Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The Swedish forestry industry handles a huge amount of timber every year. With a complex raw material supply chain and changing markets the need of understanding the forestry supply chain has never been greater. Few studies of supply uncertainty have considered wood supply aimed at the wood-based products industry (Auer & Rauch 2021). Therefor the aim of this study was to describe the effect of supply uncertainty on raw material safety inventory at roundwood pulp mills and to determine what different factors affected the supply uncertainty within the forestry supply chain in Sweden. A simulated case study was used to determine the effects of supply uncertainty on safety inventory while interview study was used to determine the main causes of supply uncertainty within the forestry supply chain. The main findings show that a higher degree of supply uncertainty demands a larger safety inventory in the simulated case. The main causes of supply uncertainty within the Swedish forestry sector are as flows:
• Weather conditions effect on operations
• Policies effect on operations
• Lack of labor and flexibility
• Climate and seasonal impact on operations
• Supply loess due to geopolitics and resource availability
The implications of supply uncertainty on the forestry supply chain are that it results in worsened operational and economic performance. Collaboration and information sharing across the supply chain is one way to mitigate the effects of supply uncertainty.