Ida Linstedt, författare på ForestX

Easy to test the outcome of different cases

Optinex / 25 January 2022

Göteborg/Färila

ForestX is now in the final phase of a feasibility study with Setra. What can Optinex achieve in a Setra sawmill?

In the feasibility study, ForestX has built a full model of Optinex for Setra’s sawmill in Färila. The model mimics and reacts like the real sawmill with a few simplifications.

Oskar Selmeryd is project manager at ForestX and explains what sawmills like the one in Färila can achieve by using Optinex:

1. Crystal ball

– Optinex works like a crystal ball! What happens if we want to sell this type of product to this imaginary market at this imaginary price for the coming quarters?

– Or what happens if we change the distribution of products. How does it affect the production plan and net profit? We can model different scenarios and then evaluate. You can simply try what effect different types of business have on the net result. And it can be done continuously all the time.

2. Alternative calculation

– What effect does it have if we change market and products? How do we manage production, other commitments we already have and what does the utilization rate look like at the sawmill? Optinex can provide answers to all of this, Oskar Selmeryd explains.

3. Changes in the supply of raw materials

– The raw material supply can be changed; the material has a different diameter than planned, or comes in a different length distribution. Optinex can then show what effect it has on the saw, how the ability to pay changes and how to manage its previous commitments based on the change.

The customer Setra early on raised the question of what requirements are placed on the organization for Optinex to function best.

That part is therefore already included in the feasibility study.

– There must be an organization that can receive the tool. Who is responsible for maintaining the product, for example? says Oskar Selmeryd. We have simply looked at the organization linked to the use of Optinex.

– We have also looked at how Optinex can be technically integrated in the company. This is a completely new tool that they have not used before at Setra, then it’s important that you address both the technical and the organizational issues early, so that it doesn’t just land in someone’s lap when it’s done.

The feasibility study began in October 2021 and already in January 2022, Setra can see and evaluate how Optinex works in their particular case.

In the feasibility study, ForestX has built a full model of OptiNex for Setra’s sawmill in Färila. From January 2021 Setra can start testing and evaluation how OptiNex work in their processes.

About Setra:

Setra is one of Sweden’s largest wood industry companies. The company has eight production units around Sweden, seven sawmills and a processing unit where Setra manufactures glulam components and KL wood.

Setra is 50 percent owned by Sveaskog and 49.5 percent by the forest owners’ association Mellanskog. Other shares are owned by 1,500 smaller shareholders.

The group includes the subsidiaries Setra Trävaror, Pyrocell and Setra Wood Products. Setra has approximately 800 employees and sales of approximately SEK 4 billion.

About 65 percent of sales consist of exports to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Easy to test the outcome of different cases Read More »

ForestX keeps growing in Dalarna: David Rasche part of the team

Career / 15 December 2021

Leksand/Göteborg

Since this last autumn, project manager and solution architect David Rasche has been part of ForestX’s ever-growing team in Dalarna.

ForestX is about forestry and IT, and that is exactly the combination we find in David Rasche. With a technical background, American born David Rasche ended up in Dalarna in 1990 and started working at Stora. Since then, working life has been about IT in combination with paper, newsprintpaper and cardboard, and the clients have been well-known companies such as Billerud and Holmen.

Merger of Stora Enso

The assignment now for David Rasche is to act as stream lead in the ongoing merger of Stora Enso. Over the years, the company has divided parts of Stora Enso that will now once again gather under the same umbrella.

– The assignment is about getting the company together systemwise. It is about integration and merging of processes, explains David Rasche.

The merger began early in 2021 and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2022.

Agile approach in project management

Although the project is extensive and involves everything from technology to economics and law, which provides packed meeting days, it is a noticeably easy-going project manager who talks about his assignment.

– It may come with age, you learn to focus on what is important, in all projects there is so much noise around.

– I have worked in IT, but I don’t want to sit alone and program. I like to push things forward.

An agile approach also helps. Breaking down the project into smaller components and constantly evaluating what to achieve and what resources are required is ForestX’s and David Rasche’s way of working.

New ways of working in ForestX

There were many reasons why David Rasche chose ForestX.

