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ADVANCING WOOD TECHNOLOGY 

FIEA - The Key to Improving Your Operating Efficiencies and International Competitiveness

The Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA), a division of Innovatek Ltd, is a unique grouping in Australasia.  It's the principal vehicle for technology transfer for forestry and wood products companies.  Through a range of independent programmes, new product and process technologies are introduced to New Zealand and Australian companies.  Technologies best suited to the size of the industry and to the local wood resource are being identified and "showcased".

A regular series of conferences, practical workshops and managed exhibitions are run every year.  Forestry and wood product companies, key product suppliers, researchers and technology providers from throughout the world are targetted and involved with the programmes.  In addition to these events, new resources from the technology programmes are being supplied to New Zealand and Australian companies.

FIEA is also now the largest provider of weekly and monthly forest products news in Australasia. 

FIEA Members can access new resources

Through the Technology Showcase section of this site, FIEA Members can now download over 300 presentations and papers from recent technology events.  These provide probably the most valuable on-line resource on new and emerging technologies for forest products companies. 

NZ Forest Products Industry Map just released

Every two years, New Zealand's most authoritative map of the forest products industry is produced by the Forest Industry Engineering Association.  It's still is the only map containing forest information and wood processing and manufacturing plant locations - along with sawmill production information for every mill cutting in excess of 2500m3- produced for the New Zealand forest products industry.

The very latest, the 2010 version of the large 995 x 690mm map, the 5th edition, has just been published.  Since the 2008 map was produced, changes that have occurred to the wood products industry (ownership, mill closures, new operations and changing production levels of the larger wood producers) have been significant.

The new maps can be ordered by FIEA members by going to the Shop section of this website.  Discounts of purchases for members of course apply.  
 

Wood Supply Chain innovations focus for May technology series

To address the issue of inefficiencies through the wood supply chain, a wide cross section of forest products and logistics companies and leading technology providers have worked with the Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) to design Wood Supply Chain Optimisation 2010.  It runs in Melbourne on 19-20 May 2010 and again in Rotorua for New Zealand companies on 24-25 May 2010. 

“ Wood Supply Chain Optimisation 2010 will detail successful strategies that have been adopted to improve planning, logistics and operations through the wood supply chain“, says Brent Apthorp, Director of the Forest Industry Engineering Association.  

The Wood Supply Chain Optimisation 2010 series will include;
•   Analysis of successful international models for supply chain optimisation,
•   Optimising value recovery through improved harvesting systems,
•   Remote sensing and real-time tracking of logs and wood products,
•   Materials handling, packaging, freight forwarding and distribution developments,
•   Key issues facing the freight, shipping and transport industries, and
•   Radio frequency and electronic identification technologies.

Further details on the programme can be found on www.woodsupplychain.com 

New Industry Magazines for FIEA members

FIEA is now the largest provider of weekly and monthly forest products news into Australasia. 

The Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) has just set up another unique arrangement with a leading international wood products trade magazine, Australian Forests & Timber News.  As part of its mandate to advance wood technology, the new arrangement ensures FIEA members as part of their membership benefits are now getting supplied FIVE leading industry trade magazines.

To ensure forest products companies in Australasia are keeping up with the news and issues that will directly impact on their operation, FIEA members in addition to receiving weekly updates through Friday Offcuts and WoodWeek also now are sent free copies of Inwood Australasia, Mill Product News, NZ Logger, International Forest Industries and Australian Forests & Timber News magazines. 

ForestTECH series attracting keen interest

Interest in our last technology event run for forestry companies, ForestTECH 2009 was very strong.  Over 200 forest managers, forest owners and technical staff on both sides of the Tasman participated in this November 2009 series.  The programme included an integrated series of practical workshops, managed exhibitions, demonstrations and field visits in both Rotorua and Albury. Themes for ForestTECH 2009 included: - Forest Sampling & Inventory - Data Collection Tools - Forest Mapping  - Remote Sensing Technologies - Forest Management Information Systems and Estate Planning - Assessment of Wood & Stand Quality.

Further details on the series can be found on www.foresttechevents.com   For those who for whatever reason missed out on the  series, limited sets of the detailed proceedings for reference can still be ordered by visiting the Post Event Details section of the event website. 

Planning for ForestTECH 2010 is already underway.  The focus for ForestTECH 2010 will change and details can now be found on www.foresttechevents.com   The 2010 event will be covering the themes of;

•      Genetics and Tree Breeding
•      Nursery Technologies
•      Land Preparation
•      Fertiliser and Herbicide Trials, Technologies and Application
•      Plantation Silviculture
•      Fire Fighting Technologies