Industrial processes efficiency and lower energy consumption initiatives through advanced retrofitting in the wood industry

Abstract

In a modern manufacturing system for furniture production, raw material and material, energy and information flows are directly interconnected to obtain competitive products while increasing the productivity, profitability and environmental performance of the enterprise. In the wood industry manufacturing system, raw wood undergoes physical and biological transformation processes (drying and transformation of the biological properties of wood) as well as disruptive actions that are compensated by the order quantities. Energy as a resource has an important role to play in this production process, and it involves consuming a certain amount of energy. It is one of the biggest and costliest resources involved in the manufacturing process. The required energy is generally transmitted from the outside in the form of electric or thermal energy. From the energy input, only a part becomes useful energy, the rest representing energy losses. By reducing energy consumption, reversing energy losses and integrating materials and material losses into energy recovered through retrofitting, revenue and profit can increase, leading to an increase in employee satisfaction. The easier it is to maximize profits and lower the operating costs, the quicker is the recovery of the investments, and that will change in the operating mode in: “WORKING SMARTER NOT HARDER”.

Synergies and trade-offs between ecological and productivity-enhancing measures in industrial production – a systematic review

“…In three additional cases, cooperation with companies is at least noteworthy (Tiwari et al, 2020;Yang and Feng, 2008;Zhu et al, 2007). The majority of publications are peer-reviewed journal papers or part of conference proceedings; exceptions are Ndikumana (2019), Pampanelli et al (2015 and Wills (2009). Nevertheless, the authors of this paper concluded that there are no reasons for the exclusion of specific sources.…”

Industry 4.0 as an Opportunity and Challenge for the Furniture Industry—A Case Study

“…Together with a chaotic warehouse system and an automated labelling unit, they form an efficient production cell suitable for companies involved in piece production. The development of standardisation and seriality causes the transfer of furniture production from small workshops to large units [39].…”

“…The aim of Industry 4.0 is to create a model in which new technologies and workers interact and create an intelligent and efficient environment [38]. In a modern furniture production system, the flows of raw materials and materials, energy and information are directly linked to the aim of producing competitive products while increasing productivity, profitability and environmental performance [39]. Industry 4.0 consists of three main features that have been described in several studies [5,40], which consist of three different types of integration that are expected to fill the production network in the future [41,42], namely, the vertical, horizontal and complete technical integration [31].…”