Blockchain Papers

Bajeela Aejas, Abdelaziz Bouras, Abdelhak Belhi, Houssem Gasmi

No abstract is available for this record.

Seunghwan Son, Deokkyu Kwon, Joonyoung Lee, Sungjin Yu · 6 authors

Digital twin technology is recently in the spotlight because of its potential applicability in business and industry. In digital twin environments, data generated from physical assets are transmitted to a remote server, which performs simulations through digital twins in a virtual space. Then, the simulation results can be shared with the data owner or other users. However, several challenges exist in the application of digital twin technology in the real world. One of the main challenges involves determining how to share real-time data for the simulation and how to share the simulation data securely. The data generated from physical assets may include sensitive information from data owners, and the leakage of data to an adversary can cause serious privacy problems. Moreover, the sharing of data with other data users should also be considered to maximize the availability of digital twin data. To resolve these issues, we propose a system model for the secure sharing of digital twin data. The proposed system model uses cloud computing for efficient data sharing and blockchain for data verifiability. We also propose communication schemes for the proposed model to guarantee privacy preservation and data security in wireless channels. We analyze the security of the proposed protocol using informal methods and formal methods such as BAN logic and the AVISPA simulation tool. Furthermore, we compare the proposed protocol with related protocols and demonstrate that the proposed scheme is applicable to digital twin environments.

Jiongbin Liu, William Yeoh, Youyang Qu, Longxiang Gao

Supply chain management (SCM) plays a vital role in the global economy, as evidenced by recent COVID-19 supply chain challenges. Traditional SCM faces security and efficiency issues, but they can be addressed by leveraging digital twins (DTs) and blockchain technology. T he combination of blockchain and DTs can refine the concepts of both technologies and reform SCM to advance into Industry 4.0. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive literature review of the blockchain-based digital twin (DT) solutions to optimise the processes of data management, data storage, and data sharing in SCM. We also investigate the key benefits of the integration of blockchain and DTs and examine their potential implementation in various SCM areas, including smart manufacturing, intelligent maintenance, and blockchain-based DT shop floor, warehouse, and logistics. Finally, we put forward recommendations for future research directions.

Kankam O. Adu-Kankam, Luís M. Camarinha-Matos

The rapid proliferation of renewable energy communities/ecosystems is an indication of their potential contribution to the ongoing energy transition. A common characteristic of these ecosystems is their complex composition, which often involves the interaction of multiple actors. Currently, the notions of "networking", "collaboration", "coordination", and "cooperation", although having different meanings, are often loosely used to describe these interactions, which creates a sense of ambiguity and confusion. To better characterize the nature of interactions in current and emerging ecosystems, this article uses the systematic literature review method to analyse 34 emerging cases. The objective is threefold (a) to study the interactions and engagements between the involved actors, aiming at identifying elements of collaboration. (b) Identify the adopted technological enablers, and (c) ascertain how the composition and functions of these ecosystems compare to virtual power plants. The outcome revealed that the interactions between the members of these ecosystems can be described as cooperation and not necessarily as collaboration, except in a few cases. Regarding technological enablers, a vast panoply of technologies, such as IoT devices, smart meters, intelligent software agents, peer-to-peer networks, distributed ledger systems/blockchain technology (including smart contracts, blockchain as a platform service, and cryptocurrencies) were found. In comparison with virtual power plants, these ecosystems have similar composition, thus, having multiple actors, comprised of decentralized and heterogeneous technologies, and are formed by aggregating various distributed energy resources. They are also supported by ICT and are characterized by the simultaneous flow of information and energy.

Fernando Tohmé, Daniel Alejandro Rossit, Mariano Frutos, Óscar C. Vásquez · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Huakun Huang, Xiangbin Zeng, Lingjun Zhao, Chen Qiu · 6 authors

Metaverse and blockchain, as the latest buzzwords, have attracted great attention from industry and academia. They will inevitably promote technological innovation in the field of building information modeling (BIM) in the future. BIM organizes various building information into a whole by establishing a virtual three-dimensional model of architectural engineering using digital technology. The metaverse seamlessly integrates the real world and the virtual world, and conducts rich activities such as creation, display, and trading. Therefore, through the exploration of the metaverse, it will be possible to build an exciting digital world and transform the physical world better. Meanwhile, introducing the blockchain technology could ensure the fairness and security of resource transactions, data storage, and other activities. In this survey, we delve into the metaverse and blockchain empowerment by studying BIM components, metaverse applications in virtual world construction, and the latest research on blockchain. We also discuss how BIM technology and blockchain can be integrated with metaverse. The collaborations between academia and industry would be certainly required for further development and interdisciplinary research on the metaverse and the integration of blockchain into BIM. We hope to see our survey help researchers, engineers and educators build an open, fair and rational future BIM ecosystem.

