Providing transparency and trust among participants and stakeholders and ensuring an efficient operation are current supply chain challenges. These challenges are difficult to resolve because the records of supply chains may be exposed to alterations by participants. Blockchain technology has been identified as a promising solution to resolve these challenges. In this paper, we introduce blockchain and survey recent blockchain frameworks that address some of the supply chain challenges. We describe the components and operation of these blockchain frameworks. We identify the objectives and motivation in each of the surveyed use cases and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each adopted framework. We analyze how the reported blockchain frameworks address different supply chain challenges. We present a comparative summary of existing literature on blockchain for supply chain. We also summarize the properties of a blockchain framework for its successful adoption in future supply chains and discuss several remaining challenges and opportunities.
Luh Putu Mahyuni, Richard Adrian, Gede Sri Darma, Ngakan Nyoman Kutha Krisnawijaya · 6 authors
This paper aims at reviewing and systematically mapping research on blockchain potentials in improving supply chain performance. Articles were retrieved from several prominent databases, selected, reviewed, grouped into several themes and synthesized. This paper suggests that applying blockchain in the supply chain could improve its performance in terms of transparency, traceability, sustainability, trust, and cost-efficiency. As a cutting-edge technology, blockchain has not been widely implemented in supply chain industries. Research on blockchain application in the supply chain is also relatively limited. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a comprehensive map of research on blockchain potentials in improving supply chain performance. The findings of this study will also be beneficial for managers who seek for a comprehensive understanding of how blockchain technology affects their companies particularly in supply chain management.
Due to the increasing complexity of supply chains over the past years, many factors significantly contribute to lowering the supply chains performance. Poor visibility is one of the major challenging factors that lowers supply chains performance. This paper proposes a Blockchain-based supply chain network model to improve the supply chain visibility. The model focuses in improving the visibility measurements properties: information sharing, traceability, and inventory visibility. The proposed model consists of information sharing, traceability, and inventory visibility platforms based on Blockchain technology smart contract. The model built with Hyperledger platform and extend the Hyperledger Composer Supply Chain Network (HCSC) model. The research is designed to three main phases. First phase: the preliminary phase which is the literature review phase to identify the existing challenges in the domain. The second phase: the design and implementation phase which is the development steps of the proposed research model. The third phase: the evaluation phase which represent the performance evaluation of the proposed model and the comparisons between the proposed model and the existing models. In the evaluation performance, the common performance metrics Lead time and average inventory levels will be compared in the proposed model, Cloud-based information system, and the traditional supply chain. These proposed platforms offer an end-to-end visibility of products, orders, and stock levels for supply chain practitioners and customers within supply chain networks. Which helps managers’ access key information that support critical business decisions and offers essential criteria for competitiveness and therefore, enhance supply chain performance.
Changli Lu, Zhao Ming, Imran Ahmad Khan, Peerapong Uthansakul
Cap-and-trade regulation provides incentives for manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions, but manufacturers’ insufficient capital can disrupt the implementation of low-carbon emission reduction technologies. To alleviate capital constraints, manufacturers can adopt external financing for low-carbon emission reduction investments. This paper studies the independent financing and financing cooperation behavior in a supply chain in which the manufacturer and retailer first implement low-carbon emission reduction technologies and then organize production and sales in accordance with wholesale price contracts. Through comparing the optimal profits and low-carbon emission reduction levels under the independent financing and financing cooperation mode, we come to the following conclusions: (1) Although financing interest increases the cost of the supply chain, manufacturers prefer to invest in reducing carbon emissions rather than buying carbon quotas. (2) When financing independently, a decentralized decision-making mode (MD) is the best choice for manufacturers. (3) In cooperative financing, when the supply chain adopts a decentralized decision-making mode (SD) in which the retailer determines the financing cost-sharing ratio according to their optimal profit, the profits of the supply chain and its members are significantly improved. (4) When manufacturers and retailers adopt a centralized decision-making model (SC) in cooperative financing, they jointly determine the financing cost-sharing ratio and the level of low-carbon emission reduction. If the financing cost-sharing ratio meets a certain threshold range, the profits of manufacturers and retailers achieve Pareto improvement, indicating that this cooperative financing model is effective.
