A TRUCK SCHEDULING SYSTEM IMPROVES EFFICIENCY IN THE FOREST INDUSTRIES

Timber transport plays an important part in the overall operational co sts of forest industries. Depending on their size, typical large fores t firms move between 500,000 and 3,000,000 cubic meters a year, with t ransportation budgets ranging from US $5 to 20 million. We developed a n operative and computerized system, ASICAM, based on a simulation pro cess with heuristic rules, to support daily truck scheduling decisions . It can be used on any personal computer and runs for about three min utes on a PC 486 for larger problems. ASICAM has been implemented in e ight of the largest forest firms in Chile, reducing costs and improvin g overall operation and work efficiency.