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Roots for Growth objectives:
- Enable the industry to make best use of e-commerce
Enable the industry to respond to change through collaboration
Secure strategic sites for large-scale investment
Devise advanced transport and logistics solutions
E-commerce
Benchmarking of the forest industries shows that we start from a position well behind other industries when it comes to the use of information technology. Most of those in business are now persuaded of the need to embrace e-business – but not all know the best way forward. An e-Business Forum has been established to take forward the development of this area of work across the Cluster. By working with focus groups of Cluster businesses as well as with individual companies on a one-to-one basis, the Cluster team has highlighted some of the opportunities and benefits of being ‘well-connected’. And clearly, it is taking effect as it was reported at the 'e-Business for Forestry' conference in November 2002 that the uptake of e-commerce by the industry over the previous year had risen significantly.
The advantages of adopting e-business practice are already becoming apparent in moving the Cluster from supply chain to web – and this will do much to promote competitiveness and efficiency.
Responding to change
Strategic business development is being undertaken by a number of leading companies with the support of the Cluster team and other specialists within Scottish Enterprise. This is being benchmarked against DTI performance indicators. Micro-businesses in rural areas will be the focus of a customised business advisory scheme currently under development and targeted at helping companies to identify and serve local niche markets.
Securing sites
A strategic study by Scottish Enterprise of the needs of different industry clusters identified the forest industries as having particular site development requirements, especially in terms of scale and access to transport infrastructure. Scotland has faced a shortage of large-scale sites suitable for forest industry development but this has now been addressed through examination of a list of over 60 possible strategic sites.
Transport and logistics
From the outset it was clear that transport solutions would be a high priority for the Cluster. There is a need not only to improve logistics efficiencies but also to minimise, particularly in rural areas, the adverse impact of the current dominant mode of road transportation.
A major study was undertaken into the flows of timber and the barriers to efficient logistics, the key findings of which have been significant in directing the work of the Timber Transport Forum. These findings recognise the need to deal with local road issues and to develop strategic terminals where road transport can interface with other transport modes such as rail and sea. A further output of the study was a Geographic Information System to identify timber transport flows from forest to primary processor. Through computer modelling it will help to identify ways in which the transport of timber can be improved.
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