Blockchain Applications in Digital Construction Supply Chains

Blockchain Applications in Digital Construction Supply Chains

Chen Wang, Benben Cui, Yutong Tang
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/IJAL.322098
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Abstract

This article takes the relevant construction supply chain (CSC) literature of the Web of Science Core Collection Database in the past 20 years and its construction supply chain - blockchain as the object, and then aims to identify and analyze the articles related to the application of blockchain technology in the CSC, and analyze the related problems and potential of the CSC in the application of blockchain technology. An analysis and exploration of a total of 395 articles was conducted. Through VOS viewer software, the author in collaboration network, key term co-occurrence network, and theme classification visualization network of the research field are extracted. The research status of blockchain technology in the CSC is analyzed, and the two key issues of the CSC are focused on through literature reading, so as to explore the application prospects of blockchain technology, and make relevant discussions and some application prospects for the application of blockchain technology in the future.
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1. Introduction

The construction industry is one of the largest in the world, accounting for 13% of the world's total gross domestic product (GDP) and 7% of the world's total employment population (Barbosa, Woetzel, & Mischke, 2017). With artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), geographic information systems (GIS), digital photogrammetry, building information modelling (BIM), 3D printing, laser scanning, global positioning system (GPS), radio frequency identification physical equipment (RFID), augmented reality (AR) sensors, robotics, big data management and a series of new and more mature digital (Bhattacharyya, Maitra, & Deb, 2021; Wang, Wang, Sepasgozar, & Zlatanova, 2020)the level of uniformization in the construction industry has been continuously improved, and the way information is shared in the CSC has also changed.

The CSC is the means of delivering a construction project to the i.e., the project owner. It comprises a supply chain of materials, labor, and equipment involving multiple stakeholders, such as owners, general contractors (GCs), subcontractors, and various suppliers (Balasubramanian & Shukla, 2018; Butkovic, Kauric, & Mikulic, 2016; Fischer, Ashcraft, Reed, & Khanzode, 2017). Involves multi-stakeholder integration of supply chain processes, exchange of information and collaboration (J. C. Cheng, Law, Bjornsson, Jones, & Sriram, 2010; Fearne & Fowler, 2006; Hao, Du, Huang, Shao, & Yan, 2019). As a result, these lead to some of the problems in the CSC of the CSC, such as inefficient logistics and inventory management, extended delivery times, wasted resources and processes, product out-of-specs, and conflicts among stakeholders. At this stage, the BIM collaborative management cloud platform can provide an information platform for cross-departmental data integration and collaborative sharing in the project CSC involving owners, designers, contractors and other participants, such as Li et al. (C. Z. Li, Xue, Li, Hong, & Shen, 2018; G. Xu, Li, Chen, & Wei, 2018; Zhai et al., 2019; Zhong et al., 2017)co-developed a practical cloud platform for microcontrollers in prefabricated buildings by adopting building information modeling (BIM) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These multidimensional IoT-BIM platforms can help collect real-time data to improve visibility and traceability of production, logistics, and on-site installations. Different stakeholders can then track the cost and progress of the project (C. Z. Li et al., 2021)which greatly improves the efficiency of information sharing. However, there are some problems with the promotion process of cloud platforms. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is difficult to achieve real-time improvements in the Internet of Things (IoT) when it comes to making changes (Xue & Lu, 2020). Random errors, noise, or malicious data generated by IoT sensors can lead to a single point of failure in IoT networks, degrading the data quality of BIM, and negatively impacting the trustworthiness of IoT BIM (Lee, Lee, Masoud, Krishnan, & Li, 2021). The lack of an information security system seriously hinders the sharing of information between all parties. Data privacy, trust, and intellectual property are key issues in the digital transformation of the construction industry (Ahmed, Tezel, Aziz, & Sibley, 2017; Sadeghi, Wachsmann, & Waidner, 2015). A secure information assurance system and a trusting approach to information exchange help improve the efficiency of information sharing within the building supply chain and ensure the achievement of overall project performance objectives. As a result, blockchain technology has attracted the attention of practitioners and researchers as a solution to the drawbacks of existing information sharing in the construction industry.

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