Digital Technologies for Forest Supply Chain Optimization: Existing Solutions and Future Trends

Abstract

The role of digital technologies for fostering sustainability and efficiency in forest-based supply chains is well acknowledged and motivated several studies in the scope of precision forestry. Sensor technologies can collect relevant data in forest-based supply chains, comprising all activities from within forests and the production of the woody raw material to its transformation into marketable forest-based products. Advanced planning systems can help to support decisions of the various entities in the supply chain, e.g., forest owners, harvest companies, haulage companies, and forest product processing industry. Such tools can help to deal with the complex interdependencies between different entities, often with opposing objectives and actions-which may increase efficiency of forest-based supply chains. This paper analyzes contemporary literature dealing with digital technologies in forest-based supply chains and summarizes the state-of-the-art digital technologies for real-time data collection on forests, product flows, and forest operations, as well as planning systems and other decision support systems in use by supply chain actors. Higher sustainability and efficiency of forest-based supply chains require a seamless information flow to foster integrated planning of the activities over the supply chain-thereby facilitating seamless data exchange between the supply chain entities and foster new forms of collaboration. Therefore, this paper deals with data exchange and multi-entity collaboration aspects in combination with interoperability challenges related with the integration among multiple process data collection tools and advanced planning systems. Finally, this interdisciplinary review leads to the discussion of relevant guidelines that can guide future research and integration projects in this domain.

Augmented Reality and Mobile GIS as Tools for Teaching Data-collection in the Context of Forest Inventories

“…GIS is therefore frequently found in forestry curricula (see e.g. Scholz et al, 2018;Arevalo et al, 2010), but a didactical combination of AR and GI-Science tools and methods with forest inventory and mensuration techniques is not widely implemented in higher education curricula, although using virtual reality in technical training is becoming more and more popular (Cochrane, 2016), for example as instruction for operating chainsaws, in flight simulations or in medical school training. However, to the best of our knowledge, only a few studies (e.g.…”

Role-Tailored Map Dashboards—A New Approach for Enhancing the Forest-based Supply Chain

“…Mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones will play an increasing role in the future of data collection within the forest [67]. Scholz et al [5] have already revealed that there is a need for an integrated, near real-time, and process oriented solution combining sensor measurements, positioning and spatial data. In this article, we presented a role-tailored map dashboard prototype that aims at fulfilling all these requirements using the map metaphor and a responsive design.…”

“…Scholz et al [5] performed a literature review regarding the digitization of the FbSC and provide guidelines for the development of technologies to improve the information flow in FbSCs. The article concludes that higher sustainability and efficiency of the FbSC requires a seamless information flow between the entities present in the FbSC [6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Von Schnetzler et al [37] proposed a modification of the supply chain operations reference to describe and standardize the FbSC. Collaborative approaches in the FbSC are still hard to find [5]. Nevertheless, a number of publications identified crucial issues regarding the interactions of stakeholders of the FbSC (e.g., [38][39][40][41][42]).…”

Uncertainty Simulation of Wood Chipping Operation for Bioenergy Based on Queuing Theory

“…Flexible trucking systems require real-time information and communication technologies [5] for optimization [31,32]. It requires massive investment and the sharing of needs and/or resources based on collaboration among stakeholders [33] while it is rarely fixed in time [34]. The result of this study enables a company to choose alternatives to secure the throughput by independent management means such as outsourcing or preparing buffer storage according to the estimated production loss as risk hedging [35].…”