An Analysis Of Road Changing On Several Cable Logging Operations

Author : Denis James Van Winkle
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 99 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (136 download)

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Download or read book An Analysis of Road Changing on Several Cable Logging Operations written by Denis James Van Winkle and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Road changing i.s the activity of moving operating lines on a cable yarding operation to permit access to logs in an unyarded portion of a logging unit. The time required to perform this activity varies widely and may consume a significant portion of the total yarding time. With rising costs in the logging industry, the efficiency of cable logging systems is constantly under critical review. Additional research in the area of road changing has been suggested in several studies (Dykstra, 1974 and Peters, 1973) Road changing information was gathered on several yarding operations in conjunction with detailed production studies of cable logging systems. On six of the operations the total time consumed by road changing was noted and recorded as a delay in the yarding process. On four operations, road changing was segmented into various activities, and factors hypothesized to influence road changing time were identified and measured. On the four operations studied in detail, two crewmen timed the road changing operation as the activities involved occurred at widely separated locations on the logging unit. The continuous time study method used on the overall production study (Dykstra, 1975a) was also used during road changing. The analysis of road changing involves a descriptive analysis of all the operations studied and a quantitative analysis of road changing on the four operations studied in detail. The descriptive analysis consists primarily of a comparative investigation of road changing time between the operations. The quantitative analysis consists of a regression analysis of the four operations examined in detail. In the comparison of road changing times for the ten operations observed, road changing time varied widely. Even among similar systems a wide range was observed. This variability was most likely due to the differences in the road changing methods themselves, varying characteristics of the logging units and lengthy delays encountered during road changing. This could not be confirmed for six of the operations as road changing was not recorded in detail. However, among those operations observed in detail, this influence could be seen. Following a breakdown of road changing into machine intensive activities, labor intensive activities and delays, a large percentage of road changing time is occupied by delays. Also, the greatest proportion of delay-free time involved labor intensive activities. This was expected on the operations where pre-layout of roads was not done. On the operation where roads were pre-layed, other activities requiring labor intensive action occurred. Some of the delays encountered may have been due to characteristics of the particular yarder being used. A quantitative analysis was made of four operations. Road changing time, excluding delays and the time required to relocate the yarder was used as the dependent variable. Delay-free road changing time was found to be a function of the distance from the landing to the tailhold (SPAN) and groundslope. For two of the operations, identical machines and methods were used. A combined regression equation was formed based on the independent variable SPAN. Also, based on the scatter of observations for these systems, an equa.- tion using SPAN2 as the independent variable was found to be a better predictor of delay-free road changing time than SPAN.