Our Client is a diverse family owned company with operations in Canada and the United States. There are more than 2,000 dedicated employees and contractors working to consistently improve their forest management programs.
This Client, including 200 professional foresters and technicians, is involved in all aspects of forestry, including: nurseries and seed production, tree planting and stand tending, planning, modeling, growth and yield monitoring, road construction and maintenance, harvesting and transportation, as well as wood procurement and sales.
Objectives
Improving productivity to reduce operating costs.
Training and in-the-field performance coaching of the Supervisors, Managers and Contractors with regard to their roles and responsibilities, based on a more proactive management profile.
Developing work activity standards with the Contractors, Supervisors and Associates.
Enhancing the communication skills of the Supervisors and Contractors with their employees by setting expectations, objectives, and following-up on the completion of the work activities.
Enhancing the “Harvest Ready” methodology for all regions.
Implementing a uniform Management Operating System (MOS) across all sites.
Lack of effective use of harvesting equipment by employees for cutting and piling the wood.
Dimension errors when cutting 8 foot lengths by the Contractors.
Truck drivers being lost or not being able to find the correct road due to roads not being properly marked.
No proper truck loading schedules for truck drivers.
Little preventive maintenance on the Contractor’s equipment, and maintenance was not performed until the equipment broke down.
Trucks only being loaded at 50% of their usable capacity.
Double handling during the “slashing process” and also re-piling of wood in the forest.
Harvesting Equipment Operators doing oiling and greasing activities during prime production time.
Equipment Operators had no expectations as far as cubic meters (m3) of wood to be cut and harvested.
Goals and objectives were not being set at any time by the Supervisors with the Contractors or with their employees with regard to the work to be completed.
When Supervisors were in-the-field they spent the majority of their time watching and waiting for employees to ask them questions.
Supervisors generally let the level of work activity follow its course, leaving the Contractors to manage the process themselves.
PVA's Response
Installed individual Contractor performance graphs to highlight results and trends for each process step
Improved the skill sets and flexibility of the Contractor’s employees through awareness programs, best practices training, and management support and follow-up
Involved the Contractor’s employees to ensure variances and problems were being addressed in a timely manner
Developed labor Master Schedules and crewing matrices for all woodlands field process steps, which took into account crewing needs based on activity, safety and environmental requirements
Improved block planning so that it occurred weeks prior to harvesting
Installed a weekly Operating Report with Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) by process to review attainment to harvesting plans and sawmill requirements
Developed behavioral models for each areas Foremen/Supervisor to ensure their application of proactive management styles
Implemented Daily Schedule Controls and Variance Reports focused on ensuring results attainment and sustainment for each process for the Contractors and the Supervisors
The Results
Hover over graphs for more information
Increase in Cubic Meters per SMH
Woodland Forestry Increase in Cubic Meters per SMH
Increase in Supervisory Activities
Woodland Forestry Supervisory Activities
PRE-PROJECT
5%22%3%31%37%
POST-PROJECT
40%14%11%23%10%
Active Supervision
Training
Administration
Manual Work
Available
Increase in Savings for Woodlands
Woodland Forestry Savings
Long Term Work Continuation
A Client Coordinator was trained and certified during the PVA engagement.
A quarterly audit program of the new Management Operating System was developed and implemented with the Coordinator.
PVA conducted audits over 18 months to ensure compliance to the continued utilization of the Management Operating Systems.
These Audits resulted in recommendations and action plans to further identify additional opportunities for improving operations.
