Project: Value creation in wood supply chains
In the modern wood value chain the trees should be cut, transported, processed into final products and delivered to customers in such a manner that the total aggregated value of the products is maximized. Each action within the woodvalue chain cause costs. However, it does not mean that the costs of the logistics should always be minimized. Pure focus on lean management of wood supply chain may cause substantial losses of revenues if the potential value of the wood raw material is not utilized properly. Wood value chain optimization is thus a paradigm of finding the optimal balance between aggregated costs and revenues also considering environmental load. The WOODVALUE project has aimed to settle a strong basement for future development of wood value chain optimizations. In the project structures, dynamics and costs of several wood supply chains in the partner countries business environment have been defined and modelled. This has given us a good background to define a standardized structure of the logistics for modern wood supply chains. The project has taken important steps in defining the processing costs of the most important end products of wood. During this project we have managed to develop models for sawmilling and chemical pulping. We have based our cost analyses on so called “greenfield”, virtual mills that include all technical data, resources and costs needed to establish and run a mill. Sawmilling is a good example of the possibilities of the ABC method where a log is converted to various end products (boards, battens, bark, sawdust and wood chips). Technical data, resources needed and costs are acquired from manufactures of sawmill appliances, construction industry and sawmilling companies. Main production processes in sawing are universal and are found in every commercial mill which helps the economical comparison between mills. In the WOODVALUE project new trials to measure and predict the quality and the value of the end products has also been carried out and/or validated. In a joined effort, the accuracy of models predicting the most important characteristics of wood (basic density, modulus of elasticity, modulus of rupture, knot sizes, knot types (sound/loose), heartwood diameter and bark thickness of sawlogs) from standing trees have been validated. Potential value of modern acoustic tools has also been tested in these trials. The project has taken full benefit from the new computer tomography laboratory established at the FVA in Freiburg. In order to provide insight into how the forest resource can be better utilised at the enterprise level, the models and predictions provided by researchers have to some extent been tested and validated in experimental tests. The outcome of these trials proves that great potential exists in enhancement of the current wood supply chains but more research efforts are still needed to better define the right places and right moments that could make actors of the wood supply chain to make better predictions and decisions to achieve additional value.
Project partner
