TOOLS AND ANALYSIS OF KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR MECHANIZED FOREST CONTRACTORS SPECIALIZING IN MECHANIZED HARVESTING, IN THE AQUITAINE REGION

the factors which contribute to sustain and develop the companies are of great importance for the forest contractors who have invested in expensive machines such as harvesters, forwarders… In order to identify these key success factors, from 2008 to 2010, FCBA carried out a project in Aquitaine (south- western part of France). The first step of this project was to examine the economic data of a sample of 83 forest contractors specializing in harvesting. With 3 to 4 financial years per company, 278 accounting years were analyzed, with a dataset of 34 values per year and per company. 9 groups of firms were statistically defined taking into account their economic results and their size. With the Data Envelopment Analysis method (DEA), we determined also the economic efficiency of each company. Then 42 entrepreneurs, among these 83 companies, have been interviewed with 60 yes/no questions and other open-ended questions, in order to precise the way they manage their company. 6 topics were detailed: (i) financial and (ii) work force management, (iii) production, (iv) machine availability, (v) quality and customer satisfaction, (vi) safety, health and environment. For each theme, the companies were ranked from 1 (basic level of management) to 5 (very high level), in relation with their answers. The analysis showed 6 different kinds of company depending on their level of global management. Finally, by crossing the results of the 2 previous investigations, we tried to highlight some key success factors. But the link between the management classification and the previous one concerning the economic results are not so clear. The human factor and the socio-economic environment of the companies are in fact determining parameters. From the results, the last step was to define with the forest contractors some action plans in order to enhance their management and their economic efficiency.