Software system for sawmill operation planning

The paper describes research and development of software system for optimal planning of sawmill operation. This work is a part of long-term activity carried out by Petrozavodsk State University (PetrSU) in the field of scientific research, software development and customer projects for enterprises of pulp-and-paper and forestry industry of Russia. The system uses advanced mathematical models and optimization algorithms, developed by IT-park of PetrSU, to solve a series of planning tasks for any number of orders and any configuration of process equipment of a hardwood sawmill. The developed mathematical model takes into account all features, limitations and parameters of process equipment, as well as of raw material and production orders. The efficiency of solutions had been validated on real production data of several sawmills in Russia. The system has friendly and flexible user interface and can be easily modified to handle new customer-specific requirements

Разработка и реализация системы планирования лесопильным производством

The paper describes research and development of a software system for sawmill operation planning. Sawmill industry is an important branch of the forestry industry. The aim of the sawing process consists in processing round wood into sawn lumber, as well as technological wood chips. Various tasks related to planning of sawmill operation can be successfully solved with the use of specialized software. Such software allows increasing overall mill productivity, output of high-quality grades of lumber and better matching the production specification. Their use also improves the efficiency of calculating and correcting the operational plans. The paper describes the solution of the problem of calculating monthly volume production plans. Such plans improve the efficiency of calculating the quantity and size-qualitative structure of logs to be sawn and the lumber produced by applying each sawing pattern. The developed software system uses advanced mathematical models and optimization algorithms, implemented in a specialized module. The paper also includes description of the system prototype. The efficiency of the system had been confirmed on real production data of several sawmills in Russia.Статья посвящена описанию разработки и программной реализации системы планирования лесопильным производством. Лесопильное производство является одной из важнейших отраслей деревообрабатывающей промышленности. Цель технологического процесса лесопиления состоит в получении пиломатериалов различного назначения и технологической щепы из круглых лесоматериалов. Задачи, связанные с планированием раскроя сырья, могут быть эффективно решены с использованием системы планирования, что позволяет повысить объемный сортовой, спецификационный и ценностный выход пиломатериалов; а также оперативность составления и корректирования планов раскроя сырья. В статье приводится описание задачи составления объемного плана раскроя пиловочного сырья, позволяющего наиболее эффективно выполнить спецификационное задание с учетом параметров производственного оборудования и особенностей заказов. Для расчета плана применяются методы и алгоритмы решения сложных оптимизационных задач с большим количеством ограничений, реализованные в виде специального программного модуля. В статье также приводится описание прототипа программной системы

Traceability system for capturing, processing and providing consumer-relevant information about wood products: System solution and its economic feasibility

Current research and practice reports indicate the existence of purchase barriers concerning eco-friendly products, e.g. wood products. These can be ascribed to consumers' mistrust regarding the non-observable environmental impact of wood products. To counter the mistrust, wood products are commonly endowed with eco-labels, which may be perceived mostly as a marketing tool, therefore not fulfilling their intended purpose. Current studies have shown that providing consumers with wood product information based on traceability systems increases product trust and purchase intentions, with those information items most valued by consumers being identified as well. Based on this, the paper proposes a traceability information system for the capturing, processing, and provision of product information using examples of wood furniture. Furthermore, a cost-benefit model for the proposed solution is developed. The calculations indicate the possibility of implementing traceability at the item level based on a four-layer system architecture enabling the capture and delivery of all information valued by consumers at acceptable costs. The proposed system helps to overcome purchase barriers of eco-friendly products, increasing consumers' product trust and purchase intentions

Optimal Timber Utilisation Strategies for Wik People on Cape York Peninsula

A forestry industry based on the native Darwin stringybark forests of Cape York Peninsula has been identified as a potential generator of employment and income for Wik people. Information appropriate for examining potential Wik timber utilisation strategies is scarce, necessitating primary data collection activities in north Queensland. A mixed-integer, single-period goal program is developed to produce a suite of ‘optimal’ timber utilisation strategies from the perspective of Wik people. Optimal forestry strategies predicted by the goal programming model are financially viable and suggest, in general, that relatively low-technology forestry activities are likely to best satisfy Wik forestry objectives

Toward digital twins for sawmill production planning and control : benefits, opportunities and challenges

