Supply Chain Applications Research Articles

Blockchain Applications in Sustainable Smart Cities

Sustainable smart cities aim to optimize projected complexities, costs, and environmental challenges accompanied by growing urbanization. The fundamental objectives of sustainable smart cities are to ingeniously utilize available resources and knowledge systems to provide excellent services and the finest quality of life to its citizens. The intelligent use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) plays a vital role in realizing smart cities. The purpose of this work is to investigate the role of blockchain technology (BCT) in sustainable smart city applications by providing a detailed study of blockchain applications in the food supply chain, tourism industry, smart healthcare system, intelligent transportation system, next-generation 5G and 6G communication, and smart energy management. Moreover, a statistical study regarding selected articles shows the significance of the underlying study. Finally, a summary of recent trends, challenges, and future research directions is presented for the BCT role in sustainable smart cities.

Study of Blockchain for Supply Chain Management

Abstract: The market has seen significant change in recent years and has become more demanding and dynamic, creating a competitive atmosphere. The supply chain, which is heavily dependent on cooperation, integration, and flexibility, plays a significant part in helping the organization adapt to the changing environment. several business owners are interested in supply chain applications, and several specialized applications are used to better control the flow of the supply chain. Block chain technology has become one of the most significant new applications in the supply chain and has attracted the attention of many business owners due to its ability to be quickly adjusted to changing business environments and market conditions.One upon reading this will get to know about the effect of block chain technology utilization on this field.According to the study's findings, businesses should invest in block chain technology to make their supply chains more open, adaptable, and safe. There is no denying that block chain technology has a significant impact on building trust with supply chain stakeholders. The research paper also discussed several potential uses for the blockchain in the fields of collaboration and integration, as well as some positive implications.

Preliminary study of reverse supply chain development in Indonesia

As a developing country, Indonesia is experiencing various advances, including in the industrial sector. A supply chain is a science that has long been studied and explored by many academics and practitioners. That part of the supply chain referred to as the opposite is the reverse supply chain or what is widely known as the Reverse Supply Chain (RSC). This article will present preliminary studies about RSC development in Indonesia. RSC in Indonesia particularly has been studied by a lot of researchers. However, most discussions are limited to reverse logistics and waste management. An explanation of the existing RSC in Indonesia will be discussed and provided. In Indonesia, most RSC activities happen in small and medium companies that have yet to gain experience or knowledge that they have been practicing RSC. The people's purchasing power which is still quite low has made small and medium industries in the refurbished sector grow rapidly. This paper will explain what a reverse supply chain is and how the development of this study is based on the existing literature. It is also a discussion of how the reverse supply chain application in Indonesia and what steps can be taken to improve the performance of the reverse supply chain in Indonesia

The behavioural evolution of the smart electric vehicle battery reverse supply chain under government supervision

PurposeRecycling and reuse of the electric vehicle (EV) batteries are ways to extend their limited lives. If batteries can be traced from production to recycling, it is beneficial for battery recycling and reuse. Using blockchain technology to build a smart EV battery reverse supply chain can solve the difficulties of lack of trust and data. The purpose of this study is to discuss the behavioural evolution of a smart EV battery reverse supply chain under government supervision.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts evolutionary game theory to examine the decision-making behaviours of the government, EV manufacturers with recycled used batteries and third-party EV battery recyclers lacking professional recycling qualification.FindingsOn the smart reverse supply chain integrated by blockchain technology, a cooperative recycling strategy of the third-party EV battery recycler is the optimal choice when the government tends to actively regulate. The probability of the EV manufacturer choosing the blockchain adoption strategy exceeds (below) the threshold, and the government prefers negative (positive) supervision. According to numerical analysis, in the mature stage in the EV battery recycling industry, when the investment cost of applying blockchain is high, EV manufacturers' willingness to apply blockchain slows down, the government accelerates adopting a negative supervision strategy and third-party EV battery recyclers prefer cooperative recycling.Practical implicationsThe results of this study provide opinions on the strength of government supervision and the conditions under which EV manufacturers and third-party EV battery recyclers should apply blockchain and cooperate. On the other hand, this study provides theoretical analysis for promoting the application of blockchain technology in smart reverse supply chain.Originality/valueCompared with previous research, this study reveals the relevance of government supervision, blockchain application and cooperation strategy in smart EV battery reverse supply chain. In the initial stage, even if the subsidy (subsidy reduction rate) and penalty are high and the penalty reduction rate is low, the EV manufacturer should rather give up the application of blockchain technology. In the middle stage in the EV battery recycling industry, the government can set a lower subsidy (subsidy reduction rate) combined with a penalty or a higher penalty (penalty reduction rate) combined with a subsidy to supervise it. The third-party EV battery recycler is advised to cooperate with the EV manufacturer when the subsidy is low or the penalty is high.

