About the client
The company has been a leading automation partner for the sawmill and timber industry since 1985 and offers a comprehensive range of services from control cabinet construction, electrical installation, control technology and PLC programming to software development. The comprehensive service is valued by machine manufacturers, sawmills and glulam producers throughout Europe for new systems and modernizations and is supported by the comprehensive know-how in every production step.
The common path to success
Challenge
- Special packet formation problem in the wood industry
- No solution on the market yet
- Integration into existing work planning software
Initial situation
- Manual planning of packages in the AV software
- Simple heuristics for very homogeneous packages
- Packets should not be separated
- How must wood be divided?
- Packages are as low as possible
- Form a straight end (lower middle, for further loading)
- Use a forklift truck rather than a crane (for efficiency reasons)
- Long blades tend to point downwards (stability)
- Individual conditions for different packages
- Constraints:
- Length of the wood
- Position of packages
- Special loading forms
Our solution
- Is integrated into the in-house planning software
- Very user friendly
- Converts text files into finished packages
- Related components are not split and loaded on the same transport (e.g. parts of a wooden roof)
- Load safety is taken into account
Benefit for customers
- Automated scheduling as part of Alfha AV software
- For end customers: Full automation of the entire planning process up to the finished package (from tree to package)
- Time saving
- Also reduces transport costs through increased efficiency in planning
- Reduces or eliminates planning errors
- Use of previously empty spaces on the truck (2×5 meter boards on a 10 meter board)
- Fewer, more compact and more secure packages