Abstract: The plywood industry faces problems such as extensive management, low production efficiency and weak pollution control. It is critical to use cleaner production audit as the starting point to promote the green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the industry. The current national standard Assessment Indicator Frame of Cleaner Production for Wood-based Panel Industry (GB/T 29904-2013) is applicable to the cleaner production audit of all wood-based panel production companies. However, it has poor industry specificity and operability, and the benchmark values of the assessment indicators need to be further optimized and clarified. Combined with the current technological status of plywood industry, the main pollutant generation and energy consumption in each production link were analyzed through data research, on-site visits and tests, questionnaires, and expert consultation. Based on the current requirements of green, circular and low-carbon development and the whole process system concept of source, process and end, a relatively scientific and highly operable cleaner production assessment indicator system for the plywood industry was developed. The first-level indicators included 8 categories, i.e. production technology and equipment, energy consumption, raw/auxiliary material consumption, resource consumption and comprehensive utilization, pollutant generation and emission, carbon emissions, product characteristics, and cleaner production management; the second-level indicators belonged to the first-level indicators, with 23 specific assessment indicators proposed, covering 9 restrictive indicators that had a significant impact on corporate energy conservation, emission reduction and product quality. This indicator system was applied to conduct cleaner production audits of plywood companies, guiding them to explore cleaner production potentials and opportunities, and supporting the innovation audit of cleaner production in plywood industry.