Sadman Sakib Akash, Md Sadek Ferdous

Digital Twin (DT) is an emerging technology that replicates any physical phenomenon from a physical space to a digital space in congruence with the physical state. However, devising a Healthcare DT model for patient care is seen as a challenging task as the lack of adequate data collection structure. There are also security and privacy concerns as healthcare data is very sensitive and can be used in malicious ways. Because of these current research gaps, the proper way of acquiring the structured data and managing them in a secure way is very important. In this article, we present a mathematical data model to accumulate the patient relevant data in a structured and predefined way with proper delineation. Additionally, the provided data model is described in harmony with real life contexts. Then, we have used the patient centric mathematical data model to formally define the semantic and scope of our proposed Healthcare Digital Twin (HDT) system based on Blockchain. Accordingly, the proposed system is described with all the key components as well as with detailed protocol flows and an analysis of its different aspects. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed model with a critical comparison with other relevant research works have been provided.

Feruz K. Elmay, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Ilhaam A. Omar

The maritime industry is a complex multi-tiered sector that plays a major role in international shipping and trade. Seaborne transportation is responsible for 90% of goods moved globally, and containerized shipments account for more than 50% of those goods. This volume of movement requires efficient tracking and traceability methods that secure the documentation process and ensure the involved stakeholders. However, due to its complexity, the maritime industry suffers from a lack of trust, lack of ownership evidence, protracted documentation procedures, and excessive data aggregation. These shortcomings are reflected in delays and elevated costs in the shipping process. To mitigate these problems, we propose in this paper a blockchain-based solution for the ownership history and traceability of shipping containers in the industry. Our solution utilizes smart contracts and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain to accelerate the inefficient shipping process by digitizing ownership transfer and process documentation. Furthermore, the proposed system allows the owners to auction off their cargo in the destination ports, freeing warehouses and containers in the process. We analyze our proposed system in terms of transaction costs and smart contract security. The smart contracts are developed using the Solidity language in the Remix IDE and the code is made publicly available on GitHub.

David Mhlanga

There is a lot of hope that blockchain technology may be used to standardize money transactions and increase access to banking. It is believed that regulators and industry professionals have looked into the possibility of using blockchain technology to modernize and even replace the infrastructure that currently supports international payments and remittances, such as correspondent banking, in order to ensure that transactions can be verified and recorded using blockchain technology in a distributed ledger. The purpose of this study was to analyze how blockchain technology has helped to include previously underserved populations in the mainstream financial system, and to remark on the best practices and lessons learned from sustainable development. Using a systematic literature review, the study discovered the many ways in which blockchain technology can facilitate digital financial inclusion, including its application in financial transactions, its utility as a tool for increasing financial savings, its use in the provision of credit, and its application in the provision of insurance. According to the findings, even though the global goals do not specifically target financial inclusion, providing access to financial services for the majority of the population is a critical enabler for several of the global goals. Therefore, the study concluded that sustainable development can be ensured on many fronts if the technology behind blockchains can be successfully used to improve financial inclusion. If governments, especially in developing countries, are serious about increasing citizens’ access to financial services, they must prioritize blockchain investment.

Senay A. Gebreab, Haya R. Hasan, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman

Healthcare supply chains have evolved drastically over time, with complex domestic and global networks and interactions spanning across various organizations and entities. This gives rise to numerous challenges related to information and data pertaining to medical devices used within healthcare supply chain, including data integrity, provenance, traceability, and transparency. Counterfeit medical devices are a major obstacle that the healthcare industry is trying to resolve as it poses a huge risk to the safety of its users. Therefore, it is paramount to have an end-to-end system in place that tracks medical devices not only as they move across the supply chain but also as they are purchased and sold online in digital marketplaces. Unfortunately, existing systems follow a centralized architecture, which leads to being a single point of failure and eradicating transparency and authentication. In this paper, we propose a non-fungible token (NFT) based solution that exploits blockchain smart contracts, integrates tokenization protocols, and utilizes a decentralized storage system for a reliable and efficient medical devices traceability system and ownership management solution. In our proposed system, NFTs are used to represent the digital twin of the medical device. This digital twin captures the medical device attributes and its relevant metadata during its life cycle from production, manufacturing, distribution and movement, to current use and ownership. We present the system architecture and implementation details, along with tested algorithms that define the various functions of our smart contracts. The paper also presents testing details and analyses the solution’s feasibility through a cost and security analysis.

