Competition among loggers in Nelson

WHEN NELSON FORESTS DECIDED to upgrade its supply chain planning system it led to a mini-competition among harvesting contractors that is benefitting everyone.

Nigel Brabyn, Business Performance Analyst for Nelson Forests, was given the task of overseeing the upgrade so that the company could obtain real-time information about what is coming out of its forests.

He told the Woodflow 2018 conference in Rotorua last month that prior to the upgrade, the information took a long time to assimilate and it could be anywhere up to six months after the trees were cut down until Nelson Forests knew if it was making any money on them.

The new system delivers that information on a daily basis, so that Nelson Forests can track trends as they happen and make adjustments if required. In addition to getting on top of issues quickly, it’s helped to cut down on wasted activities and made the whole operation much leaner.

It’s also improved harvest planning and can even tell Nelson Forests how to harvest, which crews suit a particular block and what machines would work best on that block.

To make it work, harvesting contractors report their numbers every day to be logged into the system and Nelson Forests has been able to put that information into a performance table for them all to see.

That table is sent to contractors each morning and they can identify how they measure up against fellow contractors working for Nelson Forests.

Mr Brabyn says contractors have responded by using the data to work out how they can improve their own performances, which is proving to be a big benefit – nothing like a bit of friendly rivalry.

More work is planned to fine tune the system, including better management of stock piles in the forest and improving transport to customers and the local port.

NZL