Production strategies in the Swedish softwood sawmilling industry

The strategic production decisions to improve profits for sawmills can be described in three main dimensions. More value-added production increases unit revenues, larger volumes reduce fixed costs per produced unit, and improved productivity reduces unit costs. Using data about the Swedish sawmills and cluster analysis, six groups of sawmills were defined with these strategy dimensions. Characteristics of each strategy are presented concerning ownership, location, technology, and economic indicators. The results indicate that different groups of Swedish sawmills employ different production strategies, which are reflected both in the dimensions, value-added shares, size, productivity, and by other technical and economic characteristics of the sawmills. The relationships between production strategy and profitability is also analysed and discussed.     

Identification of Value-adding Strategies in the Swedish Sawn Wood Industry

Swedish sawmills are increasing their application of value-adding processes in sawn wood production. This study identified the most common value-adding combinations used by the Swedish sawmills. Data were obtained from a survey of Swedish sawmills in 1995 and from industry statistics. Nine different groupings of sawmills with regard to the level and types of value-adding technologies were identified by cluster analysis. The largest group added value only to marginal quantities of their production. Eight other groups that applied different combinations of value-adding processes were identified. Drying and planing were important elements in several strategies. Adding value to the sawn wood is not a homogeneous strategy; instead it includes several ways to focus production on different products and customer groups. Advanced value-adding processes often generated a higher unit profit margin than the production of commodity sawn wood.     

The Swedish hardwood sawmill industry: Structure,present status and development potential

Abstract

This study describes the Swedish hardwood sawmill industry with respect to its structure, raw material, production and market conditions in order to seek ways of increasing the competitiveness of the industry. Fifteen sawmills were studied through observations and interviews. The Swedish hardwood sawmill industry creates job opportunities in sparsely populated areas and uses a biological raw material which is important for environmental biological diversity. Any decrease in the use of this material will mean a drop in the incentive for forest owners to cultivate deciduous forests. Today, the hardwood sawmill industry is experiencing problems in securing the supply of raw material of the desired quality, i.e. without knots and discoloured heartwood (red-heart or brown-heart). To increase the competitiveness of the Swedish hardwood sawmill industry, the raw material supply must be secured. Production should be geared towards products demanded by the market, and new markets need to be entered.     

Integrated production of semi-finished components in sawmills,part II: Management of internal operations

Recently, several Swedish sawmills have taken over production of components from customers in the furniture, joinery and house-manufacturing industries. The purpose of this study was to identify key factors in management of internal operations for sawmills with this strategy. A multiple case study design, based on face-to-face interviews with Swedish sawmill practitioners and on various forms of secondary data, produced comprehensive research information. Starting integrated production of components is a demanding strategy for sawmills. It requires deep knowledge about the customer and qualified skills in advanced further-processing of sawn wood. The complexity of quality management, production planning and cost calculation increases, and investments in processing equipment and customer relations reduce strategic flexibility. The diverging material flow complicates sawmills' possibilities to economize on scale, and they must instead economize on other factors, such as scope, combined operations and internal control. New tools for production follow-up and control, for production planning, for analysis of product profitability and for strategic partnership analysis are requested by practitioners. But, even if new analysis tools would facilitate better analysis and management of operations, the willingness and ability to innovate and learn among the personnel emerges as a key factor for success.     

Integrated production of semi-finished components in sawmills,part I: External interactions

Abstract

In a changing business landscape, where globalization and new customer requirements create new business opportunities, some Swedish sawmills have taken over the production of components from their industrial customers. In light of the emerging network-centric perspective on business, sawmill managers' perceptions about component customers' operational requirements, customer interaction processes, and their sawmills' offerings are researched and discussed in this article. A multiple case study design, based on face-to-face interviews with Swedish sawmill managers and on various forms of secondary data, produced comprehensive information about sawmills' interaction processes with component purchasing customers. Thematic data coding facilitated the assessment of the research information in relation to the conceptual and empirical findings of previous research. The findings of the study indicate that more process orientation in housing-, joinery-, and furniture-manufacturing implies an opportunity for sawmills to make service-based offerings including not only physical goods, but also administrative services, logistics, and expert advice. The results of the study confirm the network-centric perspective on business where value is created through the interaction between firms. However, noteworthy barriers in the form of process-, culture-, as well as socially related factors at customer firms must be considered.     

