Most supply chains today still rely heavily on opaque, time-consuming, and costly processes. Documentation is largely paper-based and handled manually. Approvals from multiple parties at each checkpoint often cause delays and are susceptible to fraud on cross-border orders. Catching mistakes in compliance and quality control is difficult. In this module, you will learn how blockchain can help mitigate the complexity of global supply chains by building trustable digital relationships among partners, goods, and customers.

The Internet of Things (IoT) revolves around connectivity, identification, sensing, remote monitoring, and actuation of physical objects. In the context of global supply chains, the application of IoT to sensor-based logistics enables cargo data—such as location, temperature, humidity, pressure, shock, and light exposure—to be captured and transmitted to multiple parties, allowing them to improve overall visibility and respond to unexpected deviations. In this module, you will learn how blockchain can help achieve autonomous and contract-based communication between physical things, providing an auditable record for products in transit.

Provenance and traceability are vexing challenges for a wide range of companies and their supply chains. A supply chain represents all links between parties involved in creating and distributing goods, starting with suppliers of unprocessed raw materials and ending with the delivery of a finished product to the consumer. The application of blockchain for provenance in supply chains aims at providing deep-tier visibility into the origins of a product. In this module, you will learn how blockchain has the potential to provide unprecedented supply-chain visibility in near real time, serving to combat counterfeit goods, enable ethically-sourced materials, track food safety from farm to fork, and increase buyer trust.

Globalization and volatility in demand require an increasing degree of flexibility in the production of goods and equipment. Blockchain has the potential to redefine economic structures and value flows that underpin supply-chain decision-making. This module explores three opportunities for blockchain in reshaping—or perhaps reversing—-global trade. First, you will learn how blockchain enables new models for distributed manufacturing, facilitating interactions between buyers and manufacturers to streamline production processes. Second, you will explore blockchain’s role in securing end-to-end additive manufacturing (AM) processes, with smart contracts serving as a security layer underpinning AM transactions. Third, you will learn how blockchain facilitates asset life-cycle management, providing a shared and immutable product memory and trail of actionable data over an asset’s life cycle between multiple parties. The module concludes with a discussion of the enabling considerations for blockchain in global trade, including business considerations (e.g. governance, standards, regulations) and technology considerations (e.g. scalability, interoperability, and integration with legacy systems).