Blockchain-Enabled Open Quality System for Smart Manufacturing: Applications and Challenges

Abstract

In this technological development era, new trends and approaches related to quality management are emerging. Although many studies have focused on quality management in Industry 4.0, new technologies face difficulties in resolving problems arising from lack of trust, transparency, integrity, track-and-traceability, connectivity, and responsibility in evaluating quality. In this article, we discuss the potential of blockchain to deliver business value with transparent quality by introducing a new quality concept called “open quality”. A systematic literature review presents the increased visibility of open quality across the manufacturing system, based on which a “blockchain-enabled open quality” (OQB) framework in the fourth industrial revolution is proposed. The research contributes by providing a platform to share manufacturing information regarding quality within the entire system, thus ensuring that all members and processes of the system obtain verified information to enhance trust, transparency, and track-and-traceability. By this, manufacturers are able to meet the expectations of the customer and stakeholder with an improved product and system quality. In addition, the potential threats associated with OQB system implementation and their possible solutions are also discussed. Moreover, research gaps that can be explored in future study and the opportunities for new concepts of quality in Industry 4.0 are presented.

Blockchain-enabled supply chain management: integrated impact on firm performance and robustness capabilities

“…Blockchain enables SC to provide capabilities to the firm to handle expected and unexpected demand/supply changes with accurate forecasting using real-time information, end-to-end visibility and transparency in the SC function, which leads to an increase in firm performance (Kayikci et al, 2022;Kumar et al, 2020). With the adoption of blockchain for SC, the firm can obtain several benefits such as 1) an effective knowledge-sharing platform among SC members (internal and external), 2) strengthening the firm's risk management, 3) accurate decision-making, 4) SC flexibility, 5) enhancing resilience, which highly indicates that the firm increases its SC robustness capabilities (Ali et al, 2022;Dasaklis et al, 2022;Dutta et al, 2020;Ghode et al, 2020). Furthermore, the blockchain provides strong integration between internal and external SC members and increases SC agility by providing an information-sharing platform and superior cybersecurity for financial transactions (Haroon et al, 2019;Muheidat et al, 2022).…”

Blockchain Technology for Oil and Gas: Implications and Adoption Framework Using Agile and Lean Supply Chains

“…In this study, 12 SC practices were derived from identified SC types, and their needs for blockchain were discussed according to the essential blockchain features of each type. An SC network can be classified as agile (responsiveness) or lean (eliminating waste) according to the operational needs of the SC [16,[36][37][38][39]. Furthermore, SCM-related firm performance is generally based on five dimensions: increases in sales, more accurate costing, increases in coordination with vendors, increases in coordination between departments, and increases in coordination with customers [15,16].…”

Wire and Cable Quality Traceability System Based on Industrial Internet of Things and Blockchain

“…Numerous scholars have produced a large amount of research on applying these two technologies in quality traceability. Shujaat A. et al [4] reviewed the application scenarios of the blockchain in the field of intelligent manufacturing. They proposed constructing an open quality system to expand the transparency of industrial product quality.…”