RETHINKING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH NEW DIGITAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Globalization has created complex supply chains to support free trade. The goods move across production facilities and supply chains, connecting markets involving numerous players along the way, while being subjected to different legal standards and quality requirements across multiple jurisdictions. By generating digital versions of real-world assets and tracking their pertinent data as a distributed, shared source of information, significant efficiencies and process improvements can be achieved. The use of distributed ledgers or blockchains to track goods as they move along the supply chain, makes for transparency and accuracy in the location of the goods at any point of time, in real-time. In this chapter, we provide a short discussion of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and IoT applications in supply chain management and understand the benefits and the shift in the processes, in digital applications.