The drones provide an active measure to identify, monitor, analyze and resolve risks of autonomous systems during operational phase. To date, however, the published studies have not considered them for managing risks in a dynamic manner. The capability to deal with unknowns and uncertainties during operational phase is regarded as essential to exploit the autonomous systems at their full potential. This paper targets the drone-based assurance of autonomous systems. The hazard and threat analyses are performed during design and development phase by using the Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) and Threat and Operability (THROP) techniques, respectively. Based on the analyses results, the safety and security requirements are derived. The assume-guarantee contracts are also derived for uncertainty sources; they are integrated in the blockchain-based smart contracts. The simulators are leveraged for performing the verification and validation as well as improving systems. For assuring safety and security during operational phase, the contracts derived for uncertainty sources are checked. In case of divergence, the drones provide assistance; otherwise, depending on the severity risk factor, system control is taken to avoid the mishap risk. The applicability of the proposed methodology is exemplified in the context of a quarry site production scenario.
Shashank Rao, Allan Gulley, M. B. Russell, Justin Patton
Abstract The ability to look into the supply chain has long enticed SCM scholars and practitioners. The possibilities created by such visibility are endless—from risk reduction and continuity planning to inventory management and cost reduction, nothing is off the table when end‐to‐end visibility is a possibility. Because of such enticements, there is usually much buzz in the industry every time a new technology that promises visibility and transparency is brought forward. Yet, years later, stories sometimes emerge that said technologies either failed to deliver or were not everything they were made out to be. Blockchain is yet another emerging technology in this space. Some consultants promise that it will be the final answer to the transparency and visibility woes that companies currently face. Yet, there is little empirical investigation regarding how the technology may benefit adopters, what the bottlenecks may be, and to what extent it may be able to deliver on these promises, without massive system‐wide upgrades of extant hardware and computing prowess. The current study takes a step in this direction by investigating a blockchain‐driven proof of concept across an industry consortium to identify promises, possibilities, and challenges of blockchain.
Supply chains (SC) present performance bottlenecks that contribute to a high level of costs, infiltration of product quality, and impact productivity. Examples of such inhibitors include the bullwhip effect, new product lines, high inventory, and restrictive data flows. These bottlenecks can force manufacturers to source more raw materials and increase production significantly. Also, restrictive data flow in a complex global SC network generally slows down the movement of goods and services. The use of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) in SC management (SCM) demonstrates the potentials to reduce these bottlenecks through transparency, decentralization, and optimizations in data management. These technologies promise to enhance the trustworthiness of entities within the SC, ensure the accuracy of data-driven operations, and enable existing SCM processes to migrate from a linear to a fully circular economy. This article presents a comprehensive review of 111 articles published in the public domain in the use and efficacy of DLT in SC. It acts as a roadmap for current and future researchers who focus on SC security management to better understand the integration of digital technologies such as DLT. We clustered these articles using standard descriptors linked to trustworthiness, namely, immutability, transparency, traceability, and integrity.
Purpose Considering the importance of a safe food chain for consumers and the advent of blockchain technology (BT), this research studies a food service (FS) distributor. The research aims to understand the implications related to the functional processes of distribution in FS in which it would be possible to use blockchain to achieve agility, transparency of information and improvements in food safety. Design/methodology/approach Firstly, theory regarding blockchain technology in the supply chain (BT-SC) and FS was analyzed to contextualize the theme conceptually. A single case study including 11 supply chain companies was applied in a BT implementation study in an FS distributor. Findings Investment in infrastructure is often identified as a barrier to adoption of BT-SC. This was, however, not found in this case. Furthermore, the validation of users was only necessary for those parties directly participating in the process or information input. Finally, findings differentiate between qualifying criteria and operational processes when considering BT projects in FS. Research limitations/implications The findings are restricted to this single case that provided an in-depth understanding of the topic. Statistical generalization is not possible at this stage of the research. Practical implications The study is a practical example and can provide several insights to anyone looking to implement BT in their SC. Social implications The social importance of the study lies in the importance of FS in the food sector, and by presenting ways that contribute to mitigating risks to consumers. Originality/value Real-life cases of application of BT-SC illustrate its functionalities in operational processes.
Niloofar Etemadi, Yari Borbon-Galvez, Fernanda Strozzi, Tahereh Etemadi
The purpose of this review is to describe the landscape of scientific literature enriched by an author’s keyword analysis to develop and test blockchain’s capabilities for enhancing supply chain resilience in times of increased risk and uncertainty. This review adopts a dynamic quantitative bibliometric method called systematic literature network analysis (SLNA) to extract and analyze the papers. The procedure consists of two methods: a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric network analysis (BNA). This paper provides an important contribution to the literature in applying blockchain as a key component of cyber supply chain risk management (CSRM), manage and predict disruption risks that lead to resilience and robustness of the supply chain. This systematic review also sheds light on different research areas such as the potential of blockchain for privacy and security challenges, security of smart contracts, monitoring counterfeiting, and traceability database systems to ensure food safety and security.
