Browsing by Subject "puunhankinta"

The right wood raw material should be delivered to the right wood processing mill at the right time, while minimizing costs. In other words, the log demand distributions and quality requirements of mills should be fulfilled. Bucking control tries to solve two problems; what kind of wood assortments to cut from each stand, and what dimensions to cut within each wood assortment. The success of bucking is important, as it is difficult to fix a poor bucking outcome. Modern harvesters collect stem data, from which virtual trees can be created. The bucking of these virtual trees can be simulated with different product instructions and settings. A bucking simulator can be utilized in predicting and optimizing bucking outcome. However, without quality-information of stems a bucking simulator is overly optimistic. Stem quality-information utilized in previous studies has been laborious to collect, and there has been little validation of log distributions simulated with stem quality-information. The object of this study was to determine whether a method, where stem quality-information is derived from harvester-collected stem and log data, could be utilized to improve the accuracy of simulated wood assortment recoveries and distributions. The study focused on Metsä Fibre’s sawmill in Vilppula and clear-cut stands. The usability of the method in bucking control and wood procurement in Finland was of central interest. Results were examined based on the theoretical framework of the study, which outlined the significance of the results to business operations. The bucking of real stems registered by harvesters was simulated with real quality-information derived from harvester-collected data, predicted quality-information derived from the previously mentioned quality data, and without any quality-information. The bucking outcomes were compared to real bucking outcomes registered by harvesters. The focus was on validating the real quality-information derived from harvester-collected data, while the predicted quality-information worked as an example. Without quality-information the simulated total log distribution and the real total log distribution had a match of 84.2 % (butt log: 86.4 %; top and middle log: 80.8 %). With the real quality-information this percentage increased by 2.9 percentile points (butt log: 2.4 pp; top and middle log: 2.4 pp). With the predicted quality-information the percentage increased by 1.6 percentile points (butt log: 1.4 pp; top and middle log: 2.7 pp). The relative bias and the RMSE of the simulated log recovery were 19.0 % (42.6 m³) and 24.6 % (55.1 m³) with no quality-information. With the real quality-information the relative bias and the RMSE of the simulated log recovery were -0.4 % (-1.0 m³) and 4.1 % (9.1 m³). With the predicted quality-information the relative bias and the RMSE of the simulated log recovery were 2.0 % (4.4 m³) and 12.3 % (27.6 m³). The real quality-information was derived from data that was cost-effectively collected by harvesters. Quality-information derived from harvester-collected data enables the consideration of complex dimensional and qualitative requirements, and the derivation of quality-information predictions, in a situation where clear quality-sections of stems can’t be defined.

The operation environment in the roundwood trade in Finland in the 1990’s include several changes. They are changes in the structure of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) ownership, forest taxation, in forest legislation, in price recommendation agreement, diminishing resources of forestry extension services, etc. At the same time, the roundwood demand has been rising. All these developments cause uncertainty in wood procurement organisations, and call for research to find out how to adapt into the changing environment. The objective of this study is to produce information for roundwood purchasing planning and cus-tomer satisfaction management to be used by Stora Enso Metsä Customer Service, Helsinki. For this pur-pose, data needs to be gathered about the urban NIPFs and their forest estates, behaviour related to forestry and timber-selling, customer satisfaction in their latest timber selling transaction, and their opinions about Enso’s new customer service office and its service concept. To fulfil the objective of the study, a NIPF -owner -survey (N=1064, response rate 39,7%) was con-ducted in October 1998-January 1999. The sample was made on the basis of the marketing database of Stora Enso Oyj Forest Customer Service in Helsinki. In planning the frame of reference of the empirical study, the model of service quality by Grönroos was applied. The following aspects were included in the 7-page questionnaire: demographic, sosio-economic and forest estate background, relation to the forest service supply, behaviour related to forestry, timber-selling motives and behaviour, last contact organisation and its image in forestry business, expectations and percep-tions in the latest timber-selling transactions, and behavioural intentions. The results revealed that the share of women, pensioners and academically educated people among forest owners was quite high. The majority of the forest estates of the metropolitan forest owners were situ-ated in the provinces of South Finland and East Finland. The average forest estate area was considerably smaller than in a previous study. Economic and recreational objectives were most important in the use of forests. Forest Associations were involved in half of the roundwood sales transactions of the respondents in the metropolitan area. The wood quantity of transactions was considerably higher than the average in the whole country. Bank-organised forest-related activities, taxation infos and trips to the forest were the most popular activities. Among the services, silvicultural advices were needed mostly and stub treatment least. Brochure material related to stumpage timber sales and taxation were considered most important compared to material related to delivery sales. The service expectations were at highest for women and they were less satisfied with the service than men. 2nd and 3rd generation residents of the metropolitan area thought about the new customer service concept more positively than the 1st generation residents. Internet users under 60 years thought more positively about new satellite picture-based woodlot search concept. Cross-tabulation of factor scores against background variables indicated that women with relatively low education level a greater need to sell roundwood than entrepreneurs, white-collar workers and directors, and Internet users. Suspiciousness towards timber procurement organisations was relatively strong among women and those whose forest income share of the total income was either null or over 20 %. The average customer satisfaction score was negative in all nine questions. Statistical differences be-tween different companies did not exist in the average satisfaction scores. Stora Enso’s Helsinki forest cus-tomer service could choose the ability to purchase all timber grades as its competitive advantage. Out of nine service dimension included in the questionnaire, in this particular service dimension, Enso’s Helsinki forest customer service’s score exceeded most all organisations’ average customer satisfaction score. On the basis of importance – performance matrix, advice and quidance could have been provided more to the forest owners in their latest timber–selling transaction.

The paper industry is one of the largest industrial sectors in India. In general, wood procurement processes play an important role in the operations of the paper industry, but there is very less research on India in this topic. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the present state of wood procurement in the Indian paper industry and finally to detect possible bottlenecks in the system. The data was collected by interviews from a total of 10 paper mills in India. Paper industry in India is entirely based on a plantation forestry, where private farming plays a very large role. Wood procurement begins with planning. The field officers cooperate with the vendors in the field. The vendors are private operators who trade directly with up to thousands of farmers and are therefore necessary for the successful operations. Wood is almost always harvested manually by axes and rarely with chain saws. Long-distance transport is mainly carried out by trucks which can carry about 15 to 20 tons of wood at a time. At the reception, the quality of the raw material and the papers are checked, and the load size is weighed. After reception, the wood is transported either to the wood yard or alternatively directly to the chipper. The load is unloaded either by loaders, or sometimes, but rarely, by hand. The results show clearly that the mills are dissatisfied with the present state of wood procurement. The biggest problem is that there the domestic supply is insufficient, which makes the wood raw material price very high and forces the industry to buy wood from abroad and longer distances which affect negatively to transport costs. In India, land ownings of farmers are also small and it complicates efficient wood procurement processes. In addition, farming trees does not interest the local people. Infrastructure is also weak and the use of trains in wood transport is difficult. Some mills stated that the policy plays too big role in determining the price of the raw material. In addition, expertise in supply chain management is weak and no suitable software is available.