Postural risk assessment in wood measurement: a follow-up study to explore new measurement options and to check the repeatability of outcomes when using digital options

Technology development and digitalization has brought new opportunities in many industrial sectors, including forestry. Wood measurement is an important process, that in many regions changes from manual activities to the use of digital tools, and the validation of new approaches is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the sector. This study was setup mainly as a follow-up attempt to validate the results of postural risks when using digital tools to measure the logs. In addition, the study explores the postural condition of a new measurement option, namely scanning of wood loaded into trucks. Generally, the digital measurement options including the use of smartphones and professional LiDAR scanners generated lower postural risks, results which are consistent with and validate previous findings. Although the studied measurement options showed a statistically significant different profile in terms of postural condition, manual wood measurement remains challenging in terms of postural risk. From a postural assessment perspective, transition to digital tools in wood measurement seems to be a sustainable option on the long run, but it will require the development of existing algorithms so as to be able to extract useful information form the collected data.