Evaluation of different optimisation models to schedule silvicultural operations

Abstract

Silvicultural tasks in Chile, due to their seasonal character as well as to their short duration present the highest level of labour instability among forestry activities, causing a continuous renewal of non-specialised workers. To revert this situation, the number of workers required, considering cost and labour stability simultaneously should be determined in advance. The objective of this study was to develop and compare several models that elaborate planning strategies for silvicultural tasks, based on different objective functions and constraint sets. The results obtained indicate that the analysed models contribute to an effective scheduling of a company's silvicultural activities at an operational level.