Food supply chain in the era of Industry 4.0: blockchain technology implementation opportunities and impediments from the perspective of people, process, performance, and technology

Abstract

The prevention of food loss throughout the supply chain, including manufacturers, has become a major challenge for a number of organisations. In addition, consumers are also increasingly interested in the authenticity of food and want to ensure that they receive the right quality of food. To address this issue, there is a need for reliable and robust tools to be available in the Industry 4.0 era that can trace the food throughout the supply chain from the farm through processing until it reaches the customer and, thus, ensure transparency. Using the people, process, and technology (PPT) model, this paper develops a blockchain-enabled food supply chain framework including the future opportunities and the present impediments based on the systematic literature review and semi-structured case interviews from the context of emerging economies. The study investigates the suitability of blockchain technology in resolving major challenges, such as traceability, trust, and accountability in the food industry. The study further paves the way for future researchers to address the technological and people-related challenges in the Industry 4.0 era to mitigate the emerging problems in the food sector. Interestingly, we did not find many issues in process- and performance-related aspects. The study offers empirical evidence of blockchain technology implementation in the Industry 4.0 era that opens up the discussion for future researchers and lists the potential threats.

Keywords:

• Blockchain
• Industry 4.0
• food manufacturers
• food supply chain
• food security
• track and tracing

Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks to the special issue editors and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the readability and clarity of our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

We are very thankful to Royal Academy of Engineering for supporting the authors to visit Turkey through DVFM project [DVFM 1718_1_54] titled ‘Perishable food cold chain logistics in Turkey’.

Notes on contributors

Yaşanur Kayikci

Dr. Yasanur Kayikci is a Consultant and Assistant Professor of Logistics and Technology Management at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include new technologies and innovations (such as Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and big data), information systems in logistics and supply chains, collaborative business models, food supply chains, sustainability and the circular economy.

Nachiappan Subramanian

Nachiappan Subramanian (Nachi) is the Professor of Operations and Logistics Management & Supply Chains at the University of Sussex UK. Nachi has 22 years of teaching experience in the UK, China, Australia and India. Nachi has published 100 journal articles in technology interventions in supply chain, sustainable supply chains and risk and resilience.

Manoj Dora

Dr Manoj Dora has several years of experience in teaching, research and consultancy worldwide. He is the founder of ‘Circular Food Forum’ in the UK which brings together academic, industries and policy makers to facilitate dialogue and take forward research agenda. His areas of specializations are Sustainable Value Chain and Quality Management with a focus on Lean Six Sigma in the agro-food sector. Manoj’s current research aims to map the circular pathway for food supply chain and its impact across the different stakeholders in the using ‘lean thinking’ principles.

Manjot Singh Bhatia

Manjot Singh Bhatia is currently working as Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Business School, India. He holds Doctorate in Operations Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India (AACSB accredited). His current research interests include sustainability, closed loop supply chain, and Industry 4.0. He has published in reputed Journals such as International Journal of Production Research, Annals of Operations Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, etc.