Leveraging Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Sustainability: A Provenance Perspective

Abstract

Technological advancements in the past few decades have played a critical role in enhancing supply chain management from varied dimensions. While advancements in information technology have significantly improved various facets of the supply chain, supply chain visibility still lags in tracking and tracing capabilities. The disruptive and emergent blockchain technology (BCT) presents enormous potential to address issues of supply chain sustainability. This paper seeks to evaluate the proximity of BCT to resolve provenance issues throughout the supply chain. The research considers the immaturity of BCT alongside limited success stories in supply chain management. It uses a content analysis methodology to examine recent literature about using BCT in supply chain sustainability and provenance. A conceptual model for using BCT to create an enabled, visible, and sustainable supply chain is provided to frame the investigation. Findings reveal that the benefits of BCT have mostly been conceptually demonstrated in the sustainable supply chain literature, but with few practical applications. Moreover, technically driven challenges including scalability and control are still prevalent. It reaffirms the fact that participants within a blockchain enabled supply chain network must be at the same level of knowledge regarding the technology and its functionality. The study also indicates evidence of a growing research interest in the niche, which will eventually bring about solutions to address ongoing challenges faced by BCT in its integration into supply chain management. These findings contribute to the literature about improving the security and utility of supply chain sustainability and provenance by using BCT.

Operationalizing transparency in supply chains using a systematic literature review and graph theoretic approach

“…Montecchi et al (2019) noted that information on provenance needs to include information related to multiple stages of the supply chain. However, managing supply chain provenance has proven to be very challenging (Njualem, 2022). The emergence of blockchain and IoT technologies in recent years has started to make supply chain transparency efforts easier (Kamble et al, 2020;Njualem, 2022).…”

“…However, managing supply chain provenance has proven to be very challenging (Njualem, 2022). The emergence of blockchain and IoT technologies in recent years has started to make supply chain transparency efforts easier (Kamble et al, 2020;Njualem, 2022). Despite some successful deployments, these technologies are still in nascent stage (Bekrar et al, 2021).…”

Digital Twins of Supply Chains: A Systems Approach

“…Since the original data is public and ordered in time and by handling party, and can be trusted, data analytics techniques can be applied across the supply chain. A striking example is calculating the carbon footprint of a product, or simply understanding its origins [51], as long sufficient checkpoints exist on the blockchain. The same data can be used to better forecast risk raising the resilience of the particular supply chain and parties [37].…”

ChainApparel: A Trustworthy Blockchain and IoT-Based Traceability Framework for Apparel Industry 4.0

“…Over the past few years, blockchain-based supply chain traceability research has gathered significant interest in the textile and other manufacturing sectors like chemical, food, pharmaceutical, construction, agriculture, etc. For example, in the supply chain industry, authors [9] integrated a blockchain-based solution with the existing system to enhance traceability, supply chain visibility, transparency, and quality in producing the final product. Hader et al [10] suggested a novel blockchain-based framework for tracing complex textile supply chains.…”