Blockchain Papers

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447 papersLast indexed Aug 31, 2026
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Dec 22, 2022·Preprints.org
1 cites
New Framework for Assembly Digitalization and Traceability Using Smart Contracts and Bill of Assembly

Yuval Cohen, Shai Rozenes

The final assembly of appliances and automotive industries is a rigorous process, that has limited capabilities of full traceability associated with: (1) the parts installed, (2) their fabrication processes, and (3) the assembly work. This is also the case for each of its sub-assemblies The many parts and sub-assemblies that compose the final assembly, make full traceability a challenging fit, that is almost unsurmountable. Such full traceability along the entire supply-chain is not existent today and must be based on documentation of most assembled parts, assembly tasks, and inspection tasks that compose the full assembled product. In addition, security measures are needed to prevent hostile hacking and unauthorized approach to the assembly documentation throughout the entire supply chain. The related documentation and repeated verifications require considerable effort and have many chances for human errors. So, automating these processes has a great value. This article expounds a framework that harnesses block-chain and smart-contract technology to offer traceable and protected documentation of the assembly process. We expand the concept of a Bill-Of-Assembly (BOA) to incorporate data from the bill of materials (BOM), the associated assembly activities, the associated activities’ specification parameters and materials, and the associated assembly resources (machines and/or operators). The paper defines the operation of the BOA with blockchain and smart-contract technology, for attaining full traceability, safety, and security, for the entire assembled product. Future research could extend the proposed approach to facilitate the usage of the BOA data structure in constructing a digital twin of the entire simulated system.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Manufacturing Process and Optimization
Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
Original source
Dec 20, 2022·IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Systems
61 cites
The Future of Management: DAO to Smart Organizations and Intelligent Operations

Juanjuan Li, Rui Qin, Fei–Yue Wang

In the future, management in smart societies will revolve around knowledge workers and the works they produce. This article is committed to explore new management framework, model, paradigm, and solution for organizing, managing, and measuring knowledge works. First, the parallel management framework is presented that would allow for the virtual-real interactions of humans in social space, robots in physical space, and digital humans in cyberspace to realize descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive intelligence for management. Then, the management foundation models are proposed by fusing scenarios engineering with artificial intelligence foundation models and cyber–physical-social systems. Moreover, the new management paradigm driven by decentralized autonomous organizations and operations is formulated for the advancement of smart organizations and intelligent operations. On these basis, the management operating systems that highlight features of simple intelligence, provable security, flexible scalability, and ecological harmony are finally put forward as new management solution.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Supply Chain Resilience and Risk Management
Original source
Dec 6, 2022·Advances in transdisciplinary engineering
1 cites
3D Printing System and Method of Organic Polymer Solar Cell Device Based on Blockchain

Shuyi Wei, Shaobo Wei, Jingyi Guo, Zhulin Shao · 6 authors

Low carbon development has become the theme of today’s social development, which foundation was renewable energy.For example: photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation, hydropower generation and so on.One of the representatives of new energy is photovoltaic power generation. After a long period of development, photovoltaic power generation technology has become more and more mature. For improved solar cell stability, photoelectric conversion efficiency, low cost and data security of energy information. 3D printing system and method of organic polymer solar cell device based on blockchain was rough design. 3D printing technology could be used to replace traditional manufacturing technology to complete the printing and manufacturing of solar cell devices. In order to meet the requirements. First, Modeling solar cell structure according to customer requirements, and then process simulation and performance analysis, 3D printing manufacturing after reaching the standards.For data security combining blockchain technology with 3D printing technology, the data security problem of 3D printing could be solved. Blockchain technology has been use to data structure to verify and store data. Blockchain could be considered as a distributed ledger which was decentralized, non-tamperable, traceable, and maintained by multiple parties. By applying the features of blockchain technology such as data encryption, time stamping, and distributed consensus to 3D printing technology, combined with the cloud platform, the cost and stability of 3D printed solar cell devices would be further improved.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies
Original source
Dec 1, 2022·IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica
80 cites
Parallel Manufacturing for Industrial Metaverses: A New Paradigm in Smart Manufacturing

