Time Consumption and Productivity in Wood Extraction Using Traditional Cable Car

Abstract

Forests are a very important component for the environment in Albania considering the fact that they occupy more than 36% of the country's surface. The evaluation of the working time consumption and productivity of the various sub-phases of wood extraction work, in a beech forest in Albania, with traditional methods and old equipment’s, was considered of interest in this study to highlight the weaknesses to be corrected. Considering the slope in our study site, a traditional cable car Austrian Type R-Gander (A 6832 SULZ) manufactured in 1985 was used for the extraction of timber. Trunks from a distance of 800 - 900 m were extracted using this equipment. The operating team consisted of 3 workers. 10 - 15 working days are required for the assembly and disassembly of the equipment. During the work performed, data regarding working times were collected, paying special attention to dead times, where avoidable times are high 61,0 %. The extracted volume was 31.46 m3, which corresponds to a weight of 41.82 t.

Keywords

• Wood Extraction, Working Times, Avoidable Delay, Unavoidable Delay, Productivity.