Lean. Digital. Green: Furniture Manufacturing Through Students’ Eyes

On March 24, over 30 students and lecturers from the Institute of Woodworking Technologies and Design of UNFU – the DRWO4.0 project SAP stepped outside the classroom to test one important assumption: theory only becomes meaningful when it meets practice.

During a full-day study visit to furniture enterprises WOWiN and ROOMIO, participants explored how the concepts they studied actually function in real production environments.

At WOWiN, students observed the mass production of upholstery. Working in teams, they analysed the company through Lean.Digital.Green lens, identifying:

• 3 key observations

• 2 challenges

• 1 idea for improvement

But the most valuable part was not observation; it was reflection.  4 student teams presented their findings and discussed them directly with WOWiN’s CEO. This simple framework turned passive learning into active critical thinking.

At ROOMIO, students conducted an Express diagnostic of the enterprise to assess its level of transformation toward a Smart Factory. Using a structured evaluation framework developed with materials from Culmena d.o.o. (Croatia), they analysed the company across three dimensions - Lean, Digital, and Green, scoring key aspects such as process efficiency, data integration, and sustainability practices. This hands-on assessment allowed students not only to observe but to systematically evaluate the real-world implementation of Industry 4.0 principles.

This was an important exercise to add understanding of the Industry 4.0 Transformation Model for student that tomorrow will be part of the process of applying it in Ukraine. Successfully tested by students, the Guidelines for application, modification, and replication of the I4.0 transformation model are now ready to be shared with enterprises.