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One of the objectives in the FOBIA project has been to increase our understanding of business models applied by forestry service contractors and find ways to stimulate innovation within this sector. A business model describes how businesses produce, market and deliver goods or services to their customers, and business model innovation is thus the introduction of new ways to organize and govern the company’s business activities. A good product or …

Forest machine companies have been struggling for some time. Many are in dire straits due to bad harvesting weather conditions, industrial actions and the decrease in demand for wood. The situation for small companies is the most concerning, as many lack the buffer funds to survive tougher times. In its FOBIA project, the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) researched the reasons why some of these companies succeed and some do …

In order to find out the level of adoption of the teachings in operator audit during the FOBIA project, Luke and Riveria conducted a telephone survey among the Finnish harvester and forwarder operators who participated in the audits during the project. The audits were also carried out in Ireland and Scotland but these harvester operators were excluded from the survey due to the fact that their working methods and environment …

Boost Site Portal, an e-learning environment for studying leadership and management of a forest service business is targeted to forest service and harvesting companies. Independent of time and place, busy professionals may now access several online courses covering topics from business models to operational productivity, and much more. Digital education specialists and stakeholders shared information and experiences on digital platforms and learning at the FOBIA project’s Concluding Seminar on Digital …

4 February 2020, 13-16 @ Break Sokos Hotel Vuokatti As FOBIA is coming to end, we kindly ask you to join the concluding seminar of Digital Platforms, one of FOBIA’s work packages, coordinated by TTS, Finland. WP Digital Platforms aimed to anticipate digitalisation and develop digital applications for knowledge transfer, networking and trading of services. Our keynote speaker, Päivi Rasi is an associated professor in adult education at the University …

FOBIA project organises two seminars within the final meeting of the project on 4-5 February 2020 in Vuokatti, Finland. Registration to these events will open later in December 2019, link will be added here and to the frontpage. On Tuesday 4th Feb TTS hosts concluding seminar on digital platforms. See the programme below. More information from Arto Kettunen and Henna Hurttala (firstname.lastname@tts.fi). Concluding seminar on digital platforms, hosted by TTS …

A recently published report, a product of the FOBIA project’s work on business models, presents a comprehensive mapping of the current state of forestry service contractors in Finland, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden. Including descriptions of services offered by the contractors, types of machines and staffing resources, types of customers, and development needs for the future. In addition, the report also covers the contractor financial sustainability. Researchers and industry professionals from …

The first Finnish pilot group of Fobia BOOST Site was launched in a training camp held at Ponsse locations on 11th and 12th October. We met there the Ponsse Ladies – a group of 12 active and skilful members of family enterprises in harvesting business – hosted by Mrs Tiina Nissinen from Ponsse. We started our day one with a through training package on the new Ponsse Manager application. Ponsse …

“In the forest industry, having a job or a successful career is not about gender. Instead, skills, attitudes and independence can take you far – no matter if you are a man or a woman”, says Eila Lautanen, development manager at Työtehoseura (TTS). Eila Lautanen’s views are backed up by hard facts and her more than 40 years of educational and work experience in the forest industry. She has completed …

Continuously developing machine data analysis software also benefits small entrepreneurs. Finnish forest machine entrepreneurs are at the forefront of development in terms of the utilisation of machine data, says Seppo Kontteli from Komatsu Forest Oy. “In other parts of the world, machines are still mostly considered to be tools. Finland and Sweden have proceeded clearly further in the systematic utilisation of machine data. The rest of the world will start …