Integrity of supply chain visibility: Linking information to the physical world

Regulatory compliance in international trade can be enhanced by facilitating electronic exchange of trade documents to increase the supply chain visibility. Crucial for acceptance of the supply chain visibility concept is trust in the reliability of the data. This depends on both the integrity of information (no data is altered illicitly) and integrity of the flow of goods (no goods are unknowingly added or taken away). The challenge is to determine how these concepts of integrity are interconnected. In this paper, we discuss control measures to ensure integrity of supply chain information and the related goods flow. Such controls consist of three components. First, only trusted traders take part. Second, technical control measures ensure internal consistency of the information system, i.e., the system maintains integrity constraints based on a model of the transactions taking place. Third, physical and organizational control measures mitigate the risk that events in the real world do not correspond to the reported transactions. The usefulness and adequacy of the approach is illustrated with two case studies: the use of electronic seals in the Smart-CM project, and the use of biometrics for authentication in the E-Link project at Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands.