Blockchain technology to improve supply chain management - a systematic literature review

This study followed the systematic literature review approach to analyse how blockchain technology can improve supply chain management and to promote a future research agenda. The search was carried out at Web of Science Core Collection between September 2019 and February 2020 by using the keywords “blockchain” AND “supply chain” OR “blockchain” AND “logistics” in the title. In this review 127 studies were identified for screening and a final sample of 67 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analysed to answer the research questions. After examining the selected studies, our findings uncover a range of approaches showing how blockchain can enhance the supply chain management and point out which sectors are most likely to benefit from its implementation. This study contributes to the existing literature by systematising the most relevant information on blockchain implementation in supply chains. In addition, the findings of this study also provide managers and researchers with insights about the likely consequences of blockchain adoption in various sectors. Although there are already some literature reviews on blockchain technology in the supply chain management, this is one of the first studies that brings together the main issues focused on the consequences of blockchain adoption in the supply chain management.A gestão da cadeia de abastecimento está a passar por um processo de digitalização das suas operações justificada pela Quarta Revolução Industrial (Indústria 4.0) que prevê a adoção de novas tecnologias com o objetivo de reduzir custos operacionais, aumentar a eficiência da cadeia de abastecimento e agregar valor aos produtos e serviços. Ferramentas tecnológicas como a internet das coisas (IoT), identificação por radiofrequência (RFID) e Big Data, estão a ser utilizadas na melhoria dos controlos de produção, compra, procura, na tomadas de decisões dos gestores, entretanto, a recente tecnologia blockchain tem chamado atenção de pesquisadores e especialistas devido ao seu potencial transformador nos negócios e principalmente na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento. Por este motivo, este estudo propõe uma revisão sistemática de literatura com o objetivo de analisar como a tecnologia blockchain pode melhorar a gestão da cadeia de abastecimento e propor uma agenda de investigação para o futuro. A pesquisa foi realizada na base de dados Web of Science Core Collection entre setembro de 2019 e fevereiro de 2020 usando as palavras-chave "blockchain" E "supply chain" OU "blockchain" E "logistics" no título. O critério de seleção dos artigos considerou apenas estudos revistos por pares, anais de conferência e livros nos idiomas inglês, espanhol, francês e português. A seleção dos estudos ocorreu em duas etapas. Na primeira etapa, foram analisados títulos e resumos. Na segunda etapa, foi realizada a leitura integral dos estudos que não foram excluídos na primeira fase. Os critérios de exclusão foram: artigos de revisão de literatura, relatórios, estudos focados em informações técnicas, estudos que enfatizaram outras tecnologias (IoT, RFID), gestão financeira da cadeia de abastecimento e/ou estudos relacionados com bitcoins. Os artigos que preencheram um desses critérios foram excluídos com justificativa. Embora tenhamos excluído artigos de revisão de literatura, esses documentos ainda foram utilizados para identificar estudos-chave que não haviam sido capturados da base de dados Web of Science. Por fim, nesta revisão foram identificados 127 estudos para triagem e uma amostra final de 67 estudos atendeu aos critérios de inclusão e foram analisados para responder às perguntas da pesquisa. As perguntas a que a pesquisa teve por objetivo responder foram: quais os benefícios e riscos da tecnologia blockchain; quais os setores que já adotaram a tecnologia blockchain na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento e sua fase de implementação; quais as características das empresas que utilizam a tecnologia; quais são os fatores facilitadores e barreiras para a adoção da tecnologia blockchain nas empresas; qual a influência da tecnologia blockchain na garantia da sustentabilidade da cadeia de abastecimento dentro da estratégia organizacional e dos níveis operacionais; como avaliar o desempenho da tecnologia blockchain na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento. Os estudos selecionados apontam que a partir de 2017 houve um aumento expressivo de estudos relacionados ao uso da tecnologia blockchain na cadeia de abastecimento. Os Estados Unidos, China e Índia são os países com a maior percentagem de publicações sobre o tema e representam aproximadamente 44% do total. Os estudos foram publicados em jornais especializados em sistema de produção e processos, engenharia industrial, tecnologia, gestão, logística, cadeia de abastecimento e sustentabilidade. Quanto aos benefícios e riscos da adoção da tecnologia blockchain, os estudos indicam que a transparência dos dados, rastreabilidade e a redução dos custos operacionais são um dos maiores benefícios da adoção da tecnologia blockchain na cadeia de abastecimento, enquanto a escalabilidade e interoperabilidade foram identificados com os maiores riscos/limitações da implantação da tecnologia. No que tange aos fatores facilitadores da adoção da tecnologia blockchain, a gestão de topo apresenta-se como agente principal no incentivo à adoção do blockchain nas organizações, além disso, a perceção de utilização da tecnologia pelos funcionários também influencia o sucesso de implantação da tecnologia blockchain. Outras características que afetam a adoção da tecnologia são a infraestrutura das empresas, políticas governamentais e a cultura do país, entretanto esses fatores tendem a ter níveis diferentes de acordo com o país onde a empresa está instalada. No que diz respeito aos fatores que dificultam a implantação do blockchain nas organizações, são apontados a falta de conhecimento da tecnologia blockchain e dos seus potenciais benefícios, a existência de um número reduzido de aplicações do blockchain nas empresas, a coordenação e comprometimento dos parceiros de negócios na resolução de problemas e no tratamento de dados, fatores externos, como a legislação e incentivos governamentais. Após examinar os estudos selecionados, a nossa análise revela uma série de abordagens que mostram como a blockchain pode melhorar a gestão da cadeia de abastecimento e identifica os setores mais propensos a retirar benefícios de sua implementação. A indústria de alimentos e a indústria farmacêutica são apontados como os setores com maior vantagem na adoção do blockchain devido a criticidade dos seus produtos, a procura crescente por informações referente a proveniência dos bens e seu alto valor agregado. O perfil das organizações que adotaram a tecnologia blockchain são geralmente multinacionais de grande e médio porte, com capilaridade de parceiros de negócios, grande volume de produção e alto valor agregado aos seus bens. Quanto a sustentabilidade, a tecnologia blockchain pode influenciar, através da transparência e rastreabilidade dos produtos, na redução da produção de lixo e das emissões de carbono no meio ambiente, no controlo das leis e práticas laborais, evitando-se trabalho escravo e, relacionado com as questões económicas, redução dos custos com auditorias, controlo de pedidos de compra, produção e procura. Os indicadores de performance, de acordo com os estudos revistos, podem ser melhorados com a utilização da tecnologia blockchain, promovendo novas métricas sustentáveis baseadas na rastreabilidade e na transparência dos dados. Apesar da fase inicial da tecnologia blockchain, alguns estudos propõem indicadores que avaliam a eficiência da cadeia de abastecimento após a adoção do blockchain, como o tempo de processamento das transações, a utilização de recursos (água, energia elétrica) e níveis de emissão de carbono. Embora já existam algumas revisões de literatura sobre a tecnologia blockchain na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento, este é um dos primeiros estudos que reúne questões importantes focadas nas consequências da adoção do blockchain na gestão. Além disso, os resultados deste estudo fornecem implicações para a gestão e para a teoria sobre as prováveis consequências da adoção de blockchain em vários setores da economia

