Blockchain and Supply Chain Logistics: Evolutionary Case Studies

2020

Blockchain and Supply Chain Logistics "Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why blockchain technology is critical to next generation supply chain infrastructure. We are just at the beginning of this exciting journey. This book provides real world use cases in food, healthcare, transportation, retail, manufacturing, even reverse logistics, while explaining the challenges and potential pitfalls. It is a window into our future."-Sandra Ro, CEO Global Blockchain Business Council, USA "Since people began seriously commercializing blockchain-related technologies about five years ago, Supply Chains have been one of the fastest moving applications. This is one of the first pieces of published research that shares how Blockchain Supply Chains are working, what are the benefits, implementation challenges and further research needs. This book has been written for students, but will be of interest for anyone interested in technological innovation, government and industry. The book is especially timely during the Coronavirus Pandemic as we have seen in stark reality the fragility and lack of transparency in international supply chains."-Dr. Jane Thomason, CEO of Fintech Worldwide "A timely book on blockchain dealing with various aspects of the supply chain. An easy to read book with many applications and illustrations. I highly recommend it."

Blockchain is a technological concept which evolves from the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and disrupts constantly enlarging areas of economy. The concept of blockchain is developing, and while the future of Bitcoin remains unclear (as it is for the most elements of the economy) it is evident that the blockchain holds enormous potential for large-scale improvements. However, being a technology that could decrease significance many of today's large global corporations, institutions and power structures which have keen interest in preserving established hierarchies, its potential could well remain unexploited. This paper aims to introduce and present the concept of blockchain and its current applications in logistics and supply networks. Blockchain technology promises overpowering trust issues and allowing trustless, secure and authenticated system of logistics and supply chain information exchange in supply networks. The new implementations within supply chain are shifting from blockchain to a wider notion of distributed ledger technologies. Paper presents description and rationale behind current and possible future applications of blockchain in logistics and supply chain.

Mehmet akif ersoy üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 2024

Blockchain technology, which is impossible for people and businesses to ignore and brings great changes at the sectors where it is used, contributes to the solution of many problems at businesses. However, it has not been applied in the field of supply chain and logistics to the expected extent and there are the limited number of studies in the literature on this subject compared to other fields. In this context, the aim of the study is to explain blockchain technology in detail, to ensure that the technology is fully recognized, to create awareness on businesses by explaining its benefits with examples of use in supply chain and logistics activities, and to contribute to later researchers by identifying the gaps in the literature by analyzing the literature. As a result of the exploratory research, it was determined that blockchain technology contributes to the solution of many problems, especially reliability, cost, flexibility, delays, transparency, and low performance. Considering the result of the literature analysis, it has been concluded that academic studies on blockchain technology in the field of supply chain and logistics are not sufficient, and the number of these studies should be increased in order for the technology to be learned and used by more businesses in the relevant field.

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal

The Blockchain has evoked the interest of practitioners and academics alike. Frequently only being perceived as the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, various innovative applications have highlighted its potential to disrupt, revolutionize, and restructure many industries, including the whole supply chain (SC) and logistics sector. Although major industry players are already investing huge amounts of money to build, test, and deploy disruptive solutions that bear the potential to substantially transform existing supply chains, there remains a dearth of literature in leading academic journals which closely investigates the Blockchain and uses theory to analyze, explain, and predict current as well as future developments. This conceptual paper strives to close this research gap and presents a framework that is built on four established economic theories (principal agent theory, transaction cost analysis, resource-based view, network theory) that can be used to derive relevant theory-based research questions. Additionally, the functionality of the Blockchain is briefly explained and some use cases are presented. This paper is intended to initiate and stimulate academic discussion on the potential impact of the Blockchain and introduces a framework for middle-range theorizing together with several potential research questions.

Acquisition Research Program eBooks, 2021

has been a systems engineering professor for 14 years and has more than 40 years of research, academic, and practical experience in the areas of systems engineering, decisionmaking in engineered systems, and analysis of extreme and rare events-including acquisition. Gheorghe has published five books on systems engineering, critical infrastructure, and derived supply chain/blockchain monography, along with several articles on blockchain governance and cybersecurity.

