Sustainable circular economy
trace-wood – Intelligent traceability of wood
For the sustainable use of wood, seamless, tamper-proof, and unambiguous identification along the value chain is essential. The primary goal of the trace-wood research project is to demonstrate the fundamental technical and economic feasibility of suitable marking technologies for the complete tracking of the wood material flow along the value chain.
Task
Within the framework of the FFG-funded project Think.Wood of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management, a solution was to be developed to make wood traceable along the entire value chain. The aim was to create a foundation for a sustainable circular economy.
Customer & Sector
Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management
Manufacturing industry
Services
Digital Consulting
UI/UX
Web App
Backend Development
IT & DevOps
Solution
Our task was to implement the IT-relevant work packages – including the design of the technical architecture, the implementation of the tracking logic, the development of a dashboard to visualize the data, and the information app for end customers.
Zeitraum
Start: 02/2023 – ongoing
Technologien
C#
Angular
PostgreSQL
The problem
A key question regarding the sustainable use of wood is: Where is a particular log or the boards and veneers made from it located at which processing stage of the value chain from forest to furniture?
Special challenges
Developing a SaaS solution is not just a software project, but a balancing act between scalability, automation, and operational reliability.
A multi-tenant architecture must enable the efficient and isolated operation of many customers. New customer instances are created on demand – automatically, quickly, and reliably. This is based on a Kubernetes-based infrastructure that intelligently manages provisioning and operations through specially developed operators.
At the same time, complexity increases due to the integration of third-party services such as payment providers, as well as the demand for highly available database clusters that must guarantee stability and data consistency at all times. In live operation, comprehensive monitoring and logging ensure transparency and rapid response times.
This is complemented by tenant-specific backup strategies that guarantee security and recoverability.
The result: a highly complex but scalable platform that enables growth – provided the architecture and operation are properly conceived from the outset.
The dashboard displays key information such as delivery details, wood type, wood quality, and a certification overview for entire shipments, as is typical for goods receipt at a sawmill or furniture manufacturer. Additional details can be accessed for each shipment, and its origin can be displayed on a standard navigation map.
Conclusion
The system enables seamless traceability of wood – from the tree to the finished piece of furniture. Our IT implementation has created the technical foundation for making sustainable material flows in the wood sector transparent and verifiable.
Team/Credits
Consulting: Michael Hsieh
PM: Zaim Sarajlic
Development: Saidat Talkanova, Martin Unger, Zaim Sarajlic, Leonhard Brunner-Plasch, Stefan Klinger, Benedikt Schmatz, Christian Rieger
Michael Hsieh
Product Manager, timewizz
“The implementation as a multi-tenant cloud product was perfectly realized by Fraiss IT. We now have exactly the right partner to scale timewizz across the DACH region.”
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