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.
Technological infrastructures based on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) like blockchain technology (BCT) are new digital technologies combining peer-to peer networking and cryptography to create immutable public ledgers characterized by decentralization, collective maintenance, consensus trust and reliable data. DLT, today considered as an interdisciplinary topic, is expected to transform current economic organization and governance, and can be considered one of the evolutionary next steps for agriculture, particularly for current state-of-the-art of precision agriculture.
This study aims to explore the current status, potential applications, and future directions of blockchain technology in supply chain management. A literature survey, along with an analytical review, of blockchain-based supply chain research was conducted to better understand the trajectory of related research and shed light on the benefits, issues, and challenges in the blockchain-supply-chain paradigm. A selected corpus comprising 106 review articles was analyzed to provide an overview of the use of blockchain and smart contracts in supply chain management. The diverse industrial applications of these technologies in various sectors have increasingly received attention by researchers, engineers, and practitioners. Four major issues: traceability and transparency, stakeholder involvement and collaboration, supply chain integration and digitalization, and common frameworks on blockchain-based platforms, are critical for future orientation. Traditional supply chain activities involve several intermediaries, trust, and performance issues. The potential of blockchain can be leveraged to disrupt supply chain operations for better performance, distributed governance, and process automation. This study contributes to the comprehension of blockchain applications in supply chain management and provides a blueprint for these applications from the perspective of literature analysis. Future efforts regarding technical adoption/diffusion, block-supply chain integration, and their social impacts were highlighted to enrich the research scope.
Vittorio Astarita, Vincenzo Pasquale Giofrè, Giovanni Mirabelli, Vittorio Solina
This paper presents a literature review about the application of blockchain-based systems in transportation. The main aim was to identify, through the implementation of a multi-step methodology: current research-trends, main gaps in the literature, and possible future challenges. First, a bibliometric analysis was carried out to obtain a broad overview of the topic of interest. Subsequently, the most influential contributions were analysed in depth, with reference to the following two areas: supply chain and logistics; road traffic management and smart cities. The most important result is that the blockchain technology is still in an early stage, but appears extremely promising, given its possible applications within multiple fields, such as food track and trace, regulatory compliance, smart vehicles’ security, and supply-demand matching. Much effort is still necessary for reaching the maturation stage because several models have been theorized in recent years, but very few have been implemented within real contexts. Moreover, the link blockchain-sustainability was explored, showing that this technology could be the trigger for limiting food waste, reducing exhaust gas emissions, favouring correct urban development, and, in general, improving quality of life.
Purpose Blockchain and IoT are recently developed technologies for the database creation and smooth functioning of supply chain activities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the use of blockchain and IoT for green procurement activities. The integration of blockchain and IoT interface can solve many challenges faced by industries having green procurement. Design/methodology/approach Through a literature survey and interviews with procurement managers from different industries, challenges in green procurement were identified. Elements of blockchain and IoT were analysed to overcome the green procurement challenges. Architecture for blockchain and IoT is developed to be implemented in the green supply chain for a sustainable business. Findings The challenges of green procurement are categorised and ranked as per the industry survey results. The architecture shows the tasks of blockchain and IoT in green procurement activities. Research limitations/implications Green procurement is still at developing stages in India as compared to Europe and many other countries. There is a requirement for more government involvement and participation from industry and customers to implement such methods. Environment issues and challenges faced by industries are addressed. Practical implications Blockchain–IoT integration can transform a green supply chain. This research helps industries planning to incorporate blockchain and IoT in identifying the areas to focus and better planning of resources for the successful implementation of smart technologies in their supply chains. Green initiatives ensure global competitiveness as well as recognition at the global level. Green procurement ensures the minimal usage of energy and efficient waste disposal. Originality/value The implementation of green procurement and challenges associated with it are addressed in this research. This will work as a framework for industries looking forward to implementing blockchain and IoT in their supply chains for solving green procurement challenges.