2018

Day by day new technologies are applied to the business environment. Since the start of the fourth industrial revolution, the digital tools allow productivity improvement. Different kinds of technologies have been used to support companies in tasks of sending and receiving information. The information exchanged between companies has always being a concern when having in mind trust, speed, and safety. During few decades, EDI (electronic data exchange) was the main technology supply chain professionals used to send and receive information. Recently, with the rise of the fourth industrial revolution and the Internet of Things (IoT), many aspects of the business environment have changed. Individuals and organizations are required to be more productive. One of the mainstreams for the business environment is blockchain. Some researches argued that bitcoin is the pioneer of blockchain technology. Financial companies joined forces to build a technological infrastructure to use the cryptocurrency on the market. The first blockchain conceived in 2008, in the wake of the global financial crisis and it has never been hacked. Supply chains are complex networks of distant, separate entities that exchange goods, payments, and data across a dynamic, continuously evolving landscape. Blockchain technology allows visibility providing the customer the opportunity to understand how the supply chain works and how to get more information about products traceability. However, there are some challenges to implement blockchain in logistic and supply chain. The paper presents a theoretical review including the principles of the blockchain operations and the required infrastructure to implement it. The paper does not cover the technology architecture applied to the blockchain. The potential benefit of the blockchain will be covered to understand how to apply it in logistics and in the supply chain environment, presenting some examples already implemented or identified.

Transportation Research Procedia, 2021

Processes associated with the transformation of inputs (raw materials, components) into outputs (goods, finished products) and their transport to the place of consumption are an essential part of the functioning of today’s society. These processes are becoming more complex with the gradual globalization. As the complexity of the supply chain increases, so does the risk of disruption. There are problems such as a lack of information on the origin of the products, a lack of real-time information and, with that, a problem with tracking shipments. With a large number of documents, the risk of fraud and forgery also increases. Due to the large number of stakeholders in logistics chains, the level of transparency is being lost. One possible solution to eliminate the risk of supply chain complexity is to integrate blockchain technology into the supply chain. Thanks to properties such as distribution, immutability, transparency, blockchain can have great potential to solve the problems of t...

The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences (EpSBS), 2021

The 21st century has brought about Blockchain technology, which became a vital innovation in supply chain management and logistics. Blockchain technology is a digital ledger of replicated and disseminated transactions across all the nodes on the Blockchain network. Global logistics is the flow of data and resources between the point of origin and consumption. The arrival of the fourth industrial revolution enhanced the incorporation of technology into all logistics processes and led to the advent of Smart Logistics. The application of Blockchain technology in global logistics effectively advances and allows decentralization and immutable data storage. Blockchain technology has the capability to diminish errors, damage to goods, order delays, and multiple data entries. Essentially, Blockchain technology streamlines global logistics by making it more integrated, efficient, and transparent. The approach of this study can be described as a theory-building from multiple case studies. The study furnishes insight into Blockchain technology, its application and importance in global logistics and smart logistics, and possible opportunities and challenges to be encountered. The goal of this study is to emphasize how Blockchain technology can be advantageous to global logistics systems.

2019

The supply chain can span over hundreds of stages, multiple geographical (international) locations, a multitude of invoices and payments, have several individuals and entities involved, and extend over months of time. Manufacturers and consumers can benefit by tracking the movement of parts throughout the supply chain. Due to the complexity and lack of transparency of current supply chains, there is interest in how blockchains might transform the supply chain and logistics industry. Blockchain technology can bring transparency and efficiency to supply chain recordkeeping by providing a permanent, secure record of transactions that are then grouped into "blocks". Transactions are recorded only after consensus among participants, and the blocks cannot be removed or altered after the event. Although the blockchains and supply chains are used by several industries, in order to manage the scope of the research this paper focuses their use on the two industries – food and pharma...