– I already knew some of the coworkers. It is a good energy in the company, many new ideas about new ways of working. It is really needed in the industry.

– ForestX is also trying new ways to reach customers, for example with the webinars on AI in the forest. We are good at testing new ideas quickly and easily.

More people joining the Dalarna team

ForestX team in Dalarna has proven to be a bike-saved gang.

– I mostly ride country roads, and the others are on mountain bikes. But I may as well get a mountain bike and keep up with them, says David Rasche.

And more people enjoying life on two wheels are on their way to the team in Dalarna after the turn of the year.

Facts:

David Rasche: Project manager / Project management, Solution architect

Favorite tree: Maple

Best nature experience: Diving in Mauritius

Most used app: Sky guide and NY Times

Three favorite bookmarks in my browser: Astrobin.com, Astronet.se, Youtube.com

ForestX keeps growing in Dalarna: David Rasche part of the team Read More »

ForestX India: A fast-growing one-year-old in tech and forestry

Career, ForestX India, FX India / 28 October 2021

Pune, India/ Gothenburg, Sweden

ForestX India started up last fall. Today it’s a thriving one-year-old. It’s the small startup with the work culture of a big and mature company. The eleven co-workers in Pune have close to 30 colleagues in Sweden. And they all have the tech-intensive European forest industry to work with.

Pooja Rokade, lead software engineer, and Shalabh Khanzode, senior software engineer, joined ForestX in the start. We had a talk about what it’s like to work at ForestX India.

You have spent more than a year now at ForestX, how is your experience so far?

Pooja Rokade: I have a very good experience! I had a few years of experience from the forestry domain, but with ForestX I’m working on new areas of forestry. So that’s a new learning for me.

Shalabh Khanzode: For me also the experience has been very good. I have never worked with forestry before, so it was a new challenge for me. We are having internal domain knowledge sharing sessions, those were helpful for me to understand the domain. Working directly with the customers was also new and it was fun, thanks to friendly customers!

ForestX is a start-up company, how’s the working culture?

Pooja Rokade: It is a start-up but we already have a work culture and policies like any other big company. I have never felt pressure of work during this time, we have flexi working hours which helps us to maintain work life balance.

Shalabh Khanzode: I have heard stories about stressed working hours and policies in small companies, but Forest X is completely different than that. Our policies are very employee friendly. We have all the policies which should be present in any good company. We have flexi working hours, medical insurance, employee provident funds, training and certification program, fun activities, parties and enjoyment, paid overtime, awards and recognitions.

You mentioned paid overtime. Tell us more about this!

Shalabh Khanzode: Yes, we have fully paid overtime. Generally, we don’t see it in IT companies, but we have that. Sometimes to meet the deadlines we need to work extra hours and in ForestX we have an option to take a leave or get paid for those extra hours.

Tell us about projects and tech stacks you are using in ForestX.

Shalabh Khanzode: Currently I’m working with our partner Trimble, we are helping them to adapt the Connected Forest suite to the Nordic market. Then, we have our own product called OptiNex. We have seen a lot of interest about OptiNex from customers, one of our customers Pfiefer is using it in production in Austria. We are also working with our partner TenFifty to bring AI in forestry, which is something new and we are excited to see how AI will work with the forestry domain. About tech stack, we are using all latest modern technologies, like Angular, Typescript, .net Core, Azure Cloud service, we are using IBM Watson for implementing optimization algorithms.

Tell us about your best moment at ForestX!

Pooja Rokade: There are many but the best of them was when my work for customer Pfeifer along with Prasad was appreciated and shared publicly by ForestX. Very few times I have seen that employer has publicly appreciated the work of employees. It was the best moment for me. I can clearly see, how my work is contributing to the growth of ForestX.

Read the full story of the work at Pfeifer, Austria

ForestX India: A fast-growing one-year-old in tech and forestry Read More »

New partner to ForestX: Johan Bergström strengthens with expertise in change management

Partners / 28 October 2021

Gothenburg / Uppsala

As Johan Bergström now joins ForestX, the company strengthens their expertise in change management in forestry.

Since his studies as a forester and onwards, Johan Bergström has moved in the field between forestry and IT. The areas of work have been geographical information systems, forestry planning systems and timber flow systems. After 18 years at Sveaskog, he has now joined ForestX as a partner. With extensive experience of various projects and always with various development issues, he strengthens ForestX’s competence in the work of digitizing Europe’s forest and wood industries.

Leadership and working methods through change processes is something Johan is passionate about.

– Change is difficult and everyone reacts differently, says Johan Bergström, and sees some concrete methods to work according to:

Invest in giving employees the support they need.
Give time to implement changes.
See the value of the soft perspectives.
Make sure there are people who understand and can explain to those who are going through the change.
See the whole; development and change are always connected.
There is not just one perspective. Learning a new system is one thing. But are we properly organized, for example? Do we talk to each other about the right things at the right time? Do our key figures measure correctly based on what we are trying to achieve? Is it possible to understand what I as an individual gain from the change?
The effect that we achieve is most important, let the road there be crooked if necessary.

– If you get many of these points to be connected, it is possible to achieve large effects with relatively small, Johan Bergström says.

Digital solutions for the transition

It was also ForestX’s focus on the importance of the effect of change that attracted Johan Bergström to a collaboration.

– We have the same focus on the effects customers want to achieve. Forestry is currently undergoing a major change where digitalisation is seen as a crucial tool. The digital capabilities are simply a prerequisite for continuing to run a sustainable forestry that is understood by everyone. ForestX is there, working with the industry, IT and digitization and I want to help.

The part of the Swedish forestry that works with IT and digitization is no greater than the fact that Johan Bergström has often worked with people who are now at ForestX.

– It is a good bunch of partners and employees that I’ve followed for a long time. ForestX is modern and has repeatedly delivered over the years in various projects and is now showing the way in a traditional industry in recasting.

Agile approach to successful change work

To succeed in change work, Johan Bergström advocates an agile way of working.

– By working transparently, communicating a lot, being prepared to rethink, seek and try out and constantly reflect on what happened and why, you will take advantage of the opportunities that you did not even first know existed, or capture things that we did not know before were important.

– This way of working requires that you get involved. It is a chimera to believe that if you spend time on a feasibility study and a requirements specification, you as an organization can then breathe a sigh of relief. A change affects so much more, such as working methods and more people than the obvious ones. Taking care of the things you did not think of will be new costs afterwards or the desired effect will simply not be there.

It all boils down to trust between the parties. A good foundation is often to start with a small project and work outwards, so to speak. It is only when you really get to work that everything finds its place, is Johan Bergström’s experience.

From your position in the forest industry, what does people in forestry need to be aware of?

– The realization that a system does not solve everything. There are many more perspectives you must take into account. How we measure, how we have given the conditions and that we have reviewed the processes. A system is only a part of the solution. One cannot turn a blind eye to difficult leadership issues and the change work that needs to be done.

– In a change, it is a prerequisite that we use the technology correctly for us to succeed. Computers should do what they are good at, we humans do what we are good at. It is when we try the opposite that it goes wrong…

Name: Johan Bergström

Title: Project Manager

Favourite tree: Pine. It has to do with my northern origin. My parents come from Västerbotten in the northern parts of Sweden, and we still have my father’s childhood home just south of Sorsele where the family gathers. Pine dominates there. Plus everything it provides in the form of timber, wood, firewood, coal, tar and dry acorns for insects and birds.

Best nature experience: When I did a ten day winter tent trip in Sarek with my friend John. It was a revenge for an earlier attempt when we were not properly prepared. We got to experience everything from sunshine to a full snowstorm.

Most used app: Wehunt, a hunting app that has done a lot for safety and the hunting experience.

Three bookmarks in my browser: I do not use bookmarks but am good at searching. But three pages that I check / use at regular intervals:

Wikipedia

Excellent starting point for us curious. I think it is important to have independent facts and am a donor.

Sketchup

Trimbles Sketchup for us who like carpentry and building. Always good to start with a drawing / sketch and why not a digital in 3D!

idg.se

Large portal for everything possible in IT. It is important to keep up, both at work and at home.

