3LOG Systems3LOG’s suite of forestry solutions allows clients ranging from single mills to large multi-divisional organizations ensure loads are shipped and tracked properly from their point of origin in the forest to their final destination.
The process begins in the forest with LoaderWiz, a mobile app allowing loggers to create loads and print paper tickets with QR barcodes that can be handed to truckers or transmitted electronically. It can operate in offline mode if there is no Internet connectivity, and GPS coordinates are recorded to prove chain of custody.
Truckers arriving at scales may then initiate loads in WeighWiz by scanning the barcode on their tickets or electronically using WeighWiz Mobile where the load’s gross, tare, net, and sample weights and other related information is recorded during the weigh-in and weigh-out process.
The final load information then synchronizes to 3LOG’s LIMS system, where statements can be finalized and settled.
RemsoftRemsoft says that Remsoft Operations is a new cloud-based application for managing harvest, delivery, wood flow, and finance. Used daily with full enterprise visibility, companies can schedule and manage their operations while tracking progress and revising plans. With real-time impact analysis, organizations can consider plans versus actuals while ensuring they are meeting their targets.
According to the company, Remsoft Operations provides a unified view of operational planning processes while integrating with Remsoft’s award-winning optimization technology, Esri’s Web GIS Platform, and business intelligence capability. This makes for easy collaboration, reporting and sharing information across the organization from the same source.
Remsoft Operations takes supply chains of spreadsheets into one unified view while breaking down silos for instantaneous information sharing.
With role-based-access profiles and the option to share plans and reports across the organization, Remsoft says that Remsoft Operations provides a full view of the operation’s health.
Trimble ForestryTrimble Forestry says that its CONNECTED FOREST solutions and services are designed to mitigate risk, optimize production, and increase efficiency and control to meet the needs of end-to-end forestry operations and business processes.
Its CFForest is a spatially-enabled Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for forest owners, and its CFBusiness solution automates manual business processes and provides better control of cost and inventory for operations. Trimble Forestry says that with this solution, users can manage all companies and contracts for hauling, logging, timber purchase and sales as well as work contracts for activities such as road maintenance and planting.
The company’s CFHarvest is a day-to-day planning and operations control system for harvesting execution and forestry services.
CFLogistics consists of two solutions to manage transport planning of fibre from the starting depot to the destination. Trimble Forestry’s SaaS solution is also known as LogForce, and its enterprise solution as WSX (Wood Supply Execution). WSX solution is also available as a full Central Dispatch Management Service (CDMS).
Trimble Forestry says its Meka product is a comprehensive solution for optimization of the supply chain, all the way from the log yard to finished wood products delivered to the customer’s location. Meka is used in such operations as production of sawn and planed goods, treated products, poles, pellets, energy products, and glu-lam products.
JRP Solutions says that solid wood-flow and financial forecasts are the basis for successful planning and are relied upon by senior management for critical decisions. Forest OPS by JRP Solutions centralizes the details related to harvesting jobs in one secure database while offering simplicity of a spreadsheet for editing or analyzing data. The company says that there is no other program on the market that comes close to the quality and performance of Forest OPS.
Forest OPS helps plan and schedule forest harvesting jobs and then projects the resulting wood flow and profits. Forest OPS was designed and developed with the direct input of field engineers, foresters, logging supervisors, and operations managers. It is Microsoft Windows-based with a SQL database backend. User based access provides data security remembered user settings for ease of use. Forest OPS is typically integrated with other business data sources to minimize redundancy and maximize utility.
Forestry operations face some of the most difficult terrain on the planet, says Trakopolis. They are remote, rugged and unforgiving. Having eyes on operations in the bush 24/7 might seem impractical, but technology offers a solution.
With Trakopolis, the company says that customers can protect people, plants and profits without setting foot in the forest.
By linking detailed maps of leases to GPS, Trakopolis says it can track vehicles and machinery with extreme accuracy. Users can visualize journeys, including stops and starts, to plan more cycle times efficiently, and invoice more accurately. They can track driving behavior to reduce risks and prevent downtime. Assets such as trailers, loaders and pickers are always visible, reducing theft or loss and making maintenance scheduling automatic.
The company says that it currently works with companies in key forestry regions across North America. The software and specific forestry content it has developed is customizable to every jurisdiction.
Current features include: custom cycle times, journey management, GIS overlays, billing justification, driver scoreboard, asset tracking and utilization, hours of service, engine diagnostics, maintenance for forestry equipment, and distance tax report.
Lim GeomaticsThe latest edition of the Lim Geomatics Op Tracker mobile app, Version 1.3, has been released.
The new update enhances an already powerful digital tool that provides forest managers and machine operators with detailed GIS imagery and information about the progress of a harvest.
Version 1.3 comes jam-packed with an array of field-tested new features that will help logging contractors improve the safety, efficiency, and productivity of each harvest. These fresh tools for the mobile app include increased configurability for units of measurement, improved data sharing and communication, as well as enhanced data collection.
New features include: the ability to configure units of measurement from the settings screen; improved communication with a more robust Geo Notes; better display capability for the Tracking Panel; and an increase in the minimum threshold for data collection.
SwiftGeospatial SolutionsIn a technology driven world, forestry as an industry can benefit greatly from the use of modern satellite technology. Having the ability to have an eye in the sky that is capable of collecting imagery on a daily/weekly basis covering an entire forestry plantation is extremely valuable data, but how can this data be transformed into knowledge, and allow for decision support?
Swift Geospatial has developed a service capable of collecting this satellite data and transforming this data into knowledge through its online web application and dashboard environment for ease of use and information consumption. Using this technology, it is in a position to provide forest managers with actionable information in the fields of harvest tracking, tree health including pest and disease detection, illegal logging and post-fire damage reports.
On the Cover:
Ben Hokum Lumber has completed a major upgrade at their sawmill, located at Killaloe, west of Ottawa. The mill directly employs more than 100 people and produces white pine, red pine and aspen lumber. With a view to improving efficiency, the company looked at various options to upgrade the entire milling operation—and decided the best strategy would be to replace the small logline with a ‘small to medium’ saw line. Read all about the details of the upgrade beginning on page 12 of this issue of LSJ.
B.C.s silviculture sector rising to the challenge...
B.C.’s forests—hit by beetles and two successive big wildfire seasons—are in need of rehabilitation, and the province’s silviculture sector is rising to the challenge, ramping up to meet the need for seedlings.
Mill game-changer
Ontario’s Manitou Forest Products has recently added to their mill production facilities with equipment that will help increase production, and create more jobs—and it’s been a game-changer for the company
Increasing production—and flexibility
A big capital investment by Ontario’s Ben Hokum Lumber will increase their lumber production—and the flexibility of the sawmill to meet the needs of its customers.
Things are cooking for New Brunswick logger
Bolstered by demand for wood from both sides of the border—and his son entering the business—New Brunswick’s Jeff Cook is optimistic about the industry, which has prompted him to carry out some equipment upgrades.
Site prep success
A project by an Alberta silviculture site prep contractor to mount a Swedish Bracke mounder on a John Deere skidder has met with success—with the equipment combo delivering solid results in the number of hectares prepared.
The Edge
Included in this edition of The Edge, Canada’s leading publication on research in the forest industry, are stories from Alberta Innovates and Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC).
The Last Word
The B.C. forest industry is starting to look at, and carry out, commercial thinning, by necessity, notes Jim Stirling.
