Blockchain-Based Trust Mechanism for IoT-Based Smart Manufacturing System

Integrated and collaborative manufacturing system develops as massive data are obtained by the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. However, the “trust tax” imposed on manufacturers during their countless collaborations with customers, suppliers, distributors, governments, service providers, and other manufacturers is very high. Blockchain is an emerging technology that can lead to more transparent, secure, and efficient transactions. It represents a new paradigm, as well as new thinking, of how data can be securely stored, integrated, and communicated among different stakeholders, organizations, and systems that unnecessarily trust each other. Blockchain is greatly useful for reducing the “trust tax,” especially beneficial for the small- and medium-sized enterprises that must tolerate much heavier trust tax than the established manufacturers. This paper investigates the blockchain-based security and trust mechanism and elaborates a particular application of blockchain for quality assurance, which is one of the strategic priorities of smart manufacturing. Data generated in a smart manufacturing process can be leveraged to retrieve material provenance, facilitate equipment management, increase transaction efficiency, and create a flexible pricing mechanism. The dairy industry is used to instantiate the value propositions of blockchain for quality assurance.