Purpose Blockchain technology is booming in many industries. Its application in supply chain management is also gradually increasing. Supply chain management (SCM) has long been committed to reducing costs and increasing efficiency and is trying to optimise resources and reduce the sector's fragmentation. Trust has always been an important factor in managing supply chain relationships, and it also affects the efficiency of supply chain operations. To this end, this study aims to examine how trust is affected by the introduction of blockchain technology in construction supply chain management. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on semi-structured interviews and publicly available information from experts in blockchain and construction supply chain management. Through content analysis, the data are analysed thematically to explore how various types of trust, such as system-based, cognition-based and relation-based, are affected by blockchain technology. Findings Blockchain technology provides solutions for data tracking, contracting and transferring resources in supply chain management. These applications help enhance the various sources of trust in SCM and provide supply chain partners with protection mechanisms to avoid the risks and costs of opportunistic behaviour in collaboration, shifting trust from relational to system-based and cognition-based. Research limitations/implications This study focuses only on inter-organisational rather than interpersonal trust and empirical data from experts whose knowledge and cognition could be subjective. Practical implications Leveraging the potential of digitalisation to manage trust requires that leaders and managers actively try to improve contractual arrangements, information sharing and being open to new innovative technologies like blockchain. Social implications From a relational view of supply chain management, the extent to which blockchain technology can develop and spread depends on the readiness of the social capital to accept decentralised governance structures. Originality/value This study builds upon an original data set and discusses features and applications of blockchain technology, explores the sources and dimensions of trust in supply chain management and explains the impact of blockchain technology on trust.
William Chien, Josenor de Jesus, Ben Taylor, Victor Dods · 7 authors
Purpose: As part of the FDA’s DSCSA Pilot Project Program, UCLA and its solution partner, LedgerDomain (collectively referred to as the team hereafter), focused on building a complete, working blockchain-based system, BRUINchain, which would meet all the key objectives of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) for a dispenser operating solely on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology. Methods: The BRUINchain system requirements include scanning the drug package for a correctly formatted 2D barcode, flagging expired product, verifying the product with the manufacturer, and quarantining suspect and illegitimate products at the last mile: pharmacist to patient, the most complex area of the drug supply chain. The authors demonstrate a successful implementation where product-tracing notifications are sent automatically to key stakeholders, resulting in enhanced timeliness and reduction in paperwork burden. At the core of this effort was a blockchain-based solution to track and trace changes in custody of drug. As an immutable, time-stamped, near-real-time (50-millisecond latency), auditable record of transactions, BRUINchain makes it possible for supply chain communities to arrive at a single version of the truth. BRUINchain was tested with real data on real caregivers administering life-saving medications to real patients at one of the busiest pharmacies in the United States. Results: In addition to communicating with the manufacturer directly for verification, BRUINchain also initiated suspect product notifications. During the study, a 100% success rate was observed across scanning, expiration detection, and counterfeit detection; and paperwork reduction from approximately 1 hour to less than a minute. The authors demonstrate a successful implementation where product-tracing notifications are sent automatically to key stakeholders, resulting in enhanced timeliness and reduction in paperwork burden. At the core of this effort was a blockchain-based solution to track and trace changes in custody of drug. As an immutable, time-stamped, near-real-time (50-millisecond latency), auditable record of transactions, BRUINchain makes it possible for supply chain communities to arrive at a single version of the truth. BRUINchain was tested with real data on real caregivers administering life-saving medications to real patients at one of the busiest pharmacies in the United States. Conclusions: By automatically interrogating the manufacturer’s relational database with our blockchain-based system, our results indicate a projected DSCSA compliance cost of 17 cents per unit, and potentially much more depending on regulatory interpretation and speed of verification. We project that this cost could be reduced with manufacturers’ adoption of a highly performant, fully automated end-to-end system based on digital ledger technology (DLT). In an examination of the interoperability of such a system, we elaborate on its capacity to enable verification in real time without a human in the loop, the key feature driving lower compliance cost. With 4.2 billion prescriptions being dispensed each year in the United States, DLT would not only reduce the projected per-unit cost to 13 cents per unit (saving $183 million in annual labor costs), but also serve as a major bulwark against bad or fraudulent transactions, reduce the need for safety stock, and enhance the detection and removal of potentially dangerous drugs from the drug supply chain to protect U.S. consumers.