The role of the wood mechanical industry in the Swedish forest industry cluster

The forest and forest products form one of the most important basis for the transfer to a bio-based economy in Sweden. About 75% of the area covered by forest in Sweden is used industrially to produce raw material for the wood-refining industries. Every year, this cluster uses 75 million m³ of roundwood and has an export value of €12 billion. This review paper is devoted to the wood mechanical industry, i.e. the industry which turns the forest into sawn timber, packaging, construction wood, furniture and interior fittings. The sawmills consume about half of the volume of softwood which is felled, and about two-thirds of the sawn timber go to export without any further refining within the country. Nevertheless, in spite of the relatively low degree of refinement in the sawmill and the fact that the sawmills in general over time have a very low profitability, they are responsible for 70–80% of the forest owners' profits on the sale of timber. An increased upgrading of the sawn timber within the country is desirable from a national economic viewpoint – increased employment opportunities, increased export income, etc. It should then in the first place be for products with a higher added value, such as furniture and fittings. Today, the refinement value is 15–20 times higher for products from joinery and furniture industries compared to that of the sawn timber, and the added value of the wood within the building industry is only about 1.5 times.     

Moisture content target optimization in lumber drying

Abstract

A Lumber Quality Model developed to predict lumber grade after drying was applied and validated in industry. The model was calibrated with a 198-piece lumber package that was dried at a local sawmill in British Columbia, Canada, and 30 sawmill grade reports were recorded from 2008 to 2010. The calibrated model was then used to predict the target moisture content that would result in the maximum lumber value. It was predicted that lumber value should increase by approximately 17 CAD (Canadian dollars) m^?3 if the target moisture content were reduced from the historic 17% to an optimum of approximate 13%. The sawmill implemented the recommendations and the predictions were validated with another seven industrial drying runs.     

我国制材设备的发展现状及前景

介绍了我国制材设备的发展现状及国外先进的制材生产技术,指出了我国制材设备发展中存在的问题,并根据我国原木和锯材生产的实际情况,预测了我国制材设备的发展前景.     

Importance of the financial situation for the growth of a forest machine entrepreneur

Abstract

The main focus of this study was to investigate the impact of the financial situation as well as the importance of internal financing for economically sound growth among forest machine entrepreneurs in Finland, with the aid of their financial statements for 2001–2006. Thirty-two limited companies that showed an increase in turnover during this period were investigated. The companies were classified into three groups based on their financial position in 2001: Profitable and Stable, Mediocre, and Weak. The financial situations of these three groups in 2001 were compared with 2006. The study showed that the relative position of these groups did not change significantly between 2001 and 2006. Those companies that were in a weak economic position in 2001 found themselves in an even more difficult situation in 2006. The results indicated that growth seems more likely to reinforce the economic situation of the company as it was before the growth took place. Therefore, when considering a growth strategy, the company must first concentrate on improving its economic position and business model.     

Supply chain management in the Swedish wood products industry – a need analysis

This paper examines the potential of supply chain management (SCM) to address challenges associated with Swedish wood-based supply chains (SCs). Information drawn from a review of literature concerning SCM in the wood products industry is compared and contrasted with data obtained from a case study of an integrated sawmill SC in Northern Sweden, focusing on interviewed participants’ perceived needs and benefits of integrating SC operations. Key components of SCM for the wood products industry are suggested for categorizing the literature and results from the case study. Previous SCM studies have largely focused on solving planning problems by operational analysis, and/or SC strategies, while several important aspects including risk management, integrated performance indicators, power relations, leadership and culture have received relatively little attention. The interviews highlight needs to enhance SC actors’ coordination and communication, as well as for more systematic study of the potential for enhancing efficiency and profit margins in SCs of Swedish wood products.     

