Development of an Information System for Wood Harvesting Planning

Abstract

The article presents the results of developing a software system for production planning in the field of wood harvesting. The objects of research are the planning of harvesting operations, forest transport, construction, repair and maintenance of forest roads, as well as solving various related problems. The purpose of the work is to develop a native specialized software system for production planning in the field of wood harvesting, which is integrated with existing accounting and monitoring systems and is based on solving complex optimization problems of large dimensions using original specially developed methods and algorithms that take into account all the features of wood harvesting production in the Russian Federation. As a result of this work, an approach to creating such а system was developed, which includes a set of requirements for the software product, as well as formulations of the main tasks to be solved, listing the necessary initial data and information obtained as an output. The proposed approach was implemented by Russian IT-company Opti-Soft in the form of software product Opti-Wood — a multipurpose Decision Support System (DSS) designed for the use at forestry enterprises as a tool for optimizing production planning, management and control. The Opti-Wood system was developed in close contact with a large wood harvesting enterprise in the Republic of Karelia. The system is based on original algorithms for solving several optimization problems of increased complexity. Using the system allows one to increase the efficiency of logging processes by reducing costs in supply chains, the volume of warehouse stocks, the number of required vehicles; by mutual agreement of plans for harvesting operations, forest transport, road construction, etc., as well as by significantly reducing the time for taking management decisions. Increased profitability occurs due to the identification of additional options for the sale of products.