In close cooperation with RISC Software GmbH, Donausäge Rumplmayr optimized its processes, from the selection of logs to loading, and is already planning further digitalization projects to ensure the efficient use of this valuable resource.
Thanks to its properties as a renewable and CO₂-binding raw material, wood is a unique sustainable building material of the future. During its growth, for which it only needs time, soil, water and light, the needles and leaves of the trees extract CO₂ from the surrounding air, binding carbon and releasing oxygen. Not only does wood store CO₂, but its harvesting and processing also requires less CO₂ than equivalent steps of alternative finite raw materials.
Handling this future-oriented resource responsibly, carefully and precisely has been the philosophy of the Austrian family business for over 100 years. With its two sites in Altmünster and Enns, Donausäge Rumplmayr produces products made from round timber from the catchment area of Austria, Bavaria and Bohemia that are in demand worldwide for the international market. The product range mainly comprises sawn timber for timber construction, planed timber, wood chips and pellets. However, sustainable energy is also exported through the company’s own bark power plant, which forms the basis for 100% energy self-sufficiency.
At Donausäge Rumplmayr, every log is processed completely and without residue. In order to produce every cubic meter of sawn timber from a minimum of logs, all process steps must be carried out with high precision and efficiency. This starts with the need to select existing and incoming logs ideally for existing and future orders, taking into account the different diameters, qualities and lengths available. In order to make optimum use and utilization of the available resources, different capacities must also be taken into account, from the sawing line through the drying chamber to the loading capacity.
RISC Software GmbH has created mathematical models for the processes to be optimized for Donausäge Rumplmayr, which are solved to global optima using RISC’s own optimization library RISC IBEX. The optimization application supports the ideal order selection per cutting week and suggests optimal dimensions for the respective order selection per order, including their length and quality ratios. This provides certainty about the best possible yield and use of available resources and rapid feedback if the planned order quantity can only be produced to a limited extent. Furthermore, current sales decisions can be taken into account immediately and stock trends can be derived from the log yard.
he optimization application is currently being expanded with additional aspects. As part of the next development step, optimal loading for shipping by truck and wagon, as well as optimal occupancy plans for drying kilns, will be taken into account. These enhancements mean that further steps along the process chain at Donausäge Rumplmayr are not only considered in terms of capacity, but are also actively included in the decision regarding optimal cutting quantities.
Further digitization projects are already being planned, so that the productive partnership between RISC Software GmbH and Donausäge Rumplmayr will continue in the future.
Mathematical Optimization Specialist
