A dual-contract architecture with role-based access control for supply chain traceability and accountability

Area of Science:

• Supply Chain Management
• Industry 4.0
• Blockchain Technology

Background:

• Modern supply chains face challenges like lack of transparency, data integrity issues, and regulatory non-compliance.
• These vulnerabilities can lead to fraud, business disruptions, and loss of visibility.
• Secure, intelligent, and responsible frameworks aligned with Industry 4.0 standards are necessary.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel dual-contract-based architecture integrated with role-based strategies for supply chain management.
• To enhance traceability, accountability, and interoperability in unified supply inspection chains.
• To analyze and compare the performance of three smart contract (SC) optimization mechanisms: Separation of Logic Ownership (SLO), Resource Isolation Control (RIC), and DUal-layer VALidation (DUAL).

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a dual-contract-based architecture with role-based strategies.
• Performance evaluation of SLO, RIC, and DUAL smart contract optimization mechanisms.
• Analysis of key performance metrics including latency, packet size, computational overhead, gas fees, transaction costs, and execution costs.
• Development of a rank-based accountability scoring system for inspection teams.

Main Results:

• The DUal-layer VALidation (DUAL) mechanism demonstrated superior performance in reducing packet size, gas fees, execution costs, and transaction costs.
• The DUAL mechanism exhibited higher traceability latency due to enhanced security measures.
• The Resource Isolation Control (RIC) mechanism offered a balanced performance across all evaluated indicators.
• The proposed role-based ranking model enhances the effectiveness, transparency, and reliability of inspection processes.

Conclusions:

• The novel dual-contract architecture and role-based strategies offer significant improvements for Industry 4.0 supply chains.
• Optimization mechanisms like DUAL and RIC provide different trade-offs between performance and security.
• The role-based ranking system contributes to more robust and trustworthy supply chain inspection.