The impact of the operator on the productivity and cost of an excavator-based processor was studied.
The research was titled “Excavator-based processor operator productivity and cost analysis in Zululand, South Africa”, and was published in Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Sciences 73:2 (2011), pages 109 to 115. The author’s were G. Hogg, R. Pulkki and P. Ackerman. The research investigated operator impacts on productivity and costs when using similar processing machines for debarking and debranching Eucalyptus grandis x camaldulensis pulpwood tree lengths. The research aimed to investigate the variation in productivity of six operators, and then determine the cost implications of this variation.
Each operator had 18 months experience and had received in-house training by the contractor owning and operating the full-tree system. Time studies were used to collect cycle time information for each operator. The results showed that productivity variation was up to 58% between operators, and machine utilisation varied by up to 24%. Cost variation between operators varied by up to 70%. The cost difference between the lowest and highest cost operators was $ 1.18 per m3 (Note: this value was obtained by using the South Africa Rand value and a $ conversion of R 7.90 per dollar).
Please access the journal article for a more complete account of the research.
Source: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tsfs20/current