Sebastian Beckschulte, Louis Huebser, Raphael Kiesel, Robert Schmitt

This paper describes the utilization of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) as means of a digital backbone – the so-called digital vehicle protocol – across the commercial vehicle industry. Enabling a digital vehicle protocol along the value chain resolves common data management problems, which are still the main inhibitor for advanced analytics methods and serves as a basis for new business models. This contribution demonstrates a per product-data centered approach in which low structured data can be written to and read from any point along the value chain on a product unit-based scope by using DLT. By embedding data post-processing pipelines per product-unit, data easily can be retrofitted to the task at hand. Therefore, it decouples data post-processing from data generation as well as overcoming current data silos within organizations. DLT hereby allows tying processing routines to data leading to a temper-proof digital vehicle protocol. Besides obtaining a stronger product-individual focus, our approach enables an easier integration of stakeholders into the entire business process landscape such as suppliers as well as sellers and leads to future business models such as billing depending on quality defects found during production. Our conceptual framework resolves current problems, i.e. data access, data quality and data processing costs. We align conceptual applicability with regards to a Truck Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) within the scope of failure management in production in order to specify implementation details, which reveal new business process models that further can transform commercial vehicle manufacturers from producers to service providers.

Ashwin Verma, Pronaya Bhattacharya, Nirav Madhani, Chandan Trivedi · 9 authors

Industry 4.0 have witnessed a paradigm shift from cyber-physical systems (CPS) that aims at massive automation, towards a more customer-driven approach. The shift has been attributed to the design of hyper-cognitive systems, integration of virtual and extended reality, digital machinery prototyping and twin designs, trusted machine boundaries, collaborative robots, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based supply chains. This new wave, termed Industry 5.0, is expected to leverage massive production with user-centric customization outside the scope of Industry 4.0 ecosystems. Industry 5.0 is expected to assist diverse industrial verticals like healthcare, smart farming, drones, smart grids, and supply chain production ecosystems. However, data is shared among multiple heterogeneous networks, spanning different authoritative domains. Thus, trusted and secured data transfer is crucial to synergize and secure the industrial perimeters. Blockchain (BC) is a preferred choice as a security enabler to Industry 5.0 ecosystems owing to its inherent property of immutability, chronology, and auditability in industrial systems. Limited works are proposed that present the vision and holistic view of BC-assisted Industry 5.0 applications. The article presents a first-of-its-kind survey on BC as a security enabler in Industry 5.0. Based on a descriptive survey methodology and research questions, we presented the key drivers, and potential applications, and propose an architectural vision of BC-based Industry 5.0 in diverse applicative verticals. The survey intends to present solutions that would assist industry practitioners, academicians, and researchers to drive novel BC-assisted solutions in Industry 5.0 verticals.

Benjamin Teisserenc, Samad M. E. Sepasgozar

The key challenges of the building, engineering, construction, operations, and mining (BECOM) industries are the lack of trust, inefficiencies, and the fragmentation of the information value chain into vulnerable data silos throughout the lifecycle of projects. This paper aims to develop a novel conceptual model for the implementation of blockchain technology (BCT) for digital twin(s) (DT) in the BECOM industry 4.0 to improve trust, cyber security, efficiencies, information management, information sharing, and sustainability. A PESTELS approach is used to review the literature and identify the key challenges affecting BCT adoption for the BECOM industry 4.0. A review of the technical literature on BCT combined with the findings from PESTELS analysis permitted researchers to identify the key technological factors affecting BCT adoption in the industry. This allowed offering a technological framework—namely, the decentralized digital twin cycle (DDTC)—that leverages BCT to address the key technological factors and to ultimately enhance trust, security, decentralization, efficiency, traceability, and transparency of information throughout projects’ lifecycles. The study also identifies the gaps in the integration of BCT with key technologies of industry 4.0, including the internet of things (IoT), building information modeling (BIM), and DT. The framework offered addresses key technological factors and narrows key gaps around network governance, scalability, decentralization, interoperability, energy efficiency, computational requirements, and BCT integration with IoT, BIM, and DT throughout projects’ lifecycles. The model also considers the regulatory aspect and the environmental aspect, and the circular economy (CE). The theoretical framework provides key technological building blocks for industry practitioners to develop the DDTC concept further and implement it through experimental works. Finally, the paper provides an industry-specific analysis and technological approach facilitating BCT adoption through DT to address the key challenges and improve sustainability for the BECOM industry 4.0.

