Blockchain Use Cases in

Supply Chain and

Logistics
Blockchain in Supply Chain and
Logistics Management
(TUTA3300)
AHM SHAMSUZZOHA, PHD
AHSH@[Link]
 Lecture Outline

Introduction: blockchain use cases in SC&L

Blockchain for sustainable SC models
Blockchain strategy for specific SC
Future of blockchain use cases in SC&L
Conclusions

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Introduction:blockchain use cases in SC&L
There are an increasing number of supply chain
management use cases for blockchain being
investigated, and most common are as follows (Morley,
2020):
 Supply chain finance
 Supply chain logistics
 Supplier payments
 Cold chain traceability
 Food safety
 Energy trading
 Government sectors
 Etc…
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 Blockchain application in food SC

The use of blockchain can support the food supply chain

use cases (Subramanian et al., 2020) as follows:

 Sharing information for traceability and transparency

 Validation of labor conditions across the supply chain
 Improving quality and avoiding recalls
 Improving sustainability in food supply chain
 Avoiding food delivery challenges

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 Barriers to adopt BC in food SC

Kayikci and
Subramanian (2018)

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 Barriers to adopt BC in food SC
There are several adoption barriers to implement blockchain technology in food chain.
According to Kayikci and Subramanian (2018), nine of them are explained below:
 Interoperability
 Inconsistent standards
 Regulations
 Consumer perception
 Product characteristics
 Inter-organizational trust
 Technology trust and data confidentiality
 Technology adoption rate
 Cost of implementation

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Blockchain application in health care SC

Blockchain can help pharmaceutical supply

chain in the following ways (MDxBlocks,
2020):

 Minimizing mislabeling
 Avoiding manufacturing (serialization) errors
 Track and trace and serialization to avoid
recalls
 Avoiding counterfeiting

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Blockchain applications in transportation
The transportation industry has been struggling with:
 Security threats,
 Logistics inefficiencies and
 General uncertainty, such as:
 Empty run,
 Underutilization,
 Waste of fuel,
 Unbalanced inventory

The transport industry is one of the primary

beneficiaries with major players taking part in
blockchain adoption.

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Blockchain applications in transportation

Blockchain offers promising applications in transportation supply chains.

Some of those are given below:
 Data monetization
 Reducing payment time and tracking of cargo
 Efficient processing of insurance claims
 Tracking fleet and vehicle performance history
 Common data standards
 Same-day/one-hour delivery

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Future opportunities of BC in transportation

There can be potentially many opportunities

for blockchain adoption in transportation in
future such as:
 Combining Augmented Reality and Virtual
Reality with blockchain
 Mobility—Public transportation MaaS and
blockchain
 Blockchain-powered autonomous vehicles
with IoT, AI and 5G

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 Blockchain applications in retail SC
 In recent days, retailers are started to adopt the blockchain in their
everyday business (Subramanian et al., 2020)
 Retailers have using blockchain to track their cross-border shipments
effectively (e.g. Alibaba, Walmart)
 Blockchain offers significant customer-facing opportunities to enhance
shopping experience in the retail supply chains
 There are many objectives to adopt blockchain such as:
 product provenance,
 fraud prevention,
 management of loyalty points (i.e. customer loyalty and rewards),
 compliant consumer data,
 accepting payments with cryptocurrencies.

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 Blockchain applications in retail SC

Some of blockchain applications in retail supply chain are given as

bellow:

(i) End-to-end supply chain visibility

(ii) Anti-Counterfeit
(iii) Quick product recall
(iv) Certifying reliable suppliers
(v) Crypto payments

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Blockchain applications in Manufacturing SC
 Supply chains for manufactured products have become increasingly complex
with multiple tiers of suppliers, spread across the world.
 This makes it difficult to have visibility and ensure traceability as the products
flow through the chain.
 Counterfeit materials and products also infiltrate such complex, global supply
chains.
 Blockchain can have potential to address such critical challenges in the
manufacturing supply chain if appropriate applications are chosen and multiple
partners agree to collaborate for such initiatives.
 There needs to be a framework for choosing appropriate blockchain use cases
in manufacturing.