H. J. Yang, Xiaoxing Wang, Yandong Zhao

Briefing: To tackle the complexity of human and social factors in manufacturing systems, parallel manufacturing for industrial metaverses is proposed as a new paradigm in smart manufacturing for effective and efficient operations of those systems, where Cyber-Physical-Social Systems (CPSSs) and the Internet of Minds (IoM) are regarded as its infrastructures and the “Artificial systems”, “Computational experiments” and “Parallel execution” (ACP) method is its methodological foundation for parallel evolution, closed-loop feedback, and collaborative optimization. In parallel manufacturing, social demands are analyzed and extracted from social intelligence for product R&D and production planning, and digital workers and robotic workers perform the majority of the physical and mental work instead of human workers, contributing to the realization of low-cost, high-efficiency and zero-inventory manufacturing. A variety of advanced technologies such as Knowledge Automation (KA), blockchain, crowdsourcing and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) provide powerful support for the construction of parallel manufacturing, which holds the promise of breaking the constraints of resource and capacity, and the limitations of time and space. Finally, the effectiveness of parallel manufacturing is verified by taking the workflow of customized shoes as a case, especially the unmanned production line named FlexVega.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
Manufacturing Process and Optimization
Original source
Nov 14, 2022·Journal of Information Technology in Construction
17 cites
An analysis of blockchain technology and smart contracts for Building Information Modeling

In Bae Chung, Carlos Caldas, Fernanda Fernanda Leite

Significant changes in the construction industry have been brought about by Building Information Modeling (BIM). While BIM has improved team collaboration and workflow efficiency, the model still faces multiple challenges. These are related primarily to the security, transparency, and reliability of the data shared in the model. A potential way to mitigate these problems, according to many studies, is blockchain technology. This paper reviews the recent literature on the integration of BIM and blockchain technology. Using a rigorous search-and-selection process, the authors conducted a systematic literature review by analyzing 70 studies relevant to BIM-blockchain integration. The state-of-the-art review explains how studies have implemented blockchain technology and provides an overview of different levels of adoption. Various application areas within the BIM process are explored to understand the ongoing research trend. The authors discuss limitations and offer recommendations on how best to implement future work in BIM-blockchain integration.

Open access
BIM and Construction Integration
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Digital Transformation in Industry
Original source
Nov 3, 2022·IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
14 cites
NoSneaky: A Blockchain-Based Execution Integrity Protection Scheme in Industry 4.0

Wei-Yang Chiu, Weizhi Meng, Chunpeng Ge

The advancement of information technology allows the creation of smart devices that not only are programable, but also can perform machine-to-machine communication in order to reach a flexible large-scale manufacturing strategy in Industry 4.0. However, as more components are connected to the Internet, cyber-criminals can perform malicious actions remotely. As one lasting threat, sabotaging smart devices' execution integrity can cause a large financial loss, i.e., causing malfunctioning. Hence, it is important to secure the execution integrity of smart devices in Industry 4.0. Motivated by the emerging blockchain technology, in this paper, we focus on how blockchain can help Industry 4.0 application protect execution integrity and propose a blockchain-based execution protection scheme namedNoSneaky, which is low-cost and can be easily integrated into the current production systems. In the evaluation, we demonstrate its performance and effectiveness in securing the execution integrity.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Digital Transformation in Industry
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Original source
Nov 1, 2022·IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science
14 cites
Visualization of blockchain-based smart contracts for delivery, acceptance, and payment process using BIM

Xuling Ye, Ningshuang Zeng, Markus König

Abstract Building Information Modeling (BIM) provides an excellent opportunity to digitally document and visually display construction projects’ information throughout their whole lifecycle. Another recent technology that fosters the digital transformation of the construction sector is blockchain-based smart contract. In combination with BIM models, such smart contract can be used for delivery, acceptance, and payment (DAP) process automation in the construction industry. The DAP process can be modelled by using smart contracts and securely stored via a blockchain. Since smart contracts are programming codes, for stakeholders it is difficult to understand what is exactly written in them. Therefore, it is necessary to visualize the state and executed transactions of the deployed smart contracts. In this paper, a framework is highlighted to record and visualize the status of the DAP processes by combining BIM with smart contracts using the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) to develop a smart contract system. With the help of suitable visualization concepts, the individual transactions of the blockchain can be displayed in a comprehensible way. The feasibility of the framework is presented through an illustrative implementation of the smart contract system. The proposed framework can help project participants better understand the current state of a smart contract.

Open access
BIM and Construction Integration
Digital Transformation in Industry
Construction Project Management and Performance
Original source
Oct 22, 2022·Sustainability
9 cites
An Analytic Hierarchy Process for Selection of Blockchain-Based Platform for Product Lifecycle Management

Mubashir Hayat, Herwig Winkler

Blockchain technology has disrupted traditional business processes and hence gained significant attention and popularity in recent years. Consequently, a number of blockchain-based platforms are available today that offer vast applications across multiple sectors and industries. Implementing these blockchain-based platforms as an alternative to traditional product lifecycle management systems (PLMs) is one of the applications. However, before any platform is adopted, its nature, functionalities, and adaptability need to be clearly defined, evaluated, and verified. In this context, the proposed work explores the available blockchain-based platforms that can be used for the purpose of product lifecycle management. We then apply one of the multi-criteria decision-making techniques, i.e., the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), to select the best possible blockchain-based platform for PLM. As transaction speed, data privacy, and scalability are our prime concerns in PLM, we only considered the permissioned (private) blockchain platforms as available alternatives in the final selection process. Results achieved on the basis of considered criteria show that Hyperledger Fabric is the top-ranked among available alternatives to be used for PLM. Furthermore, as blockchain is a new technology, a clear comparison of the available platforms based on the performance-based metrics and key performance indicators is not completely matured and is still in the development stage. However, our proposed approach can be considered an attempt to create a procedure for evaluating blockchain-based platform implementation in any sector.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Digital Transformation in Industry
Original source
Oct 14, 2022·ISPRS annals of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences
15 cites
DIGITAL TWIN SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED ON ENERGY HUB TO FOSTER SUSTAINABLE SMART ENERGY CITY, CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE SMART ENERGY HUB

A. Dulaimi, R. Hamida, M. Naser, M. Mawed

Abstract. The scarcity of energy is one of humanity's most pressing issues in the twenty-first century. These problems can be found in various areas, including energy supply, exchange, and consumption. Population growth, rising global energy demand, natural resource shortages, and environmental concerns contribute to energy scarcity. Furthermore, energy shortage needs the expansion of renewable energies and energy efficiency, a major concern for all governments and organisations. Building energy efficiency is a crucial concept to consider when it comes to smart cities. Buildings are the greatest energy consumers, accounting for 40% of total energy consumption. Recent advances in machine learning within a big data context have paved the way for more efficient building energy management. Building energy consumption may be successfully managed by a real-time measurement procedure, allowing the economy to shift from a linear to a circular consumption model. This will tackle the issue of late notice of failed energy-saving initiatives and allow for immediate correction to restore the energy management system to ultimate performance.The energy hub might be as small as a single home energy system or as large as an energy system for the city. This paper will present a case study on developing a smart energy hub called Hubgrade 4.0 that relies on connected products using digital twin as a significant enabler for energy-saving initiatives. Hubgrade 4.0 provides an innovative approach to successfully implementing energy efficiency improvement using artificial intelligence and real-time data. Hubgrade 4.0 is the name of Enova by Veolia smart energy hub; Enova is the regional leader in integrated energy and multi-technical services, delivering performance-based energy and facilities management solutions. The energy hub digital twin is a link between a physical platform that administers the energy hub's IoT and a virtual platform that can derive services that are valid for the energy hub. Successful enterprises are using several new technologies to achieve the goals of Industry 4.0: efficiency, speed, agility, and customer-centricity. This paper concluded and highlighted lessons learned from the successful implementation of innovative energy management, which relied on a dedicated organisation, effective adoption of digital technologies, and embracing new business models, resulting in power savings of 254 million kW and water savings of around 3 million cubic meters, as well as financial savings of about 138 million AED in 5 years since Hubgrade 4.0 started operations its first energy-saving contract in 2017.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Engineering Education and Technology
Economic and Technological Systems Analysis
Original source
Sep 29, 2022·Scientific Reports
21 cites
Research on multi-person collaborative design of BIM drawing based on blockchain

Jinlong Wang, Yumin Shen, Xiaoyun Xiong, Xu Wang · 5 authors

The existing multi-person collaborative design scheme of Building Information Modeling (BIM) integrated with blockchain faces problems such as poor reliability of BIM drawing, inconsistent drawing information, redundant information, and inaccurate protection of copyright interests. This paper proposes a multi-person collaborative design model for BIM drawing that combines blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). This model uses blockchain to store drawing design information to protect the copyright interests of designers and combines IPFS to ensure the reliability of drawing. A cycle division mechanism is designed to solve the problem of drawing information synchronization when multiple people collaborate in design. The Semantic Differential Transaction (SDT) method is used to achieve incremental update of drawing and reduce the information redundancy of the blockchain. Finally, a comparative analysis and validation evaluation of the scheme is carried out, and the usability of the scheme is illustrated with an illustrative example. The results show that: (1) proposed scheme is feasible for multi-person collaborative design; (2) proposed scheme can effectively ensure the reliability of drawing and reduce the redundancy of blockchain information, so as to achieve copyright protection for designers.

Open access
BIM and Construction Integration
Digital Transformation in Industry
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Original source
Sep 26, 2022·Frontiers in Psychology
29 cites
An empirical analysis of the supply chain flexibility using blockchain technology

Mengmeng Wang, Yang Yang

Building a flexible supply chain can enable the firms to manage their supply chains to adapt effectively to dynamic market demand changes and thus guarantee their accelerated growth in the future. In this vein, this study aims to address several important issues in supply chain management by considering two characteristics of blockchain technology (i.e., information transparency and security of blockchain technology) and exploring the specific conditions under which firms are likely to develop trust in supply chain management. Furthermore, we argue that such supply chain trust is vital to the success of achieving and increasing supply chain flexibility. In addition, we propose that top management teams' digital leadership within the firms plays a vital role in moderating the contribution of each dimension of blockchain technology to supply chain trust. Using data from a large sample of 338 firms in China, we perform structural equation modeling to examine our conceptual framework empirically. Our results highlight and support the idea that blockchain technology's information transparency and security influence the trust-building in a supply chain and supply chain flexibility and articulate the particular importance of digital leadership in explaining the contribution of different blockchain technology characteristics to trust-building. Our study advances the theoretical, empirical, and managerial analysis of critical factors to build trust and achieve flexibility in supply chains.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Digital Transformation in Industry
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Original source
Sep 26, 2022·Machines
69 cites
Secure Blockchain Middleware for Decentralized IIoT towards Industry 5.0: A Review of Architecture, Enablers, Challenges, and Directions

Jiewu Leng, Ziying Chen, Zhiqiang Huang, Xiaofeng Zhu · 7 authors

Resilient manufacturing is a vision in the Industry 5.0 blueprint for satisfying sustainable development goals under pandemics or the rising individualized product needs. A resilient manufacturing strategy based on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks plays an essential role in facilitating production and supply chain recovery. IIoT contains confidential data and private information, and many security issues arise through vulnerabilities in the infrastructure. The traditional centralized IIoT framework is not only of high cost for system configuration but also vulnerable to cyber-attacks and single-point failure, which is not suitable for achieving the resilient manufacturing vision in Industry 5.0. Recently, researchers are seeking a secure solution of middleware based on blockchain technology integration for decentralized IIoT, which can effectively protect the consistency, integrity, and availability of IIoT data by utilizing the auditing and tamper-proof features of the blockchain. This paper presented a review of secure blockchain middleware for decentralized IIoT towards Industry 5.0. Firstly, the security issues of conventional IIoT solutions and the advantages of blockchain middleware are analyzed. Secondly, an architecture of secure blockchain middleware for decentralized IIoT is proposed. Finally, enabling technologies, challenges, and future directions are reviewed. The innovation of this paper is to study and discuss the distributed blockchain middleware, investigating its ability to eliminate the risk of a single point of failure via a distributed feature in the context of resilient manufacturing in Industry 5.0 and to solve the security issues from traditional centralized IIoT. Also, the four-layer architecture of blockchain middleware presented based on the IIoT application framework is a novel aspect of this review. It is expected that the paper lays a solid foundation for making IIoT blockchain middleware a new venue for Industry 5.0 research.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Digital Transformation in Industry
Original source
Sep 14, 2022·Buildings
35 cites
Software Architecture and Non-Fungible Tokens for Digital Twin Decentralized Applications in the Built Environment

Benjamin Teisserenc, Samad M. E. Sepasgozar

Blockchain technology (BCT) can enable distributed collaboration, enhance data sharing, and automate back-end processes for digital twin (DT) decentralized applications (dApps) in the construction industry (CI) 4.0. The aim of this paper was to propose a software architecture and to develop a framework of smart contracts for blockchain-based digital twin (BCDT) dApps throughout the lifecycle of projects in CI 4.0. This paper leveraged the existing literature and action research interviews to identify and validate the critical industry problems, functional requirements (FRs), and non-functional requirements (NFRs) to be addressed by BCDT dApps in CI 4.0. Basic use cases were developed to design a framework of smart contracts for BCDT dApps throughout the lifecycle of projects. The analysis of an online survey was used to identify the key requirements and enablers to propose a software architecture for BCDT applications and to validate the requirements for developing the framework of a smart contract for BCDTs. The findings were: (1) The identification of key problems in CI 4.0 for each BIM/BCDT dimension (3D, 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D, and contractual (cD)) and the related FRs and NFRs for BCDT applications. Additionally, key use cases were designed to address the problems identified. (2) The proposed BCDT architecture permitted us to narrow gaps in the literature on blockchain-based decentralized digital twins. Moreover, the proposed BCDT architecture and smart-contract framework addressed the main requirements in the literature on BCDTs. (3) The study leveraged the non-fungible token (NFT) standard to develop a framework for smart contracts that addressed the key use cases and the related industry problems and functional requirements that were identified. The study also considered the contractual dimension (cD) as an overarching dimension in relation to the other BCDT dimensions. (4) We also compared the costs of several public blockchains for executing the proposed smart-contract framework throughout the lifecycle of a medium-sized building project. The cost analysis permitted the development of criteria to evaluate the suitability of blockchain networks for BCDT applications in CI 4.0 depending on the principal blockchain networks’ properties (security, decentralization, scalability, and interoperability). Finally, this study resulted in a novel framework that included software architecture, smart-contract use cases, and selection criteria among blockchain networks for BCDT dApps in CI 4.0.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Digital Transformation in Industry
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Original source
Sep 1, 2022·River Publishers eBooks
0 cites
Reference Architecture for Factory Automation using Edge Computing and Blockchain Technologies

