Sustainability 2025 , 17 , 770
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4.1.6. Adaptability The final stage involves systems that autonomously adapt and optimise processes in real time using AI and self-learning technologies. These systems can dynamically respond to changes in the environment, ensuring sustained efficiency, agility, and resilience. At the highest stage of maturity, systems possess the capability to autonomously adapt to changing conditions and optimise operations in real time. The focus here is on autonomous decision-making and self-optimising systems that dynamically respond to fluctuations in the environment. Leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, these systems can independently adjust processes, allocate resources, and implement improvements without human intervention. This level of sophistication enables organisations to achieve unparalleled efficiency, agility, and resilience as their operations continuously evolve in response to real-time data and emerging trends, ensuring sustained competitive advantage and operational excellence. 5. Survey Design The survey was conducted by ZELLCHEMING’s technical committee DATA during the ZELLCHEMING Expo 2024, the trade fair for the pulp, paper and fibre industry and its suppliers. Given the busy environment of the fair, the survey was designed to be quick and easy to complete, ensuring high participation rates and meaningful insights. To achieve this, one-on-one interviews were conducted, avoiding multiple representatives from the same company to maintain a diverse and broad perspective across different organisations. No specific focus was placed on the type of companies to ensure a wide-ranging and comprehensive picture of the industry’s digitalisation status. A total of 24 participants from individual companies were asked 18 questions each. The template of the questionnaire can be requested from the authors. For the sake of clarity, the questions are directly linked to the survey results in the following chapter. Key findings are presented in Section 7. 6. Survey Results and Discussion The results of the survey are presented in the following figures and then discussed. Figures 2 and 3 provide information about the interviewees and their companies. As the ZELLCHEMING Expo is intended for the pulp, paper and fibre industry and its suppliers, it is hardly surprising that around a third of the interviewees hold a sales position. It should, however, be emphasised that the survey is merely a random sample. There are also many ‘small’ companies (16 out of 24 representatives from a company with fewer than 2500 employees).
Figure2. Position of the interviewee in the company.
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