Case study
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Issue
Transcript
The issue we faced in our thinnings operation was that there was too much damage occurring to the retained trees in the stand. The most preventable damage was the bumping and scuffing being caused by the harvester as it felled and processed the thinnings. So that's what we targeted for our improvement measure. -
Plan
Transcript
Our plan was to leave more 'guard' trees in place whilst the harvester was thinning. The guard trees would shield the retained trees from bumps and scuffs, and would be removed last of all. The goal was to reduce the amount of damage by two percentage points. -
Do
Transcript
To test the approach, I walked through a small area that was about to be thinned with the harvester operator. We marked the retained trees and chose the best placed 'guard' trees to protect them. The operator then thinned the area, and we walked back through it to inspect the retained trees for damage. -
Check
Transcript
We found that the extra guard trees did reduce the amount of damage. The trade-off was that it took a bit longer to work the area, because there was less room to move the machine, and there were more guard trees to take out at the end. But we decided it was worth the effort to get the better result. -
Act
Transcript
The operator continued to choose guard trees in the way we'd trialled. Once he got used to judging where the best-placed guard trees were, we stopped marking them beforehand and he now makes the decision whilst he's working. I'm still monitoring the damage percentages, and inspecting the thinned areas with the forest officer to make sure we keep achieving the targets we've set.