scholarly journals Blockchain and Smart Contracts: A Solution for Payment Issues in Construction Supply Chains

Informatics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Samudaya Nanayakkara ◽  
Srinath Perera ◽  
Sepani Senaratne ◽  
Geeganage Thilini Weerasuriya ◽  
Herath Mudiyanselage Nelanga Dilum Bandara

The construction industry has dynamic supply chains with multiple suppliers usually engaged in short-term relationships. Government legislation, novel types of payment agreements, conventional information technology solutions, and supply chain management best practices have endeavoured to solve payment-related financial issues in the construction industry, which are mainly caused by the complexities of the construction supply chain. Nevertheless, payment-related issues persist as one of the key challenges in the industry. Applications of blockchain technology–a trusted, distributed data storing mechanism–along with smart contracts are gaining focus as solutions for complex interorganisational processes. A smart contract is a self-executing script that codifies a set of rules or agreements between multiple parties and runs across the blockchain network. This paper identifies the suitability of blockchain and smart contract technologies in solving payment issues in the construction industry. An expert forum of construction industry stakeholders served as the primary data collection method through a structured questionnaire. The key finding of the paper is that blockchain and smart contract powered solutions can significantly mitigate the payment and related financial issues in the construction industry, including partial payments, nonpayments, cost of finance, long payment cycle, retention, and security of payments.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5307
Author(s):  
Ricardo Borges dos Santos ◽  
Nunzio Marco Torrisi ◽  
Rodrigo Palucci Pantoni

Every consumer’s buying decision at the supermarket influences food brands to make first party claims of sustainability and socially responsible farming methods on their agro-product labels. Fine wines are often subject to counterfeit along the supply chain to the consumer. This paper presents a method for efficient unrestricted publicity to third party certification (TPC) of plant agricultural products, starting at harvest, using smart contracts and blockchain tokens. The method is capable of providing economic incentives to the actors along the supply chain. A proof-of-concept using a modified Ethereum IGR token set of smart contracts using the ERC-1155 standard NFTs was deployed on the Rinkeby test net and evaluated. The main findings include (a) allowing immediate access to TPC by the public for any desired authority by using token smart contracts. (b) Food safety can be enhanced through TPC visible to consumers through mobile application and blockchain technology, thus reducing counterfeiting and green washing. (c) The framework is structured and maintained because participants obtain economical incentives thus leveraging it´s practical usage. In summary, this implementation of TPC broadcasting through tokens can improve transparency and sustainable conscientious consumer behaviour, thus enabling a more trustworthy supply chain transparency.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-492
Author(s):  
Jovan Karamachoski ◽  
Ninoslav Marina ◽  
Pavel Taskov

Blockchain technology will bring a disruption in plenty of industries and businesses. Recently it proved the robustness, immutability, auditability, in many crucial practical applications. The blockchain structure offers traceability of actions, alterations, alerts, which is an important property of a system needed for development of sustainable technologies. A crucial part of the blockchain technology regarding the optimization of the processes is the smart contract. It is a self-executable computer code, open and transparent, encoding the terms of a regular contract. It is able to automate the processes, thus decreasing the human-factor mistakes or counterfeits. In this paper, we are presenting the feasibility of the blockchain technology in the certification processes, with an application developed for university diploma certification. The example is easily transferable in other areas and business models such as logistics, supply chain management, or other segments where certification is essential.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Woo Kim ◽  
Seung-Heon Han ◽  
June-Seong Yi ◽  
SooWon Chang

The effect of ‘supply chain management’ can be leveraged when benefits of collaboration within and beyond the capacities of individual organizations are witnessed. One of the primary tasks in reducing total supply chain costs is to understand where the costs occur in a supply chain and how each activity impacts the total supply chain costs. Most supply chains in construction usually involve multiple entities, each one in a different process. A rebar supply chain is one example where many entities are involved in different processes. The supply chain coordinator needs a supply chain cost model, which shows how each activity impacts all supply chain costs to reduce the total costs. The research suggests a supply chain cost model using time-driven activity-based costing. The proposed cost model was applied to a building construction project, followed by sensitivity analysis identifying critical activities. This method can be adapted to analyze other fragmented material supply chains in the construction industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohita Gangwar Sharma

