Title: Block chain: a pathway to improve performance measures of supply chain

Authors: Reena Jain; Mona Verma

Addresses: Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Department of Operational Research, New Academic Block, University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007, India ' Department of Management Studies, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi, PSP Area IV, Dr. K.N. KatjuMarg, Sector 16, Rohini, Delhi – 110089, India

Abstract: An efficient supply chain (SC) is an integral part of every business and indeed need of an hour to meet competitive scenario created due to consumer-oriented market. The inefficiency in SC is due to poor information sharing and lack of coordination among different echelons of SC, which causes the bullwhip effect. To eliminate the aforementioned problem, the concept of block chain is introduced. This research aims to evolve a methodology which can give insight for maintaining high performance SC through technique of block chain, a decentralised platform, accessible to each member of SC. The findings of this study suggest that the block chain is a modern, applicable and sustainable technique which can improve performance measures of SC by making information sharing better and instant and can eradicate the reasons of the bullwhip effect. Finally, in the end, demerits of the block chain in the context of SC are also discussed.

Keywords: supply chain; block chain; hash; performance measures; decentralised platform; immutability; transparency; integrity of data; bullwhip effect; coordination.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOI.2021.117258

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 2021 Vol.11 No.2/3, pp.300 - 314

Received: 16 Apr 2020
Accepted: 03 Aug 2020
Published online: 26 Aug 2021 *

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