A Case Study of How Maersk Adopts Cloud-Based Blockchain Integrated with Machine Learning for Sustainable Practices

In the last six years, there has been a rise in research interest with regard to the applications of blockchain technology in supply chains and how these applications bring benefits to supply chain management. In a broader sense, an essential research focus that has been discussed in the literature is the way in which this emerging blockchain technology in supply chains brings sustainable benefits to a community. The rationale for incorporating cloud technology into a blockchain and integrating the blockchain with machine learning for supply chain applications is to maintain technical sustainability. While previous studies suggested and reported sustainable practices of applying blockchain technology in supply chains, the means with which these practices are brought about by the cloud-based blockchain integrated with machine learning (CBML) have not been thoroughly explored in the literature. The case study presented in this paper aims to fill this gap by exploring technically, environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable practices through the use cases of CBML for supply chain management by the international leading container shipping company Maersk. The use cases by Maersk presented in published documents were collected from the Internet and then analyzed. This document analysis was performed in two ways. The first way was a technical review of the blockchain technology used by Maersk with a consideration of technical sustainability to ensure scalability and big data analytics. The other way was to analyze the applications of the CBML by Maersk to indicate how environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability can be achieved. On the other hand, this paper also highlights the negative technical, environmental, economic, and social sustainability impacts caused by Maersk and discusses implications for future research directions.

Blockchain Applications in Digital Construction Supply Chains

This article takes the relevant construction supply chain (CSC) literature of the Web of Science Core Collection Database in the past 20 years and its construction supply chain - blockchain as the object, and then aims to identify and analyze the articles related to the application of blockchain technology in the CSC, and analyze the related problems and potential of the CSC in the application of blockchain technology. An analysis and exploration of a total of 395 articles was conducted. Through VOS viewer software, the author in collaboration network, key term co-occurrence network, and theme classification visualization network of the research field are extracted. The research status of blockchain technology in the CSC is analyzed, and the two key issues of the CSC are focused on through literature reading, so as to explore the application prospects of blockchain technology, and make relevant discussions and some application prospects for the application of blockchain technology in the future.

Analysis the Role of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 in Healthcare Supply Chain Using Neutrosophic Sets


 In today's global economy, the Healthcare supply chain (HCSC) must be aware of a market that is both complicated and ever-changing. The HCSC in Industry 4.0 aims to give patients the medicine they need as quickly and cheaply as possible. The HCSC can improve operations by automating routine tasks and reducing human error by using new technologies like the "Internet of Things" (IoT); so, there is a need to analyze the role of IoT and Industry 4.0 in the Healthcare Supply Chain. This paper aims to analyze the role of IoT and Industry 4.0 in HCSC. Also, this paper proposes a framework using a single-valued neutrosophic set with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) to overcome uncertainty and deal with the various criteria and features. This paper used the 18 criteria and nine suppliers as an application in the healthcare supply chain. The results concluded that the proposed framework could handle uncertain data and give more effective results in analyzing the role of IoT and Industry 4.0 in HCSC.

Leveraging Ethereum Platform for Development of Efficient Tractability System in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Consumer knowledge of the goods produced or processed by the numerous suppliers and processors is still relatively low due to the growing complexity of the structure of pharmaceutical supply chains. Information asymmetry in the pharmaceutical sector has an effect on welfare, sustainability, and health. (1) Background: In this respect, we wanted to develop a productive structure for a pharmaceutical supply chain that satisfies the consumer information needs and fosters consumer confidence in the pharmacy goods they buy. By using blockchain technology, the main goals were to develop and implement a pharmaceutical supply chain. (2) Objectives: The main objectives of this work were to leverage an Ethereum platform for the development of a tractability system in a pharmaceutical supply chain environment and to analyze the efficiency of MSMAChain with respect to the cost and execution of transactions based on our designed smart contracts. (3) Results: This research looked into a variety of issues related to the value, viability, and effects of blockchain technology for use in supply chain applications. The methods and creations in this environment were monitored and researched. It is vital to identify a number of crucial subjects including future research areas, in order to achieve the widespread acceptance of the supply chain traceability provided by blockchain technology. (4) Conclusions: MSMAChain, an Ethereum blockchain-based approach, leverages smart contracts and decentralized off-chain storage for efficient product traceability in terms of the cost and execution of transaction for a health care supply chain.

