Woodlands operations are responsible for providing a sustainable and reliable supply of wood fiber to their customers (usually mills).  These operations include a multitude of business activities that are logically grouped together.  In TIMS we refer to these groupings as business modules and business processes.

Each forestry organization has its own unique organizational groupings and sometimes unique business processes. 

The object orientation and module design of TIMS allow us to quickly configure TIMS to meet those unique requirements.  The typical groupings are as follows:

        Planning
        Harvest and haul management
        Establishment and tending (silviculture)
        Inventory and base data management


Core Features

The above are supported by a suite of core tools including:

Security

  • user rights and spatial permissions management
  • direct editor
    • navigate the database and edit non-spatial data without using an ESRI license
  • editing is via a spreadsheet like view of the database
  • license manager
    • switch ESRI licenses (ArcView/ArcEditor) based on the user's assigned role
  • exchange bridge
    • build your own data exchange profiles to transfer data to and from:
  • external systems
  • data loggers and portable devices
  • partners and other groups
  • work package generator
    • generates an electronic zip package of files and data to send to contractors and others (e.g.: spreadsheets, shapefiles, PDF contract documents, etc.)
  • template manager
    • design and build your own plot and report templates and register them on the system for use by designated users
  • geospatial editing wizards
    • editing wizards to streamline the GIS editing tasks (reduces training and QA/QC activities)
  • auto-inherit and validation
    •  database level trigger like mechanisms to validate data during editing sessions
  • rules based processing to check for spatial constraints (overlap, touch, inside, min/max size, etc.) and temporal/scheduling type constraints
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Planning

Ensuring that the forest is managed in an environmentally sustainable manner is critical to the business interests of the forest operator. Our planning tools can be integrated with third-party forest modeling systems as well as with your internal growth and yield tables. Our planning tools include:

  • annual operations and work schedule production
  • cut block layout and design
  • road and crossing layout and design
  • plan reconciliation and permit approval tracking
  •  contractor and harvest method assignments
  •  stakeholder and other commitment management
  •  operating area/compartment management

Our optional best management practices (BMP) subsystem can greatly improve your planning productivity by generating candidate blocks based on user-defined criteria such as stand age, stand composition, etc.

Our optional job management costing (JMC) subsystem will assign default contractors, costs, equipment, etc., to planned roads, crossings, and blocks. JMC will calculate the estimated costs based on the rates (area or milestone) for the specific activity. JMC allows you to automatically develop your budget as you plan your operations.

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Harvest and Haul Management
   
Efficient and timely harvest and haul operations are critical to providing the mills with the promised quantity of specific fiber at the specified time. The TIMS harvest and haul management tools include:

  • harvest and haul scheduling
  • pre- and post-harvest surveys
  • cut and haul progress tracking
  • exception/outage reporting and management
  • woodflow management (standing/cut/yard inventory management)
  • wood delivery integration (scale ticket and yard inventory integration)
  • block remediation and sign-off
  • contractor payment processing, royalty payment processing and expenditure re-forecasting

Following the best management practice (BMP) for harvesting is also critical for certification purposes. Using the job management and costing (JMC) subsystem manages the harvesting costs.

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Silviculture
   
Silviculture includes site preparation, regeneration, and tending operations.

  • tending planning and operations
  • survey planning and operations
  • nursery and seed stock source tracking
  • budget preparation, trust fund invoicing, and contractor payment processing
  • scheduling, management, and results recording
    • pre-harvest silviculture prescriptions
    • site preparation 
    • regeneration
  • plant
  • seed
  • leave for natural
  • tend
  • prune
  • thin
  • replant
  • survival surveys

Wide automation of many aspects of silviculture planning can be achieved using our best management practices option. Our job management costing feature can prepare budgets for planned operations, process contractor and supplier payments, invoice trust funds, and manage materials inventories.

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Inventory and Base Data Management

These processes maintain the stand inventory and other base layers. Functionality includes:

  • tools for inventory information quality assurance, maintenance, and integration with growth and yield modeling systems
  • cruise (plot layout and results management)
  • batch update (disturbances and free to grow)
    • adds regeneration units that have been designated as free to grow stands to the inventory layer
    • depletes the inventory layer using other polygon layers such as:
      • withdrawals
      • depletions (harvesting, fire, disease, etc.)
      • tenure changes (e.g., sales, set asides, etc.)
      • environmental and heritage information management
      • tenure
      • ownership parcel management
      • lease/license management
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