A research team at the University of the Sunshine Coast has conducted a range of research projects investigating supply chain optimisation over the past seven years.
Past timber supply chain research projects centred on machine performance and efficiency have helped to identify and deliver positive impacts over relatively short time frames, thanks to insights into equipment modification and work methods.
These projects, conducted collaboratively with industry, have focused on different aspects of the supply chain, from resource and technological assessments to product quality enhancement.
The outcomes of this work have led to enhanced knowledge through testing available sensor and tracing technologies, as well as operation management methods and techniques in a forestry context.
The goal was to support better decision-making by industry stakeholders and deliver optimised solutions that will yield the highest value of recovery from timber resources.
“To remain competitive in a global environment, whole-of-system wood export supply chains must continue to innovate, adapt and adopt emerging processes and technologies,” said Brown.
“Through collaboration, co-investment and continued work with port operators, contractors, timber processors, forest and plantation growers can ensure the lowest-cost operations to help maintain and improve competitiveness and profitability.”
Some of the major projects aimed at enabling supply chain value optimisation conducted over the past seven years are detailed below.
Controlling and managing the moisture content of logs and biomass
The cost of transporting fresh logs and forest biofuel accounts for up to 50 per cent of overall costs. And because approximately half of the weight of logs and biofuel is water, infield drying presents industry with an opportunity to significantly reduce transport costs and increase calorific value, in the case of biofuel. This would enhance cost-competitiveness with alternative materials and imported logs as well as help establish a domestic and export forest biofuel industry.
Between 2016 and 2020, researchers aimed to provide forest managers with the tools to balance reduced transport costs through natural drying against quality specifications, taking into account the increased costs of log storage time, and the impact of wear and tear on processing machinery.
The team found that to extract the gains from infield drying, changes required of industry included:
- moving from payment on delivered green weight to payment on delivered volume or oven-dried weight
- increasing the use of high-capacity trucks, particularly for the transport of dried and infield chipped forest biofuel
- using the drying models and tools developed to guide planning around storage of logs and forest biofuel.
There report can be found on the FWPA website: https://www.fwpa.com.au/resources/reports/processing/1984-control-and-manage-the-moisture-content-of-logs-and-biomass-to-maximise-benefits-along-the-wood-supply-chain-pnc400-1516.html
Improving efficiencies – re-imagining the log and woodchip export supply chain
This project, conducted between 2017 and 2019, took an in-depth look at the various elements of Australia’s log and woodchip export supply chain to find out how it can be most effectively managed.
The team reviewed optimum conditions for storage, haulage and at ports, with the findings used to outline solutions and innovations for an enhanced and more cost-effective timber export process.
Extensive industry consultation was undertaken, with a steering committee with representatives from 12 partner organisations tasked to determine the most important and relevant activities. These activities – which focused on tag, track and trace systems, log moisture content, log loading, and debarking and drying – were then progressed to the research and testing phase.
Off the back of this project, the team developed a suite of recommended methods, models and best-practice approaches, and conducted a series of industry webinars detailing the results.
National Institute for Forest Products Innovation (NIFPI) projects in Tasmania
Researchers at NIFPI conducted a project to provide guidelines and a web-based decision support tool (DSS) that would help industry effectively calibrate harvesting equipment configurations for smaller, more dispersed woodlots.
The team determined that by effectively selecting harvesting equipment and following proper guidelines for use in small woodlots and agroforestry sites, landowner profits could be increased by 10 to 20 per cent.
These economic benefits would also extend to contractors, consultants and forest companies, and potentially also to machinery co-operatives.
A second NIFPI project aimed to help make improvements to practices and equipment to reduce damage to Eucalyptus nitens logs during mechanised harvesting. The effective selection of harvesting equipment and methods to avoid saw- and veneer-log damage during mechanised harvesting was found to have the potential to increase profits by $5 to $10 per m3, industry-wide.
A third project conducted by NIFPI set out to determine whether the additional value and volume recovery achieved by increasing the number of short logs harvested from hardwood plantation forests would outweigh the associated additional supply chain costs.
