Improved ecoeffectiveness of interior hardwood products in the house-building industry as a way to promote sustainable forestry

Abstract

Sawn hardwood is required by the market to be homogeneous, even in texture and colour, but the products produced by Swedish hardwood sawmills exhibit a wide variation in characteristics. This makes it difficult for hardwood sawmills to find profitable markets for all their products. By developing new products with other properties for the building industry it may be possible to utilize hardwood more efficiently and increase the prices. This would result in higher ecoeffectiveness (defined as value in relation to environmental impact) of the forest-related business system by giving an incentive to grow deciduous forests, which leads to richer biological diversity. Diversity is fundamental to achieving sustainable forestry. At the same time, other less ecoefficient materials in buildings may be replaced. Exploring the requirements of the customers is essential before developing new products, in order to maximize the value of a product. In this study, the requirements of interior hardwood products in the Swedish house-building industry were studied in interviews and through questionnaires. The most important requirements, ranked higher than price, are delivery on time, shape stability, packaged products, rapid delivery and accurate moisture content. The results make it possible to focus on critical factors to gain market shares for hardwood as an ecoeffective building material.     

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.     

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 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.     

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.     

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.     

俄勒冈硬木在家具制造中的应用分析

随着经济发展和人们生活水平的提高,人们开始追求更加健康的生活方式,对家具产品的要求越来越高。近年来,俄勒冈硬木由于其良好的装饰性能,较弱的导热性,优良的耐水性、耐高温性、耐腐蚀性和易于清洁性,已成为家具产品的重要原料,在家具制造中有着广阔的发展前景。重点介绍俄勒冈硬木的耐水性,安全性和装饰性,研究俄勒冈硬木在家具生产应用中的可行性。通过讨论俄勒冈硬木在家具设计中的应用,对于改善人性化设计方案和提高市场占有率提出一些建议。     

Portable sawmills in a high-value rainforest cabinet timber industry in North Queensland

This paper examines the role and use of portable sawmills in north Queensland. Using a semi-structured questionnaire and personal interviews, the opinions of 18 operators of portable and fixed-site sawmills were canvassed on a number of issues including main problems faced by the local industry, current sources of timber, sawn timber recovery rates of their operations, willingness to purchase new milling and other equipment, opinions about why (or if) portable sawmills can sell timber at a lower cost than fixed-site mills, and destinations of sawn timber milled. The most critical issues faced by sawmillers were the lack of resource security and competing products, in particular competition from imported tropical timbers from neighbouring island countries including Papua New Guinea. Most sawmillers in north Queensland currently obtain logs mainly from private landholdings and are hesitant to invest in new equipment due to concerns about future log supplies. This paper also explores the current and potential role of portable sawmills in the regional small-scale forestry industry. An examination of policy issues suggests that there may be a need for new legislation to cover employees, sawn timber consumers and sawmillers themselves. The future role of portable sawmills may require a co-operative approach that emphasizes low volume value-adding, due to the decreasing supply of logs in North Queensland. This paper is based on research undertaken for a Master of Commerce by the first author (Smorfitt 2000). All authors are members of the Rainforest CRC, which has provided financial support for the research reported here. The assistance of Mr I. Venables in providing comment on the questionnaire for portable sawmillers is gratefully acknowledged.     

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.     

印度尼西亚木材工业现状及发展前景

木材工业是印尼仅次于石油和天然气的第3大产业。近20年来,印尼的木材工业发展迅速,已成为当今世界上最大的阔叶材胶合板生产国和出口国。本文阐述了印尼木材工业发展战略和政策,生产体系的结构与变化,以及未来的发展趋势。     

Multiple Period Combined Optimization Approach to Forest Production Planning

Recent efforts on the development of production planning systems for sawmills have focused on combined optimization type solutions in a steady-state market environment. This paper describes a linear programming-based multiple period production planning system which responds to expected changes in product value or market demand by changing policies with regard to sawing patterns and log consumption. Log and lumber inventories tie production periods together. The model was tested on a large log mill in British Columbia producing export products. It is shown that the model responds to market changes using sawing pattern selection and altered log consumption.     

