A Neutrosophic Evaluation Model for Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Management

Nowadays, firms are trying to execute and use blockchain technology (BT) for rising the products and service goodness in the supply chain (SC). Based on the specific requirements, the BT can be used in several areas. The BT assets various segments of Supply Chain Management (SCM) with consideration of several effective features that are characterized to be multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) issues with environmental restrictions of uncertainty conditions. This research illustrates the suitability of BT in SCM for various segments that are assessed using a neutrosophic model according to single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs). Also, contributes as an evaluation model that combines neutrosophic set, with MCDM methods of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), and Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The proposed study uses the AHP method to generate weights of criteria considering the expert's perspectives. Moreover, uses the neutrosophic theory to handle uncertain situations. The alternatives ranked based on outcomes of applying TOPSIS and VIKOR methods. A case study presents a hierarchical MCDM issue of 7 criteria and 20 sub-criteria with alternative segments assessed. As a result, the medicine segment is recommended to be the best alternative according to the proposed methods of AHP, TOPSIS, and VIKOR while the insurance segment is not recommended by AHP and TOPSIS methods and jewelry segments are not recommended in the VIKOR method.

I. Introduction

Supply chain management (SCM) is a combined process of material, data, information, and monetary outflows. The functionality of SCM provides the final product beginning from raw material and permits the semi-ended product to reach the final product. Each Supply Chain (SC) method firstly starts with the collection of raw and basic materials from providers transmitted directly to the producer and finally delivered products to users. Effective SCM aid to fast up production and delivery, along with a growth in product value and quality. Blockchain technology (BT) has much possible for monitoring inventories and following procedures in the SC. The decrease in processing costs, time, and improvement of the SC allows BT to manage the purchase process [1]. In recent years, the number of researches about BT has increased quickly, but not many researchers conducted about the application of blockchain for various segments [2]. The researches of blockchain implementations can be briefed in the several areas of SCM as In India, a study of 181 SC experts about blockchain execution in SCM [3]. Saberi et al. [4] study the analysis of BT and the influenced barriers and its adoption to SCM. N. Kshetri [5] emphasized the importance of BT about attaining SC goals and presenting eleven case studies from various firms that use BT with explaining how blockchain enhance vital processes In the chemical industry, the implementation of BT on the electricity market is conducted to show the effectiveness for BT [6]. Chang et al. [7], suggested an SC re-engineering framework according to BT. In SC, a smart contract is used to develop the tracking processes and transparency. Fu et al. [8] improved the blockchain system to decrease the emission of production combined with an emission link system. Xu et al. [9], suggested applications of enterprise software for blockchain systems and executed origin chains to attain product traceability. Tang et al. [10], assessed community blockchains by applying the TOPSIS technique. Consequently, the outcomes show that Bitcoin, Etherium, and EOS are recommended to be the greatest community blockchain.