Blockchain-enabled supply chains: Classification and decision framework

Abstract

Blockchain technology has potential to alter the management of today’s supply chains by increasing supply chain transparency and traceability provided through a verifiable ledger of transactions accessible and trusted by the participants. This paper identifies recent developments in blockchain-enabled supply chains and creates a classification and decision framework for engineering managers to determine which supply chain use cases can benefit from blockchains and to recommend which type of blockchains are appropriate. The classification is based on the information captured, supply chain attributes, and whether blockchain is an efficiency improver or process enabler. We find blockchains are recommended in supply chain management when trustworthy transactional data needs to be co-owned and co-operated by multiple entities.