It was discovered that an annual $5 million improvement in profitability for Tasmanian landowners was potentially achievable, with data collected throughout the project made available to landowners.
Advanced real-time measurements during harvest to increase value recovery
Between 2018 and 2020, the team prepared reports on research around advanced real-time measurements during harvest to increase value recovery.
The reports provided a review of current and emerging technologies, practices and data analytics associated with the measurement of tree characteristics by harvesting equipment.
According to a review of available literature, the accuracy of harvester head diameter measurements can be influenced by bark presence or absence, bark thickness, knots and bumps, feed roller teeth type, and pressure.
To overcome these issues, calibration of the harvester head was identified as a means of removing or reducing measurement errors, while laser scanning and computer vision technologies were found to be useful for rapidly obtaining stem curvature measurements on standing trees, as well as knot location and size on manually processed logs.
The team also found great potential for near infrared spectrometer (NIR) and acoustic instruments to provide reliable performance data for logs produced using harvesters and processors.
It was concluded that harvester data is useful for managing harvest operations, studying environmental impacts, assessing machine performance, and determining spatial variations in site productivity, all with a view to supporting smart decision-making.
The reports also included a case study that explored the potential use of harvester head data in the monitoring and reconciliation of value and volume recovery in a plantation stand. Geo-referenced harvester data was collected on 27,035 stems and 103,956 logs from a radiata pine compartment.
Through the development of this case study, it was successfully demonstrated that harvester data can be used to monitor and reconcile value and volume recovery. By more efficiently using harvester head data, forest managers can better hold contractors accountable for suboptimal practices, refine estimated harvest unit volumes for future planning, and more accurately correlate stand conditions with variables that affect value recovery.
Supply chain value optimisation program
Starting in 2020, the University of the Sunshine Coast research team commenced two new projects with the aim of testing the latest suitable sensing technologies to identify a solution for highest value recovery. The aim of this work, which comprises two sub-projects, is to develop an understanding of what solutions can most effectively be used by industry to support real-time decision-making.
- Impacts of stand location and log position within Pinus radiata trees on return-to-log (RTL) values
The researchers set out to develop background knowledge on whether the inclusion of internal (alongside external) Pinus radiata log characteristics in support of log segregation decisions might allow industry to recover greater value from the existing resource through more appropriate allocation of logs to processors.
The researchers wanted to discover the potential value associated with being able to better identify high value, high strength, and high-density logs in real time at harvest. Initial trials explored low-cost familiar sensors to support real time measurements of quality and reliability. This led to field trials of more sophisticated sensors which are now being progressed to operational harvesting trials.
The practice has shown promise in measuring features to predict value, and in creating a stronger technical platform for system automation to reduce costs and deliver better consistency in value and quality. Coupled with track and trace technologies, this can also help ensure the right products are used for the right purposes with minimal repeat measurements required.
- Accuracy and precision of diameters at breast height (DBH) measurements obtained with Apple’s iPad Pro 2020 and 3D modelling software
In Australian plantations, forest inventory data collection activities are usually carried out using various metrics, including DBH measurements. However, traditional inventory fieldwork methods are labour-intensive, time-consuming and prone to error.
Because manual field measurements are still necessary to calibrate and validate models using remote sensing data, various studies have been conducted in the past to investigate approaches to combining terrestrial inventory practices with modern laser sensors for this purpose.
This particular study aims to investigate and provide preliminary results on the accuracy of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) DBH measurements in Eucalyptus nitens stands. Data was obtained using the Apple 2020 iPad Pro and the 3D-modelling Polycam app.
The iPad estimates obtained during the study so far have been compared with manual individual tree measurements. The iPad method has been found to hold great potential for application in the forestry sector and presents a more affordable alternative to terrestrial and handheld laser scanners. However, to fully realise the potential of this technology, the researchers have suggested the iPad’s LiDAR scanner specs must continue to improve.
