Inclusive Deployment of Blockchain for Supply Chains: Part 1 – Introduction

Published on the 8th April 2019

Blockchain and distributed ledger technology in supply chain and trade flows emerged as a top area of exploration – and a topic of much debate – in recent World Economic Forum events, including the 2018 and 2019 Annual Meetings in Davos-Klosters.

Building on vital insights from these and other Forum meetings and research, the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution formally launched a project focused on blockchain governance within supply chains in 2018. Blockchain has the lasting potential to alter global supply chains, but it must also overcome several challenges standing in the way of widespread uptake.

As it is a nascent technology, supplychain decision-makers do not yet have clear guidelines to ensure that blockchain deployment carefully considers unintended consequences and minimizes risks. To answer this need, the project focuses on the co-creation of new tools and frameworks to shape the deployment of blockchain technology in supply-chain systems towards interoperability, integrity and inclusivity.

Without such guidance, unscalable, fragmented solutions that risk integrity could dominate the marketplace. It further aims to harmonize the application of blockchain technology across different industries, such as between manufacturers and transportation providers or asset-based operators and fourth-party logistics providers

Authors:

Sheila Warren, Project Head, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology, World Economic Forum

Christoph Wolff, Head of Mobility Industries and System Initiative, World Economic Forum

Nadia Hewett, Project Lead, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology, World Economic Forum