Improving supply chain sustainability is an essential part of achieving the UN’s sustainable goals. Digitalization, such as blockchain technology, shows the potential to reshape supply chain management. Using distributed ledger technology, the blockchain platform provides a digital system and database to record the transactions along the supply chain. This decentralized database of transactions brings transparency, reliability, traceability, and efficiency to the supply chain management. This paper focuses on such novel blockchain-based supply chain management and its sustainability performances in the areas of environmental protection, social equity, and governance efficiency. Using a systematic literature review and two case studies, we evaluate whether the three sustainability indicators can be improved indirectly along supply chains based on blockchain technology. Our study shows that blockchain technology has the potential to improve supply chain sustainability performance, and we expect blockchain technology to rise in popularity in supply chain management.
Niloofar Etemadi, Fernanda Strozzi, Pieter van Gelder, Tahereh Etemadi
The main purpose of this paper is to identify and rank the factors affecting the implementation of blockchain technology as a key component of cyber supply chain risk management (CSCRM). This paper adopted a comprehensive literature review and the opinion of experts with knowledge of blockchain to identify success factors for blockchain adoption in a CSCRM. The seven factors identified were modeled using an “Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM)” in the structure of a hierarchical model to envision the contextual relationship amongst identified success factors (SFs) for blockchain adoption in a cyber-secure supply chain. Using the MICMAC approach, the influential factors were clustered according to their driving and dependence powers. Findings from the study suggest, “Supporting platforms and tools” and “Interoperability & Standardization” are the two factors at the top level of the hierarchy, implying weak driving power but strongly dependent on the other factors. It is also observed that “Clarity regulatory provisions” and “Organizational culture and top management support” are significant adoption success factors of blockchain in cyber supply chain risk management and were placed at the bottom level of the hierarchy with higher driving power.
The supply chain is a thriving industry where numerous parties have different interests. Subsequently, the immense volume of data produced is difficult to audit. Some information can be lost or intentionally distorted in the process. Blockchain as an open, public, borderless, neutral, and censorship-resistant architecture can significantly complement supply chains. A new supply chain architecture is proposed in this work, where the tokenized directed acyclic hypergraph (DAG) represents real-world production processes. An anti-aerosol respirator manufacturing is used as an illustration example. By tokenizing all parts of multi-component products, supply chain data is automatically timestamped and secured. Moreover, the DAG design allows one to trace-back all the elements of the final product to their origin. Blockchain can formally audit the entire supply chain without the need to go from place to place. A single incorruptible operations log creates an enabling environment for an unbiased reputation system to emerge.
Applying blockchain technology for information sharing in supply chain is driven by many factors, but developing trust is one of the most proposed. However, trust is a multidimensional, intangible concept without an agreed-upon definition. Whereas some argue that trust is the main driver of blockchain technology, others have found a negative relationship. This study focuses on how applying blockchain in supply chain management can influence trust and proposes a corresponding research agenda. Trust and blockchain technology discussions are scattered throughout the literature. Thus, a systematic literature review was performed based on a conceptual trust framework. This study discovered a gap in linking trust theories to blockchain technology applications especially in supply chain management, and provided insights into trust's reciprocal nature. Current literature strongly expects trust as a consequence for blockchain adoption if considered in the technology. Simultaneously, trust in supply chain partners is strongly expected as an antecedent to blockchain because it requires openness in information sharing. Thus, propositions and agenda for future research are suggested. The research is limited to literature findings due to the immaturity and low scalability of blockchain technology adoption; however, the most reviewed articles in less than two years old, increase the results' accuracy.
Following the globalization initiated by containerization of logistics, supply chains might be due another revolution by the integration of the disruptive blockchain technology that addresses the current issues with the management of complex global supply chains. Blockchains are distributed digital ledgers that require no central authority to operate while offering a tamper-proof and transparent history of each transaction from the very beginning. Distributed nature of these ledgers ensure that every participant of the supply chain has access to trusted data. The industry has already begun experimenting with blockchain integration into their operations. For the majority of the organizations, however, these experiments stay in proof-of-concept stages or small pilot studies. In this chapter, the authors discuss the supply chain characteristics that make blockchain integration favorable, lay the groundwork for how blockchain can be used for supply chain operations and how it has been used so far.
Supply chain visibility allows a state of being able to see end to end in a supply chain. Sustainable supply chain visibility is premised on sharing of mutually benefiting information, to achieve associated sustainability objectives including those related to economic, environmental and social goals. Sustainable supply chains strive for distinctive visibility with its attendant benefits that include improving and strengthening the supply chain for competitive advantage. Advances in technology such as blockchain technology can help facilitate effective management of sustainable supply chain visibility and in delivering associated benefits. The relational characteristics of blockchain and sustainable supply chain visibility has recently been reported in the literature with some emphasis on the capacity, capability and context of sustainable supply chain visibility. This paper explores a notion of context-awareness and blockchain in relation to sustainable supply chain visibility. A landscape for an architecture of a blockchain-based sustainable supply chain visibility management platform centred on context-awareness is suggested. The main thrust of the considerations is provisioning of secure, auditable and mutually benefiting sustainable supply chain information sharing, for distinctive visibility, in heterogeneous context-aware scenarios whilst recognising the underlying characteristics of sustainable supply chain visibility.