中国竹藤品牌建设的双元路径分析

品牌被认为是企业、行业乃至国家竞争力的体现,在行业高质量发展中发挥着关键的引领作用。中国竹藤产业总产值逐年提高,但与其他行业相比,产业基础薄弱,产品附加值不高,市场竞争力不强。品牌建设是中国竹藤产业提升市场竞争力的重要手段,也是实现提质增效的重要途径。文章从产业整体与企业个体2条路径探讨了中国竹藤品牌建设的现状,通过文献计量法提炼出中国竹藤品牌建设的整体与个体特征：在整体路径上,林业转型升级催生了竹藤品牌建设的萌芽,多产业融合推动了竹藤品牌建设的发展,多主体共建区域品牌助力了竹藤品牌建设的完善;在个体路径上,国际竹藤组织等机构在品牌建设中发挥着引领作用,竹加工产业带动着其他产业的发展,合作社模式整合了更多的竹藤资源。基于这些特征归纳出竹藤品牌建设中存在的问题：竹藤产业整体的品牌建设具有产业发展不均、品牌制度不全和品牌文化匮乏等问题,企业个体的品牌建设中存在品牌意识薄弱、品牌理念模糊和品牌培训欠缺等现象。据此文章提出促进产业协调融合发展、完善品牌标准制度体系、打造地域特色化品牌和推动品牌数字化转型的相关建议。     

Utilization of softwoods in Great Britain

The change in scale in wood processing in the UK over the past70 years is huge. From a position where sawmilling was on smallscale satisfying local market needs with native broadleaf species,it is now a huge industry supplying about 26 per cent of oursawn softwood demand; mainly from the exotic, Sitka spruce. Development has seen the industry reach levels of technologyequivalent to those in the Nordic countries and north America. Seventy years ago the only board manufacturing plants were producingplywood from imported tropical logs. Now the board industriesproduce chipboards, strand boards, MDF and cement bonded particleboardsfrom the home grownresource. Overall we produce some 56 percent of UK consumption of these products whilst in the growingMDF sector home production represents 78 per cent of demand. The wood pulp industry has developed over the past 15–20years from a position where it had almost ceased to exist tothe present situation of large volumes of newsprint, magazinepapers, packaging board and fluting being produced, largelyon four capital intensive sites. The sawmilling, board manufacturing and pulp and paper industriesare mutually dependent upon one another for their successfuloperation. Residue material from sawmills, for example, providesan important income source, whilst the market for small roundwoodprovides cash flow for forest owners prior to felling of thefinal sawlog crop.     

当前发展我国竹材工业的几点思考

分析了竹材的特点和竹材工业利用的现状及当前面临的市场萎缩、竞争加剧、产品价格偏低、企业负担过重等方面的挑战：提出了转变观念、继续大力开发与大工业配套的竹材产品、发展竹家具和竹地板生产、研究科学、合理利用竹材的新途径、减轻税赋等方面发展竹材工业的新建议。     

Log sawing position optimization using computed tomography scanning

When disjoining a log, several factors affect the value of the sawn timber. There are log features, such as outer shape, knots, rot, and so on. There are also sawing parameters, such as sawing pattern, log position, and so on. If full information about log features is available, sawing parameters can be adapted in order to maximize product value in sawmills. This is soon possible, since computed tomography (CT) scanners for the sawmill industry are being realized. This study aimed at investigating how CT data can be used to choose rotational position, parallel displacement, and skew of sawlogs, to maximize the value of the sawn products. The study was made by sawing simulation of 269 CT scanned logs of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] H. Karst.). The results showed that value recovery could be improved by 13% in average, compared to a sawing position based on log outer shape, and 21% compared to sawing logs centered and horns down. It can be concluded that a CT scanner, used in a sawline to optimize sawing parameters, has a large potential for increasing value recovery and thus profit.     