Rameshwar Dubey, Angappa Gunasekaran, David Bryde, Yogesh K. Dwivedi · 5 authors
There has been tremendous interest in blockchain technology (BT) (also known as distributed ledger technology) around the globe and across sectors. Following significant success in the financial sector, other sectors, such as humanitarian sector, have started deploying BT at various levels. Although the use of BT in the humanitarian sector is in its infancy, donors and government agencies are increasingly calling for building BT-enabled swift-trust (ST) and more collaborative relationships among various humanitarian actors in order to improve the transparency and traceability of disaster relief materials, information exchanges and flow of funds in disaster relief supply chains. Our study, which is informed by organisational information processing theory and relational view, proposes a theoretical model to understand how BT can influence operational supply chain transparency (OSTC) and ST among actors engaged in disaster relief operations. Our model also shows how BT-enabled ST can further improve collaboration (CO) among actors engaged in disaster relief operations and enhance supply chain resilience (SCR). We formulated and tested six research hypotheses, using data gathered from international non-governmental organisations with the help of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) database. We received 256 usable responses using a pre-tested survey-based instrument designed for key informants. Our results confirm that our six hypotheses were supported. Our study offers significant and valid contributions to the literature on ST, CO and SCR and BT/distributed ledger technology. We have also noted the limitations of our study and have offered future research directions.
Jedsada tipmontian, Jaime Castellanos Alcover, M. Rajmohan
Today’s food supply chain is incredibly complex and imposes enormous challenges across the Globe. Products are transported through multimodal transportation internationally, comprising of combination of ship, rail, truck and flight modes etc. The supply chain under multistage network poses more quality related issues. Hence, blockchain technology helps to enhance food safety and quality in the logistics process. This, when coupled with the existing traceability system can create more agile value chain and closer customer relationship across regions. Though, Thailand is a leading food exporter, it lacks in implementation of blockchain technology. The objective of this study is to analyse the impact of blockchain technology adoption for safe food supply chain management through System Dynamics (SD) approach from management perspectives in Thailand. The preliminary survey and discussion were carried out with the participants from food expert firms, and causal loop diagrams and stock and flow diagrams were developed and validated. The trade-off, challenges and opportunities of applying block chain technology on the global food value supply chain has been discussed throughout the system dynamics model. The major contribution of this work is in providing insight into some of the main dimensions of block chain technology and its implications for global food value chain performance improvements.
As the basic necessity of national life, agricultural products have become the basic elements of economic and social development. Because of the complexity and uncertainty of the internal and external environment, the supply chain of agricultural products has various risks, such as vulnerability and instability in the system structure. This paper analyzes the common structural model and risk factors of agricultural product supply chain, discusses the main factors of agricultural product supply chain risk factors, and combines the characteristics of decentralization and information encryption of block chain technology with the governance of each node of agricultural product supply chain. This paper puts forward the optimal analysis of agricultural product supply chain model construction and related node risk management under block chain technology.
Supply chain management is considered one of the main sectors of development for blockchain technology. This study provides solid contributions to understanding blockchain innovation and presents some main features and guidelines for how to boost blockchain implementation in industry. As explorative research, this paper presents a grounded theory analysis based on 18 expert interviews. The pool of interviewees is composed of academics and business and institutional representatives with relevant technological knowledge on blockchain and innovation management. Renowned worldwide experts provided us with powerful input to run this analysis and with a general overview of the current situation. Blockchain development of course impacts supply chains, but currently, the analysis shows that it does not seem to be a disruptive technology. In accordance with C.M. Christensen, blockchain presents all the features to be a sustaining innovation rather than disruptive. For this reason, as outcomes, we present five enablers that can foster prompt adoption in industry.
