Optilog making progress

THE ADDITION OF AN OPTIMISER TO the Optilog plant in Gisborne is helping Hikurangi Forest Farms to increase its value recovery.

Speaking at the HarvestTECH 2019 conference in Rotorua, Hikurangi Forest Farms General Manager, Ian Brown, says that adding the new optimiser earlier this year has made a difference, which is evident in the company’s value recovery trials.

“The more products you give an optimiser, the better job it can do. Value wise, a 12% gain is achievable,” he says.

The Optilog operation was established at the beginning of 2017 to replace in-forest log making and transport stems to the mechanised sawing line just south of Gisborne for processing.

As profiled in NZ Logger last year, the commissioning of the plant – acquired second-hand from Otago – has taken much longer to bed in and continues to be plagued by teething problems, which are slowly being whittled down through a rigorous preventative maintenance programme.

Stem breakage in the forest is still a big issue, resulting in a larger number of shorts than originally envisaged. This led to the employment of a tracked processor at the Optilog site to produce logs from those short pieces, rather than putting them through the plant. Although the company is trying to minimise shorts coming out of the forest, Mr Brown doesn’t think they can be totally eliminated.

Getting crews in the forest to make better decisions when dealing with breakages will help, he says, adding: “Making that preemptive cut is a value decision – you can land up with a lot of waste or a lot of shorts if you make the wrong decision.”

Also, training staff within the plant has been key to increasing value recovery, as it was recognised the operators needed to be log makers and not just machine runners.

Improvements continue to be seen, says Mr Brown, albeit in smaller than expected increments, with safety on landings and slash management improving, along with a small reduction in harvesting costs and a small improvement in value recovery. Port storage costs are moderately reduced.

But he says that full optimisation is a myth and second-hand plants can be more costly than new ones. While there are many benefits, some are more easily monetised than others. Complications and risks are high, particularly putting everything through one plant. Yet, there are potential opportunities to come, like x-ray scanning, a de-barker and autoscaling, which will add further value.

With a new owner of Hikurangi Forests Farms now in the mix, Mr Brown says there is likely another six months to go before he can report on the end of this journey.