New partner to ForestX: Johan Bergström strengthens with expertise in change management Read More »

Christer and Mohamed successful team in chess tournament

After work / 28 October 2021

ForestX’s marketing manager and founder Christer Lindqvist participated in October 2021 in the event “Näringslivet möter förorten” (Business meets the suburb).

Christer and his chess partner Mohamed met other teams in a pair chess tournament. They played every other move, with the only restriction that they were not allowed to talk about the moves, but about everything else! The afternoon could be summed up with two wins, two losses and a draw.

– With my very limited knowledge of chess, our success is entirely Mohamed’s merit. I also want to thank all the children from Eriksbo in Angered for good support during the matches, says Christer Lindqvist.

“Näringslivet möter förorten” is an event-based movement for integration that brings people together. The event is arranged every year in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Linköping and Malmö.

Follow-up at HedeDanmark after CFHarvest project!

CF Harvest / 28 October 2021

HedeDanmark chose Trimble product CFHarvest from the Connected Forest-suite when it was time to make the entire work process digital. As Trimble’s partner in the Nordic region, ForestX has been involved throughout the journey.

In glorious autumn sun, we finished the project on site in Denmark.

Carl Barck, CEO, and Johan Hedlund from ForestX then had the opportunity to try out HedeDanmark’s log measurement solution LogStackPRO. We’re always curious about new smart digital solutions in the forest!

Photo: Rasmus Willumsen, HedeDanmark

ForestX in new major European project: Tactical operational planning at Rubner

FX Europe, Optinex / 28 October 2021

During fall 2021, ForestX began work on three projects at the wood processing Rubner group in Austria. Rubner has operations in 20 locations in four European countries with over 1,300 employees.

The first project includes implementing tactical planning with OptiNex. Then follows a project with operational sawmill planning with OptiNex and a project for planning for glulam.

– It is a great acknowledgement to have a new big project with a strong European wood group as Rubner, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX.

– We got new experiences from the Central European wood industry in recent work in the area, which we bring into the new project. We meet a great interest in digitizing all parts of the work process from our European customers.

ForestX in new major European project: Tactical operational planning at Rubner Read More »

Mathias Johansson joins ForestX: ”I enjoy the spirit of the company”

Career / 10 September 2021

Gothenburg/Falun

The ForestX office in Dalarna is growing. Solutions architect Mathias Johansson recently joined.

In spring 2021, ForestX established in Dalarna when Stefan Jönis joined the company. He immediately asked for colleagues, and now they are coming.

After a long career as a developer and architect at leading major international companies such as Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard and TietoEvry, Mathias Johansson is now joining ForestX.

– A small company attracted me. At ForestX I get to be involved in a completely different way. I can talk directly to the CEO and owner. I enjoy the spirit of the company and to be able to contribute and build something new, says Mathias Johansson.

– I’ve been working for a long time with system development and I’ve built large systems that have been used by hundreds of thousands of users. These have been in many different types of industries. But the cornerstones are the same in all major industries, such as stocks and orders to be handled. In recent years, I have worked more towards forestry and realized that forest processes are extremely complex.

Mathias Johansson goes directly into the work at ForestX with OptiNex and the development work around pin files.

However, the forest does not just mean work behind the computer screen for Mathias Johansson.

– I thrive in the woods, I like to go mountain biking and run. I usually end the year with the Cykelvasan (a bike race along the same stretch as the traditional ski race Vasaloppet). Physically, I have always worked in the forest during my upbringing, we own some forest and I have sawed and taken care of firewood, he says in the distinct dialect of Dalarna.

From your professional perspective; what should you keep an eye on in the forest industry during 2021/2022?

– I’d say everything about AI and how to use cloud services. Work can be so much more efficient and it is possible to make cost savings.

– It’s also exciting how to scan forests with drones and satellite tools and to then take advantage of the information with AI and machine learning. Forestry is an exciting industry that is not as digitalized as it could be. But we are far ahead in the Nordics, says Mathias Johansson.

Name: Mathias Johansson

Title: Solutions architect

Favourite tree:The mammoth trees in Yosemite National Park.

