Blockchain technology for Green Manufacturing: A Systematic Literature Review on applications, drivers, enablers and challenges

Abstract

Blockchain technology(BCT) is a promising technology for Industry 4.0 and enhances sustainability, traceability, and resilience for Green manufacturing(GM) in the value chain. This literature study aims to evaluate the existing and current literature for contributing to the research focusing on BCT to GM industries with insight into the drivers, enablers, and challenges of BCT. This review is not limited to highlighting the contributions and application of blockchain to eco-friendly manufacturing, it will take into account the role of emerging technology applicable to GM in Industry 4.0. In conducting this review, the number of 113 qualitative articles were selected to be analyzed deeply using bibliometric and content analysis, based on their contents, year of publication, keywords, the methodology used, and recommendations of the authors. The results accentuated the connection between BCT and their associated technology, including Artificial Intelligence(AI) and the Internet of Things(IoT), for enhancing GM by accounting for the drivers, enablers, and challenges of implementing the BCT to GM. In the conclusion of our literature review reveals that BCT is a promising technology in the context of our review since it offers two main capabilities: transaction transparency and robustness, which are mandatory for GM implementation. In addition, we concluded that the majority of existing research works focus only on one or two aspects of GM and are destined to specific industries or use cases that limit their applicability. Unfortunately, there are gaps related to standardization, the 4.0 industry implications, and the adoption of BCT identified during the analysis of this review.