Tactical to
strategic
How smart contracts are turning supply chains in value chains. by Michael Matthews
P
revalent AEC (architecture,
administrative redundancies and distrust has
workflows that bear an astounding hidden
engineering, construction) and
hardened the relationships between players
cost: up to 40 per cent of the total cost of
EPC (engineering, procurement,
in the ecosystem.
each project.
construction) contracting models,
This burden is compounded from project
In the past year, this outmoded way of
from the prime contract through all the
to project as the contracts effectively start
designing and constructing buildings, plants
flow downs across the supply chain, are
from ground zero for each project, with little
and infrastructure is beginning to wane as
notoriously wasteful. With informational
continuity or performance history to drive
companies embrace greater digitization.
and transactional friction between the
and capture efficiencies. The result is an
Amid a pandemic where increasing market
counterparties of each contract, massive
entire sector locked in cyclical, paper-based
pressure coupled with navigating Covid-19
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