Resignations are common in all business sectors and can also be found among Forest machine operators in the forest business. As the industry today faces a lack of Forest machine operators it is justified to determine why machine operators choose to quit their jobs. The aim of this study was to a) find out the number of machine operators that have resigned b) identify and analyse the cause for these resignations c) identify the reasons why the machine operators started to work in the forest and d) give suggestions on different measures that will limit resignations amongst Forest machine operators. A questionnaire was sent to machine operators who have quit working as employees, contractors or as employees for contractors with Holmen Skog during 2003-2007. 32 machine operators responded to the questionnaire. Interviews were made with 10 machine operators who had answered the questionnaire to gather more qualitative data. The results of the study indicate that fewer Forest machine operators change profession than employees in other occupations in Sweden.

Forest ebeaver is, equipped as a bio-energy harvester, approximately four and a half meter long and weigh just over two tons. The main purpose of this report is to find out whether a small machine like Forest ebeaver can be profitable used in early thinning. To find this out a study has been made using the machine to thin in a young pine stand..

As a student during my studies, I have been told about entrepreneurs who have red numbers in their financial statements, and there is a Forest machine operator shortage in Sweden. The basic idea of this thesis was to examine the underlying factors that may have caused the problems described above. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the factors that create stress and job satisfaction as a Forest machine operator. The study was performed as a comparison between forest companies own harvesting teams and entrepreneur teams to investigate if there are any differences in stress and job satisfaction between the two different types of team. The study was conducted in collaboration with SCA Skog. The material for this study was collected by doing interviews with SCA's harvesting teams. A total of 27 Forest machine operators were interviewed, divided into a total of 10 separate harvesting teams. It was very similar between the different type of teams, which situations the operators experienced stress.

The purpose of this study is to give a picture of the current status for the recruitment to Forest machine operator educations in Sweden, how many the educators are and the outcome of this activity. The three at present different types of education are upper secondary school, polytechnic school and vocational school. The method used for the survey is telephone interviews, pre-broadcast issues were discussed and the responses were recorded. The results are then compiled and presented in linear form. The conclusions one can draw is that education is desirable and important. To get young people interested in Forest machine operator education it is very important that the forest industry continues to develop attractive employment..

The scarcity of qualified Forest machine operators as well as the increased competition for competent machine operators among others from the mining industry in Norrland, were the reasons to investigate what attracts and what deters active and potential Forest machine operators to the occupation. An interview study was conducted among four groups with four persons in each group. The groups were students in year 1 and 3 respectively at a forestry school at upper secondary school level as well as employees of a forest company and employees of contractors. The majority of all respondents were of the opinion that their interests in machines had been important for the choice of occupation. But for the active machine operators both the interest in the forest and their interest for machines have had importance for choosing this occupation.

Wood for commercial use is harvested from forests using Forest machines like harvesters which folds, branches and cuts trees and forwarders which transports logs to a landing area for further transport to a processing facility. Future Forest machines have to be much gentler to the machine operators and forest soil than today's machines. Hence new machine solutions must be developed and tested. A practical way is to develop a physical scale model which can be used as a test-bed to incorporate different types of solutions for suspensions, cabin damping, tires and tracks, crane and overall architecture. The aim of this project was to develop such a 1:5 scale model of a Forest machine, named as ?Skogbil.A scaling strategy was employed to arrive at important scale dimensions and specifications ofSkogbil which would be comparable to the full scale model.

The global climate-change means increasing mean-temperature and higher precipitation in Sweden, which leads to shorter periods of frozen ground in the forest. At the same time the harvesting machines are getting bigger and more powerful. The forest industry aim at an even wood flow, and the ground damage has to be as low as possible. The two biggest causes for ground-damage is the bearing capacity of the forest ground and the ground-pressure of the harvesting machines. The aim of this study was to find out some rules for the machine choice considering ground pressure, when harvesting on ground with low bearing capacity.A field study, using a Valmet 890.3 forwarder, was carried out where different ground pressures and their effect on the ground were tested on two different types of ground.Additionally, an inventory of damaged harvesting grounds was made.

