Blockchain-based Supply Chain Research Articles

Analyzing blockchain-based supply chain resilience strategies: resource-based perspective

PurposeThis research tries to find the blockchain-based resilience strategies that can help the supply chains of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to recover from the disruptions and work effectively in a resource-based view perspective.Design/methodology/approachEight broad strategies and 32 sub-strategies are identified from the literature review. Delphi study was carried out, and detailed discussion with 16 experts helped in finalizing these strategies. Further, the best-worst method (BWM) prioritized these strategies.FindingsThe findings suggests that “building social capital,” improving “coordination capabilities,” “sensitivity towards market,” “flexibility in process and production,” “reduction in process and lead time,”and “having a resource efficiency and redundancy” are the top strategies on which the top management should focus to overcome the situations of disruptions and enhance performance of MSMEs.Practical implicationsThe blockchain-based strategies will enable the companies in tracing the products from the company to customers. Further, the customers will be able to identify their manufacturers, the raw materials used in manufacturing, and the life and quality of raw used materials. Altogether the textile industry will become more sensitive toward environmental practices.Originality/valueThe previous research has not identified and evaluated the blockchain-based resilience strategies, and therefore this study tries to fill this gap. This study used a smaller sample from the experts, so the results may vary if the larger data set is used and hypothesis testing can be done.

New blockchain-based supply chain management system model

Leveraging technological advances to provide a permanent audit log for a tracked asset is the main goal of blockchain-based supply chain management systems. The challenge, however, is to monitor the asset as it moves through various blockchain-based distribution networks. The paper suggests a model that was developed specifically to solve these problems. The proposed model allows you to do the following: track an asset in various blockchain - based supply chain systems; cryptographically verify the asset's supply chain; define asset data in a standard format; and describe it using several standard formats. Thus, the model offers a significant advantage in terms of interaction between different blockchain-driven supply chains compared to other models presented in the literature.

Robust framework to prioritize blockchain-based supply chain challenges: the fuzzy best-worst approach for multiple criteria decision-making

PurposeThis study aims to identify and prioritize the challenges to adopting blockchain in supply chain management and to make its taxonomic model. Moreover, validate whether these challenging factors exist in the real world and, if they exist, then in what percentage.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopted the fuzzy best-worst method (F-BWM), which integrates fuzzy set theory with the best-worst method to identify and prioritize the prominent challenges of the blockchain-based supply chain by developing a weighted multi-criteria model.FindingsA total of 20 challenges (CH's) were identified. Lack of storage capacity/scalability and lack of data privacy challenges were found as key challenges. The findings of this study will provide a robust framework of the challenges that will assist academic researchers and industry practitioners in considering the most significant category concerning their working area.Practical implicationsBlockchain provides the best solution for tracing and tracking where RFID has not succeeded. It can improve quality management in a supply chain network by improving standards and speeding up operations. For inventory management, blockchain provides transparency of documentation for both parties within no time.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous research has adopted the fuzzy best-worst method to prioritize the identified challenges of blockchain implementation in the supply chain. Moreover, no study provides a taxonomic model for the challenges of implementing a blockchain-based supply chain.

Implementation of a Supply chain Management System Blockchain-Based in Red Onion Farming

Red Onions are a horticultural commodity belonging to the spice vegetable group and an important role for economy of the Indonesian people. In red onion farming there have a problem of price fluctuations which result in an uneven and less transparent distribution of red onions yields, thus affecting both consumers and producers. To answer these problems, we designed a system to maintain and store red onion harvest data for farmers, collectors, distributors, and retailers in the form of a blockchain-based supply chain system. This system can maintain the validity of transactions in the supply chain of red onion farming with a private blockchain with Hyperledger Fabric. Then the data on the blockchain system will be displayed through the Hyperledger Explorer website. This system already passed the Black Box Testing system. From the research and testing of the system that has been made, this system can help the red onion farming to maintain the validity of transactions in the supply chain management.