Reputation based proof of cooperation: an efficient and scalable consensus algorithm for supply chain applications

The growing interest in blockchain technology has gained a lot of attention in Supply Chain Management (SCM) and sparked the quest for decentralized, scalable, efficient and trustworthy consensus schemes. Traditional blockchains rely on computationally expensive consensus mechanisms with low throughput and high latency. This paper conducts a performance evaluation of several existing consensus protocols to illustrate blockchain’s shortcomings in terms of consensus and propose a new consensus algorithm: Reputation based proof of cooperation (RPoC). The RPoC algorithm uses a layered architecture to segment the nodes that participate in the consensus phase in order to improve scalability and efficiency while maintaining trust among peers. The layered design addresses the issues of flexibility and scalability and breaks down the extensive mining process into segments. Rather than choosing a few nodes for mining, the proposed consensus process involves all network nodes, making it more efficient, decentralized and scalable. Through extensive theoretical analysis and experimentation, the suitability of the proposed algorithm is established in terms of scalability and efficiency.

Application of Blockchain Technology in Logistics and Supplychain Management

Abstract: The technology which can be called as a distributedledger that records transactions between two parties is Blockchain. When we look into the current problems of threats pertaining to security and privacy in the process of logistics, it lacks supervision traceability. Application of Blockchain chain Technology in Logistics and Supply Chain proposes to resolve these problems using blockchain technology. Blockchain makes an application more efficient, reliable and transparent. It also optimizes the entire process. Traceability is an underlying characteristic of blockchain technology. For each event in logistics system, intelligent contract and a blockchain system is constructed to enhance the overall efficiency and supervision. Data collection becomes easier when we correlate the data belonging to same and different blockchain systems. Logistics system can be made more intelligent by constructing different storage and access mechanisms. This project provides a thought on developing a logistics and supplychain application based on blockchain technology.

Study on the Use of Industry 4.0 technology for the Textile Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Process

This paper studies a sustainable closed-loop supply chain progress for the textile industry based on the Industry 4.0 technologies to facilitate data-driven decision-making and ensure sustainability, which is premised on the ability of the IoTs to capture real-time information from the different stages of the supply chain through the use of radio frequency identification tags and sensors based data. Block-chain and Big Data technologies application in the closed-loop supply chain will support tracking and enable supply chain traceability and provide secure means of recording information in the supply chain progress according to the findings in this paper. It implicates the Industry 4.0 technologies will facilitate sustainable supply chain process in the textile industry as it helps in data collection, analysis and information transmission.

Blockchain adoption in agri-food supply chain management: an empirical study of the main drivers using extended UTAUT

PurposeBlockchain technology can overcome many complicated problems related to confidentiality, integrity and availability of fast and secure distributed systems in the agri-food supply chain. In emerging economies like India, blockchain application in the agri-food supply chain is still new, and their adoption is underdeveloped. This paper aims to investigate the drivers of blockchain technology adoption and their effect on the behavioral intention of stakeholders in adopting blockchain technology among various stakeholders in the agri-food supply chain. The study also develops a framework to enhance understanding of blockchain adoption in the agri-food supply chain as well as the stakeholders' motivation in seeking blockchain solutions.Design/methodology/approachConsidering the most significant aspects of blockchain adoption in the agri-food supply chain, this study attempts to develop an adoption model by using the extended unified theory of acceptance and technology model with interfirm trust and transparency as additional factors. Data was collected from a sample of 200 stakeholders in the North Indian state of Punjab. The empirical analysis was carried out using structural equation modeling in Smart PLS3.FindingsThe findings supported the developed framework and the results of SEM indicate that all the paths are supported. In particular, the findings of the study reveal that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, interfirm trust and transparency are the drivers of blockchain adoption and have a significant impact on the behavioral intention of stakeholders. Cumulatively, the results positively impact the performance of agri-food supply chain. From this study, it is found that the adoption of blockchain technology in agri-food supply chain enhances their performance.Originality/valueThe originality of the study lies in the developed framework, technology adoption will help them focus in the right direction by eliminating manual methods and converting the agri-food supply chain into a digitalization system.

