PharmaQuick: Implementation of a blockchain-based temperature monitoring system (Teaching Case)

After the revision of guidelines by the European Commission in March 2013 requiring continuous temperature monitoring of medicinal products during transport, the Swiss logistics service provider PharmaQuick faced the challenge of not only modifying their business practice to fulfill the guidelines, but also to simultaneously gain a competitive advantage with the implementation of superior technology. According to the new guidelines, the company would have to be able to provide evidence for complying with the allowed temperature ranges pre-defined by the manufacturers. Compliance for the transport of products that required low ambient temperatures usually remained unchecked, as clients of PharmaQuick refused to pay the fee for active temperature monitoring. This refusal was mostly communicated orally or unofficially, providing no hard evidence in case of a dispute.

In the face of rising regulatory pressure, PharmaQuick implemented a short-term solution based on active temperature controlling and cellular data transmission with cooling trucks. However, this change multiplied the costs and, in the eyes of Dean Sprouts—business development manager at PharmaQuick, was not economically sustainable for the company. For this reason, Sprouts had to find a long-term solution that allows for compliance with the GDP’s requirements and improves transparency and traceability along the transportation supply chain at the same time. In particular, he had to assess whether blockchain technology within a cooperation with Modum constituted such a long-term solution.

The presented case study is based on a fictitious company that represents a customer of the Swiss startup Modum. In this decision-based case, students are asked to put themselves in the role of the protagonist, Dean Sprout. They need to analyze the challenge faced and evaluate the solution pursued by the protagonist. The case takes place in the pharmaceutical sector in Switzerland in the year 2017. The key topics are supply chain management (SCM), external influence factors, data management, process optimization and blockchain technology (BCT).