Blockchain for the supply chain of the Italian craft beer sector: tracking and discount coupons

In the Italian craft beer market, many breweries and pubs propose a large number of products to beerlovers. In this highly fragmented market, it is hard for the beerlovers to assess the quality of a beer and it is hard for breweries and pubs to inform the beerlover of the quality of their offer. Supply chain tracking is an interesting tool to improve transparency of food markets. However, standard tracking approaches are challenging in highly fragmented contexts for several reasons. In this paper, we show how it is possible to realize a blockchain-based supply chain tracking tailored for the highly fragmented sector of the Italian craft beer. We collaborated with one of the players of that market to analyse the specific problems of that context and we report the results. We show a design that addresses those problems and might be generalized to support tracking in other highly fragmented sectors. We estimate costs and that turn out to be affordable for that sector. Finally, we discuss the adoption of the same blockchain infrastructure to provide a related blockchain-based discount coupon systems, we analyse the advantages of this approach, and we discuss some design aspects to deal with privacy regulation.

A Survey on Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Management in Agriculture

India is one of the fifth largest economies in the world by nominal GDP with 70 per cent of the rural households still depending on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood. India is responsible for 7.39 per cent of total world agricultural production. But the agricultural supply chain used in India is inefficient and caters less to the producer. Farmers who are the producers get very less profit from selling their produce. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the profits are secured by the middlemen who have significant control over the agriculture trade in the country. The lack of communication between different stages in the chain and data transparency is also one of the major reasons why the current supply chain in India is flawed. Proper communication is essential in any system to avoid the spread of any misinformation and at each stage in the supply chain sensors are required to share data with the users so that information is collected and made available to everyone concerned with the particular transaction of goods. The combination of blockchain and IoT in the agricultural sector can provide a better supply chain system from the ground up which addresses communication and transparency issues suffered by the latter systems.

Fertilizer Supply Chain Management using Blockchain

This paper explores the potential use of blockchain technology in fertilizer supply chain management. The project begins by identifying the current issues and challenges in the fertilizer supply chain and how blockchain technology can address them. The project team then designs and implements a blockchain-based supply chain management system for the fertilizer industry. The allocation of subsidies is also covered in the study, along with problems including corruption, poor management, and a lack of openness.. The team utilizes smart contracts, decentralized data storage, and consensus mechanisms to improve transparency, traceability, and efficiency in the fertilizer supply chain. The system is evaluated through user testing, and feedback is collected to identify strengths and weaknesses. The results show that the blockchain-based supply chain management system can significantly improve the efficiency and accountability of the fertilizer supply chain. The project concludes by providing recommendations for the implementation of blockchain technology in the fertilizer industry, emphasizing the need for standardization, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement. This project aims to contribute to the practical application of blockchain technology in the fertilizer industry and provide a foundation for further research in this field.

High-Efficiency Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Traceability

Supply chain traceability refers to product tracking from the source to customers, demanding transparency, authenticity, and high efficiency. In recent years, blockchain has been widely adopted in supply chain traceability to provide transparency and authenticity, while the efficiency issue is understudied. In practice, as the numerous product records accumulate, the time- and storage- efficiencies will decrease remarkably. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first work studying the efficiency issue in blockchain-based supply chain traceability. Compared to the traditional method, which searches the records stored in a single chunk sequentially, we replicate the records in multiple chunks and employ parallel search to boost the time efficiency. However, allocating the record searching primitives to the chunks with maximized parallelization ratio is challenging. To this end, we model the records and chunks as a bipartite graph and solve the allocation problem using a maximum matching algorithm. The experimental results indicate that the time overhead can be reduced by up to 85.1% with affordable storage overhead.

Inventory management and information sharing based on blockchain technology

This paper presents a structural framework for blockchain-based supply chains (SCs) and demonstrates how blockchain technology can help realize five crucial changes: common platform, end-to-end information sharing and traceability, real-time update, speedy and efficient asset transfer, and contract automation. The most unique change is that a blockchain-based supply chain operates on a decentralized common platform, in contrast to the tiered structure of a traditional supply chain. Using fundamental analytical models, inventory management and information-sharing benefits from the abovementioned critical changes were quantified. Therefore, the three managerial implications for supply chain resilience are as follows. (1) A blockchain-based SC essentially transforms a multi-tier SC into a one-platform SC, effectively shortening the length of SC tiers and therefore eliminating problems and challenges in multi-tier supply chain management (SCM). (2) A blockchain-based SC can be both time- and cost-efficient. (3) A company on the blockchain platform can reduce the cost and risk/variance associated with its SC partners. These results can substantially contribute to the industry, given that blockchain is in the early stage, thus rendering supply chains smarter and more efficient.