Blockchain-Supported Food Supply Chain Reference Architecture

Department of Management EngineeringA food security issue increased rapidly due to numerous food frauds and tragic incidents and overall growth in the scale of food supply chain network in the last years. Since the recent evolution of Blockchain technology, it promises high potential ability to guarantee and trace the originality of products in supply chain network The main purpose of this research work is to build general Blockchain-supported food supply chain reference architecture model along with supplementary guidelines which could be applied in real-life supply chain cases with or without customization or inspire their design of supply chain system. A case driven bottom-up approach is used to create the reference architecture with the help of BOAT framework as a base tool to align the case details. A total of three food supply chain cases were utilized for the development of reference architecture and third case study of Mongolian meat trade supply chain was examined with the proposed solution and finally evaluated by the local experts. I believe this reference framework will help fellow researchers and industry practitioners to use this as a base knowledge without beginning from the scratches because current literature lacks extremely in this field. In overall, I expect this work will contribute to the current literature in the followings: 1. To expand the implementation mechanism of Blockchain solutions in general supply chain cases especially in food supply chain. 2. To provide practical exemplary implementation of real life case scenarios 3. To provide detailed analysis of benefits and weaknesses of using Blockchain in food supply chainope

Blockchain: case studies in supply chain visibility

Purpose:This paper investigates how blockchain has moved beyond cryptocurrencies and is being deployed to enhance visibility and trust in supply chains; its limitations, and potential impact. Approach: Qualitative analysis undertaken via case studies drawn from food companies using semi-structured interviews. Findings: Blockchain is demonstrated as an enabler of visibility in supply chains. Applications at scale are most likely for products where the end consumer is prepared to pay the premium currently required to fund the technology, e.g. baby food. Challenges remain in four areas: trust of the technology; human error and fraud at the boundaries; governance; consumer data access and willingness to pay. Research implications and limitations: The paper shows that blockchain can be utilised as part of a system generating visibility and trust in supply chains. Research directs academic attention to issues that remain to be addressed. The challenges pertaining to the technology itself we believe to be generalisable; those specific to the food industry may not hold elsewhere. Practical implications: From live case studies we provide empirical evidence that blockchain provides visibility of exchanges and reliable data in fully-digitised supply chains. This provides provenance and guards against counterfeit goods. However, firms will need to work to gain consumer buy-in for the technology following repeated past claims of trustworthiness. Originality: This paper provides primary evidence from blockchain use cases ‘in the wild’. The exploratory case studies examine application of blockchain for supply chain visibility.</p

