Optimal forest supply chain design considering clusters conformation and production scale influence

CORSANO, GABRIELA; MONTAGNA, JORGE M.; VANZETTI, NICOLÁS

Santiago

Congreso; CLAIO - Latin-Iberoamerican Conference on Operations Research; 2016

alio

The supply chain (SC) is formed by a large number of participants, including production units, suppliers and customers. Its successful operation depends on the agreement and coordination of the involved facilities. Therefore, it is necessary to consider aspects such as the harvesting and distribution of raw materials, products and by-products, so as to ensure that products are produced and distributed correctly. In particular, the forest SC has a large number of participants, which by its heterogeneity, poses interesting integration challenges to be faced.In the Argentinean context, the forest industry is one of the most important topics of interest, as defined by MINCyT (the local Ministry of Science and Technology). It turns out to be a sector of high economic attractiveness that has great potential for growth, mainly due to the possibilities of increasing and improving productivity through the application of various types of technologies. Moreover, the continuous increase in energy requirements and the need of new sources of environmentally friendly energy has driven the development of bioenergy, in particular second generation biofuels, those produced from raw materials that do not compete with the food sector. Considering these matters and the large amount of wastes generated by the forest industry, biofuel production is an attractive option for adding value to the forest SC.Taking into account the characteristics of the involved industries in supply chain, the scale of production of various factories is a critical topic when selecting the location and sizing of the production plants. The installation of large size plants reduces the fixed and operative costs, but it increases the transportation costs due to the movements of high volume of raw materials, residues and products. Therefore, there is a tradeoff between industry scale and transportation issues. In this way, the option of smaller size plants located near to raw material sites seems to be more attractive.Another key element to be considered is the integration among the involved plants. In the forest industry there are several relations among the different production plants, as well as an important competition for the use of raw materials, residues and byproduct. In this sense, grouping plants forming clusters can be a good option to improve resource sharing and its use, and thus reducing costs. This is a particular feature of this industry, which states several alternative integration scenarios and that it is worth to be studied.