A Method to Analyze Rough Mill Productivity

A brief survey of hardwood processing pointed up the diversity of techniques and thus the need for a method to compare the costs of dimension stock produced by them. The rough mills of several medium-sized furniture plants (cutting 4000 to 6000 bd. ft. of lumber per shift) were studied. It was found that crosscutting recovery was almost unaffected by board dimensions and varied only a little. Productivity, as measured by elapsed time per net foot, was affected primarily by board width and the presence of an extra man to help handle the boards, and to a less consistent extent by board length. Both the recovery and productivity of the ripping operation were affected by cutting length and the average width of the output clear strips. Equations developed for these two individual operations were combined with labor and machine cost estimates plus lumber price in a general formula which will render estimates of the cost per square foot of clear pieces of various lengths, i.e., raw material for glued-up panels. The major conclusion is that raw material costs and therefore yields should be of primary concern. It is recommended that continued extensive testing of this analytical method be carried out to determine the ranges of the effects noted.

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