Abstract

There is a need to decrease the costs of cut-to-length operations. The harwarder, a one-machine system with the potential to reduce the costs, has been compared to the two-machine system (TMS) at the stand and regional levels but not at the national level, which is important as basis for decision to implement. The objective was therefore to analyze its potential on a large scale in Swedish final fellings. It was evaluated using two modeling approaches in conjunction with data representing around 30% of Sweden's yearly final fellings from five forestry organizations. The analyses revealed that total costs could be reduced by around 3% if up to 50% of the total volume was logged using harwarders rather than the TMS. This would require the introduction of up to 250 harwarders into machine fleets that currently use only the TMS. The two modeling approaches gave similar results. It was concluded that the harwarder may need to demonstrate greater potential to justify a full-scale implementation in Swedish forestry, but the machine could be improved through technological development, especially through automation.

Keywords

Cut-to-length method; optimization; forest technology development; strategic decision-making; machine system comparison; forest operations

Published in

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
2023, Volume: 38, number: 1-2, pages: 105-120
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

SLU Authors

• Lundqvist, Rikard

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, Skogforsk

• Lindroos, Ola

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

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2023.2168045

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/121449