Smart contracting for production supply in shared manufacturing: a practical simulation approach

Abstract

Enhancing transparency in production processes, especially in shared manufacturing, relies heavily on sharing data. Information asymmetries and coordination problems between parties with conflicting interests pose a challenge in this multi-stakeholder interaction. Blockchain technology with smart contracting can be a solution due to its immutable data and decentralised data storage features. Designing and executing blockchain in industrial applications is a highly intricate task that requires extensive testing, expertise, and proficiency. This paper is the first to propose a holistic simulation model for evaluating the impact of smart contracting on shared manufacturing, including a novel approach to simulated smart contracting in time-lapse for Ethereum-based networks. The introduced model guides the design and implementation process of blockchain applications in shared manufacturing to address this challenge. A systematic literature review establishes ten design process requirements and ten smart contract functions. The implementation is developed based on the design benchmarks of three Ethereum-based frameworks to investigate the simulation model's respective feasibility and scalability. The simulation model validation demonstrates our approach's suitability for simulating smart contracting in shared manufacturing within a hybrid production. It enables fast and scalable simulations, offering an innovative approach to extensively testing blockchain applications before their introduction to ongoing industrial operations.