Blockchain is expected to have a transformational effect on supply chain and logistics due to its promise to improve the information flow between the supply chain partners. However, despite their high hopes, incumbent companies from supply chain and logistics are still struggling to deliver on this promise. In this explorative, qualitative interview study, we identify how incumbent companies try to make use of Blockchain in supply chain and logistics and we also analyze the barriers hampering them. The analysis of twenty-four semi-structured expert interviews and extensive secondary data collates a comprehensive picture of incumbent companies' activities around Blockchain adoption. We find that companies use Blockchain to drive digital transformation, constitute new business models and unify the industry through consortia. The main barriers to such solutions are a lack of technological usability and long-term uncertainties. The results of our study provide evidence for theoretical constructs and guide managerial practice.
Adnan Iftekhar, Xiaohui Cui, Mir Hassan, Wasif Afzal
Food supply chain plays a vital role in human health and food prices. Food supply chain inefficiencies in terms of unfair competition and lack of regulations directly affect the quality of human life and increase food safety risks. This work merges Hyperledger Fabric, an enterprise-ready blockchain platform with existing conventional infrastructure, to trace a food package from farm to fork using an identity unique for each food package while keeping it uncomplicated. It keeps the records of business transactions that are secured and accessible to stakeholders according to the agreed set of policies and rules without involving any centralized authority. This paper focuses on exploring and building an uncomplicated, low-cost solution to quickly link the existing food industry at different geographical locations in a chain to track and trace the food in the market.
Abstract Currently we are saying that we are at the dawn of the fourth revolution, which is marked by using cyberphysical systems and the Internet of Things. This is marked as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). With Industry 4.0 is also closely linked concept Logistics 4.0. The highly dynamic and uncertain logistic markets and huge logistic networks require new methods, products and services. The concept of the Internet of Things and Services (IoT&S), Big Data/ Data Mining (DM), cloud computing, 3D printing, Blockchain and cyber physical system (CPS) etc. seem to be the probable technical solution for that. However, associated risks hamper its implementation and lack a comprehensive overview. In response, the paper proposes a framework of risks in the context of Logistics 4.0. They are here economic risks, that are associated e.g . with high or false investments. From a social perspective, risks the job losses, are considered too. Additionally, risks can be associated with technical risks, e.g . technical integration, information technology (IT)-related risks such as data security, and legal and political risks, such as for instance unsolved legal clarity in terms of data possession. It is therefore necessary to know the potential risks in the implementation process.
Globalisation, shorter product life cycles, and increasing product varieties have led to complex supply chains. At the same time, there is a growing interest of customers and governments in having a greater transparency of brands, manufacturers, and producers throughout the supply chain. Due to the complex structure of collaborative manufacturing networks, the increase of supply chain transparency is a challenge for manufacturing companies. The blockchain technology offers an innovative solution to increase the transparency, security, authenticity, and auditability of products. However, there are still uncertainties when applying the blockchain technology to manufacturing scenarios and thus enable all stakeholders to trace back each component of an assembled product. This paper proposes a framework design to increase the transparency and auditability of products in collaborative manufacturing networks by adopting the blockchain technology. In this context, each component of a product is marked with a unique identification number generated by blockchain-based smart contracts. In this way, a transparent auditability of assembled products and their components can be achieved for all stakeholders, including the customer.
Blockchain technology is now considered a next generation information technology tool for sustainable growth in supply chain (SC) management. However, its study is relatively rare in the literature on SC collaboration and sustainability management research, despite its advantages in sustaining connectivity and reliability among SC partners. This study investigates how the use of blockchain in SC activities can influence (increase or decrease) SC partnership efficiency and growth, thereby affecting SC performance outcomes. Specifically, this study empirically validates a measurement and structural equation model with 306 SC experts from various industries. The findings show that the blockchain technology characteristics (information transparency, information immutability, and smart contracts) have significant positive effects on partnership growth and marginal effects on partnership efficiency. Though partnership growth has a positive effect on firm performance, partnership efficiency shows a negative effect.
