Adaptation of Block Chain Technology in manufacturing sector

Abstract

Block chain technology, hailed as the new internet is a revolutionary concept that can ensure transparent transactions through data authenticity and integrity with wide coverage area ranging from business to healthcare to real estate and designed to operate in the framework of an interlinked network or cluster of computing systems. Taking the example of the manufacturing sector, there are several transactions including sales, purchase and other expenditures that are to be accounted and there is a need for several ledgers maintained such as cash books, sales and purchase accounts which can be replaced by a single distributed ledger in public domain in chronological order. Also, in project activities there are capital costs that include infrastructure as well as technology costs, operational expenses and several direct and indirect expenses. Block chain technology can play a vital role in these transactions and can have wide scope in the area of logistics particularly in supply order processing including smart contracting, supply chain management, energy management, assets transfer, part processing, design, patent handling, electronic commerce, digital strategies and in ERP methodologies. While the idea of such a system is proposed to be the most preferred mode of transactions with data security and traceability and decentralization there are several challenges that need to be addressed before its implementation in totality. This paper intends to bring out the requirements analysis through expectations of the manufacturing sector by which it can possibly benefit from the integration of blockchain technology into the system.