Blockchain (ie. Ethereum) excels when a heterogenous network of 3rd and 4th parties come together in a commons and interact permissionlessly based on a set of rules enforced by the system.

Ethereum is basically the World Wide Web with hyperlinks except with programs in general and money can live inside those programs.

An Ethereum-based supply chain system could do a lot of things. Not sure if these are valuable because I'm not a supply chain expert. But I can speculate.

Coca-Cola's Ethereum-based supply chain system could...

1. associate an eBay-style reputation with each supply chain participant. These reputations could then be used by more parties (eg. Pepsi) than if they were locked in a centralized system. Coca-Cola might retain the option to override any reputation.

2. provide a global audit trail of supply tracking. Similar to FedEx's "track my shipment", except you could transfer payment for supplies in the same blockchain transaction that updated their status. And those updates could automatically feed into the reputation system.

3. pay for supplies with a security. For example, Coca-Cola could tokenize a portion of its common stock and pay suppliers tokens of common stock in the same transaction that pays them currency. Or Coca-Cola could automatically distribute a pro rata stock grant to the entire supply chain each quarter. This could better align a global, heterogenous supply chain with the long term interests of Coca-Cola.

4. integrate with other Ethereum-based systems. For example supply payments held in escrow could automatically earn interest in https://compound.finance/. Payments crossing international borders could automatically exchange currencies at a very competitive, no-fee rate (eg. https://dex.ag/).

Should Coca-Cola embrace an Ethereum-based supply chain? I have no idea. But after spending hundreds of hours studying Ethereum I feel very confident that there is something very special going on here.