Benjamin Leiding, Priyanka Sharma, Alex Norta

Nowadays, business enactments almost exclusively focus on human-to-human business transactions. However, the ubiquitousness of smart devices enables business enactments among autonomously acting machines, thereby providing the foundation for the machine-driven Machine-to-Everything (M2X) Economy. Human-to-human business is governed by enforceable contracts either in the form of oral, or written agreements. Still, a machine-driven ecosystem requires a digital equivalent that is accessible to all stakeholders. Additionally, an electronic contract platform enables fact-tracking, non-repudiation, auditability and tamper-resistant storage of information in a distributed multi-stakeholder setting. A suitable approach for M2X enactments are electronic smart contracts that allow to govern business transactions using a computerized transaction protocol such as a blockchain. In this position paper, we argue in favor of an open, decentralized and distributed smart contract-based M2X Economy that supports the corresponding multi-stakeholder ecosystem and facilitates M2X value exchange, collaborations, and business enactments. Finally, it allows for a distributed e-governance model that fosters open platforms and interoperability. Thus, serving as a foundation for the ubiquitous M2X Economy and its ecosystem.

Atul Kumar Singh, V. R. Prasath Kumar

Poor quality in construction could lead to the cash flow disruption, project delays, profit loss in projects due to rework, and some time to the property damage or human loss due to accidents. In order to ensure the quality of work, quality control (QC) departments inspect the construction work compliance with best practices, defined procedures, and specifications. These inspections rely on manual procedures, post-construction evaluation, document-based, and are carried out through a supervisory manner approach from top-down. However, this top-down control-oriented approach does not provide enough motivation for quality control managers, operators, and workers to voluntarily follow quality procedures and specifications. Besides, document-based quality specification compliance assessments have limitations that are difficult to determine whether the required specifications have actually been implemented and are not reliable to measure their real performance as well. In this regard, this study proposes a conceptual framework for Blockchain-based quality management at construction sites, which could ensure security and reliability of information generated through while implementing quality-related specification and procedures by managers and workers using Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and also to encourage them by establishing a compensation structure through performance assessment for activities of each task. The Block chained quality management approach would greatly help shift the traditional top-down and passive quality control process to bottom-up and voluntary manner. It might open a new innovative value-chain structure in the construction quality domain which provides securing reliability of activities required for quality assurance procedures and specification implementation.

Qiuchen Lu, Zhen Ye, Zigeng Fang, Jiayin Meng · 8 authors

Developing and using the rich data implied by dynamic digital twins and blockchain is relevant to manage both patients and medical resources (e.g., doctors/nurses, ventilators etc.) at the COVID-19 and post COVID period. This paper aims at exploring the blockchain solutions for preparing healthcare systems ready for both efficient operation daily and in pandemic through (1) information integration of patient and medical resource flow from healthcare and medical records; (2) optimizing the deployment of such resources based on hospitals, regions and local pandemic levels switching from normal to the outbreak. The main idea is to develop the concepts of the novel framework for creating an inter-hospital resilient network for pandemic response based on blockchain and dynamic digital twin, which will set up innovative ways to best care for patients, protect NHS staff, and support government scientific decisions to beat COVID-19 now and manage the crisis in the future.

Seyyed-Alireza Radmanesh, Alireza Haji, Omid Fatahi Valilai

Cloud manufacturing is a new globalized manufacturing framework which has improved the performance of manufacturing systems. The service-oriented architecture as the main idea behind this framework means that all resources and capabilities are considered as services. The agents interact by way of service exchanging, which has been a part of service composition research topics. Service allocations to demanders in a cloud manufacturing system have a dynamic behavior. However, the current research studies on cloud-based service composition are mainly based on centralized global optimization models. Therefore, a distributed deployment and real-time synchronization platform, which enables the globalized collaboration in service composition, is required. This paper proposes a method of using blockchain to solve these issues. Each service composition is considered as a transaction in the blockchain concept. A block includes a set of service compositions and its validity is confirmed by a predefined consensus mechanism. In the suggested platform, the mining role in blockchain is interpreted as an endeavor for proposing the proper service composition in the manufacturing paradigm. The proposed platform has interesting capabilities as it can increase the response time using the blockchain technology and improve the overall optimality of supply-demand matching in cloud manufacturing. The efficiency of the proposed model was evaluated by investigating a service allocation problem in a cloud manufacturing system in four large scale problems. Each problem is examined in four centralized modes, two, three and four solvers in blockchain-based model. The simulation results indicate the high quality of the proposed solution. The proposed solution will lead to at least 15.14% and a maximum of 34.8 percent reduction in costs and 20 to 68.4 percent at the solving time of the problem. It is also observed that with increasing the number of solvers (especially in problems with larger dimensions) the solution speed increases sharply (more than 68% improvement in some problems), which indicates the positive effect of distribution on reducing the problem-solving time.

