Challenges and Opportunities of Using Blockchain in Supply Chain Management

Purpose. This paper proposes to provide possible research opportunities of utilizing blockchain in SCM. This paper will discuss some crucial challenges in terms of data retrieval, tracking of products, information sharing, etc. Moreover, opportunities will also be presented to provide more details on how to handle challenges in practice particularly in integrating blockchain to ERP systems and the opportunities that will benefit the whole supply chain. Finally, this paper targets to inspire and contribute to further studies of blockchain technology and its applications to supply chain management, identifying its potential for advance study and agenda of future researches. Design/methodology/approach. The authors performed a thorough literature search about blockchain technology, supply chain management and enterprise resource planning systems. They used secondary data to come up with the investigation of the challenges and opportunities of using blockchain technology in Supply Chain Management. Since blockchain technology is considered as a new topic, the authors found difficulty in looking for many related literature and studies. The articles, journal papers and other references that were found on the Internet were reviewed properly regarding the relevance to this study. It enabled the authors to investigate the concepts and relate it with each other to come up with a research that tackles the challenges and opportunities in using blockchain in SCM. Findings. This paper presents the challenges of using blockchain technology and ERP systems in supply chain management. It also presents possible opportunities that the whole supply chain will benefit from such technology. The beneficiaries of this research may include companies or organizations that have existing ERP systems or for companies that are planning to implement directly blockchain without existing ERP systems. The technology is still at an early stage but the potential benefits are enormous, once it is fully implemented in various areas of the supply chain, a lot of industries may benefit with the functionalities that the blockchain technology will provide. Originality/value. The paper provides a new interpretation of existing sources on challenges and opportunities of using blockchain in supply chain management. It offers new insights about blockchain and its potentials upon implementation in supply chain management by emphasising its relevance in improving current digital systems. Keywords: Blockchain Technology, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, Logistics Category: Literature Review
1. Introduction There is a stiff competition between companies of all sizes and one of the important aspects that directed to the intensity of this rivalry is the large and [...]