Wood Products Manufacturing Optimization: A Survey

The wood industry is a basic industry supplying primary materials to produce a wide range of products. The wood processing in sawmills bridges the transformation flow of raw materials to final products using machinery. Over the last decade, the global market for wood products has become highly competitive. As a result, sawmills are continually striving to improve their efficiency throughout their production process. Recent advances in automation systems and manufacturing technologies provide traditional sawmills with an unprecedented opportunity to be transformed into automated manufacturing plants to increase their efficiency. This opportunity motivates sawmill planners to adopt decision optimization technologies for enhancing their production yields. This transformation will support sawmills to remain resilient in current and future competitive markets. Although there is a vast amount of literature on decision-making in wood manufacturing in sawmills, a comprehensive overview of related approaches and findings with a special focus on optimization of decision processes is still lacking. The review firstly focuses on exploring opportunities provided by optimizing decision-making processes in the wood manufacturing along with associated roadblocks and challenges. Then, we explore methodologies adopted in the literature when aiming for the design and implementation of optimal decision-making systems. Finally, we provide references and guidelines for researchers and manufacturers interested in the topic, as well as formulate research gaps and recommendations for future research directions.