Best nature experience: ”When I worked in the US, I made several trips there. At one point, I did a month-long drive in California and was in Yosemite National Park, among other places. It is by far the most fun nature experience I have had. There have been trees that could drive through. Everything is so terribly big, the trees are so big, it’s amazing. Death Valley, the California desert, was also an experience. It was around 50 degrees Celsius when you got out of the car.”

Most used app: Strava, a training app. A social platform where you can compare your times and achievements with others who have exercised on the same stretch.

Three bookmarks in my browser:

Feber.se – Tech news on everything from games to cars.

Nordichardware.se – Tech news

Expressen.se – Swedish news site

Mathias Johansson joins ForestX: ”I enjoy the spirit of the company” Read More »

Carl Barck and Christer Lindqvist, ForestX: ”Our journey has just begun”

ForestX India, FX Europe, FX India, Partners / 6 July 2021

Gothenburg, Sweden

ForestX was founded three years ago. With 35 co-workers, a broad network of partners and a joint long experience of the combination of forest and IT, ForestX sticks to its goal; to digitize the forest industry.

In this interview with CEO Carl Barck and marketing manager Christer Lindqvist, we go to India, on to the digitization of forestry in pandemic times and future recruitment needs. And much more.

ForestX India has ten employees in Pune. Pune is today a hub for the tech world in India

India

ForestX India was founded one year ago. There are already ten employees in ForestX India, all based in the city of Pune. Pune has over six million inhabitants and is the place where cutting-edge expertise in the Indian tech world gathers.

– Everyone at ForestX India are hand-picked specialists. We are proud and happy that we have managed to create this together during this pandemic year, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX.

– We chose to make our own establishment in India after reviewing various alternatives. We are confident with the team in India and we have a really good collaboration. We have such good experience that we now want to continue to grow and expand the business there. At the moment we’re looking for Lead Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Software Engineer in .NET / Azure Stack and/or Angular in Pune, says Carl Barck.

During the early summer of 2021, ForestX India provided vaccination against Covid-19 to employees and their families.

This is Team India:

https://forestx.se/en/team-india/

Examples of projects where ForestX India and ForestX in Sweden collaborated:

https://forestx.se/en/leading-planning-tool-integrated-with-sap-s-4hana-for-glulam-industry-in-operation-at-pfeifer-in-austria/

Partners

ForestX has a wide partner network. These include Mentormate, Euvic, Tenfifty, Remsoft and Metapraxis.

– Many of our partners complement each other. Since we know our partners well, we will always find the best combinations when we create unique offers for our customers, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist.

The partnership with Trimble Forestry

One of ForestX’s deeper collaborations is the one with Trimble Forestry. ForestX is Trimble Forestry’s Nordic partner and delivers the CFForest product suite to Nordic customers.

– We realized early on that Trimble Forestry’s products were just right. We are grateful that we have received the trust from Trimble to cooperate in the Nordic region, says CEO Carl Barck.

– The market needs this type of product that provides a platform for digitization. The forest industry wants and needs to move towards modern cloud services, and that is where Trimble Forestry’s products fit in with their modular structure.

– With the transition to VIOL3, the timing is right to choose the CFForest suite. We work continuously with the establishment and adaptation of the product to the Swedish market, says Carl Barck.

Read an interview with Trimble Forestry’s CEO Kevin Toohill about his views on the Nordic forest industry:

https://forestx.se/en/kevin-toohill-ceo-of-trimble-forestry-the-large-investments-in-it-and-technology-makes-sweden-interesting/

ForestX is now working to establish physical offices in Stockholm and Dalarna as the company grows.

Office in Stockholm and Falun

– As we have grown, the number of places where the employees are based has increased. Today, in addition to Gothenburg, there are also employees in Stockholm and in Dalarna. We are now working to establish physical offices there, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist.

Read more about ForestX’s first recruitment in Dalarna: https://forestx.se/en/stefan-jonis-joins-forestx/

ForestXChange

– ForestXChange is part of our expanded offer for change management, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist.

– Through our partner network and our various product partners, we have the knowledge, experience and solutions to ensure a change process to turn out well. We have cutting-edge expertise in all areas related to change, forestry, digitization and IT. This combined means that we dare to say that we are experts in the forest industry’s digital journey of change, says Christer Lindqvist.

