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

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.