PurposeMany commodity supply chains suffer from an unfair value distribution across the supply chain like “Coffee Paradox.” This study explores the coffee supply chain to determine how the country of origin–geographical indicator can be used as a method of fair distribution of value and provenance across the supply chain effectuated by the blockchain technology. By looking at an exemplar case study for India, this study provides insights into diverse research streams and practice.Design/methodology/approachBased on the case method, analyzing the implementation of blockchain in the coffee industry by a leading Indian software implementation of the logic, dynamics and forces for a provenance model has been devised. It further adopts a stakeholder cum institutional theory framework to understand the logical implementation of a blockchain project embedded in a territorial logic for a commodity supply chain.FindingsThis study specifically looks at coffee which is representative of a commodity supply chain. It also explores how the malaise of unfair value distribution gets addressed by bringing farmers and the consumers on a common platform facilitated by blockchain technology. This study contributes to the literature on blockchain, territory, commodity and supply chain. Using stakeholder cum institutional theory, this study helps to explore how the implementation is successful by different actors in the supply chain through collaboration.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a new stream of multi-disciplinary study at the interface of supply chain, technology, international trade and geography.Practical implicationsBlockchains are embedded in the supply chain, and supply chains are embedded in territories. This linkage is paramount and the ability to make these blockchain projects successful requires the deep study of the interaction of territory, technology and actors from the provenance angle. De-commodification of coffee can be actualized through blockchain.Social implicationsThe coffee paradox and skewed value distribution is also a social problem wherein the farmers do not get the right price of their produce and are exploited. This case also highlights how this social malaise can be addressed and rightful and equitable distribution of value happens across the value chain.Originality/valueThis linkage between territory, blockchain, commodity supply chain and institutions has not been discussed in the literature. Adopting the territorial design approach, this study is an attempt to stimulate inter-disciplinary conversations and thereby create a provenance framework for commodity and research questions for scholars from different disciplines and divergent disciplinary perspectives.


Author(s):  
Arun Kumar Nageswar ◽  
Siva Yellampalli

With traditional ERP systems, there is a lack of networking among suppliers, partners, and logistics providers. So, there is a need to have a holistic view of production and movement of goods from production to last mile delivery. The physical and digital supply chains need to be integrated to ensure secure supply chains that promote business excellence, collaboration among stakeholders, and reduce costs. The high-level view over their supply chains allows them to function better in a multi-channel world. It also helps them identify where to reduce stock without compromising customer service. Otherwise, it leads to a delay in delivery, counterfeit products, thefts, fraud, and cyberpiracy, which may lead to lawsuits and losing of brand image. The tacit function of supply chain management is to provide tracking of specific goods in the supply chain. So, it is imperative to leverage the blockchain technology stack to map multi-enterprise value networks and enable connected multi-modal networks.


Author(s):  
S R Mani Sekhar ◽  
Siddesh G M ◽  
Swapnil Kalra ◽  
Shaswat Anand

Blockchain technology is an emerging and rapidly growing technology in the current world scenario. It is a collection of records connected through cryptography. They play a vital role in smart contracts. Smart contracts are present in blockchains which are self-controlled and trustable. It can be integrated across various domains like healthcare, finance, self-sovereign identity, governance, logistics management and home care, etc. The purpose of this article is to analyze the various use cases of smart contracts in different domains and come up with a model which may be used in the future. Subsequently, a detailed description of a smart contract and blockchain is provided. Next, different case-studies related to five different domains is discussed with the help of use case diagrams. Finally, a solution for natural disaster management has been proposed by integrating smart contract, digital identity, policies and blockchain technologies, which can be used effectively for providing relief to victims during times of natural disaster.


Author(s):  
Bhoomi Gupta ◽  
Harsh Yadav

Recently, blockchain technology has been recognized for other industries than finance, proving it's potential other than cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. Supply chain is one of the exponentially growing industries which needs to undergo through changes in order to survive in tomorrow's economy. There are many risks involved in current supply chains that can be potentially eliminated with the implementation of blockchain. This chapter analyses the various aspects of blockchain technology and how other technologies can be integrated with it to deliver exceptional solutions. Various risks present in the current system are discussed along with how those risks can be handled using blockchain, contributing towards building a risk resilient supply chain.


Author(s):  
Yigit Sever ◽  
Pelin Angin

Following the globalization initiated by containerization of logistics, supply chains might be due another revolution by the integration of the disruptive blockchain technology that addresses the current issues with the management of complex global supply chains. Blockchains are distributed digital ledgers that require no central authority to operate while offering a tamper-proof and transparent history of each transaction from the very beginning. Distributed nature of these ledgers ensure that every participant of the supply chain has access to trusted data. The industry has already begun experimenting with blockchain integration into their operations. For the majority of the organizations, however, these experiments stay in proof-of-concept stages or small pilot studies. In this chapter, the authors discuss the supply chain characteristics that make blockchain integration favorable, lay the groundwork for how blockchain can be used for supply chain operations and how it has been used so far.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Algan Tezel ◽  
Eleni Papadonikolaki ◽  
Ibrahim Yitmen ◽  
Per Hilletofth

AbstractBlockchain, a peer-to-peer, controlled, distributed database structure, has the potential to profoundly affect current business transactions in the construction industry through smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, and reliable asset tracking. The construction industry is often criticized for being slow in embracing emerging technologies and not effectively diffusing them through its supply chains. Often, the extensive fragmentation, traditional procurement structures, destructive competition, lack of collaboration and transparency, low-profit margins, and human resources are shown as the main culprits for this. As blockchain technology makes its presence felt strongly in many other industries like finance and banking, this study investigates the preparation of construction supply chains for blockchain technology through an explorative analysis. Empirical data for the study were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 subject experts. Alongside presenting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT), the study exhibits the requirements for and steps toward a construction supply structure facilitated by blockchain technology.


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