Role-Tailored Map Dashboards—A New Approach for Enhancing the Forest-based Supply Chain

Abstract

The article presents a map dashboard aimed at enhancing the information flow in the forest-based supply chain (FbSC). We especially focus on the procurement stage and connect the stakeholders in (near) real-time via standardized data models, interfaces and services, as well as using open-source software only. For the communication strategy, we use a new approach that incorporates the user’s roles and tasks to create role-tailored views on the dashboard showing specific task-oriented web maps. Hence, the first research question aims at identifying the roles and tasks in Austrian forestry. We identified four major roles (site managers & foresters, forest workers, truck drivers, customers) and six tasks during group discussions. The second research question deals with the effects of a role-tailored map dashboard. Therefore, we evaluated the prototype in a two-week test phase that concludes with a field study with five experts. The results are twofold: qualitative using the results from field interviews and quantitative based on a now vs. then comparison with regard to the number of media disruptions. This comparison reveals that up to 80% of the media disruption in our use case scenario could be removed by using the role-tailored map dashboard.