Cold Supply Chain Planning including Smart Contracts: An Intelligent Blockchain-based approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a blockchain-based intelligent system with smart contracts for transparent, secure, and traceable Covid-19 vaccine supply chain management, integrating IoT for real-time monitoring and ensuring safety and integrity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel blockchain and smart contract framework for vaccine supply chain monitoring, incorporating IoT devices for real-time data updates, tailored for developing countries.

Findings

Successfully implemented on Ethereum test networks

Ensures transparency and traceability of vaccine distribution

Integrates IoT for automatic real-time updates

Abstract

Vaccinating the global population against Covid-19 is one of the biggest supply chain management challenges humanity has ever faced. Rapid supply of Covid-19 vaccines is essential for successful global immunization, but its effectiveness depends on a transparent supply chain that can be monitored. In this research, we have proposed an approach based on blockchain technology, which is used to ensure seamless distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine with transparency, data integrity, and full traceability of the supply chain to reduce risk, ensure safety, and immutability. A vaccine supply chain needs to update the status of the vaccine at every stage, and any problem in the supply and distribution path can lead to irreparable damage. Currently, the research conducted on the use of blockchain in supply chains is still in the early stages. In this paper, the use of blockchain technology to monitor the vaccine supply and distribution system will be investigated. A model close to reality of today's vaccine supply chains in developing countries is considered and then a new intelligent system for vaccine monitoring in the vaccine supply chain is designed based on the considered model. Also, smart contracts based on a blockchain network is designed to check consumer vaccination records as well as vaccine circulation from beginning to end. The implementation and design of the vaccine supply chain is done using smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain network. Additionally, the system has been tested on both local networks, the HardHat suite and Rinkbey's test network. The system has also been developed to work seamlessly when it is using an integrated IoT chip that can automatically update a batch's location, temperature, and other physical conditions periodically.