This study has been performed with the help of Forest machine operators in order to improve the forestry planning at Holmen Skog Örnsköldsvik-region. For Holmen Skog forestry planning is basic for a successful forestry. In a survey I have investigated what can be improved in some areas that are planned for harvesting. The result of the investigation will be used to support the machine operators as much as possible. The study has generated 49.5 % of responses and because of this low response rate, no clear conclusions to anyone else except the responding machine operators can be drawn. It has been proved that there are some details in the forestry planning system that are inadequate, such as marked routs for trails, tractor paths and buffer zones against streams. The quality of forestry planning varies greatly between different locations, as much as 50 % of the responding machine operators thought so. Over 40 % of the responding machine operators claim that the information from Holmen is insufficient. One thing that would improve the forestry planning within Holmen would be to educate all forestry planners and then do continuous follow-ups..

Buffer zones play an important role for the water quality in our watercourses. When harvesting a forest close to a watercourse a buffer zone should be left. When it's not left, it will lead to radical changes in the environment for the water organisms. The overall purpose of this thesis was to illuminate the production- and environmental thinking when establishing new buffer zones in south of Värmland. The partials goals were to determine choice of tree species, ways of regenerate, occurrence of soil scarification and the occurrence of machine tracks in newly established buffer zones.

The Department of Forest Products and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has received means from Vinnova for a preliminary study of the organisation of logging work of today and how a better logging organisation should be brought about. This thesis reports results from qualitative interviews with nine Forest machine contractors regarding the situation of their companies. The interviews have been analysed with respect to the genesis of the companies, which tasks they perform or that they could consider perform-ing, business relationships of the companies, relationships between the different partners of the companies, and the state of competition experienced by the contractors. The companies have developed either from the contractor previously being machine operator employee or from that the contractor in making has owned a machine and needed work. Their primary business is mechanised logging.

Abstract (in English)The work that lead to a CE- marking and the creation of a total drawing foundation on an existing machine carried out on the company Polytec Composites Sweden AB in Ljungby. The company have design an machine that exist in six example that runs in the production. To be able to use the machine the company have to work out a CE-marking. The process that summed up all the document that needs for the machine to make a CE-marking. The documentation includes a total drawing over the machine and a risk analysis performed by a group employers on the company.

Reporting harvested and forwarded volumes are important for the forest industry as it provides information of the size of the stock and facilitates logistics. Figures from Holmen Skog show low reporting frequency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason and find suggestions for improvement. A total of 17 machine operators were interviewed using a questionnaire combined with open questions. The results show that the majority of the machine operators find it simple to use the reporting system, although, some of them reports that it doesn?t always work as supposed to.

Modern forestry requires a high degree of machine traffic for clear felling and scarification operations. The machines most frequently used are big and the traffic often results in tracks on the forest ground. There are many small streams running through a forest, in connection to logging operations, machines might cross these frequently. These crossings could result in the erosion of fine particulate inorganic matter, which ends up in the stream. The aim of this thesis was to give a general description of small forest streams of order-one in the county of Värmland and to determine the frequency of machine tracks in small streams.

This report is a B.Sc. Forestry thesis work at the school for Forest Management, SLU. The work was an assignment from the forest owners? association Mellanskog. The aim of the work where to investigate the economical result of removing undergrowth trees before first thinning, and a follow-up of the contractors and their compliance with Mellanskog standards. This thesis work was divided in three parts: The first was to find a relation between the net volume from the first thinning and the cost of cleaning undergrowth trees. Secondly there was a follow-up in the field, to investigate whether the contractors have done the undergrowth cleaning according to Mellanskog?s directives.

This report is a B.Sc. Forestry thesis work at the school for Forest Management, SLU. The work was an assignment from the forest owners? association Mellanskog. The aim of the work where to investigate the economical result of removing undergrowth trees before first thinning, and a follow-up of the contractors and their compliance with Mellanskog standards. This thesis work was divided in three parts: The first was to find a relation between the net volume from the first thinning and the cost of cleaning undergrowth trees. Secondly there was a follow-up in the field, to investigate whether the contractors have done the undergrowth cleaning according to Mellanskog?s directives.