Blockchain-based Supply Chain Traceability: Token Recipes model\n Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

Growing consumer awareness as well as manufacturers' internal quality\nrequirements lead to novel demands on supply chain traceability. Existing\ncentralized solutions suffer from isolated data storage and lacking trust when\nmultiple parties are involved. Decentralized blockchain-based approaches\nattempt to overcome these shortcomings by creating digital representations of\nphysical goods to facilitate tracking across multiple entities. However, they\ncurrently do not capture the transformation of goods in manufacturing\nprocesses. Therefore, the relation between ingredients and product is lost,\nlimiting the ability to trace a product's provenance. We propose a\nblockchain-based supply chain traceability system using smart contracts. In\nsuch contracts, manufacturers define the composition of products in the form of\nrecipes. Each ingredient of the recipe is a non-fungible token that corresponds\nto a batch of physical goods. When the recipe is applied, its ingredients are\nconsumed and a new token is produced. This mechanism preserves the traceability\nof product transformations. The system is implemented for the Ethereum Virtual\nMachine and is applicable to any blockchain configuration that supports it. Our\nevaluation reveals that the gas costs scale linearly with the number of\nproducts considered in the system. This leads to the conclusion that the\nsolution can handle complex use cases.\n