Process-based analysis of added value in forest product industries

Manufacturing products with greater added value is increasingly viewed as a strategic goal of forest products industries. Added value is defined here as the difference in economic value between the physical inputs and outputs of a production process, and is generally analysed at the firm or national economy level. In this study we identify and discuss issues involved in quantifying added value at the industrial process level, and develop a bottom-up method to estimate the value added by forest industry processes. We calculate the value added by 14 traditional and emerging processes within the Swedish forest products industries, and express the results using various indices. We find that the type of biomass input strongly influences the potential for adding value, with sawlogs allowing more added value and being less sensitive to input price fluctuations than pulpwood and forest residues. Structural wood products such as lumber and glue-laminated beams are found to give the greatest value added. Co-production of multiple products from a single raw material increases total value added. Integrating the value chain of pulp and paper production significantly increases the value added to pulpwood. Multiple conversion processes exist for using forest residues as fuel, with a range of potential added value. Consideration of the climate benefits of forest product use, through the application of a carbon tax, significantly increases the added value.     

Service logics and strategies of Swedish forestry in the structural shifts of forest ownership: challenging the “old” and shaping the “new”

ABSTRACT

Sweden is one of the most forested countries in Europe, and it has one of the highest shares of productive forest. Production in forestry is largely reliant on the private non-industrial forest owners, who own half of the forest land. As in many countries, however, forest ownership is changing towards a higher extent of urban, female or non-forestry-background owners. This poses a challenge for the forestry services sector, mainly forest owners’ associations and companies, but also broadly the sector at large. By exploring the sales and marketing processes, this paper analyses the service logics and strategies of Swedish forestry under changing forest ownership, drawing on an interview study covering all the large actors in the Swedish forestry sector. The study illustrates an increased focus of forestry organizations on services from a strategic and managerial perspective, in customer-oriented relationship development and in value creation and sales processes, specifically in order to manage “new” forest owners and the demand of forest industries. The results highlight the domination of service logics associated with timber production and the challenges for the service market and the provision of diversified services to forest owners.     

制材设备的发展及趋势

笔者从世界各国森林资源状况、制材产品和制材工艺技术发展的角度,围绕世界制材行业高生产率、高出材率、高木材利用率、高成材质量、高附加值和多产品品种的发展特点,分析了制材设备的发展及趋势:1)传统制材设备向数控化、智能化方向发展;2)为满足森林资源和制材产品变化,制材设备向多样化发展;3)为适应制材工艺技术的发展,制材设备向柔性化、创新化发展。这将为我国木材资源的高效利用和制材工业又好又快的发展提供有益借鉴。     

A multinational analysis of competitive strategies of softwood sawmills

The primary objectives of this study were to describe and compare the competitive strategies of softwood sawmills in five major softwood producing regions of the world, and to discuss the limitations of the well‐known Porter model. Data was collected via personal interviews from 102 companies in Finland; coastal and inland western USA; coastal and inland British Columbia, Canada. Results suggest that “pure”; focus and differentiation strategies are the competitive strategies most commonly followed by sawmills in Finland and inland British Columbia. In the coastal and inland western USA regions “pure”; differentiation and “pure”; cost leadership strategies are dominant in these two geographical regions, respectively. In coastal British Columbia a “pure”; cost leadership strategy and the combination of all strategy types were the two strategies most frequently followed. The competitive strategy followed was found to be related to company size. Large companies more often applied cost leadership strategies and differentiation and focus strategies were typical of small and medium‐sized companies. In general, sawmills in all five regions had difficulties identifying exclusively with one strategy type.     

Use of traditional inputs and advanced industrial technology in value-added within the pulp and paper industry in india

This paper exploits the information obtained in Annual Survey of Industries during 1999–2010 to gauge the degree of value-added owing to the use of traditional inputs (capital, labor, energy, indigenous materials, and imported materials) and advanced industrial production technology (services, information and communications technology, and pollution control equipment) in two main sub-sectors of the Pulp and Paper (P&P) industry in India categorized according to use of different types of raw material. The panel data econometric exercise confirms that the use of traditional inputs and advanced industrial technologies, and industry level determinants of the two sub-sectors have varied effects on value-added within them. These findings are important for promoting higher value-added production in different sectors within the resource-based industry.     

