Speakers
Description
Efficient wood logistics is essential for minimizing operational costs and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Poland, several symptoms of inefficiency—including the fragmentation of forest operations leading to frequent machine relocations, extended transport distances, and the need to move machines to designated parking locations after each working shift—highlight the need for a systematic and comprehensive assessment. To date, existing studies have predominantly focused on individual supply chain segments or specific stakeholder perspectives. A holistic assessment of the wood supply chain efficiency in Poland remains limited.
This study assesses the efficiency of the wood supply chain in two Regional Directorates of the State Forests distinguished by contrasting spatial forest structures. The first one is characterised by concentrated forest stands covering 294 thousand hectares, with 56 thousand cutting treatments per year resulting in 1.2 million m3 of harvested wood supplying 170 customers. The second is characterised by fragmented stands covering 188 thousand hectares, with 30 thousand cutting treatments annually resulting in 746 thousand m3 harvested supplying 181 customers. The analysis encompasses the entire process, from harvest planning to delivery to the processing plants, including harvesting, extraction, storage, assortment allocation to mills, and transportation. The study is based on historical data from 2019–2023, including the spatial distribution of forest compartments, harvested volumes by assortment, silvicultural treatments, the road network, and the demand for assortments from wood processing plants located throughout the country.
The business-as-usual (BAU) scenario derived from historical data was compared with three levels of improvement scenarios using a simulation–optimization approach implemented in ArcGIS Pro 3.4.0. The scenarios are structured hierarchically according to their decision-making impact: Level A addresses strategic logistics, Level B focuses on tactical infrastructure, and Level C deals with operational routines. Level A (three variants) examines alternative allocations of loading points to processing plants to minimize transport distances and applies harvesting concentration strategies to reduce machine relocations. Level B (two variants) evaluates different configurations and densities of loading points (storage sites). Level C (two variants) analyzes alternative machine destinations after the end of the working shift.
In total, twelve scenarios, including the BAU scenario, were developed and evaluated in terms of total operational costs, incorporating GHG emission costs per m³ of harvested, extracted, and transported timber across all feasible equipment combinations under Polish conditions. The results of this study will be presented and discussed, with particular emphasis on the performance of the analysed scenarios and the challenges associated with implementing the most cost-effective solutions.
| Keywords | "logistics; efficiency; resilience; sustainability" |
|---|