Mauro Isaja

This chapter will introduce the reader to the FAR-EDGE Reference Architecture (RA): the conceptual framework that, in the scope of the FAR-EDGE project, was used as the blueprint for the proof-of-concept implementation of a novel edge computing platform for factory automation : the FAR-EDGE Platform. Such platform is going to prove edge computing’s potential to increase flexibility and lower costs, without compromising on production time and quality. The FAR-EDGE RA exploits best practices and lessons learned in similar contexts by the global community of system architects (e.g., Industrie 4.0, Industrial Internet Consortium) and provides a terse representation of concepts, roles, structure and behaviour of the system under analysis. Its unique approach to edge computing is centered on the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and smart contracts – better known under the collective label of Blockchain . The FAR-EDGE project is exploring the use of Blockchain as a key enabling technology for industrial automation, analytics and virtualization, with validation use cases executed in real-world environments that are briefly described at the end of the chapter.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Original source
Sep 1, 2022·Computers in Industry
102 cites
Blockchain supported BIM data provenance for construction projects

Yasin Çelik, Ioan Petri, Masoud Barati

The management of construction projects requires adequate techniques to support the continual exchange of information across disciplines. Recent advances in Building Information Modelling (BIM) have exposed new ways for process and data integration with open data formats, process mapping, and terminology. In construction projects where multiple disciplines produce and share BIM data, mechanisms for defining information priority, provenance and suitability become necessary in order to have consistent and traceable use of data. This includes objects or collection of attributes for data objects that are associated with a discipline or organisation including clear identification of the transaction that has introduced the information. Blockchain can be used to record metadata of BIM objects such as the issuing discipline, object version and responsibility/ liability associated with the data. Blockchain can offer the capability to apply levels of “trust” to individual BIM objects and a more secured framework of collaboration across stakeholders. This paper proposes a Blockchain-based BIM data provenance model to support information exchange in construction projects. By testing the solution in a real-world bridge construction scenario, it has been shown that the approach can recognise the levels of competence and can improve the process of BIM implementation. The proposed approach gives stakeholders more confidence when sharing their BIM data, reduces costs, and improves risk contingencies in construction projects. The paper provides a cost analysis to evidence the implications of using Blockchain for BIM data provenance through an experimental framework supported by an Ethereum public test network. A front-end web page has also been created to facilitate interaction with smart contracts and to monitor the BIM data provenance process.

Open access
BIM and Construction Integration
3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage
Digital Transformation in Industry
Original source
Aug 29, 2022·Applied Sciences
34 cites
Blockchain-Based Cloud Manufacturing SCM System for Collaborative Enterprise Manufacturing: A Case Study of Transport Manufacturing

Alice Elizabeth Matenga, Khumbulani Mpofu

Sheet metal part manufacture is a precursor to various upstream assembly processes, including the manufacturing of mechanical and body parts of railcars, automobiles, ships, etc., in the transport manufacturing sector. The (re)manufacturing of railcars comprises a multi-tier manufacturing supply chain, mainly supported by local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), where siloed information leads to information disintegration between supplier and manufacturer. Technology spillovers in information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) are disrupting traditional supply chains, leading to a sustainable digital economy, driven by new innovations and business models in manufacturing. This paper presents application of industrial DevOps by merging industry 4.0 technologies for collaborative and sustainable supply chains. A blockchain-based information system (IS) and a cloud manufacturing (CM) process system were integrated, for a supply chain management (SCM) system for the railcar manufacturer. A systems thinking methodology was used to identify the multi-hierarchical system, and a domain-driven design approach (DDD) was applied to develop the event-driven microservice architecture (MSA). The result is a blockchain-based cloud manufacturing as a service (BCMaaS) SCM system for outsourcing part production for boxed sheet metal parts. In conclusion, the BCMaaS system performs part provenance, traceability, and analytics in real time for improved quality control, inventory management, and audit reliability.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Original source
Jul 27, 2022·Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
5 cites
A Conceptual Framework for Lean Construction and Blockchain Synergy

Algan Tezel, Dimosthenis Kifokeris, Carlos Torres Formoso, Lauri Koskela · 5 authors

