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Forests NSW is a commercial trading arm within the Australian state government of New South Wales, which is responsible for managing the State’s forests and plantations. With a total estate of over 2.8 million hectares, Forests NSW is a major player in Australia’s forestry industry.
In 2001 Forests NSW approached Rotorua-based IFR technologies for proposals to replace an error-prone manual docket system which was causing inefficiencies and delays in its logging operations. (IFR a partially-owned subsidiary of mobile computing specialist Pocket Solutions (PSL) specialises in the development of software solutions for the forestry industry).
IFR and Pocket Solutions developed a solution called Logtrack which is a combination of electronic data capture and log supply chain management applications. IFR’s Electronic Docket Delivery (EDD) software would allow harvesting crews to create an electronic docket using a Psion Teklogix WorkAbout hand held. A Dallas I-Button reader was custom engineered onto the WorkAbout handheld by PSL's engineers. The docket details could then be stored on an I-button, which meant they could be accessed at any stage from the forest to the mill without any risk of losing dockets or unauthorised changes being made.
Before implementation began in earnest, IFR tested a pilot installation over a summer logging season. The logging crew found the system was easy to pick up and the incidence of errors and omissions dropped from around 10% to under 1%. Following the rollout, one of the main cost benefits of the EDD application was efficient and fast transfer of the electronic docket information to offices and contractors. It used to take up to two weeks for the dockets to be manually entered into Forest NSW’s financial systems. Now, the data is updated automatically every night.
- Minimise docket errors at creation
- No manual data entry required in the office
- Fast transfer of electronic dockets to offices and contractors
- Weekly billing possible Reduce administration required for Docket correction.
“Overall, Logtrack has helped to reduce the administration and handling associated with manual delivery dockets for all parties in the log supply chain and provide a single data set upon which all stakeholders can all rely. In years to come we'll wonder how we ever did it any other way.”
Forestry NSW project manager, Jamie Morton, 2006.
Update 2009:
NSW are upgrading to the PsionTeklogix Workabout Pro G2 and Extech S4000T printers, and are deploying into new areas.
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