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Blockchain applications in Manufacturing SC

Blockchain can have potential to address critical challenges in

the manufacturing supply chain such as:
 Validatingsupply chain transactions
 Authenticating materials procurement and supplier part
approvals
 Avoiding fraud, counterfeiting and supply chain risk
 Authentication of IoT devices and facilitating servitization
 Tracking and optimization of maintenance activities
 Supporting the creation of digital thread for additive
manufacturing
 Use blockchain to develop new products and services

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Framework for choosing BC use cases in
manufacturing (Subramanian et al. 2020)

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 Challenges in reverse logistics
 Logistics industry has realized that product returns and efficient reverse
logistics can be a competitive advantage (Stock and Mulki 2009).
 Current reverse logistics data capturing technologies failed to track the
returned product information (i.e. materials and quality) in the whole product
life cycle (Gu and Liu 2013).
 Gu and Liu (2013) proposed an information system in reverse logistics should
have the following characteristics:
 Providing real-time data about the returned products,
 Keeping accurate and uninterrupted data,
 Ensuring the quality of the returned products,
 Preventing data access from the third party, and
 Traceability of past history.

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 Blockchain applications in reverse
logistics

Blockchain technology helps reverse logistics operations in terms of

(Subramanian et al., 2020) :
 Track and trace of the returned products,
 Data accuracy,
 Returned products quality,
 Data security, and
 Traceability of past history.

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 Blockchain applications in other SC
Blockchain offers promising applications in other
supply chains. We highlight some of those below:
(i) The palm oil supply chain
(ii) Tea supply chain
(iii) Automotive industry
(iv) Inventory management
(v) Demand management
(vi) Transportation management
(vii) Diamond supply chain transparency
(viii) Seafood verification
(ix) Agriculture supply chain
(x) Etc……………

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 Blockchain for sustainable SC models
 Sustainable supply chain management
(SSCM) provides environmental, economic
and social benefits for all stakeholders in the
supply chain.
 Environmental benefits for SSCM include
pollution reduction due to the use of
transportation in more appropriate shipping.
 By adopting more efficient production and
transportation methods and reducing delays,
SSCM reduces costs.

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 Blockchain for sustainable SC models

 The use of blockchain can support the sustainable

supply chain management (SSCM) strategy to reduce
environmental impacts (Parung, 2019).
 Blockchain promises to hold employees and ultimately
businesses and their supply chains accountable by
providing visibility into its tamper-resistant ledger.
 A World Economic Forum report suggests that BC can
be used to have a positive effect on climate change,
biodiversity and conservation, healthy oceans, clean air
and weather and disaster resilience (Van Hoek et al.,
2020).

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 Blockchain strategy for specific SC
Blockchain applied to SC to fulfill various strategies such as:

 Transparent and controllable transactions

 The real-time visibility to perform track and
trace analysis
 Accelerate physical and financial supply chains
 Assess risks
 Preapproved procurement
 Digital payments and contracts
 Auditability
 Reliability

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 Future of Blockchain Use Cases in SC&L
 Blockchain is the future of supply chain transparency.
 It
will change the way the supply ecosystem operates
moving forward.
 Implementation won’t happen overnight.
 However, it is estimated that this technology will
become a focal point for change in the upcoming
years.
 Blockchain benefits from the network effect, and as
key players start employing blockchain technology,
others will follow suit.

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 Conclusions

 The next step for blockchain in supply chain

management is broader adoption (Mire, 2019).
 The future of blockchain in supply chain will take
several years to unfold.
 Once the challenges are addressed, blockchain will
make trading relationships much easier between
distant partners.
 In the short term, blockchain technology will mainly
be applied to improve operational efficiency by
optimizing existing business processes.

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 References
 Subramanian, N., Chaudhuri, A. and Kayikci, Y. (2020), Blockchain applications in
retail supply chain, In: Blockchain and Supply Chain Logistics.
 Parung, J. (2019), “The use of blockchain to support sustainable supply chain
strategy”, International Conference on Informatics, Technology and Engineering.
 Morley, 2020: [Link]
 What Is The Future Of Blockchain In Supply Chain Management? 16 Experts Share
Their Insights, Sam Mire, 2019, avialble at: [Link]
of-blockchain-supply-chain-management/
 Mire, S (2019), What Is The Future Of Blockchain In Supply Chain Management?
16 Experts Share Their Insights, available at: [Link]
future-of-blockchain-in-supply-chain-management-16-experts-share-their-insights/

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THANKS A LOT!
AHSH@UWAS A .FI