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology referring to decentralized databases existing across multiple locations and participants, in which the need for intermediaries to process, validate or authenticate transactions is reduced or eliminated. Such transactions are synchronously held by computer nodes in distributed copies, with cryptographic signatures validated through consensus protocols and transparency achieved through peer-to-peer transactional access among the nodes. Blockchain-based applications can be preferred over centralized databases on the basis of high levels of trust, data security, immutability, transparency, and multi-user consensus protocols. There is growing interest in blockchain in the built environment, with a focus on procurement, the management of supply chain project-life cycle, smart cities, intelligent systems, sustainability, and decentralized organizations. However, there is little discussion on whether and how blockchain will affect the advances in lean construction (LC) and vice versa. This paper therefore proposes a framework that establishes interactions between blockchain and lean construction, which can potentially facilitate the implementation of both. It is based on a synthetic literature review. The results indicate that blockchain can facilitate the implementation of LC (e.g., recording and retrieving of Last Planner data), and vice versa (e.g., value stream mapping guiding the integration of blockchain with processes).

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Quality and Supply Management
Original source
Jul 18, 2022·IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering
111 cites
Retracted: Blockchain and Deep Learning for Secure Communication in Digital Twin Empowered Industrial IoT Network

Prabhat Kumar, Randhir Kumar, Abhinav Kumar, A. Antony Franklin · 6 authors

The rapid expansion of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) necessitates the digitization of industrial processes in order to increase network efficiency. The integration of Digital Twin (DT) with IIoT digitizes physical objects into virtual representations to improve data analytics performance. Nevertheless, DT empowered IIoT generates a massive amount of data that is mostly sent to the cloud or edge servers for real-time analysis. However, unreliable public communication channels and lack of trust among participating entities causes various types of threats and attacks on the ongoing communication. Motivated from the aforementioned discussion, we present a blockchain and Deep Learning (DL) integrated framework for delivering decentralized data processing and learning in IIoT network. The framework first present a new DT model that facilitates construction of a virtual environment to simulate and replicate security-critical processes of IIoT. Second, we propose a blockchain-based data transmission scheme that uses smart contracts to ensure integrity and authenticity of data. Finally, the DL scheme is designed to apply the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) against valid data retrieved from blockchain. In DL scheme, a Long Short Term Memory-Sparse AutoEncoder (LSTMSAE) technique is proposed to learn the spatial-temporal representation. The extracted characteristics are further used by the proposed Multi-Head Self-Attention (MHSA)-based Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BiGRU) algorithm to learn long-distance features and accurately detect attacks. The practical implementation of our proposed framework proves considerable enhancement of communication security and data privacy in DT empowered IIoT network.

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Original source
Jul 9, 2022·Zbornik radova Fakulteta tehničkih nauka u Novom Sadu
0 cites
KLIJENTSKA APLIKACIJA ZA PRISTUP ETHEREUM PLATFORMI

Marko Jurić

U ovom radu opisani su osnovni principi distribuiranih sistema, razvoj blokčejn tehnologija kroz tri faze, pojam Ethereum platforme, kao i arhitektura klijenata za pristup Ethereum mreži. Predstavljeno je rešenje u vidu implementacije promene na Ethereum klijentu kao posledice zahteva Ethereum zajednice za ažuriranje Ethereum platforme

Open access
Digital Transformation in Industry
Big Data and Business Intelligence
Original source
Jun 23, 2022·Logistics
17 cites
From Traditional Product Lifecycle Management Systems to Blockchain-Based Platforms

