Personnell and knowledge
The knowledge of the personnel is a key factor for the industry to continue to develop. Finnish sawmilling industry employs directly around 8,000 people.
The management of sawmilling industry requires a wide spectrum of knowledge and understanding. In the industry, the need for multi skilled staff is as important as a specialised expert, whether it is business management or a task controlling processes.
Management tasks
A leader in the sawmilling industry requires versatile knowledge and a wealth of experience. The main difference compared to many industry sectors is the need to understand the whole chain from forest management to the end use of the timber.
A successful sawmill is able to combine customer requirements and the procurement of saw logs into an optimal entity.
To lead the production processes nowadays requires an increasingly wide knowledge and understanding of the business.
- Production processes
- The development skills
- Understanding of quality techniques
- Social skills
- Safety and environmental issues
- Steering of production
- Managing the flow of raw material
Sales tasks
In many industries, the sales organisations work with standardised products and focus on customer relationship management.
In the sale of sawn timber, the sales person typically understands the customers’ requirements, as well as the whole production process to be able to find the right products and production solutions for each of the customers end use needs.
In addition to these requirements one needs to master the modern tools for the accounts, speak other languages and understand other cultures, and also lead international sales and distribution channels.
Tasks in the sawing process
The tasks in the sawing process are mainly. supervising and controlling tasks. The share of manual work at sawmills is decreasing.
The management of these processes also requires multiple skill sets:
- Understanding the quality and environmental management system requirements
- Maintenance and repair skills to ensure a smooth and trouble-free operation.
- Knowledge of technology and information technology
- Determination
- Self-reliance
Need for education
Sawmills need, according to different estimates around 40-80 new staff for management and foreman’s positions per year. The starting point is a good understanding of the basic skills in the sawmilling process and as broad as possible management experience from different parts of the business.
The possibilities to study in sawmill industry management in Finland have been quite limited, but this issue has now been addressed. All in all, higher education has to meet the needs and challenges of the sawmilling industry better.
The board of education ordered an updated professional degree structure for the sawmilling industry. This includes education and training into process industries, which will include for the wood industry basic, professional and specialist vocational qualifications.
The challenge nowadays is to predict and recognise the need for type, quality and numbers for the training and education. There is a strong need for closer cooperation with the industry and education authorities.
One of the threat scenarios for sawmill industry is that the industry may have trouble to maintain and develop sufficient numbers of skilled staff. In that situation, businesses should have capacity to train staff themselves.
The sawmilling industry, as with any other industry, educational qualifications and continuous personal learning go side by side. Changes that occur in working life requires the ability to gather new data and apply it in problem solving situations.
Research in sawmill industry
The sawmill industry’s input into research has been smaller than elsewhere in the rest of wood product industries.
Recently, there has been investment into market reports, in an effort to operate and trade in new markets. A good example of this is China.
Previously active technical and economic research resulted in a firm ‘Suomen Puututkimus Oy’, who were able to quite broadly go through sawmills research needs. Later, ‘Finnish Wood Research Oy’ continued this research.
Nowadays, there is no research body. The majority of sawmill development occurs on a practical level in order to meet customer requirements. Large sawmill companies have renounced their further processing production. Further processing has become fragmented. The resources of smaller companies for research and developing production are limited.
The knocking down and reorganising of government financed research institutes, will further reduce the research and development activities.
The Finnish sawmilling industry’s global market share is about three percent. This could justify a joint venture for research and development activities. It is also worth thinking, what the best way is to divide R&D between the sawmills and further processing industries. ‘Puutuoteteollisuus Ry’ is taking on these research responsibility going forward.