The construction industry will continue to be a key driver of economic growth for any country. It is one of the biggest industries in the world which contributes heavily to the economic development of a country. However, the productivity and the effectiveness of the industry have often been called into a question. Therefore, a number of different modelling tools and software have introduced to upgrade the standards of the construction industry. This review seeks to identify how blockchain can address the project management perspectives of the construction industry with respect to the guidelines mentioned in the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Five major criterions namely purchase management, contract management, asset and inventory management, finance management and subcontractor management were selected for the analysis using the PMBOK guidelines. For that, literature review using articles in ScienceDirect which appeared the context "blockchain in construction", "blockchain and project management", "application of blockchain" were referred. It is identified that the blockchain technology can assist financial management without involving third parties, subcontractor management by linking derivable and payment schemes, contract administration by using smart contracts, inventory and asset management by tracking and tracing material movements and purchase management by linking key stakeholders in supply chains.
Md. Ratul Amin, Megat F. Zuhairi, Md. Nazmus Saadat
Distributed ledger technology is an immutable data storage and transparent system, which is a constituent component that empowers the Food supply Chain Management (FSCM). Due to the immutable data feature, the scalability of blockchain technology is quite a challenge. In essence, blockchain data may grow rapidly as compared to the existing approach, and such circumstances is an issue that need to be addressed. Also, high volumes of data process for each transaction verification couple with long period of time for computation, lead to high overhead and resource consumption. This study discusses improved methods to reduce the amount of data generated by system. The proposed method employs the header verification system for transaction to reduce data growth and data processing time. During transaction, this method will verify only the header file information with using Merkle tree. This system is able to store each transaction of a node and form blockchain. Subsequently, each node is capable to verify valid transactions only by use of header data without maintaining full data of blockchain. The expected outcome of the scheme is the significant decrease of data growth in blockchain.
Research on blockchain technology implementation within civil engineering is quickly emerging. The use of blockchain for the integration of the material and economic flows within construction supply chain – thus creating a new digital business model for the related actors – to enhance a construction project’s production, logistics management, and constructability, has been only scarcely investigated. In this paper, this shortage is documented through a comprehensive literature review. Then, the potential of Swedish independent third-party logistics consultants as a fertile ground for such a digital business model, is examined. Finally, conclusions about the pursuance of this potential paradigm shift are drawn.
In the rapidly evolving environment of the international supply chain, the traditional network of manufacturers and suppliers has grown into a vast ecosystem made of various products that move through multiple parties and require cooperation among stakeholders. Additionally, the demand for improved product visibility and source-to-store traceability has never been higher. However, traditional data sharing procedures in today’s supply chain are inefficient, costly, and unadaptable as compared to new and innovative technology. Blockchain technology has shown promising results for improving supply chain networks in recent applications and has already impacted our society and lifestyle by reshaping many business and industry processes. In an effort to understand the integration of blockchain technology in the supply chain, this paper systematically summarizes its current status, key characteristics, potential challenges, and pilot applications.
Najneen Shaikh, Suheb Shaikh, Gyankamal J. Chhajed
Counterfeit of medicine is major problem for consumer. Though there are more conventional methods for identifying counterfeit of medicine but they lack in security so to overcome this problem we are proposing secure software for medicine manufacturing supply chain management system by using blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is specially used in bitcoin cryptocurrency. It is characterized as an open-source, decentralized, distributed database for storing medicine information. Instead of relying on centralized intermediaries, this technology allows two parties to transact directly using duplicate, linked ledger called blockchain. Supply chain management is collection of activities required to plan, control and execute a products flow, from collecting raw materials and production through distribution to the final customer, in the most smooth and cost effective way possible. Supply Chain is beneficial when consumer or the organizations who want the information about medicine manufacturing at every stage to compare its quality. Confidential information related to medicine manufacturing is not to be unveil is accessible to authorized users.
Block chain is a decentralized infrastructure that is widely used in emerging digital cryptocurrencies and has received attention and research as Bitcoin has gradually become accepted. Block chain technology is the underlying technology of Bitcoin. Its decentralization, block data cannot be tampered with, and it is trusted, which makes its application in various fields gradually gaining attention. With the deepening of the phenomenon of globalization and division of labor, the supply chain of modern enterprises began to appear fragmentary, complex, decentralized, and other phenomena, which brought great challenges to the supply chain management. First of all, it gives a basic overview of the block chain technology, explains its composition, basic framework and technical characteristics, then analyzes the problems in the current supply chain management, and finally points out that the block chain technology solves the above-mentioned supply chain management problems. The purpose is to help the block chain technology in the field of supply chain related research.