Benjamin Teisserenc, Samad M. E. Sepasgozar

As key technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, blockchain and digital twins have great potential to enhance collaboration, data sharing, efficiency, and sustainability in the construction industry. Blockchain can improve data integrity and enhance trust in the data value chain throughout the entire lifecycle of projects. This paper aims to develop a novel theoretical framework for the adoption of environmentally sustainable blockchain-based digital twins (BCDT) for Construction Industry (CI) 4.0. The paper identifies which key data from construction projects lifecycle should be anchored in BCDTs to benefit CI 4.0 and the environment. The paper also identifies key factors and non-functional requirements necessary for the adoption of BCDTs in a decentralized and sustainable CI 4.0. At first, a content analysis of the literature allowed the identification of which data from projects lifecycle would benefit from blockchain technology (BCT) adoption and what the key factors and non-functional requirements necessary for the adoption of BCDT in the CI4.0 are. Furthermore, the analysis of structured interviews and online survey permitted to firstly validate the hypotheses raised from the literature and to offer a novel framework for BCDT of CI 4.0 in the context of the circular economy (CE). The findings are that (1) the key project lifecycle data relevant for BCDTs relate to the BIM dimensions (3D, 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, and 8D) and a new dimension called the contractual dimension (cD) is also proposed. (2) Ecosystems of BCDTs should embrace a novel form of collaboration that is decentralized and presented as Level 4 maturity for BCDTs. This new level of maturity leverages distributed blockchain networks to enhance collaboration, processes automation with smart contracts, and data sharing within a decentralized data value chain. Finally (3), the main non-functional requirements for BCDTs are security, privacy, interoperability, data ownership, data integrity, and the decentralization and scalability of data storage. With the proposed framework including the BCDT dimensions, the Maturity Level 4, and the key non-functional requirements, this paper provides the building blocks for industry practitioners to adopt BCDTs. This is promising for CI 4.0 to embrace a paradigm shift towards decentralized ecosystems of united BCDTs where trust, collaboration, data sharing, information security, efficiency, and sustainability are improved throughout the lifecycle of projects and within a decentralized CE (DCE).

Vaibhav S. Narwane, Rakesh D. Raut, Sachin Kumar Mangla, Manoj Dora · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Fatih Çallı

Blok zinciri teknolojisinin ilk olarak kripto para birimi Bitcoin ile popüler hale gelmesi aslında büyümeye başlayan bir kartopunun ilk hareketi olarak görülmesi gerekir. Öncelikle finans sektörüne etki eden bu teknolojinin zaman ilerledikçe birçok sektörü etkisi altına aldığı görülürken turizm sektörünün yolunun da bu teknoloji ile kesişmeye başladığı yadsınamaz bir gerçektir. Bu nedenle hem akademisyenler hem araştırmacılar hem de çeşitli sektörler tarafından üzerinde yoğun bir şekilde çalışılan bir konu haline gelmiştir. Bu çalışmada bir blok zinciri uygulaması olan NFT (Non-fungible Token, Değiştirilemez Jeton) teknolojisi ele alınıp turizm sektörü açısından sunabileceği yenilikler ele alınmıştır.

