Productivity and costs of the mechanised cut-to-length wood harvesting system in clear-felling operations

Abstract

A study of labour productivity was conducted in fully mechanised harvesting technologies. The study revealed that the productivity of harvesters was particularly affected by the average tree volume of the felled trees, and the productivity of forwarders was affected mainly by two factors – haulage distance and machine payload. Dependences of other factors such as natural and site conditions, technical parameters and skills of operators could not be demonstrated. Regression equations of dependences were created for all these three significant criteria and costs per cubic meter of processed timber were calculated for them according to the cost function. A regression function was then developed for the forwarder that takes into account both significant criteria influencing the forwarder productivity.