Scalable Lightweight Protocol for Interoperable Public Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Ownership Management

Scalability prevents public blockchains from being widely adopted for Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as supply chain management. Several existing solutions focus on increasing the transaction count, but none of them address scalability challenges introduced by resource-constrained IoT device integration with these blockchains, especially for the purpose of supply chain ownership management. Thus, this paper solves the issue by proposing a scalable public blockchain-based protocol for the interoperable ownership transfer of tagged goods, suitable for use with resource-constrained IoT devices such as widely used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. The use of a public blockchain is crucial for the proposed solution as it is essential to enable transparent ownership data transfer, guarantee data integrity, and provide on-chain data required for the protocol. A decentralized web application developed using the Ethereum blockchain and an InterPlanetary File System is used to prove the validity of the proposed lightweight protocol. A detailed security analysis is conducted to verify that the proposed lightweight protocol is secure from key disclosure, replay, man-in-the-middle, de-synchronization, and tracking attacks. The proposed scalable protocol is proven to support secure data transfer among resource-constrained RFID tags while being cost-effective at the same time.

A lower approximation based integrated decision analysis framework for a blockchain-based supply chain

Organizations and their supply chains generate vast amounts of structured and unstructured data, popularly known as Big Data. This paper proposes a framework in the prescriptive analytics category of big data analytics (BDA) and is especially relevant for organizations on a permissioned blockchain network. The framework integrates the concepts of Artificial intelligence (Case-based reasoning, Interval-valued rough fuzzy set theory, and Value closeness relation algorithm) and blockchain to help decision-makers make accountable and conformable decisions. The framework comprises five stages - the first three stages generate the decisions, while the last two stages enable validation and communication of decisions. Its application is demonstrated on an organizational dataset with 20 supply chain KPIs. The numerical example shows how the organization's business strategy can translate to framework parameters resulting in varying outputs. The proposed framework is compared with the rough set approach through sensitivity analysis, highlighting the differences. The concept of L-Graphs is proposed to facilitate the visual display of prescribing decisions, which can help decision-makers make optimal decision choices. The framework has several unique features: (i) it is one of the first decision-making frameworks proposed for a blockchain-based supply chain that can be a part of the BDA toolbox of an organization; (ii) it uses concepts of artificial intelligence; (iii) the optimal decisions are proposed based on analysis of multicriteria; (iv) it uses multiple approaches to validate the decision rules on blockchain.

Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Systems, Interoperability Model in a Pharmaceutical Case Study.

The main purpose of supply chain systems based on blockchain technology is to take advantage of technology innovations to ensure that a tracked asset's audit trail is immutable. However, the challenge lies in tracking the asset among different blockchain-based supply chain systems. The model proposed in this paper has been designed to overcome the identified challenges. Specifically, the proposed model enables: (1) the asset to be tracked among different blockchain-based supply-chain systems; (2) the tracked asset's supply chain to be cryptographically verified; (3) a tracked asset to be defined in a standardized format; and (4) a tracked asset to be described with several different standardized formats. Thus, the model provides a great advantage in terms of interoperability between different blockchain-driven supply chains over other models in the literature, which will need to replicate the information in each blockchain platform they operate with, while giving flexibility to the platforms that make use of it and maintain the scalability of those logistic platforms. This work aims to examine the application of the proposed model from an operational point of view, in a scenario within the pharmaceutical sector.

A blockchain-enabled security framework for smart agriculture

Food consumers are more concerned about transparency, accountability, contamination risks, food safety, and food quality. Thus, an overwhelming demand of a traceability solution is required to address the food consumers’ concerns. Blockchain is a promising technique to maintain product traceability in the agricultural food supply chain. The paper proposes a framework which uses the concept of blockchain smart contracts. All the entities engaged in the blockchain-based supply chain network handle the transaction between parties. All transactions are recorded to maintain high transparency and traceability across the supply chain ecosystem. In the event of abuse detection, a group signature mechanism is used. Three metrics, transaction efficiency, system risk reduction, and trust between participants, are considered for testing the system’s overall performance. After implementing the framework, the transaction efficiency is measured in terms of gas cost, average execution time, throughput and latency. These parameters show the satisfactory system performance.