Read more about ForestXChange in an interview with Sven Lundmark here:

https://forestx.se/en/sven-lundmark-the-customer-has-to-keep-a-strong-position/

Examples of projects and customers

Setra. Together with Setra, we are carrying out a major development project aimed at modernizing the business system. It will continue in the autumn of 2021.
Vida Skog. We have developed the production follow-up app WQP together with Vida Skog. The app is now in use.
AI project at Sveaskog. We project manage two AI projects at Sveaskog. Among other things, we are developing a completely new tool, KingPin, for producing pin files with higher quality by using AI.
CFHarvest to HedeDanmark. We helped the Danish forestry company to become fully digital in its work process.
Developed OptiNex Glulam for Pfeifer in Austria. We developed a new module for glulam production for our own planning program OptiNex.

Read more about some of the projects here:

Sveaskog:
https://forestx.se/en/innovative-ai-projects-at-sveaskog-linked-together-at-forestx/

HedeDanmark:
https://forestx.se/en/hededanmark-cfharvest-made-our-work-flow-completely-digitized/

Pfeifer:
https://forestx.se/en/leading-planning-tool-integrated-with-sap-s-4hana-for-glulam-industry-in-operation-at-pfeifer-in-austria/

Digitization of the forest industry in pandemic times

– We notice that the interest is great and we continuously get inquiries, despite the pandemic. It’s a hot area. We see that the players in the forest industry are interested and well-educated and know that they must take steps towards a completely digital way of working, says CEO Carl Barck.

– We also see how our work with Pfeifer in Austria created great interest in the region, and we are working on new inquiries from that part of Europe.

Webinars

During spring of 2021, ForestX had two webinars on the theme of AI in the forest for real together with Tenfifty, and one where the product suite CFForest from Trimble Forestry was presented.

– It has been a successful concept with webinars, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist. It turned out well and we will continue this autumn.

– It is a good format and we have experienced that there has been a great commitment and more participants than we had dared to hope for. It is a great way to share knowledge and information.

– But at the same time, of course, we look forward to meeting our customers and colleagues for real again when society can reopen, says Christer Lindqvist.

On September 16, ForestX arrange a webinar together with Metapraxis. It will be about analysis and follow-up of finances, production, sales and market in the woodworking industry.

On September 28, part three of our series on AI for real in the woods will be arranged. Then the theme is “Strategic, tactical and operational planning”. Christer Lindqvist, ForestX and David Fendrich, Tenfifty, participate. An even more secret guest is planned!

– With our smart digital solutions, we help forest companies to take their responsibility, says ForestX’s CEO Carl Barck.

Sustainability

– With our smart digital solutions, we help forest companies take their responsibility. By having a solid decision basis and digital opportunities to follow every part of the work process, we jointly save resources at all levels, says CEO Carl Barck.

Recruitments

In three years, ForestX has grown into a company with around 35 co-workers in Sweden and India. With projects in several European countries, there is a constant need to make new recruits.

– We are always looking for those who have expertise in both forestry and IT. If you have competence and experience in IT, technology, forestry, GIS or VIOL3, you are very interesting to us, says CEO Carl Barck and continues:

– Our journey has just begun, anyone who wants to be part of building something new should come to us. We work with modern technology and the best solutions.

– We want our employees to be able to make the best professional development with us.

Carl Barck and Christer Lindqvist, ForestX: ”Our journey has just begun” Read More »

Leading planning tool integrated with SAP S/4HANA for glulam industry in operation at Pfeifer in Austria

ForestX Europe, FX Europe, Optinex / 23 June 2021

Gothenburg/Imst

Europe’s glulam industries needed a complete solution for planning production with a seamless integration with SAP S/4HANA.

Johan Eriksson and colleagues at ForestX developed a module to the company’s existing product Optinex.

Optinex is a unique optimization planning tool that uses the full power of IBM Watson.

Since January 2021, the application has been in operation at Pfeifer group in Austria.

A large part of glulam planning in Sweden and around Europe takes place with excel sheets and simple computer support. The introduction of Optinex Glulam means a direct step into a digitalized way of working for the wood processing industries who choose the application.

