Effect of work schedule design on productivity of mechanised harvesting operations in Chile

A long-term data base, which contained over 30 000 machine day records and was maintained by a Chilean forest company, was used to evaluate the effects of three types of extended work schedules (beyond a 9 hour work day) on the productivity of two types of harvesting operations; mechanised processing of Pinus radiata D. Don (radiata pine) stems into logs and mechanised harvesting of eucalypt (Eucalyptus globulus Labill and E. nitens H. Deane and Maiden) trees.Production increased as working hours increased. However, average hourly productivity fell by 9 to 30% as the working day length for equipment was extended from 9 to 18 hours. A range of factors, some interacting, were found to affect the level of decrease. These factors included type of work schedule, type of operation, season, tree species, and tree size.Extending working hours beyond 9 hours per day did not result in equivalent increases in production for mechanized harvesting operations in Chile. Further research is needed on the overall economics of working extended hours.Worldwide, there is a trend towards mechanisation of forest harvesting operations, particularly as harvested tree size decreases. Productivity and cost improvement goals or labour-related issues (e.g. to improve worker safety or to overcome labour shortages) are generally the drivers for this trend.Mechanised harvesting operations are capital intensive, with system purchase costs frequently exceeding a million US dollars. To reduce the impact of high equipment costs on a “per unit of production” basis and to increase overall profits, some logging companies are using extended working hours.As noted by Mitchell (2008), a specific definition of extended working hours does not exist because there are so many options available for forest harvesting operations. These could range from single shifts longer than a traditional eight or nine hours per day, to multiple shifts per day with the shifts sometimes overlapping, to working six or seven days