Impacts of the currency value change on the forest products import quantities in Korea

This study estimated the impacts of the currency value change on the forest products import quantities in Korea using vector autoregressive model. The first objective is to analyze whether there is any causal relationship between change in the currency value and changes in the import quantities of forest products in Korea. Assuming that there is any causal relationship, the second objective is to evaluate the dynamics of the impacts of the currency value change on the forest products import quantities in Korea. The causal relationship was analyzed by the causality test of Granger. The relationship between the currency value and the import quantity was represented by vector autoregressive model. And the dynamics were evaluated by variance decomposition analysis and impulse response analysis. Change in the currency value causes change in the hardwood roundwood import quantity in Korea. In the model of the hardwood roundwood import quantity, after 6 months, the currency value change accounts for approximately 10% of variation in the import quantity. On the other hand, the impact of a shock to the currency value is significant for approximately 10 months on the import quantity of hardwood roundwood in Korea.     

Automatic grading of sawlogs: A comparison between X-ray scanning,optical three-dimensional scanning and combinations of both methods

As sawmills become increasingly efficient, the importance of focusing on value recovery becomes obvious. To maximize value recovery, sawmills require the ability to sort logs according to quality. This study compares four different combinations of three-dimensional (3D) and X-ray scanning that can be used to grade logs automatically. The study was based on 135 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) logs that had been scanned with both a 3D scanner and an X-ray scanner with two X-ray sources. The percentage of boards with correct grade sawn from automatically graded logs varied from 57% when using only 3D scanning to 66% when using a combination of 3D scanning and X-ray scanning in two directions. The highest possible result, with ideal log grading, was 81%. The result also shows that the combination of a 3D scanner and one X-ray direction results in higher accuracy than a scanner based on two X-ray directions.     

Understanding the Relationships Between American Ginseng Harvest and Hardwood Forests Inventory and Timber Harvest to Improve Co-Management of the Forests of Eastern United States

The roots of American ginseng have been harvested from the hardwood forests of the eastern United States, alongside timber, since the mid-1700s. Very little is known about this non-timber commodity relative to timber, although significant volumes of ginseng root have been harvested from the same forests along with timber. The harvest of ginseng correlated positively and significantly with hardwood forest area, hardwood growing stock volume, and timber removals. Also, it correlated with hardwood growing stock on public forestlands in the region. The annual wholesale value of American ginseng was estimated at approximately $26.9 million compared to annual stumpage value of harvested hardwood timber of just over $1.27 billion. The volume of ginseng root harvested from natural forests represents substantial extraction of biomass, and the associated value represents substantial income for people living in an economically marginalized region. Co-management of eastern hardwood forests for timber and non-timber forest products could improve local economies and better conserve the biodiversity of these forests.     

加拿大林产工业的最新进展

加拿大是世界林产品生产大国和贸易大国。文中概述了加拿大近几年锯材、人造板、纸浆、纸和纸板等主要林产品的生产情况, 以及2004年的林产品出口情况。在此基础上, 归纳出加拿大林产工业的6个特点。     

Reconstruction of Pinus Sylvestris knots using measurable log features in the Swedish Pine Stem Bank

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a method for reconstruction of parametrically described whorls and knots from data possible to extract from industrial scanning of logs, using X-ray scanners. The method was conceived using the logs in the Swedish Pine Stem Bank as a foundation, and was based on a few predictor features extracted from these logs; namely whorl volume, distance between whorls and distance between pith and surface. These features were not measured in images but calculated from existing parameterised knots. Simulated test sawing shows that the reconstruction method results in a representative model of the knot structure in the log, when considering the grade distribution of the sawn timber produced by the simulation program. The results of this study could, for instance, be used for improved online quality predictions at sawmills. One step in this direction is to use industrial X-ray data to enlarge the amount of log data available for sawing simulation research. Future work can, therefore, focus on developing a practical application of the results presented here.