This paper develops a digital supply chain game, modeling marketing and operation interactions between members. The main novelty of the paper concerns a comparison between static and dynamic solutions of the supply chain game achieved when moving from traditional to digital platforms. Therefore, this study proposes centralized and decentralized versions of the game, comparing their solutions under static and dynamic settings. Moreover, it investigates the decentralized supply chain by evaluating two smart contracts: Revenue sharing and wholesale price contracts. In both cases, the firms use an artificial intelligence system to determine the optimal contract parameters. Numerical and qualitative analyses are used for comparing configurations (centralized, decentralized), settings (static, dynamic), and contract schemes (revenue sharing contract, wholesale price contract). The findings identify the conditions under which smart revenue sharing mechanisms are worth applying.
Blockchain is an emerging technology that has been widely hyped for addressing many business issues. Blockchain's disruptive technological capabilities have the potential to revolutionize global supply chain management processes, and impact green supply chain initiatives. Blockchain technology incorporates four major characteristics: transparency, reliability, smart execution, and tokenization. Blockchain characteristics have implications for green practices in the upstream supply chain, focal company, and downstream supply chain. This chapter provides insights, exemplary practices, and use cases on how blockchain features can enhance green supply chain activities. Research concerns and directions are proposed to advance the discussion and research on this emergent field.
Blockchain technology and the circular economy (CE) are two emergent concepts that can change the way we live for decades. Arrival of Industry 4.0 is set to transform organisational activities through various technological innovations. Blockchain is such a critical technology. Yet, the breadth of the blockchain concept and its application require nuanced investigation in different contexts, including examining some tensions with the applications. This paper examines how blockchain technology is likely to transform and advance circular economy realisation. Using grounded theory building from multiple case studies, we present early evidence linking the blockchain application to circular economy dimensions of regenerate, share, optimise, loop, virtualise, and exchange (ReSOLVE model). Case studies of blockchain application in various industrial sectors, at different adoption levels, for diverse organisational purposes are analysed and discussed. We systematically examine the practices, gaps, potential tensions, and critical reflections. Our study concludes with a summary of research propositions, limitations, and future research directions.
The extant literature has conceptually argued that Blockchain technology can provide both financial and operational benefits to firms in international trades. However, no studies have systematically and analytically investigated the effectiveness of Blockchain. This study introduces analytical models that consider the implementation of Blockchain technology in international trades, to test whether the technology improves an exporting firm's performance under demand volatility risk. The simulation and numerical analysis results show that the reduced lead time and decreased ocean transport cost under Blockchain enable the exporting firm to increase shipment via the ocean, which reduces the quantity shipped via air. In addition, the reduced total unit cost for ocean and air transports leads the firm to effectively reserve spaces for air transport, which implies that Blockchain makes the firm more proactive while preparing a backup plan to more effectively and efficiently react to demand realisation. We conclude that Blockchain can be beneficial for firms facing considerable demand volatility in international trades, and that such effectiveness could be more effective for firms that prioritise minimising lost sales (by efficiently utilising ocean and effectively exploiting air) over minimising excess quantity shipped by ocean.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how blockchain technology can improve supply chain adaptability, alignment and agility which collectively enhance competitive advantage which in turn influences firm performance. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual framework of the present study is developed by conducting an extensive literature review on blockchain technology, supply chain adaptability, alignment, agility and competitive advantage. The sample data were collected from 397 supply chain practitioners in India to validate the conceptual model. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the validity of the measures used and a structural model was analyzed for testing the proposed conceptual framework. Findings The results of the present study show that blockchain technology can improve supply chain adaptability, alignment, agility which lead to competitive advantage, which leads to better firm performance. Besides, trust generated through blockchain use also increases firm performance. Research limitations/implications Currently, the respondents do not have practical experience of using blockchain technology. They have responded based on their knowledge about supply chain and blockchain which they acquired from published sources. Different supply chains require different strategic choices and different information needs. But the present study assumes that all supply chain needs are identical. The present study assumes that government regulations regarding blockchain technology are favorable; however, currently, there is no legal framework to address blockchain technology. The findings of the current study indicate that companies not only should create more awareness regarding blockchain but also should actively work with IT companies that are engaged in developing blockchain-based supply chain solution. Managers, as well as IT companies and academicians, should join hands to study and develop a framework for regulating blockchain technology and suggest these to the policy actors. Practical implications The present study shows that supply chain practitioners are confident that blockchain technology will help improve supply chain parameters. These findings can help IT companies and their marketers for developing and promoting blockchain-based IT applications. In addition, the important implication for supply chain practitioners is that blockchain helps in creating a competitive advantage and increases firm performance. Originality/value The effect of IT on important supply chain variables has been studied in the past; however, there is not a single study which sheds light on how disruptive technologies such as blockchain will affect supply chain adaptability, alignment, agility and firm performance.