家具制造业并购存在“赢者诅咒”吗？

近年来我国家具制造业产业整合趋势凸显,市场中良性企业并购无疑是优化、配置与整合家具制造业资源的重要手段。文中抽取2012—2017年我国206起家具上市公司并购事件,发现近年来家具企业并购具有横向并购和现金支付以及重视国内及海外市场平衡与布局的特点;在控制并购事件的窗口期和排除关联交易等一系列约束条件下,遴选出索菲亚家居并购名隆家具作为家具企业并购典型案例;采用4类传统财务指标与家具产业平均水准进行比较分析,运用改进的EVA方法测算并购后2年索菲亚家居经济增加值的变化,结果表明并购后绩效增长显著,在家具产业集中度低的情况下横向并购是优化家具业市场资源的良性方式;据此提出面对家具制造业的并购潮,中小型家具企业应提升产品创新与影响力,建立好利基市场,进行策略性回应。     

Profiles of forestry contractors and development of the forestry-contracting sector in Sweden

Abstract

Contractors perform the majority of forestry activities in Sweden, yet little is known about the development of their company structures and strategies. By analyzing data from the Swedish Forest Agency's yearly survey to forestry contractors for 2006–2009 and comparing the results with previous data for 1993–1998, we examined the current profiles of Swedish forestry contractors and their recent development. For 2006–2009, responses were received from 700 to 770 forestry contractors, corresponding to ca. 20% of the estimated total number of Swedish forestry contractors. In 2009, 60% of contractors were mainly performing logging activities, whereas 30% were mainly performing silvicultural activities. Between 1993 and 2009, the number of contractors increased by ca. 80%, while the number of forestry working contractors and their employees increased by 157%. These increases were mainly due to increased silvicultural activities. Although one-person enterprises still dominate among Swedish forestry contractors, most logging work is performed by small-sized enterprises, whereas most silviculture work is performed by large-sized enterprises. Our study suggests that there is an increased dependency upon contractors and forestry contractors have become more diversified, but still specialized, in the type of work they perform.     

Log sawing positioning optimization and log bucking of tropical hardwood species to increase the volume yield

The sawmill industry is a very important link in the Mozambique forest products value chain, but the industry is characterized by undeveloped processing technology and high-volume export of almost unrefined logs. The low volume yield of sawn timber has been identified as a critical gap in the technological development of the industry. To improve the profitability of the industry, there is thus a need to develop methods and techniques that improve the yield. In this paper, different positioning of logs prior to sawing and the possibility of increasing the volume yield of crooked logs by bucking the logs before sawing have been studied. A computer simulation was used to study the cant-sawing and through-and-through sawing of the logs to determine the volume yield of sawn timber from the jambirre (Millettia stuhlmannii Taub.) and umbila (Pterocarpus angolensis DC.) species. The optimal position, i.e. the position of the log before sawing that gives the highest volume yield of sawn timber for a given sawing pattern when the positioning parameters, offset, skew and rotation, are considered gave a considerable higher volume yield than the horns-down position. By bucking very crooked logs and using the horns-down positioning before sawing, the volume yield can be of the same magnitude as that obtained by optimal positioning on full-length (un-bucked) logs. The bucking reduces the crook of the logs and hence increases the volume yield of sawn timber.     

Improvement of Betula pendula by clonal and progeny testing of phenotypically selected trees

Abstract

Field tests, each including 39–83 Swedish plus-tree clones of silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) planted on 10 different sites in the southern part of Sweden, were evaluated at up to 10 years of age. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows. Growth traits were mostly under strong genetic influence, and showed substantial genetic variation and high potential genetic gain. Survival did not seem to be a trait of genetic importance. The genetic correlation between growth and growth cessation was weak, suggesting that it should be possible to find clones combining high growth and early autumn growth. Non-significant transfer effects for clones of different origin and weak G×E interaction were found, indicating that southern Sweden can be treated as a single utilization zone and that few sites are needed for genetic tests. Strong genetic age×age correlations were detected, suggesting that short test periods could be used.