WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY | Broadband and high tech solutions many miles into the wilds. That’s reality in SCA forests: machines equipped with advanced mobile data networks.
Deep into the Swedish forest you can find, somewhat unexpectedly, broadband and digital solutions. Here, different types of machines participating in the wood harvest electronically interact to maximize the efficiency, economy and the quality of the operation.
Currently SCA Skog has a digital chain connecting 344 forest machines and 153 timber trucks, enabling them to receive information for their work via mobile broadband directly to the vehicles’ onboard computers. The same system is also used to report their production to SCA Skog’s central data network.
“Thanks to broadband, the individuals who are actually performing the work receive accurate information for their tasks, including digital maps and clear instructions concerning the manner in which the work is to be carried out,” says Magnus Bergman, Chief Technical Officer at SCA Skog.
Quality and sustainability
This way, the drivers in the harvesters can optimize the quality in their work; not only ensuring the best quality of timber but also fulfilling any necessary environmental considerations.
“The feedback system provides us with an extremely clear picture of the status of harvest, the volume of timber of various species in different locations and how the machines are working in purely technical terms,” Bergman explains.
So technology directly helps SCA to protect areas of high conservation value within the forest. Conservation measures can be as specific as protecting one tree out of the hundreds of millions SCA owns.
Mobile World Congress 2011
In February, at the annual Mobile World Congress
in Barcelona, Bergman connected to a harvester that was busy harvesting in northern Sweden. On a big screen, participants were able to see precisely the same picture that the operator could see displayed on the screen of the harvester’s onboard computer.
“Because we can connect to the machines, we can also provide assistance with remote fault searching and problem solving,” says Christer Johannessen, whose job is to ensure that SCA Skog’s IT systems function properly.
Anna Gullers / Konstantin C Irina