Abstract:
The timber shortage in the Pacific Northwest is forcing sawmill owners to
improve the competitiveness of their harvesting and processing
operations. A computer simulation and financial statement analysis were
used to compare the processing efficiency and profitability of three
bucking strategies: log cost minimization (traditional 40-foot preferred-length
logs); hauling length maximization (55-foot preferred-length logs);
and the Integrated Log Manufacturing system (ILM), a proposed
computer-based strategy that acts as a harvest-site merchandiser and integrates harvest-site tree bucking and lumber manufacturing. Five days of sawmill operations were simulated for each strategy; the same second-growth Douglas-fir trees were processed each day to fill identical lumber orders. The sawmill produced 0.4 percent and 1.9 percent more cubic feet of targeted lumber with the 55-foot preferred-length strategy and ILM respectively, than with the 40-foot preferred-length strategy. Compared with the 40-foot preferred-length strategy, sawmill profits rose $2,262 (23%) per week in pay-as-scaled sales with the 55-foot preferred-length strategy, and $5,530 (57%) per week in lump sum sales with ILM.
