing.

Be an industrial blockchain leader

There is still plenty of room for industrial companies to be blockchain pioneers. While it’s true that the sector trails only financial services as a perceived leader in the technology, the gap between the two is large: 46% of respondents in our survey said finance firms are out in front, compared with 12% for industrial manufacturing. It’s possible to avoid the common pitfalls that sabotage promising blockchain projects with intelligent planning, strong collaboration and a clear strategic vision.

How PwC can help

Any blockchain solution, no matter how prescient, is only as good as its execution. This is where PwC excels—by offering proven specialization in managing complex implementation programs from start to finish.

What PwC delivers:
  • Business and functional requirements
  • Design, development, testing and training of blockchain solutions
  • Integration and management of third party implementation partners
  • Rigorous PMO and proactive management of overall efforts

Contact us

Jeff Sorensen
Jeff Sorensen

Lead Client Partner, PwC US

Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson

Partner, Global Aerospace and Defense Leader, PwC US

Bobby Bono
Bobby Bono

Industrial Manufacturing Leader, PwC US

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