A blockchain-enabled and event-driven tracking framework for SMEs to improve cooperation transparency in manufacturing supply chain

Recently, improving supply chain transparency has become a challenge faced by many Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing supply chain. Implementing blockchain-based traceability of cooperation process is an effective and reliable method for distributed SMEs to enhance supply chain transparency. In this context, this paper proposes a general blockchain-based and event-driven tracking (BET) framework to guide SMEs to establish a blockchain-based cooperation tracking (BCT) platform according to their customized requirements. In the BET framework, firstly, a cooperation process model is proposed to represent the cooperation process between SMEs. Secondly, a blockchain model is constructed, in which a block data structure is designed to describe the data storage pattern related to the cooperation process in the blockchain and a smart contract is defined to express event-driven cooperation tracking rules. Based on that, the general architecture and event-driven runtime logic of the BCT platform are given. Finally, a demonstrative case is studied to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of the BET framework. In this case, a BCT platform is successfully constructed following the three-layer structure of the BET framework. It demonstrates that the BET framework can provide effective instructions for SMEs to establish their customized BCT platform for reliable cooperation tracking.