Exploring aspects of automation decisions : A study in the Swedish wood products industry

The wood products industry is important to Sweden's prosperity, and is currently facing several challenges by increased global competition. To avoid the gradual decline of the industry’s contribution to the country’s revenues and employment opportunities, the Swedish wood products industry needs to increase the proportion of the raw material that is refined. New and efficient manufacturing technologies are essential to support this development. The implementation of automation in manufacturing needs to be supported by conscious and well-defined strategies. However, currently, there is a lack of knowledge regarding automation decisions in this industry. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge regarding which aspects should be taken into account when automation decisions are considered in the wood products industry. Three research questions are addressed: (1) What is the current state of manufacturing operations in the wood products industry? (2) What are the potential opportunities for automation in the wood products industry? And (3) What challenges can arise from automation in the wood products industry? The results presented in this thesis are based on four research papers. The first paper provides an overview of the current state of manufacturing operations in the wood products industry. The second paper examined the impact of the raw material on manufacturing operations in the wood products industry. The third paper assessed how the levels of automation in manufacturing impact operational performance. The fourth paper examined automation opportunities and challenges to gain a better understanding of the reasoning behind automation decisions in the industry. In general, it is concluded that automation decisions in the wood products industry tend to be based on “gut feeling” and previous experience with automation rather than well-defined decisions and strategies. This is due to inadequate knowledge and familiarity with automation technologies in manufacturing. Furthermore, the findings showed that different aspects of manufacturing interact and impact each other. For this reason, it is essential to take into account other aspects of manufacturing when considering automation decisions.ProWOO