The emergence of Distributed Ledger or Blockchain Technology BCT, stands to impact many parts of our society; from revolutionizing healthcare, to safeguarding voting, to keeping our data private. To the same affect, BCT stands to empower the very underpinnings that go into international trade: trust, traceability, accessibility and streamlining processes. As so many times before (e.g. ICT as well as the invention of the shipping container), novel technology lowers the costs and empowers international trade. This time to go from creating global value chains to scrutinizing and optimizing them. The aim of this policy brief is as follows; First, to provide a brief overview of the technology, the use and potential effects on international trade. Second, to provide some guidelines for policy makers on how to prepare for the development of the technology.
Mian Wasim Layaq, Alexander Goudz, Bernd Noche, Muhammad Atif
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the research development in supply chain risk management (SCRM) and to connect the new emerging digital technology Blockchain that could help to mitigate risks in any supply chain. Emerging literature, case studies, citations are used to fulfil this the task. The study will explore Blockchain and supply chain risks in details and will compare, how Blockchain based supply chain can mitigate these risks. There are many risks associated to supply chains but we will limit our study to only supply risk and study different areas of Blockchain application in supply chain with supply risk. Blockchain technologies have a potential to upgrade current supply chains. This will not only increase its performance in terms of speedy flow of raw material, finished goods, information and money flow but also help to mitigate current risk in supply chain by increasing visibility and transparency of supply chain. Smart contracts, IoT and Blockchain can serve together to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness in SCM. This research contributes to explore further research fields of Blockchain technology in different areas of supply chain risk management.
The transparent and immutable nature of blockchain provides incentives for organizations wishing to create and implement an open, decentralized governance structure. As members exercise their voting rights, a fault-tolerant record accumulates on the blockchain that can be analyzed to diagnose and intercept potential threats to the governing body. To date, there has not been a systematic study of on-chain governance with respect to voting. In this paper, we provide an analysis of blockchain governance through a case study of the first cryptocurrency to adopt on-chain voting, Dash. Our analysis introduces the key characteristics of blockchain governance, steps through a data-driven exploration of Dash's on-chain voting system, and highlights exploitable attack vectors and vulnerabilities for the subversion of Dash's on-chain voting system via a novel network analysis methodology. We then conclude with guidelines for other organizations looking to implement similar blockchain governance solutions while maintaining integrity in their operations.
This paper Decision making at the top level is very complex. One important responsibility of the policy makers and the governance system is to plan the safety and security to its citizen and consumers for the firms. This research address of the main concern of counterfeiting goods in today’s time. This research identify the potential and needs of the distributed ledger technologies like blockchain and their application potential to combat the problem of counterfeiting in Indian economy. The research uses SWARA (Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis)-WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) methodology after expert opinion gathered to understand the problem better and it results into the prioritization of application of blockchain in different industries. SWARA is applied to evaluate the weights of the criteria and WASPAS to evaluate and prioritize the alternatives.
Reports on how blockchain can impact industries. IN 2009, Toyota announced a recall of four million vehicles due to faulty gas pedals.1 The recall cost an estimated US$2 billion. The company had received pedals from many suppliers. It lacked mechanisms to track the suppliers that were responsible for the faulty pedals. There was, thus, no way to know which cars had the defective pedals. Similar problems are found in the food industry. Blockchain has the potential to provide solutions to problems such as mentioned above by addressing visibility and traceability challenges. Blockchain technology enables companies to record every event or transaction within a supply chain (SC) on a distributed ledger, which is shared among all participants, making it secure, immutable, and irrevocable. It makes it possible to deal with a crisis in a targeted way after such a crisis is discovered and provides distributed trust. Blockchain can facilitate handling and dealing with crisis situations such as product recalls due to faulty parts or security vulnerabilities. Blockchain’s public availability means that it is possible to trace back every product to the origin of the raw materials, and transactions can be linked to identify users of vulnerable parts and devices. Also, blockchain can reduce the costs of a supply chain.