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Transportation production planning of an eastern Oregon hybrid poplar plantation

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/3t945w90n

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  • The current production plan at the Potlatch Hybrid Poplar plantation in eastern Oregon is to haul 8,000 whole trees per day (170,000 bone dry Tons of chips annually) to a centrally located processing facility (CPF) where the poplar will be processed. Harvests begin in 2001 and continue on a seven-year rotation. A transportation system for the Potlatch Corporation plantation is developed. The study provides a "stump to dump" transportation route model, a review of field tests, and a transportation schedule that predicts production based on loads, transportation times and costs from any harvest unit on the plantation to the CPF. Primary objectives are reduced costs through efficiency, workability and safety. The transportation route system computes the shortest and "safest" transportation routes from harvest units to the CPF. Tree transportation speeds and times were obtained from field tests, and are included in the discussion of tested hauling equipment. For production management, spreadsheets are developed to modify and analyze different routes, and to monitor and maintain transportation efficiency. Data in the spreadsheets include harvest unit in acres, numbers of trees in each harvest unit, and hauling and return distances from corners and centroid of each harvest unit to the CPF. With this information harvest and transportation times, loads, and costs of harvesting any block on the plantation can be simulated. An average 1.6-million trees will be harvested annually (11.3-million trees per 7 year rotation) and hauled with an estimated 15,500 wagonloads in 46,000 harvester hours. When the constructed transportation route model was analyzed with field data, it was determined that four harvesters are sufficient to meet the 8,000-trees/day goal at Potlatch plantation. Eleven tractor/wagon combinations will be required to maintain continuous harvester production on the entire plantation at any time. Analysis indicates that harvest and transportation costs per rotation are approximately seven million dollars ($7,000,000) or an average of one million dollars ($1,000,000) annually. The estimated harvest and transportation cost is $0.625 per tree. In field production/time studies must be performed to fine-tune routes and equipment. Several recommendations are presented that emphasize areas of greatest concern related to transportation speed, safety, productivity and overall profitability.
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