From forest to finished products: The contribution of Industry 4.0 technologies to the wood sector

This study offers a Systematic Literature Review of the main applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in the wood sector, from forest management and raw materials production to the manufacturing of finished wood and paper products. The review, based on a rigorous and structured process, includes 106 papers published between January 2011 and December 2020. The analysis and categorization of the selected papers brings to the creation of a summary framework, which identifies (1) the needs of the wood sector that can be addressed with Industry 4.0, (2) the actions to be implemented to satisfy each need and (3) the specific Industry 4.0 technologies to be adopted for the implementation of the identified actions. Overall, the analyses conducted show that Industry 4.0 is mainly applied in previous literature to collect, share and analyze different types of data through network and data processing technologies, thus supporting decision-making processes along the entire wood supply chain. The aforementioned summary framework, which provides a complete overview of the contribution of Industry 4.0 to the wood sector, is used for the development of promising future research opportunities, deriving mainly from the investigation of underexploited Industry 4.0 technologies (i.e., blockchain, augmented reality, autonomous and collaborative robots). The research provides contributions to both academics and practitioners interested in the application of the new technologies to the different wood supply chain processes.