Secure and Transparent Supply Chain Management using Blockchain and IoT

Blockchain technology has emerged as a disruptive force across various industries, and its integration with the Internet of Things (IoT) has unlocked new avenues for supply chain management. The conventional supply chain systems often encounter challenges related to privacy, security, and data integrity. In contrast, blockchain's decentralized and tamper-proof nature ensures a secure, auditable, and transparent record of product movement within the supply chain. By leveraging the immutable properties of blockchain, the system enhances product traceability, authenticity, and accountability while significantly reducing operational costs. IoT devices are vulnerable to attack as due to low processing power, storage limitations etc.&nbsp; Blockchain integrated with IoT provides a solution faced by the several industries. Blockchains and smart contracts are technology that has gained massive attention. The integration of blockchain addresses these shortcomings by providing robust data security and integrity, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or alteration. This paper presents a system that helps the industrialist to have an access to agricultural data and supply of crops data to farmer. As industries continue to embrace digitization and connectivity, the presented system offers a significant step towards a more streamlined and secure future for agricultural information sharing. This system will be effective for the supply chain management for the trusted delivery

Blockchain Application in Food Supply Chains: Bibliometric Analysis and Future Research

This study aimed to organize and analyze studies on blockchain application in food supply chains and to discover emerging research themes and topics using cluster analysis to determine future research directions. Bibliometric analysis was used to organize and analyze the literature on blockchain application in food supply chains. The database consisted of 629 Scopus-indexed articles from 2016 to 2021. These were organized using bibliometric analysis (e.g., annual publication trends) and content analysis (e.g., research method applied). Themes and emerging research trends were then clustered based on keywords using the VOSviewer software. The analysis showed that manufacturing is the type of industry that most applies the blockchain. Trust is the most-cited benefit achieved by blockchain application, while traceability is the most-claimed function. Keyword classification resulted in seven main clusters (e.g., sustainability and transparency) and each cluster had emerging research trends (e.g., resilience toward sustainability and transparency). This research provides an overview of scientific development and emerging application trends related to blockchain application in food supply chains

Orchestrating product provenance story:When IOTA ecosystem meets electronics supply chain space

"Trustworthy data" is the fuel for ensuring transparent traceability, precise decision-making, and cogent coordination in the supply chain (SC) space. However, the disparate data silos act as a trade barrier in orchestrating the provenance of product story starting from the transformation of raw materials into the circuit board to the assembling of electronic components into end products available on the store shelf for customers. Therefore, to bridge the fragmented siloed information across global supply chain partners, the diffusion of blockchain (BC) as one of the advanced distributed ledger technology (DLT) takeover the on-premise legacy systems. Nevertheless, the challenging constraints of blockchain including scalability, accessing off-line data, fee-less microtransactions and many more lead to the third wave of blockchain called IOTA. In this paper, we propose a framework for supporting provenance in the electronic supply chain (ECS) by using permissioned IOTA ledger. Realizing the crucial requirement of trustworthy data, we use Masked Authenticated Messaging (MAM) channel provided by IOTA that allows the SC players to procure distributed information while keeping confidential trade flows, tamper-proof data, and fine-grained accessibility rights. To identify operational disruption, we devise a transparent product ledger through transaction data and consignment information to keep track of the complete product journey at each intermediary step during SC processes. Furthermore, we evaluate the secure provenance data construction time for varying payload size.Comment: 47 pages, 18 figure

Understanding blockchain technology for future supply chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda

Purpose: This paper investigates the way in which blockchain technology is likely to influence future supply chain practices and policies. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of both academic and practitioner literature was conducted. Multiple accounts of blockchain adoption within industry were also consulted to gain further insight. Findings: While blockchain technologies remain in their infancy, they are gaining momentum within supply chains, trust being the predominant factor driving their adoption. The value of such technologies for supply chain management lies in four areas: extended visibility and traceability, supply chain digitalisation and disintermediation, improved data security and smart contracts. Several challenges and gaps in understanding and opportunities for further research are identified by our research. How a blockchain enabled supply chain should be configured has also been explored from a design perspective. Research limitations/implications: Our systematic review focuses on the diffusion of blockchain technology within supply chains and great care was taken in selecting search terms. However, we acknowledge that our choice of terms may have excluded certain blockchain articles from this review. Practical implications: This paper offers valuable insight for supply-chain practitioners into how blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt existing supply chain provisions as well as a number of challenges to its successful diffusion. Originality/value: Ours is one of the first studies to examine the current state of blockchain diffusion within supply chains. It lays a firm foundation for future research. Keywords: blockchain, distributed ledger technology, supply chain management, peer-to-peer communication, systematic literature revie

BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

The outbreak of the novel COVID-19 demonstrates how pandemics disturb supply chains (SC) all across the world. Policymakers and private-sector partners are increasingly acknowledging that we cannot tackle today\u27s issues without leveraging the promise of new technology. Blockchain technology is increasingly being adopted to help humanitarian efforts in various fields. This paper presents conceptual research designed to assess how Blockchain distributed ledger technology can be leveraged to enhance humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM). This paper fills the present research gap on the Blockchain\u27s potential implications for HSCM by proposing a framework built on the foundations of five prominent institutional economic theories: social exchange theory, principal-agent theory, transaction cost theory, resource-based view, and network theory. These theories could be utilized to generate research topics that are theory-based and industry-relevant. This conceptual framework assists institutions in making decisions about how to recover and rebuild their SC during disasters

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc