SFR 460 Forest Operations and Mill Tour

Transcription

1 SFR 460 Forest Operations and Mill Tour 2014 Spring Syllabus Instructors Dr. Douglas Gardner 231 Advanced Structures and Composites Center Phone: or First Class Dr. Jeffrey Benjamin 247 Nutting Hall Phone: Contact: By or leave voice mail Office hours: 8:30 to 5:30 or by appointment Course Description One-week inspection trip (taken during the first week of spring break) to representative forest operations sites and manufacturers of wood and forest products selected for demonstration of typical plant operations. A written report is required. Prerequisite: SFR 211, SFR 450, or permission. Cr. 1. Method of Instruction Students will visit at least 8 different forest operations and wood products manufacturing facilities in a weeklong trip held during the first week of the spring semester break. The students will be required to take notes from both the tour guide(s) as well as the course instructors. Each evening, the course instructor and students will meet to discuss the day s visits and answer any questions related to the particular manufacturing operations observed. Class Objectives 1.) Observe machinery, unit operations and technical practices of the forest products industry. 2.) Observe material flow in the woods as well as from the wood yard through finished product in job shops and continuous production facilities. 3.) Discuss business, marketing, technology, and environmental issues. 4.) Gain an appreciation for the differences among industry segments. Expected Outcomes Students must demonstrate knowledge of: 1. The relationship among different unit operations in the manufacture of forest products. 2. Relative capital costs required for forest operations and selected forest products manufacturing facilities.

2 3. The mill production capacity and yearly wood use for particular manufacturing operations. 4. Business, energy, and environmental concerns in the manufacture of forest products. Grades and Evaluation The mill tour grade will be assigned on a 4.0 scale based on three different components: 1) 75 percent mill comparison report (due April 1) (to be assigned by the instructor at the end of the trip). The reports will address the integration of manufacturing process, plant layout, products, marketing, research, and environmental considerations. We will meet briefly each evening to discuss that day s tours and answer any questions. 2) 15 percent, Familiarize yourselves with each company prior to the trip. Create a matrix / chart prior to the trip to facilitate note taking and comparison. Use this as an outline for your report to identify key items to record. For example, at each site: - How many employees? Annual production capacity? Daily feedstock requirements? - Business profile of each company from internet sources, etc. Include information from this matrix/chart as an Appendix to your report. 3) 10 percent on group thank-you notes to each host that will be individually assigned before we tour each establishment (due 1 week after the tour). Note: Late assignments will be will be penalized 10 points per day and will not be accepted after one week. Attendance is mandatory for the forest operations sites and mill visits. Incomplete work and late work will result in a reduced grade. Plagiarism will result in an automatic course failure, and students will be referred to Judicial Affairs. Mill Comparison Report Format The report format should be in the form of a memorandum, which is commonly used in industry. Five to eight pages (single-spaced) should be sufficient if your presentation is concise. Concise does not mean incomplete. Your report should include the following information: problem statement, methods, discussion, conclusions and recommendations. You may choose to actually use sub-headings to organize your report. Make sure you include graphs, tables, if appropriate. Graphs are an especially important way to convey a large amount of information quickly. Problem Statement An introductory paragraph should be used to state the problem being addressed in the report. Following are a few example questions to address: 1. Provide four or more examples and discuss how companies are optimizing yield and utilizations of the wood resource. 2. Provide four or more examples and discuss how companies are utilizing technology to improve production. 3. Compare and contrast how far manufacturers have to go to obtain wood versus the product they are manufacturing. How does transportation impact both obtaining the wood resource and shipping the final product?

3 4. How is the current economic recession affecting your business? 5. What was your favorite tour and why? 6. What was your least favorite tour and why? 7. Recommendations for improving the tour. 8. What company would you like to work for and why? Methods Clearly and concisely outline the methods you used in the comparisons and analysis of the data. Discussion Most importantly, discuss the meaning of your mill comparisons based on input gathered from the visit as well as information obtained from other sources (annual reports, web sites, etc). The discussion should not be limited to the information from the plant visit. Use references, other classes, and your own experiences to compare the mills and interpret the results. Make sure that the order of your presentation is logical to your problem. Discuss the comparisons in an order that adds strength to your arguments. Be sure to cite any materials that you take from another source. Put the full citation in the Reference section at the end of the report. If you need help with reference materials come talk with me about your ideas. Conclusions and Recommendations After you have done, analysis, and discussed your thoughts on the work, state what you learned from the mill tour experience. This section should be especially short and to the point. References Cite the literature you used in your paper. Please use the following format: Wolcott, M.P., F.A. Kamke, and D.A. Dillard Fundamentals of flakeboard manufacture: Viscoelastic behavior of the wood component. Wood and Fiber Science 22(4): Expense Details Estimate (based on 2012 trip) Lodging (multiple occupancy 3 to 4 people per room) $100 (four nights) Food $120 (five days) Miscellaneous $ 20 Minimum for students to bring $240 I suggest bringing cash as well as a credit card to cover expenses. Safety Equipment You will need to bring steel toed shoes or boots, a hard hat, safety glasses and hearing protection. Passport/Visa: You will need to have a valid passport and appropriate visa paperwork because we will be going into Canada to visit mills and forest operations. Disabilities: I encourage students with disabilities to speak with me confidentially about accommodations needs they might have to help assure success in this class. If you require course

4 adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, please also contact the Coordinator for Services for Students with Disabilities, Onward Program, at Professional Conduct: Students are expected to follow the Professional Guidelines and Expectations for School of Forest Resource Students as well as the University Of Maine Student Code Of Conduct ( Failure to comply with these standards of behavior may result in expulsion from the class. Academic honesty (plagiarism, etc.): Academic honesty is very important. It is dishonest to cheat on exams, to copy term papers, to submit papers written by another person, to fake experimental results, or to copy or reword parts of books or articles into your own papers without appropriately citing the source. Students committing or aiding in any of these violations may be given failing grades for an assignment or for an entire course, at the discretion of the instructor. In addition to any academic action taken by an instructor, these violations are also subject to action under the University of Maine Student Conduct Code. The maximum possible sanction under the student conduct code is dismissal from the University Forest Operations and Mill Tour Draft Schedule and Accommodations Monday March 3 Depart Orono 7:00 am Drive to Lincoln Arrive 8:00 Tour Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC 8:00-12:00 Lunch Timberline 12:00-1:00 Drive to New Limerick Tour LP OSB/OSL New Limerick 2:30 4:00 Drive Hotel Houlton Arrive 4:00 Dinner: Grammies Tuesday March 4 Breakfast 7:00-7:30 Drive to Portage Arrive 9:30 Tour J. M. Huber OSB 9:30-11:30 Lunch at Governors, Presque Isle 12:30 1:30 Tour Columbia Forest Products 2:00 to 4:00 Hotel Presque Isle 5:00 Dinner: Hotel Wednesday March 5 Breakfast 6:00-6:30 J D Irving Woodlands 8:00 to 4:00 Hotel Presque Isle 5:00 Dinner: Pat s Pizza Thursday March 6 Breakfast 6:00-6:30 St Leonard New Brunswick, arrive 9:30 am Tour J. D. Irving, St. Leonard, 9:30 to 12:00 Lunch 12:00 1:00 Black Brook Forest District 1:00 1:30 Veneer, NB Hardwood Sawmill 2:00 4:00 Drive to Presque Isle Arrive 5:00 pm Hotel Dinner: Irish Setter Pub Friday March 7 Breakfast 7:00-8:00 Tour ReEnergy, Ft. Fairfield, Maine 8:30 to 10:00 Lunch in Symrna Mills 12:00 to 1:00 Drive to Oakfield Arrive 1:30 Tour Katahdin Forest Products 1:30 to 4:00 Drive to Orono Arrive 5:30 pm

5 Hotel Accommodations and Contact Information Monday March 3 Ivey s Motor Lodge U.S. Route 1 & I-95 / North Road P.O. Box 637 Houlton, Maine (207) IveysMotorLodge@aol.com Confirmation # Tuesday March 4 Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center 116 Maine Street Presque Isle, ME Phone: Website: Wednesday March 5 Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center Thursday March 6 Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center Day Location to Location Estimated Driving Time 1 Orono to Lincoln 1 hour Lincoln to New Limerick 1 hour New Limerick to Houlton 30 minutes 2 Houlton to Easton 1 hour Easton to Presque Isle 30 minutes 3 Presque Isle to Irving Lands 1.5 hours 4 Presque Isle to St Leonard, NB 1.0 hours St Leonard to Veneer 30 minutes Veneer to Presque Isle 2 hours 5 Presque Isle to Ft. Fairfield 30 minutes Ft. Fairfield to Oakfield 2 hours Oakfield to Orono 1.5 hour

6 Hotel Room Assignments Room 1 Doug Gardner Room 2 Jeff Benjamin Room 3 Room 4 3 students tbd Forest Operations and Mill Tour Visits Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC Pulp and Paper Facility P.O. Box Katahdin Avenue Lincoln ME Contact: Bill Peterson Phone: (207) Cell: bpeterson@lpt.com Website: Tour Guides: Dan LeBrun 2. LP Oriented Strand Lumber (OSL) Plant Oriented Strand Lumber P.O. Box 396 Houlton, ME Phone: Contact: Mark Stile Mark.Stile@LPcorp.com 3. J.M. Huber OSB Plant Oriented Strand board Tour Guide: Justin Perry Huber Engineered Woods LLC 333 Station Road, P.O. Box 69 Easton, Maine Contact: Justin Perry Justin.perry@huber.com Phone: ext 6737 Optional Contact: Brent McKeen Justin.perry@huber.com Phone: ext 6737

7 4. Columbia Forest Products Tour Guide: P.O. Box Missile Street Presque Isle, ME Contact: Mark Kelly, Gen. Manager Tour Guide: Mike Patenaude Phone: ; Veneer Manufacturer 5. Irving Woodlands LLC Forest Operations, Dimension Mill Irving Forest Products Hardwood Sawmill PO Box 240 Ft Kent, ME Contact: Douglas Cyr Cell ReEnergy Thermal Power Plant Biomass to Energy Facility Cheney Grove, Fort Fairfield, ME Contact: Robert Bruce, Plant Manager Phone: 0 - ext Robert.bruce@reenergybiomass.com reenergyholdings.com 7. Katahdin Forest Products Log home, fencing and cedar Mfg. Tour Guide: Dave Gordon P.O. Box 145 Oakfield, ME Contact: Dave Gordon Phone: Direct Number