Management Structure

Overall project coordination is undertaken by Plustech from its base in Tampere, Finland. Coordination of the individual core "Work Packages" is shared amongst the four main research partners (Plustech, the University of Aberdeen, CC-Systems, and Skogforsk). In turn, each of these organizations are themselves assisted by the remaining two partners Stora Enso and LÖBF.

Task Responsibilities

The work is divided into five core "Work Packages" (WP) which themselves are further divided into a total of some twenty-one "Sub Work Packages". Each of the four main research organizations has been given responsibility for the co-ordination of a Work Package (with the exception of the University of Aberdeen where coordination responsibilities are extended to both Work Package 1, "Needs Analysis", and Work Package 5, "Systems Evaluation").

The diagram below illustrates the work plan and allocation of task responsibilities:

Project Workplan

The requirements specification work in WP1 and WP2 focuses on clarifying the information management needs of the forestry wood chain and on creating a vision of future needs and incremental progress. These first activities are of crucial importance for the success of the whole project and are consequently carried out with special care using the expertise and contacts of the whole consortium. The results from these work packages serve as specifications for the work carried out in WP3 and WP4.

In WP3 a concrete prototype of a next generation, Internet compatible, office tool set will be developed. In WP4 the focus is on the communication between the forest machine and the machine manufacturer or service company. It is hoped that the development work in WP3 and WP4 will stimulate the European forest industry to demand new improved tools and help tool providers and machine manufacturers to solve the difficult technical problems in applying the Internet, in using the new fast wireless networks and, for example, in raising the "intelligence" of the forest machine in fault finding and condition monitoring.

In WP2 a longer term vision of the forestry wood chain information flows and decision making process will be created. The production group (harvester and forwarder) is the key information node and focal point in this vision work. The activities in WP2 therefore complement, in a significant fashion, the technical, problem solving activities of WP3 and WP4.

The systems evaluations in WP5 will be carried out as a series of field trials with industrial end-users in the four participating countries. The evaluations are an important part in the overall project plan because they are an important element in guiding the project to a successful and effective conclusion: the researchers will meet real-life problems early enough so that there can be timely and reliable feedback thus enabling production of results with direct practical application in the forestry wood chain.

For more information about the overall project structure and organisation please contact Dr Arto Peltomaa at Plustech Oy.