Designing and managing agile wood supply systems to maximize value-extraction from procurement areas in Canadian forests

木材供应系统（wss）是由商业实体（企业家、工厂、公众利益相关者、客户）、规划流程和协调机制组成的复杂结构。它们产生信息、物质和资金流动。WSS的范围包括从商业林场采购（即获取和采伐）到在需求地点（工厂）交付。wss被迫适应需求方面的不确定性，以及供应方面的数量和原材料特性缺乏可预测性。管理人员希望供应具有灵活性，但仍不愿承担风险。他们希望wss能够在诸如成本和收获地点、物种组合、工厂使用特定物种、尺寸和质量的木材的能力等方面保持稳定。开发能够满足这些期望的物流系统需要探索敏捷性特征和促成因素。敏捷性是有代价的，它不应该被看作是一个目标，而应该被看作是提高系统性能的一种手段。因此，wss必须具有足够的灵活性，以应对和适应由不可预测因素引起的不确定性，并减轻其对收获可持续性的影响。这需要实施先进的协作生产计划和调度系统，并明确关注战略问题。基于我现有研究的坚实基础，拟议的计划将因此侧重于应用系统工程方法，以实现加拿大森林作业背景下敏捷性水平和操作环境之间的协调。

Wood Supply Systems (WSSs) are complex structures composed of business entities (entrepreneurs, mills, public stakeholders, clients), planning processes, and coordination mechanisms. They generate information, material and financial flows. The scope of WSS spans from procurement (i.e. acquisition and harvesting) from commercial forest stands to delivery at demand sites (mills). WSSs are compelled to adapt to uncertainty on the demand side, and the lack of predictability of volumes and raw material characteristics on the supply side. Managers want flexibility in supply but remain risk averse. They want WSSs that are robust to variations in aspects such as the cost and location of harvest, species mix, mill capacity to use wood of given species, size, and quality. The development of a logistics system that can meet these expectations requires exploring agility characteristics and enablers. There is a cost to agility, and it must not be seen as an objective but as a means to system performance. Thus, the WSSs must have the adequate level of agility to cope and adapt to the uncertainty caused by unpredictable aspects, and mitigate their impact on harvest sustainability. This requires the implementation of advanced systems for collaborative production planning and scheduling with a clear concern for strategic issues. Based on the solid foundation of my existing research, the proposed program will therefore focus on applying systems engineering approaches to achieve concordance between agility levels and operational environment in the Canadian forest operations context. The long-term objective of the proposed program is to develop a coherent planning and coordination framework that combines collaboration structures with interconnected forest planning optimization models. Three specific objectives are to be achieved: 1) Propose and assess supply planning processes to outline the array of options for developing agile WSS, and to construct a platform capable of evaluating the long-term impact of each option; 2) Develop a methodology to reduce the vulnerability of the WSS to unpredictability in supply and to uncertainty in market conditions, and identify the optimal level of agility; and 3) identify capacities associated with Industry 4.0 paradigm that could resolve collaboration roadblocks identified in WSS shared operations. This program will contribute to the training of three HQPs (2 PhD, 1 MSc). Students with advanced degree in the development and application of operations research methods in natural resources can expect excellent career opportunities.