Digitalization of small and medium sized sawmills in Austria: a survey about business processes

This study investigates the level of digitalization as well as opportunities and challenges from the perspective of sawmill representatives. The level of digitalization of business processes was assessed by a survey on digitalization criteria regarding business processes. The questions dealt with the existence of basic data processing, digitally networked information and communication and digitally networked products and services. Over 700 small and medium sized sawmills were contacted by e-mail or mail using enterprise directories. The response of 87 completed questionnaires was analyzed by means of cluster analysis. The companies were divided into different groups based on their similarity regarding the digitalization criteria. The study identified three clusters: the first cluster (n1 = 35), the “manual small business”, did not reach the first stage of digitalization. The second cluster (n2 = 26), the “automated business”, has partially reached the first stage of digitalization. The third cluster (n3 = 26), the “solid developed” group, has reached the first stage of digitalization as the basic hardware and software is available. The increasing networking of the value chain, the workplace of the future and the increasing individualization of customer requirements are perceived as opportunities. The main barriers are data protection and data security whereas cloud solutions are considered as the biggest risk.