– Optinex helps us to implement our business strategy with regard to the digitalization of production-related business processes in a consequent manner, says Stefan Hammerl, head of IT applications at Pfeifer.

Johan Eriksson, solution architect, ForestX and Stefan Hammerl, head of IT applications, Pfeifer

– This is one of the most fun projects I have completed. We have worked closely with Pfeifer’s planners and they are happy with the tool. We have been able to do exactly what the customer wanted, says Johan Eriksson, solution architect at ForestX.

OptiNex Glulam can be configured to take into account a number of parameters in the optimization of the planning of glulam production, for example:

Minimizing waste.
Machine utilization.
Optimized flows in the factory.
Available raw material.
Finishing operations.

The scheduler can easily prioritize the various optimization parameters during use, depending on the current order mode.

Unique optimization model for the customer

– We have developed a unique optimization solution where the model can be adapted to the customer’s needs. The solution is integrated with other modules in Optinex. In this way, the solution becomes more complete, says Johan Eriksson, ForestX.

Optinex Glulam is a true SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. The optimization engine is upgraded to use the industry leading capabilities of IBM Watson cloud optimization. Optinex is seamlessly integrated with the business processes in SAP S/4-HANA, minimizing manual work and reaching a high level of security and availability.

– Our event driven architecture is built from the ground up for maximum flexibility when integrating with customer solutions. Both regarding transmission methods and message formats, says Johan Eriksson, ForestX.

– With ForestX, we have found a partner who, on the one hand, understands our business model and, on the other hand, has transformed our – sometimes – very complex requirements into a scalable and user-friendly system with Optinex, says Stefan Hammerl, Pfeifer.

Everything started in the summer of 2020. The integration of Optinex Glulam was part of Pfeifer’s SAP S/4HANA implementation project. The integration project started in August, in early autumn ForestX was able to demonstrate parts of the application and in December tests and adaptations were made. In January, the application began to be used in production.

During the implementation phase an agile project team with optimization specialist, architects and planners from Pfeifer was formed. The project scope included adaptations of customer specific UI, Integration and Optimization models tailoring. With a team well experienced from similar projects we could learn from each other and complete the goals and timeline.

In early March 2021, Johan Eriksson and his team were in a phase of “hyper care”. In this phase, ForestX has extra resources in support for end users to ensure a smooth rollout.

Digitized process

Other glulam manufacturing industries could become more digital in their production through Optinex Glulam; the module can be used both in industries with a high degree of customer adaptation and in those that manufacture standard dimensions.

Johan Eriksson and colleagues are also looking at how the application can be developed to also include cross laminated timber, CLT. The method is common in Europe, but new to the Nordic countries. Cross laminated timber is used, for example, for house building where wall elements are completed in the factory. Everything from doors and windows to electrical outlets are removed from the wall modules. And what good would a smart planning tool do in these processes?

Johan Eriksson looks into the future:

– Well, you do not have to lay the wood with the best quality in the spaces you know will be removed…

More about Pfeifer

Pfeifer is a leading company in the European wood industry. In their eight facilities in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic Pfeifer practices their philosophy. Passion for timber – Passion for our work with conifer wood.

With Pfeifers more than 2,000 employees the group transforms the raw material timber in a precious range of products. A clearly structured range of goods builds the basis of the Pfeifer Group success. In over 90 countries, people trust in our products.

pfeifergroup.com

ForestX team on the project

Johan Eriksson

Lösningsarkitekt

Area of focus
Problem solving, streamlining and automation.

Oskar Danielsson

Lösningsarkitekt

Area of focus
Problem solving, streamlining and automation.

Prasad Patole

Senior Technical Lead

Area of focus
Senior System Dev. with 10+ years experience from Microsoft Technology, MS Azure development and Azure Devops.

Pooja Rakade

Lead Software Engineer

Area of focus
Senior System Dev. with 5+ years experience within Microsoft Technology. Pooja has worked with solutions for the forest industry in the past (4+ years).

Leading planning tool integrated with SAP S/4HANA for glulam industry in operation at Pfeifer in Austria Read More »

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