Applicability of Blockchain Technology in Scheduling Resources Within Distributed Manufacturing

Collaborative production networks are becoming a common setting in modern times. Issues of how and where data from IoT devices is stored and how communication between entities is conducted are not fully resolved. Decentralized approaches provide opportunities compared with centralized approaches in this context, especially in terms of trust and data security. One technology that has emerged recently is the blockchain technology. Although the potential benefits are well known, literature on blockchain in supply chain management and manufacturing is scarce. This paper presents a concept for the use of blockchain technology in distributed manufacturing. By utilizing smart contracts, manufacturing processes are executed on shared resources in distributed collaborative production networks. Benefits and risks of the proposed methodology are identified. The paper is completed by a case study with several companies operating in distributed manufacturing.