Sawmills are key elements of the forest product industry supply chain, and they play important economic, social, and environmental roles. Sawmill production planning and control are, however, challenging owing to severalfactors, including, but not limited to, the heterogeneity of the raw material. The emerging concept of digital twins introduced in the context of Industry 4.0 has generated high interest and has been studied in a variety of domains, including production planning and control. In this paper, we investigate the benefits digital twins would bring to the sawmill industry via a literature review on the wider subject of sawmill production planning and control. Opportunities facilitating their implementation, as well as ongoing challenges from both academic and industrial perspectives, are also studied

Smart Market for Woodchips

This paper presents the outline for a smart market geared to Quebec s woodchip industry. It aims to explain how such a market operates, and to show how it fits into or modifies the existing trading system. The proposed smart market has two main objectives. The first is to enhance the efficiency of the woodchip market. The electronic market is a favoured means of enhancing market flexibility and thus controlling the accumulation of unsold inventory. Such a mechanism maximizes the industry s overall profits by ensuring that each firm can identify all business opportunities within its reach and realize the additional profits associated with them. The second main objective is continuity of trade practices. Long-term contracts between sawmills and paper mills are an important market reality, and they will be an integral part of the smart market. The keystone of our proposal is the Optimized Periodic Market (OPM). Somewhat along the lines of the Encan électronique du porc (EÉP, or electronic pork auction), set up by the Fédération des producteurs de porcs du Québec (Quebec s pork producers federation), we are proposing to establish an electronic woodchip exchange which would open up periodically (monthly, for instance) to allocate Quebec s entire woodchip output. At the close of an electronic market session, exchanges for the month will be determined, and everyone will know who he is to receive his woodchips from, or who he is to deliver them to, along with the price of each transaction and the merchandise shipment schedule. The OPM fulfils three main functions: (1) it co-ordinates players actions with a view to reducing inventory surpluses and meeting paper mills needs as closely as possible; (2) it keeps transportation costs down by determining the least costly exchanges between sawmills and paper mills with respect to supply; and (3) it offers an effective tool for renegotiating long-term contracts. An OPM session is in three main stages: pre-sale, sale and after-sale. At the pre-sale stage, the system gathers the information it will use to determine optimum exchanges. This information concerns two key variables in the woodchip market: quality requirements, and transportation costs. Buyers first express their technical requirements: on a BBS, they indicate the quality of the woodchips they wish to purchase and the penalties that will be applied should delivery not be in compliance with the specified technical requirements. The sellers are then invited to provide a production cost indicator for their woodchips that meets each paper mill s requirements. Sellers must also indicate the unit transportation costs (UTC) which they will have to pay if they deliver to each of the buyers. An auction mechanism for transportation costs, where buyers and third parties will be able to try to lower transportation costs, may also be set up. The sale stage involves an auction which takes place in successive rounds. Buyers bids are demand schedules, and sellers bids are supply schedules. At the start of the opening round, buyers and sellers enter their bids through an electronic interface linked to a server. Sellers must also provide a list of the types of woodchips they wish to market, and this list will be valid for the duration of the sale. Depending on the classification of the woodchips they put up for sale and their ability to sort species, they will have the choice of offering low density chips, high density chips, and/or jack pine chips. Buyers take part in a single market grouping together the three types of woodchips. At the start of the opening round, they have to specify the minimum and maximum proportions of each type of woodchips they wish to acquire. When all the bids have been tallied, the system generates the quantities traded and the equilibrium price paid or received by each participant. In light of this information, players can raise or lower their bids in line with their assessment of the market. Buyers can also revise the proportions of each type of woodchips they are asking for. Another round is then initiated, ending with the re-optimization of the system and disclosure of the new allocations. If no one wishes to alter his bid after the prices and quantities are announced at the end of a round, the efficient bilateral exchanges become official, and the delivery schedule for the period is established. Bid changes from one round to the next are governed by an eligibility rule whose function is to give impetus to the market, to prompt participants to be active in the market, and to reveal their real needs as early as possible. The OPM is a medium-term market in that it lies between a long-term compensatory market and a short-term spot market. Sawmills and paper mills wishing to guarantee their supply by signing long-term agreements will be able to go the compensatory contract route. A long-term compensatory contract between a sawmill and a paper mill specifies a price and quantity of woodchips for each OPM period (each month). In this way, the paper mill is guaranteed a certain quantity of woodchips at a certain price, and the sawmill is guaranteed a price for a given portion of its output. Data from these compensatory contracts are then taken into consideration by the OPM. Somewhat like term markets, compensatory contracts are agreements on financial flow alone. It is the OPM which determines the actual exchanges of woodchips. The proposed market mechanism is designed to ensure that participation in the OPM is to everyone s benefit. With flexibility, transparency and the implementation of an open competitive mechanism, beneficial participation for all is one of the guiding principles of the smart market for woodchips. A participant bound by a compensatory contract is guaranteed to find himself, after an OPM session, in a situation at least as beneficial as that provided for in the contract. The spirit of the compensation mechanism is that if one of the partners receives an unfavourable price on the OPM, he will be compensated by his partner. In this way, the OPM compensation rule and renegotiation mechanism offer a procedure guaranteeing: (1) each participant the equivalent of what is negotiated in the long-term contract; and (2) all participants the possibility of discovering and realizing additional profits that are accessible but have not yet been realized. The proposed smart market is rounded out by a very short-term spot market on which sawmills will be able to liquidate their surpluses and paper mills will be able to procure additional quantities of woodchips, thus dealing with surpluses and unfilled requirements not anticipated in the OPM session. The spot market may be presented in the form of a BBS through which each facility will be able to initiate an auction.

A Simulation Model for a Hardwood Sawmill Decision Support System

The paper describes a sawmill simulation model developed as a component of an integrated decision support system for hardwood sawmills. Discussions focus primarily on some of the essential features of the simulator and how it can be used as a tool for designing sawmill facilities and in the evaluation of sawing policies and production plans. Further discussed are some of the discrete-event simulation modeling techniques used in developing the simulator

Computer Integrated Manufacturing Issues Related to the Hardwood Log Sawmill

This paper evaluates the issues associated with the computer integration of the various technologies now available to hardwood log sawmills, so that these technologies will cooperate in helping the sawmill achieve better lumber yield. The concept of computer integration, and the current sawmill setup, are reviewed. A model of a computer-integrated hardwood sawmill is described. Issues concerning the integration of both hardware and software are also discussed

Development of an adaptive sawmill- flow simulator template for predicting results of changes at small- log sawmills.

Managing or designing sawmills can be an extremely difficult and sawmill managers and designers face a multitude of decisions each day with regard to management of sawmill operations and productivity. Sawmill managers therefore must be skilled enough at balancing the variables that determine sawmill production including: raw materials, personnel, equipment, product mix, product quality, orders and money in order to make profits. Changing any of these variables in one part of the mill can have unforeseen and sometimes detrimental impact upon other parts of the mill. Extreme heterogeneity in raw materials adds significantly to the complexity of sawmill systems. Simulation is one of the most common methods for constructing models that include random behaviour of a large number and a wide variety of components in sawmilling such as reduced availability of large-diameter logs with increased wood demands which may result into smaller-diameter logs entering sawmills. The design and operation of a modern small-log sawmill requires skills different from those needed in a large-log sawmill. Because the log size is small and lumber production per log is low, production must be high. Profitable sawing of small diameter logs requires high speed processing, use of curve sawing, and careful loggeometry and orientation considerations before sawing. Although numerous simulation studies have investigated sawing process of largediameter logs, only a limited number of simulators have addressed processing of smalldiameter logs. Further, these latter simulators concentrated on improving either the lumber volume yield or the lumber grade/value from logs. The modeling of entire sawmill operations has been far less extensive. The sawmill-flow simulator template (SFST) and a simulation template end–user interface designed on Excel spreadsheets in this study is a unique modeling package that can be used to predict results of changes in production at a small-log sawmills. The SFST encompasses log–sawing and sawmill-flow logics designed to facilitate flexibility in modeling different sawmill configurations and production scenarios. These may include predicting the impact on sawmill performance measures due to changes in mill layout, raw material and product pecifications, sawing solutions, and queue sizes which can greatly help the saw miller to make ellinformed decisions. Keywords: Sawmill flow simulator – modular approach – discrete event simulationTanzania Journal of Forestry and Nature Conservation Vol. 77 2008: pp. 73-9