Li Yan, Sun Yin-He, Yang Qian, Sun Zhi-Yu · 6 authors
The use of new technologies to empower the social co-governance of food safety is a consensus in the theoretical and practical fields of food safety governance modernization. Based on the innovative features of the block chain such as non-tampering, consensus mechanism, and a smart contract, this paper proposes a new method to facilitate the achievement of the effect of social co-governance of food safety. Firstly, it provides a profound analysis of the causes of food safety problems and the drawbacks of traditional centralized supervision, and proposes a solution with decentralized features and the design process of smart contracts to realize the chaining and integration of finite credible data in the process of food circulation; secondly, it constructs a mathematical model through finite credible data on the chain and obtains the probabilistic consensus results of food safety through rigorous derivation; Finally, the scheme, model and algorithm are effectively practiced through the experimental environment of mature block chain platform and provincial food supervision platform. The example shows that the market failure problem in food safety can be greatly alleviated by the non-tampering feature of block chain; the consensus results formed by the credible data uploading, model construction and data derivation through smart contracts can greatly alleviate the problem of involution of government administrative supervision; and the social co-governance capacity of food safety can be improved through information sharing with the active synergy of multiple subjects of co-governance.
Mikuláš Černý, Marián Gogola, Stanislav Kubaľák, Ján Ondruš
Processes associated with the transformation of inputs (raw materials, components) into outputs (goods, finished products) and their transport to the place of consumption are an essential part of the functioning of today’s society. These processes are becoming more complex with the gradual globalization. As the complexity of the supply chain increases, so does the risk of disruption. There are problems such as a lack of information on the origin of the products, a lack of real-time information and, with that, a problem with tracking shipments. With a large number of documents, the risk of fraud and forgery also increases. Due to the large number of stakeholders in logistics chains, the level of transparency is being lost. One possible solution to eliminate the risk of supply chain complexity is to integrate blockchain technology into the supply chain. Thanks to properties such as distribution, immutability, transparency, blockchain can have great potential to solve the problems of the traditional supply chain. The aim of this paper is to describe the basic problems of the traditional supply chain, which can disrupt its course. In the next part, we will introduce the basics of blockchain technology and describe what processes of the traditional supply chain could be replaced by this technology.
With the development of supply chain finance, the credit risk of small‐ and medium‐sized financing enterprises from the perspective of supply chain finance has arisen. Risk management is one of the key tasks of the credit business of banks and other financial institutions, which runs through all aspects of the credit business before, during, and after the loan. This article combines blockchain and fuzzy neural network algorithms to study the credit risk of SME financing from the perspective of supply chain finance. This article builds a supply chain financial system through blockchain technology and integrates supply chain financial information into blocks. The fuzzy neural network algorithm is used for financial data processing and risk assessment, effectively solving and improving the risk processing level of the supply chain. Through further simulation, the application effect of blockchain and machine learning algorithms in the supply chain financial system was verified.
Muhammad Khan, Shoaib Imtiaz, Gohar Saleem Parvaiz, Arif Hussain · 5 authors
There has been incredible interest in Internet-of-Things (IoT) and blockchain technology (BCT) around the world and across sectors. Following great achievement in the other sectors, the implementation of IoT and BCT have gained great interest in Humanitarian Logistics (HL) at many levels despite remaining in an earlier stage. The profit and non-profit organizations both are under increasing worldwide pressure for transparency, with donors and governments calling for enhanced transparency and information exchange in the humanitarian sector. This study, which is based on transactive memory systems (TMS) theory perspectives, proposes a study framework to understand “how can the transparency, public trust, and coordination in HL be improved through the integration of IoT with BCT?”. We framed and tested six research hypotheses, using data collected from Humanitarian Organizations (HOs) employees. We have applied a Covariance-based structure equation model (CB-SEM) with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). This study results confirm that our all hypotheses were supported. The research results show that the association between explanatory variables (i.e., IoT and BCT) and the response variables (i.e., public trust and coordination) is mediated by transparency. This study provides substantial and valid contributions to the literature on IoT, BCT, transparency, public trust and coordination. This study proves that transparency plays a crucial role in enhancing public trust, coordination, and ultimately HL performance through the integration of IoT with BCT. The study results could be helpful for all the stakeholders of disaster risk management since they are insistently looking for strategies to support afflicts. Our study is a good candidate solution to raise awareness of fast, fair, and safe HL to reveal research gaps and provide opportunities for future research. The study will provide an enormous understanding of IoT and BCT in HL, which has not been investigated empirically before.