MedBust: Blockchain in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Counterfeit drugs are a major and growing concern globally, particularly during pandemics. One of the reasons for this is the inefficiency of the supply chain system in the pharmaceutical industry, which can make it difficult to trace the ownership of drugs from manufacturer to wholesaler, distributor, and pharmacist before it reaches the customer. In this study, we have evaluated different proposed blockchain-based supply chain management systems. The system that uses Hyperledger Fabric ensures data sharing, storage, transparency, and traceability in every stage of the supply chain. Meanwhile, the Ethereum architecture makes use of smart contracts to manage the communication between sender and receiver. The primary aim of the research is to improve the safety of pharmaceutical products and streamline supply chain operations with the most effective architecture. In addition to the benefits of transparency and traceability that blockchain technology can provide, it can also help to improve the overall efficiency and security of the supply chain. For example, by using smart contracts, automated processes can be put in place for the transfer of ownership and payment for drugs, reducing the need for manual intervention and reducing the risk of errors or fraud. Additionally, by creating a tamper-proof record of all transactions, blockchain technology can provide an auditable trail of the movement of drugs through the supply chain, which can be helpful for regulatory compliance and quality assurance. Furthermore, blockchain technology can also support the implementation of new business models in the pharmaceutical industry such as digitalized provenance records and tokenization of drugs to provide more transparency, security, and trust for the customer. It's worth noting that implementing blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical supply chain will require collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders in the industry, including manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and regulators. With the right approach and collaboration, blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way that the pharmaceutical industry operates, making the supply chain more efficient, secure, and reliable, while also helping to reduce the risk of counterfeit drugs and protect public health.

A Review of Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Management: Applications, Challenges and Research Opportunities

Blockchain technology has the potential to transform supply chain management by providing traceability, transparency, efficiency, and security. This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on the application of blockchain in supply chain management, and to identify the main challenges and opportunities of using blockchain in this context. The review is based on a selection of IEEE papers on the topic, including "A Framework for Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Management" by B. Zhang, J. Huang, and X. Liu, and "A Review of Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Management" by Y. Guo, J. Zhang, and C. Zou. The review also highlights the main topics and contributions of the selected papers, and proposes a research agenda for future work.

Blockchain-based Supply Chain Management (SCM)

A blockchain is a decentralised, unchangeable ledger that makes it easier to track assets and record transactions in a corporate network. In a blockchain network, anything valuable may be recorded and traded, lowering the risk and increasing efficiency for all parties. It has the potential to drive cost-saving efficiencies and enhance the consumer experience through traceability, transparency, and tradeability. Blockchain-based Supply Chain Management (SCM) can provide services to participants to inquire about product details, cost, quantity, quality, availability of products, location and other significant information. It provides transparency and agreement-outsourced contract manufacturing and enhances an organization's position as the main leader in responsible manufacturing. In this study, blockchain and its effects on SCM are discussed, along with security issues and solutions.

A bibliometric study on blockchain-based supply chain: a theme analysis, adopted methodologies, and future research agenda.

The emergence of the underlying blockchain technology of bitcoin has gained extensive attention from researchers and practitioners. As distributed ledger technology, blockchain widely finds its applications in the supply chain to mitigate issues related to transparency, information sharing, process efficiency, and traceability. This study employed a knowledge-based visualization technique to create a vision beyond other review studies on the blockchain-based supply chain. We used bibliometric and network analysis to synthesize the previous literature. In total, 431 articles in the timespan of 2017 to April 2022 from Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases were analyzed after applying search string, inclusion, and exclusion criteria. Basic information was extracted from initial data screening; then, data was analyzed on the grounds of co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling, citation, co-authorship, and co-citation analysis. In addition, thematic analysis was performed to analyze the content of the previous studies, adopted research methods, and dynamic industries in the literature. Besides all these, we identified various research gaps and proposed research directions for future study. We believe that this study provides adequate knowledge to academic scholars and supply chain practitioners to fast-track the current research in the supply chain domain using blockchain technology.

