236 Martin: Analyzing Sharpening Options and Practices for Operational Efficiency and cash equivalents exchanged for goods and ser- vices). The economic cost is used in reference to the opportunity cost of operations, which includes both the exchange of cash and cash equivalents for goods and services and the indirect costs, such as “down time” or deferred time from operations (Parkin and Bade 2018). As an example from this study, eco- nomic cost recognizes the inability to produce opera- tional income while driving to purchase a new chain. The outputs of the economic model compare sharp- ening chains, purchasing new chains, or having chains professionally sharpened from both accounting-cost and economic-cost perspectives. Variables within the simulations included (1) time to sharpen the chain or drive to a chain saw dealer/miscellaneous chain saw chain supply store; (2) cost of sharpening supplies; (3) labor costs; (4) travel costs; (5) frequency with which chains were sharpened or purchased; (6) median hourly revenue of the crew to determine the economic cost of both options; and (7) the cost of professional sharpening. Because an infinite number of variable situations can be created, spatial and inventory statistics have been limited to 38 crews within the study. Excluded from this economic model is the use of chain saw chain spools because of high variability in spool pricing and its limited use among arboriculture crews included in the economic model; of the 38 crews within the study, only 2 crews (5.26%) used chain saw chain spools, although they did not use this method regularly. Fixed variables included in the economic model are an average crew revenue of $300 Canadian dol- lars (CAD) per hour and an average crew income of $125 CAD per hour. The economic model assumes that all chains in the inventory less one per the num- ber of saws in the inventory are taken to be sharpened at one time. The economic model assumes that the number of new chains purchased does not exceed 10% of the inventory of the crew’s total chains. The economic model assumes that sharpening time is lin- ear and increased with increased number of cutting teeth. This accounts for skip-tooth chains, used pri- marily at larger chain saw bar lengths. Each time that chains are sharpened, the summed initial setup and cleanup time is 5 minutes. It is assumed that chain saw chains are sharpened on the jobsite, rather than at a central location. The time to file 1 chain was based on the average of self-reported chain saw chain sharpening times collected from the 27 research team members across ©2022 International Society of Arboriculture a 4-month period. Each bar length has its own attributed time requirement based on a minimum of 150 chain sharpening time samples. Bar lengths included in the economic model are 35.56 cm (14 in), 40.64 cm (16 in), 45.72 cm (18 in), 50.8 cm (20 in), 91.44 cm (36 in), and 121.92 cm (48 in). The life span of supplies used in sharpening is based on the mean life span reported by the research team members with a minimum sample size of n = 3 (raker file) and a maximum sample size of n = 26 (cutter file). To determine the influence of spatial factors on costs in the simulation, overlay maps were created using a service-area analysis layer in ArcGIS Pro (Esri Inc., Redlands, CA, USA). The distances from chain saw dealers and miscellaneous chain saw chain supply stores were used to construct categorical data classes for distances from supply locations. Categori- cal data allowed for the calculation of driving expenses, including gas and wages for employees driving and the accounting cost of missed work. To determine the expense of chain saw chains, the retail price of chain saw chains of various pitches and bar lengths was collected from Stihl® and Echo® , Husqvarna® , (Yamabiko Corporation, Ome, Japan) dealers from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The same methodology was used in the determination of the expense of professional sharpening. An Excel spreadsheet was created to sum the accounting costs and economic costs of potential sce- narios. For calculation of the mean, outliers were removed using the z-score threshold where samples of the data at 3.0 standard deviations or greater were removed. RESULTS Research Questions 1 and 2 In total, 640 chains were reviewed by the research team. Of these 640 chains, 77% (n = 493) of the chains could have been filed at least once more to continue the functional service life of the chain. Of these chains (n = 493), the mean number of additional times that the chain could have been filed was 4.54 times with a median of 4 and a mode of 4 (Figure 1). The standard deviation of the distribution was 2.22 and a variance of 4.93. Note that an open class was used to accommodate for extreme observations in the data set in the 10+ interval (Kozak et al. 2008). The open-ended class interval for 10+ times was analyzed as a value of 10 (Kozak et al. 2008).
July 2022
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