An integrated IoT Architecture to Monitor Food Quality along the Supply Chain

Drop in nutrition value during food logistics impacts the health of consumers. Vegetables, fruits, fish, milk lose nutrients during logistics if it is not properly monitored. Real-time tracking and monitoring, large data handling and secure business transactions are key to the effective operation of supply chains. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the need for handling unforeseen situations in various sectors. Limitations to logistic operations, inaccessible warehouses, shutdown of consumer outlets for an unexpected duration, have affected the supply chain drastically. This has laid emphasis on the need for technology-based solutions that can monitor, control and make quick decisions, that can reduce losses. With this scenario as a background, a system architecture has been proposed to detect the nutrient value of food by periodically monitoring temperature and humidity in real-time and alerting the cold chain entities in cold chain environments. This architecture is proposed as an integration of Internet of Things (IoT) with cloud-based storage, to provide real-time data collection at the end-user, seamless storage and computation in the cloud and secure transactions at the business layer. An experimental setup of the system architecture has been configured and the implementation has been tested at a preliminary level. The performance of the application is analyzed and the proposed web application is efficient for large scale supply chain applications, provided scaling of hardware resources.

Emerging Perspectives of Blockchains in Food Supply Chain Traceability Based on Patent Analysis

In the field of blockchain (BC) technology application in the food supply chain (FSC), a patent portfolio is collected, described, and analyzed using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling, with the aim of obtaining insight into technology trends in this emerging and promising field. A patent portfolio consisting of 82 documents was extracted from patent databases using PatSnap software. The analysis of latent topics using LDA indicates that inventions related to the application of BCs in FSCs are patented in four key areas: (A) BC-supported tracing and tracking in FSCs; (B) devices and methods supporting application of BCs in FSCs; (C) combining BCs and other ICT technologies in FSC; and (D) BC-supported trading in FSCs. Patenting of BC technology applications in FSCs started during the second decade of the 21st century. Consequently, patent forward citation has been relatively low, while the family size confirms that application of BCs in FSCs is not yet widely accepted. A significant increase in the number of patent applications was registered after 2019, indicating that the number of potential users in FSCs is expected to grow over time. The largest numbers of patents originate from China, India, and the US.

The role of blockchain-enabled supply chain applications in improving supply chain performance: the case of Jordanian manufacturing sector

PurposeBlockchain technology has the potential to enhance information and knowledge management among members of the supply chain. This study aims to demonstrate the direct and indirect impact of blockchain adoption on achieving supply chain competitive advantage and improving innovation capabilities to achieve greater supply chain performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study opted for a quantitative research approach. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 284 respondents from various Jordanian manufacturing firms. Smart PLS software was used to conduct structural equation modelling to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe analysis revealed that investing in and using blockchain-enabled supply chain applications improves the ability to achieve higher levels of productivity, lead times, customer service and relationships with supply chain members. Moreover, blockchain technology integration with supply chain management processes has a positive impact on innovative activities that support supply chain operations. Finally, blockchain adoption has enhanced supply chain performance by reducing transaction costs, improving customer service and increasing the speed of supply chain operations.Research limitations/implicationsThe study provides guidance for decision-makers and academicians on the use of blockchain adoption to improve supply chain performance. Future studies should use a larger sample size and random sampling techniques to achieve better generalizability of the results.Originality/valueThe study fulfils an identified gap in the application of blockchain technology to improving supply chain performance within a broader context that encompasses supply chain innovation capabilities and competitive advantage.

Machine learning-based technique for predicting vendor incoterm (contract) in global omnichannel pharmaceutical supply chain

The importance of supply chain management to business operations and social growth cannot be overstated. Modern supply chains are considerably dissimilar from those of only a few years ago and are still evolving in a vastly competitive environment. Technology dealing with the rising complexity of dynamic supply chain processes is required. Robotics, machine learning, and rapid information dispensation can be supply chain transformation enablers. Quite a few functional supply chain applications based on Machine Learning (ML) have appeared in recent years; however, there has been minimal research on applications of data-driven techniques in pharmaceutical supply chains. This paper proposes a machine learning-based vendor incoterm (contract) selection model for direct drop-shipping in a global omnichannel pharmaceutical supply chain. The study also highlights the critical factors influencing the decision to select a vendor incoterm during the shipment of pharmaceutical goods. The findings of this study show that the proposed model can accurately predict a vendor incoterm (contract) for given values of input parameters. This comprehensive model will enable researchers and business administrators to undertake innovation initiatives better and redirect the resources regarding the direct drop shipping of pharmaceutical products.

