Helping Timberpro Stay At The Cutting Edge

GS Global Resources works with the forestry equipment manufacturer to optimize feller buncher.

Diesel Progress Ag & Forestry Technology May 2017

There was a time, really not that long ago, when a supplier to an equipment manufacturer was just that — the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ordered components and the supplier or distributor delivered. Over time, many equipment manufacturers looked to streamline their operations and focus more exclusively on their core competencies. At the same time, many key suppliers became more technically sophisticated, evolving into systems integrators, working closely with the machine manufacturer and assuming a greater share of the technical and engineering work. A good example of how such a relationship can work is TimberPro and GS Global Resources. TimberPro  Inc. is a Shawano,  Wis.-based  manufacturer of forestry equipment such as tracked and wheeled tree harvesters and log forwarders and skidders. With its roots in manufacturing forestry machines going back into the 1980s, TimberPro, first under company founder Pat Crawford — himself a longtime logger — and then his son, Lee Crawford, is a longtime supplier to the forestry industry, successfully carving its niche competing against larger manufacturers, both in the U.S. and globally.

When TimberPro looked to develop a new optimized version of its TL765C feller buncher, it relied on GS Global Resources for both technology and application know-how to help enhance the machine’s productivity, controllability and fuel economy.

“We’ve been partners with GS Global Resources for a long time and if they wanted a key to our facility, we’d give it to them,” Lee Crawford said. “They’re simply the best I’ve seen in systems integration. They always bring new solutions to us that lead to improvements throughout our entire value chain.”