Abstract
This research addresses the bottlenecks experienced in supply chain management (SCM) in an African hydrocarbon company, which slows down processes and makes the procedures tedious, this leads to operational inefficiencies. This paper discusses the security of the supply chain management data and the overall automation of procurement value chain, providing transparency to the stakeholders involved in the entire supply chain management process. It also provides a system that is not prone to malware or data alteration. The existing system lacks trust and greater transparency. A new technology will be developed using Blockchain Hyperledger which is a distributed ledger technology (DLT). The SCM application/portal serving the request and procurement process will utilize the Hyperledger Fabric SDK or REST web service to interface with the Hyperledger Fabric network. The organizations that participate in developing the Hyperledger Fabric network are known as the "members". Every member organization in the blockchain network is capable to set up their peers for taking part in the network. All these peers’ needs are configured with suitable cryptographic materials like Certificate Authority and other data. Chaincode will be actualized in peers to initiate transaction invocation request. This process will result in the chaincode providing an executable smart contract. The system executes the terms of the contract (agreement) by all necessary stakeholder's peer; for example: when goods or services are completely delivered, work Completion Certificate will be issued. This will be on the blockchain network and will be transparent to all stakeholders so once invoice is presented, the verification will be automatically ascertained and payment will be made. Procurement data like invitation to tender (ITT), request for proposal (RFP), request for quote (RFQ), contract award, work completion certificate (WCC), and invoice will be distributed among the nodes uniformly at the same time, making it impossible for cyber-invasion on all the nodes at the same time. Blockchain has been identified industry-wide as the next level in SCM operations because of its greater transparency, increased efficiency, enhanced data security, reduced costs, improved traceability, smart contract and unbroken chain of transaction history. It was observed that the blockchain implementation will further enable easy audit trail, automated and transparent Issuance of ITT/RFP/RFQ to Vendors, end-to-end SCM automation with secured data, and quality reporting system. In conclusion Blockchain Technology will enhance Supply chain manpower efficiency and hydrocarbon production. Blockchain Technology in Supply chain management will present a new knowledge in the area of integrated supply chain management for procurement process transparency and end- to-end data security
