Timflow now monitors deliveries to suppliers’ logyards

Interview with Adrian Lucan, Supply Chain Control and Certification Manager at HS Timber Group Romania

In the past two years we have focused on finding solutions to secure the deliveries coming from our suppliers’ logyards in Romania. The first success came in the autumn of last year, when HS Timber Group’s largest log supplier in Romania implemented Timflow for a testing period for the deliveries from the forest to one of their logyards.

During wintertime, Timflow was improved to be able to allow multi customer use. As a result, it is now available for suppliers, which have shown interest in implementing it. Timflow is seen as a tool which can prove EUTR compliance. This is a rare win-win situation, and with this move, our company creates a better and a more trustful cooperation with suppliers.

Our colleagues Adrian Lucan from the Supply Chain Control and Certification (SCCC) Department and Vasilică Juravle from the Log Department coordinated the development of the project.

Adrian Lucan, the manager of the Supply Chain Control and Certification Department in Romania, details the process and speaks about future plans:

How difficult was it at the beginning and how many suppliers have so far implemented Timflow in their logyards?

At the beginning, they were reluctant, because this system was seen as yet another control method, yet another bureaucratic burden. But the argument in our favour was the implementation of SUMAL 2.0 this autumn, and Timflow is a very useful tool to get used to a state mandatory system. Then, there were concerns regarding access to personal data, but they were put to rest when we explained that the database is external and HS Timber Group has no access to it. Then, when it came to implementing the system itself, there were some errors, which are inherent to any type of beginning. Small mishaps – like forgetting to turn on the GPS device or to finalise a transport – these are things that can be remedied. If we come to think about it, we have a large team working with Timflow (the SCCC and Roundwood departments), and we correct things if needed; in the case of small teams, such as our suppliers’, where we see a lack of qualified personnel who can work on the system, such errors appear – until the functionality of the system becomes routine.

How are things looking at this time?

Right now there are nine suppliers countrywide which have tested the Timflow system: seven in Maramureș, one in Suceava and one in Alba. After the testing period, seven suppliers have also implemented the system. After some time during which they used the system and remedied the glitches, the suppliers realised that Timflow is one of the tools through which they can prove the legal origin of the timber, for example, in case of a control by the Forest Guard. For instance, the Forest Guard considers a system such as Timflow as part of a developed Due Diligence system. Because EUTR only specifies the diminishing of risks of placing illegal timber on the market, not also ways to do it.

What’s in store for the future?

We plan to implement the system at about 50 suppliers by the end of the year, and at this point, the support we receive from our colleagues in the Purchasing Department is very important, because, in time, they have developed a good economic relation with the suppliers. At the same time, we have to mention Vasilică Juravle, our colleague in the Roundwood Department, without whose commitment and enthusiasm we wouldn’t have been at the stage of implementation we are today.

In addition to implementing the system at a supplier’s level, Timflow now also tracks intercompany deliveries.

The measure was taken in a move to prevent possible fraud and to avoid loses, a matter which was highly debated in 2019. The solution is under implementation, starting the beginning of July 2020.