An innovative blockchain-based supply chain model in the context of food security

The problem of food security has rapidly escalated due to numerous food adulterations and rising prices of socially important foods, as well as the general growth of the supply chain network in recent years, thereby increasing levels of food waste. Since the recent evolution of the technology, blockchain promises a high potential ability to guarantee and track the originality of products, also effectively managing the supply chain. Moreover, blockchain has been recognized as one of the eight major technologies that can change our lives if used in the right direction for the benefit of society and countries' economies. In Kazakhstan, there is a lack of infrastructure to support food supply, as well as a number of issues regarding increased control over prices by the government. The purpose of this study is to identify the benefits of blockchain, which facilitates the effective management of the food supply chain, the ability to meet the needs of all stakeholders, and a comparison with the traditional supply chain system. The article uses factor analysis, taking into account economic, political, social, technological interests, through which the existing problems at the moment are uncovered. The results show that the application of blockchain in the food supply chain leads to positive demand from the government, producers and end consumers. The value of the work lies in the theoretical study, which drew on the experience of recent research around the world, adaptation in Kazakhstan and the possibility of application in the context of food security. This work contains many touched upon economic aspects and can serve as a basis for further research.

Improved block chain system for high secured IoT integrated supply chain

The incredibly complex supply chains in today's world face significant problems in terms of accountability and reliability. Blockchain technology could be able to solve these problems by offering a tamper-proof audit trail of supply chain activities & data on a product lifecycle, but it could resolve the issue of information's inherent lack of reliability. Current Reputation systems offer a practical solution to the confidence issue. Moreover, it is based on a small number of observations, lack granularity or mechanization have considerable overhead, current reputational methods are not suitable for blockchain-based supply chain operations. In this research, we present TrustChain, a three-layered system for managing trust that tracks connections between supply chain actors and automatically calculates trust and reputation scores based on those connections using a consortium blockchain with Internet of Things (IoT). Trustchain would be novel because it supports reputation rankings that distinguish between supply chain participants & goods, allowing the assignment of product-specific reputations for the same participant, (a) the reputation design that assesses the performance of commodities and the trustworthiness of entities based on several observations of supply chain events, (b) the use of smart contracts for transparent, impactful, safe, and automated computation of reputation rating, and (c) reputation scores that differentiate between supply chain members and services.

How does the retailing industry decide the best replenishment strategy by utilizing technological support through blockchain?

Practitioners face two significant issues: product inaccuracy and transparency in supply chain management. Blockchain is a highly secure and trustworthy means of storing data. Radio frequency identification incorporation is essential if reliability is at a low level. Incorporating radio frequency identification can improve supply chain management in terms of product's visibility for the best replenishment strategy. A production and replenishment coordination via mathematical modeling is visualized through a three-echelon supply chain with a non-reliable production process, and the retailer deals with misplacement issues. The manufacturer handles the inventory flowing reversely and is responsible for proper end-of-life treatment, either repairing or remanufacturing. Repairs are sold in bulk on the secondary market, and remanufactured items are used to prevent retailers' shortages. In this model, radio frequency identification technology on the physical surface is combined with a blockchain on the cyber surface, containing all the information about the product, including its location and attributes. A comparative study is provided for the traditional supply chain with misplacement versus a blockchain-based supply chain with radio frequency identification. An analytical approach is used to arrive at the optimum policy for the practitioners, and numerical analysis illustrates the problem. Numerical experiments indicate that the technology is highly profitable for supply chain management. Radio frequency identification technology can increase profit by up to 61%. After discrepancy, holding cost is the second most sensitive parameter for the profit function. If the holding cost is higher, profit can be increased by 40% using radio frequency identification and blockchain. The negative effect of misplacement is reduced with an increasing demand rate, but the reduction rate is very slow. The choice of not adopting radio frequency identification can only be successful if demand is so high that it can reduce the effect of misplacement.