Michela Magas, Dimitris Kiritsis

This paper introduces the background, concept and definition of the Industry Commons. It initiates a discussion on the positioning of the Industry Commons Ecosystem (ICE) with respect to current research directions in advanced manufacturing and production systems that shape advances in engineering and technology, novel business models and innovation breakthroughs. The potential value of data sharing across industrial domains is estimated at over $100 billion, particularly in view of optimising manufacturing processes. Data sharing across domains however faces a series of well-documented challenges associated with the lack of semantic interoperability and related standards, management of trust and sustainability. Solving bottlenecks in data sharing requires a systemic approach to data management, which can account for all aspects of data use, levels of application, attribution and dynamic exchanges. In this paper we propose a high-level ecosystem approach that integrates societal values with digital affordances of industry’s cognitive-assisted processes, remote interfacing, hybrid applications and large-scale value networks. Early development of an Ontology Commons EcoSystem (OCES) is presented as the key enabling framework for Industry Commons interoperability and a series of enabling frameworks form the basis of future research directions in Trusted Data Sharing and Closed-Loop Lifecycle Management for greater sustainability.Abbreviations: AI – Artificial Intelligence; AIOTI – Alliance of Internet-of-Things Innovation; ALM – Asset Lifecycle Management; ALO – Application-Level Ontology; AP – Application Protocol; API – Application Programming Interface; B2B – Business-to-Business; B2C – Business-to-Customer; CDE – Cross-Domain Ecosystem; CDEI – Cross-Domain Ecosystem Interoperability; CL2M – Closed-Loop Lifecycle Management; CNO – Collaborative Networked Organisations; CPS – Cyber-Physical Systems; CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility; DLO – Domain-Level Ontology; DLT – Distributed Ledger Technology; EM – Enterprise Modelling; FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable; GUI – Graphical User Interface; ICE, Industry Commons Ecosystem; IOF – Industrial Ontology Foundry; IP – Intellectual Property; IPR – Intellectual Property Rights; ISN – Intertwined Supply Network; MIR – Music Information Retrieval; MLO – Middle-Level Ontology; MO – Meta-Ontology; OCES – Ontology Commons EcoSystem; PI – Physical Internet; PLM – Product Lifecycle Management; ROI – Return-on-Investment; SC – Supply Chain; SCM – Supply Chain Management; SOS – System-of-Systems; TDS – Trusted Data Sharing; TLO – Top-Level Ontology; TRO – Top Reference Ontology; TUI – Tangible User Interface.

Manimuthu Arunmozhi, V. G. Venkatesh, Yangyan Shi, V. Raja Sreedharan · 5 authors

With smart sensors and embedded drivers, today’s automotive industry has taken a giant leap in emerging technologies like Machine learning, Artificial intelligence, and the Internet of things and started to build data-driven decision-making strategies to compete in global smart manufacturing. This paper proposes a novel design framework that uses Federated learning-Artificial intelligence (FAI) for decision-making and Smart Contract (SC) policies for process execution and control in a completely automated smart automobile manufacturing industry. The proposed design introduces a novel element called Trust Threshold Limit (TTL) that helps moderate the excess usage of embedded equipment, tools, energy, and cost functions, limiting wastages in the manufacturing processes. This research highlights the use cases of AI in decentralised Blockchain with smart contracts, the company’s trading policies, and its advantages for effectively handling market risk assessments during socio-economic crisis. The developed model supported by real-time cases incorporated cost functions, delivery time and energy evaluations. Results spotlight the use of FAI in decision accuracy for the developed smart contract-based Automobile Assembly Model (AAM), thereby qualitatively limiting the threshold level of cost, energy and other control functions in procurement assembly and manufacturing. Customisation and graphical user interface with cloud integration are some challenges of this model.

Christian Straubert, Eric Sucky

Background: The use of blockchain technology for tracking and tracing (T&T) in supply chains is the subject of lively debate in scientific literature. However, distributed ledger technology (DLT) does not have to have the characteristic blockchain structure and often performs better without such a structure. Generalized DLT for T&T in supply chains has rarely been discussed in the existing literature. Methods: This article presents an exploratory case study research of eight companies to identify the main goals, and problems that the companies have when they engage in T&T. This practical perspective is complemented by a theoretical systems thinking perspective. Based on these two foundations, we discuss the usefulness of blockchain technology and, more generally, DLT for T&T in supply chains. Results: Based on our analysis, DLT is only necessary in special cases, e.g., when the owners of the data have an interest in deleting the data, but the data stakeholders do not. In the other cases examined, DLT competes with other technologies, such as conventional, centralized databases in combination with digital signatures. Furthermore, it became evident that DLT can only be useful for supply chain tracing. The technological features of DLT do not provide any benefit for supply chain tracking, i.e., the timely communication of the status of a physical good. Conclusions: Distributed ledgers often have a disadvantage in that they are very complex and, therefore, expensive. DLT should preferably only be used when it is technologically necessary or the simplest/cheapest choice, which is probably not all that often. Finally, the usefulness of distributed ledger technology and its integrated smart contract technology is highly dependent on how easy it is to link the real physical world to a digital record/contract in an error-free and tamper-proof way. Currently, such a definite link exists only in very few cases and is often impossible.

Andrea Teresa Espinoza Pérez, Daniel Alejandro Rossit, Fernando Tohmé, Óscar C. Vásquez

No abstract is available for this record.