The mechanization of timber harvesting allows greater control of costs and can provide reductions in relatively short intervals. Moreover, it has a place in the humanization of the working forest and the increase in performance. This work provides comparisons of operating performance of different operator harvester according to the time of experience in the activity. The operators evaluated were eight males, aged between 23 and 46 years old. The study consisted of analysis of the volume of timber harvested by the harvester. The experience significantly affects the performance of harvesters operators. The performance increases significantly in the first 18 months of experience, and it remained on the rise over the next 26 months. After 44 months of experience, the operators' performance tends to reduce, revealing the possible accommodation of everyday life. These data confirm that at around 50 months of harvester operation experience,in operating the harvester, it is necessary to adopt for retraining, motivation, among others, in order to give operators better working conditions that would enable them to continue exercising the activity in an efficient and profitable level to the company.
harvesting forest; Eucalyptus; Ergonomics