Purpose There is a lot of interest in blockchain technology in the supply chain, but to date, there is little empirical research to support managerial decision-making. Verhoeven et al. (2018) suggested five screens for ensuring mindful development of use cases for blockchain in the supply chain. This paper aims to extend the Verhoeven et al. ’s (2018) framework and empirical research beyond the use case stage into the pilot stage. Design/methodology/approach Three case studies in different industries (logistics services, consumer products and retail), supply chain positions (manufacturer, carrier, and retailer) and geographies (Europe and USA) are conducted to explore lessons learned by early adopters of blockchain technology in the supply chain. Findings The case studies indicate that the Verhoeven et al. ’s (2018) screens, with one added screen, are helpful in considering “what to adopt.” Based on the insights from the case studies, it is also possible to develop pilot design considerations that can inform “where to start.” Lessons learned include that there is value in scoping pilots in a targeted manner, including the use of existing technology in the pilot (as opposed to replacing existing technology) and that there is the ability to start a pilot fast, provided the existence of executive and stakeholder engagement. Practical implications In addition to the need to be being mindful in considering what use case for blockchain in the supply chain to potentially adopt, mindful consideration of blockchain technology in the supply chain extends into the design of pilots. Six specific design considerations are offered. Originality/value Based on the insights from early adopters in industry, the author extends guidance for the mindful adoption of blockchain in the supply chain beyond the development of use cases, into the design of actual pilots. These insights directly address calls for research from literature (including from Dobrovnik et al. , 2018 and Ferdows, 2018).
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on blockchain technology, present some trends and consider its potential value in supply chain management (SCM). Design/methodology/approach Papers that contained the word “blockchain” in their titles, keywords or abstracts were selected for conducting trend analyses. Findings The blockchain technology is rapidly making inroads in many industries and there is tremendous potential to eliminate intermediaries and to make SCM more efficient. Research limitations/implications This analysis is limited to 299 papers from the EBSCO database through December 2018. Practical implications This paper highlights the imperative role of blockchain technology that has created a discourse in the world of innovation and technology. This work will help academics to further the understanding of blockchain technology. Social implications Blockchain technology will provide transparency to consumers. Originality/value This paper presents the first review of blockchain technology and delves into its value in SCM. This work will help researchers in identifying the areas where blockchain is the most desirable and can be implemented.
Abstract This paper aims to identify, and analyze how the use of blockchains technology can support sustainable supply chain management strategies. This support is seen from environmental, economic, and social aspects. In addition, it explains the various advantages of using Blokchain technology to reduce the use of transportation and other resources that have the potential to damage the environment. From an economic aspect, this technology has the potential to increase the efficiency of cost and time. Blockchain technology also has the potential to provide social benefits for the companies involved because of the increasingly good reputation of the organization. Three examples of implementation of the blockchain in three different industries are also provided in this paper. This paper also points out the potential disadvantages of using this technology for supply chains that can threaten supply chain sustainability.
In recent years, novel collaborative production paradigms, such as (re-)distributed manufacturing and social manufacturing, have attracted intensive attention due to their potential of further changing the existing manufacturing modes and industrial structures. Blockchain, as a new distributed computing architecture, is expected to be successfully used in manufacturing, and help solve issues related to interoperability and collaboration, security and supervision, marketization and protocol, democratic organization and global value chain governance, and so on. In this paper, a blockchain-based framework for collaborative production is proposed, aiming at providing novel ideas for the design, implementation and optimization of collaborative production, and also inspiring the upgrading and transformation of manufacturing industries.