Transformational leadership and supply chain innovativeness: mediating role of knowledge sharing climate and moderating role of supply base rationalization

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how transformational leadership affects innovativeness in the supply chain context by addressing the following research questions: (1) Whether transformational leadership might help foster conditions for knowledge sharing and lead to supply chain innovativeness (SCI) in China firms? (2) Does supply base rationalization play a moderating role in the above relationship?Design/methodology/approachSurvey data consisting of 144 valid responses were collected from supply chain innovation and application pilot projects in 55 cities of China. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the reliability and validity of measures, and hierarchical linear regression and bootstrapping were used to test all hypotheses.FindingsThe results obtained reveal that supply chain knowledge sharing partially mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and SCI. Also, supply base rationalization positively moderates the mediated relationship between transformational leadership and SCI.Practical implicationsManagers and decision-makers of supply chain leader firms who want to enhance their entire SCI to deal with unexpected supply chain disruptions are highly recommended to adopt transformational behavior across the supply chain, as well as to develop the knowledge sharing culture, resulting from transformational leadership. In addition, leading firms should be dedicated to structuring their supply base, keeping it at the right size and complexity.Originality/valueThe present study emphasizes previous results and provides additional evidence that supply chain leaders’ adoption of transformational behavior can reinforce entire SCI through knowledge sharing in light of the disruptions facing supply chains in developing countries.

Integration of trust supplier with supply chain capability and application towards supply chain performance: Minimarket competition during the Covid-19 pandemic

This research aims to analyze the impact of supply chain during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study examines the integration of trust with supply chain capability and application on supply chain performance. The novelty in this research is to find out the effects of supply chain applications on supply chain performance with supply chain capability as a mediator. The research location is in East Java while sampling from mini market in cities and regencies includes Surabaya, Malang, Jember, Sumenep, Madiun and Sidoarjo. The sample size in this study consists of 240 respondents. Respondent criteria are minimarket employees who have worked for at least two years. The technique for analyzing data uses the SEM-PLS program. The results indicate that trust suppliers influence supply chain performance meaning that supplier trust for raw material supply companies must be maintained and both parties must have a good relationship with evidence of commitment and mutual trust. Second, supply chain capability also influences supply chain performance and the ability of suppliers to buyers must be maintained. Third, the relationship between supply chain application variables and supply chain performance is also positive and significant. Therefore, cooperation that can be relied upon must still be maintained together. Fourth, there is the influence of supply chain application on supply chain capability, and based on the test results the effect is very dominant, so that the variable supply chain application is the superiority of the results of this study. Fifth, there is a positive and significant indirect effect of SCA variable on SCP through SCC as mediation.

A STUDY ON SUPPLY CHAIN APPLICATIONS IN THE HEALTH SECTOR

Supply chain management (SCM), which has been used in every field from the past to the present and whose contribution to both production systems and service systems is an undeniable concept, is important for systems. The concept of supply chain (SC) has made a name for itself in the production systems in the past years, and it provides efficiency, time management, customer satisfaction, coordination, etc. It has been drawing attention that SC applications are frequently used in service systems in recent years. The use of this applications, especially in service systems, will make a difference in the health sector, which serves an important purpose and is seen to be at a more important point in speed and plan compared to other sectors. Because speed is very important in the health sector from procurement decision to purchasing, from purchasing to storage, from storage to transportation of products and finally to the final consumer. The fact that the speed factor can be at the desired level requires all stakeholders to be in coordination. Ensuring the flow of information of the coordinated stakeholders through a common system is very important for the flow of material information and needs. For this reason, in this study, SCM of health industry is mentioned first. Afterwards, a comprehensive literature study was shared. Finally, the part of how this subject can be shaped in the future is discussed.

Assessing retailer readiness to use blockchain technology to improve supply chain performance

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the readiness of retail workers to use blockchain technology (BCT) to improve supply chain performance. The assessment was made via a quantitative approach taken using a theoretical framework based on Keller’s motivation model and self-determination theory in the BCT context.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data from 567 retail workers from an emerging country through a structured survey questionnaire. The authors tested the hypotheses of the proposed model using Warp PLS 7.0 and controlled firm age, industry type and technological intensity.FindingsOur findings may help firms in making the process of digital transformation inclusive. The authors found that supplier-based attention and motivation through BCT lead to supply chain performance, and that supplier-based satisfaction and trust achieved through BCT positively impact supply chain performance. Further, supplier-based relevance on raw material selection with the higher trust and motivation levels achieved through BCT was found to have a positive impact on supply chain performance.Research limitations/implicationsIT supply chain applications are referred to as “lean” rather than “rich” because they still rely mainly on written and numerical means to present data. When the environment is less ambiguous, then less rich media can be used to facilitate communication. IT supply chain applications allow suppliers to spend time building relationships with other suppliers instead of focusing on administrative tasks, thus enhancing such relationships.Originality/valueThis study can be considered the first to assess retailer readiness to use BCT to improve supply chain performance through the theoretical lens of Keller’s motivation model and self-determination theory.