Overview

Blockchain has been one of the most talked-about and misunderstood technologies in supply chain and logistics. This practical, jargon-free course gives supply chain professionals a clear view of what blockchain is, where it is genuinely transforming provenance, traceability and trade documentation today, how to work with blockchain-based tools in practice and how to use it responsibly. Four short units.

Target Audience

Supply chain, logistics and procurement professionals, at any level. No technical background required.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion, learners will gain a full and clear understanding of:

• What blockchain is and isn’t, in plain language
• Where blockchain is genuinely live in supply chains today, from provenance to trade documentation
• How to tell the difference between a real deployment, a pilot and marketing hype
• How to work with blockchain-based tracking and verification tools in practice
• The specific risks and rules that apply to blockchain in supply chain and logistics
• How to talk about blockchain confidently and realistically with colleagues and clients

Features and Benefits

• Written for complete beginners: practical, jargon-free and easy to follow.
• Current and fact-checked: researched against up-to-date 2026 sources, including the latest case studies and regulation.
• Four short, focused units with gated progression; each unit unlocks once the previous one is passed.
• Light, formative interactions running through every unit (click-to-reveal, quick knowledge checks and estimate-and-reveal sliders), never scored.
• An end-of-unit quiz that finishes with a marking screen showing which answers were right or wrong, with a short explanation for each.
• Easy retakes: a failed quiz drops the learner straight back into freshly shuffled questions, with no need to click through the unit again.
• Optional audio narration on every screen (the learner chooses to listen), plus narrated motion-graphic video introductions, with captions throughout for accessibility.
• Responsive layout, suitable for PC, tablet and mobile.
• SCORM 1.2 conformant (single SCO); reports completion and an averaged score to any compliant LMS.

Course Contents

Unit 1: Blockchain Foundations for Supply Chain & Logistics

• What a blockchain is and how blocks, hashes and consensus work
• Public blockchains versus the permissioned networks enterprises actually use
• Smart contracts, tokens and digital product passports, sorted out
• Why blockchain and “crypto” are not the same thing

Unit 2: Blockchain Across Supply Chains

• Provenance tracking at scale (De Beers’ Tracr) and battery material traceability (Circulor, Volvo, Polestar)
• Electronic bills of lading and the FIT Alliance’s industry-wide rollout
• Food traceability at retail scale (IBM Food Trust, Walmart)
• The trade finance platforms that shut down and what that teaches us

Unit 3: Working with Blockchain in Practice

• Scanning and verifying provenance day to day
• Working with electronic bills of lading and digital trade documents
• Sensors, the Internet of Things and how physical data reaches the blockchain
• A practical checklist for working with blockchain tools safely

Unit 4: Using Blockchain Responsibly

• Data quality risk, security risks and the governance lessons of well-known failures
• Regulation in brief: the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act, MLETR, the EU’s EUDR and the FDA’s Food Traceability Rule
• The tension between an immutable ledger and correcting mistakes
• Accountability and separating hype from reality