Case Study: Australian Tree Corp.Background:Forestry is an important sector within the Australian economy. The Australian Department of Agriculture estimates the industry generates $23 billion in income and employs over 70,000 individuals. [Source: http://www.agriculture.gov.au/forestry/industries]You are a consultant working for a company named Australian Tree Corp. (ATC). This company is a large owner of varied forested estates in Western Australia – they grow and sell trees. Their holdings include some 200,000 ha of land and they harvest the tree crop on a cycle of about 10,000 ha per year (or nearly 5 million trees a year!). They grow Australian Pine. They have traditionally just been a grower of trees (planting, maintaining) and outsourced all other elements of the supply chain including logistics (cutting, transport, processing) and manufacturing of a product. An example of some forestry business components and supply chain elements is listed below:
