Protecting Manufacturing Supply Chains Through PLM - Blockchain Integration and Data Model Encapsulation

Abstract

Product design is often a process that involves multiple parties collaborating with each other to design a final product. The involvement of multiple parties induces several risks associated with cyber security and intellectual property theft. These risks are hard to address especially in the case of traditional centralized platforms which may be prone to misconfiguration and software vulnerabilities. As a potential solution, we aim at addressing the issue of design data exchange through decentralized platforms such as the blockchain. Our solution leverages data formats that can segment product data models and gives the ability to control access to data through a decentralized platform which can be fully integrated with PLM processes through APIs. A proof of concept of this solution using the open-source Odoo PLM platform as well as the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain development platform is demonstrated.