Mubashir Hayat, Herwig Winkler

Background: Several product lifecycle management systems (PLMs) have been implemented in the industrial sector for managing the data of the product from the design up to the disposal or recycling stage. However, these PLMs face certain challenges in managing the complex and decentralized product lifecycles. Methods: To this aim, this work investigates the currently implemented PLMs used in industries through the exploration of various software reviews and selection websites. Accordingly, these existing PLMs are quantitatively compared and analyzed. Results: The analysis shows that most of the existing PLMs do not contain all the required features; therefore, industries integrate different software to create a full-fledged PLM system. However, this practice results in reducing the overall system efficiency. In this context, this paper assesses and recommends a blockchain-based innovative solution that overcomes the challenges of existing PLMs, hence increasing the overall system efficiency. Furthermore, this work argues, in a logical way, that the recommended blockchain-based platform provides a secure and connected infrastructure for data handling, processing, and storage at different stages of the product lifecycle. Conclusions: This work can be considered among the first to compare the currently implemented PLMs with a novel blockchain-based method. Thus, the stakeholders can utilize the outputs of this research in their analysis and decision-making processes for implementing the blockchain in their organizations.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Digital Transformation in Industry
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Original source
Jun 20, 2022·Sensors
16 cites
Secure IIoT Information Reinforcement Model Based on IIoT Information Platform Using Blockchain

Yoon-Su Jeong

Data created at industrial sites through industrial internet of things devices are now being processed automatically or in real-time in the industrial structure, due to the application of artificial intelligence technology to industrial sites. However, the expenses of autonomous or real-time data processing and steady data processing (analysis, prediction, prescription, and implementation) necessitate a new processing method. We propose a blockchain-based industrial internet of things information reinforcement model in this work that may reliably ensure the integrity of industrial internet of things data produced at industrial locations. The proposed model processes industrial internet of things data that may occur at endpoints at industrial sites into the blockchain by processing data generated by the same industrial internet of things device independently. As a result, the IIoT data sent to the industrial internet of things server can be evaluated more readily, and production accuracy may be enhanced. The proposed model optimizes industrial internet of things information linkage by stochastically reflecting the information based on attribute value frequency. By dynamically aggregating the related data of industrial internet of things information acquired as a seed through hierarchical subnets, the proposed model increases stability and accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed model may be used to enhance an organizations' operational efficiency (consulting and training, for example) and strategic decision-making by utilizing fundamental knowledge about items produced at industrial locations. Furthermore, the proposed model allows for information sharing and system connectivity between industrial locations, allowing for close collaboration between industrial internet of things features. As a result of the performance evaluation, the proposed model included an industrial internet of things sensor to the blockchain, eliminating the need for an extra function in the manufacturing process and reducing the time required to validate the integrity of industrial internet of things data. In addition, as a result of analyzing industrial internet of things data by an algorithm according to the number of simulated clouds, the accuracy of industrial internet of things information was improved by 2.5% to 3%, on average.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Digital Transformation in Industry
Original source
Jun 15, 2022·Automation in Construction
62 cites
Tracking prefabricated assets and compliance using quick response (QR) codes, blockchain and smart contract technology

Wouter van Groesen, Pieter Pauwels

Construction supply chains (CSC) are characterized by their converging structure and the hierarchical payment system which is inherently related. Due to the pursuit of diverging goals and mutual interdependencies, risks and trust problems between stakeholders occur. Contracts are used to govern these complex collaborations. To track compliance to contract terms, various activities are executed by involved stakeholders. These activities do not add any value to an end-product, cause intransparency, are costly and cause conflicts. Therefore, a combination of asset tracking and blockchain technology is investigated in this paper to address these problems. A plug-and-play framework of interacting applications and a workflow to operate them are proposed. Proof of this concept is provided by developing prototypical applications and by testing them in various practice-based scenarios. Simplified asset tracking throughout supply chains was realized and linked to smart contracts. This resulted in semi-automated compliance tracking and an immutable record of transactions. Therefore, this work provides more insight into combining asset tracking and blockchain for compliance checking in the construction industry. By doing so, further automation of construction processes, increased transparency between stakeholders and a reduction of conflicts can be enabled. However, it remains clear that many other variables impact on transparency and trust; and while technology can make improvements, considerable procedural security and control measures are needed in addition. Therefore, we focus on semi-automation of workflows using distributed ledger technology.

Open access
Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
BIM and Construction Integration
Digital Transformation in Industry
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