Developing the forest biomass supply systems by rearranging supply operations and logistics

Luke’s funding for the finalization of a Ph.D. dissertation

Abstract:
The development of supply chains of material flows is a continual process in every branch of business. New, more productive solutions and technologies in storing, handling and transporting of processed or unprocessed material as well as in processing the information flow facilitates the improvement of the current supply chain. Moreover, technology development can introduce totally new concepts of supply systems for competing with the currently available ones. Competition in business, maximizing the profit as well as the social and environmental sustainability are the key drivers for the development processes.
Discrete-event simulation has been used frequently for studying the industrial processes, material flows in product lines and supply systems. Simulation as a study method has its benefits; with the aid of the simulation new alternative scenarios for improving the flow of material can be studied cheaply and quickly. Moreover, machine interactions and stochasticity are the important factors/behaviors to take into account in operations of supply systems in fluctuating conditions of the supply system. In the field of biomass logistics and supply systems, many different solutions for supplying and delivering biomass from the forest to end use facilities exists and the development of supply systems especially for forest chips has been rapid.
The general target of the study was to detect the improvement potentials of various supply systems of biomass as well as to find totally new supply concepts for the current systems by utilizing discrete-event simulation as a study method. The objectives of the study were defined from the demands of the business practices in four different cases, presented as follows:
a) Improving the logistics of biofuel reception at the power plant of Kuopio City,
b) Development potential of waterway transport of forest chips in Finland’s Lake Saimaa waterways,
c) Discrete-event simulation of an information-based raw material allocation process for increasing the efficiency of an energy wood supply chain,
d) Alternative operation models for using feed-in terminal as a part of fuel supply system for CHP-plant,
e) The efficiency of working models and bigger truck sizes in roundwood truck transports in Central Finland.