Wood transportation machine replacement using goal programming

Abstract

Farm tractor + trailers play a key role in wood transportation after forests are logged. Despite of the fact that a forwarder is a forestry vehicle that carries felled logs for shorter distances off the ground, tractors are still used in some forest areas of the world, such as the Hyrcanian forest in northern Iran. This study was conducted to investigate the possibility of using both the light forwarder and forestry trailer instead of a farm tractor + trailer in wood transportation. The optimal machine option for wood transportation is determined using goal programming model in the study area. In this paper, multi-objective goals (such as economic, operational, environmental and ergonomic) were considered. The results showed that considering only the economic goal, the contractor could save up to 44% in costs by purchasing and replacing a forestry trailer with a 2-wheel trailer attached to the farm tractor. In addition, considering various goals, a light forwarder could be selected as the optimal machine. Currently, the most important objectives of all forest contractors are to establish economic goals and reduce wood transportation costs. Since other goals, such as environmental and ergonomic, are also important; it is suggested that multi-objective approaches should use for planning.

Keywords

Economic; environment; ergonomic; farm tractor; forwarder

Published in

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
2019, volume: 34, number: 7, pages: 635-642
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

SLU Authors

• Lindroos, Ola

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2019.1611916

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/100669