Influence of Edging Practices on Furniture Dimension Stock Yields from Short Hardwood Lumber

This study evaluates the influence of different edging practices on the yield of furniture dimension stock from short hardwood lumber produced in a bolter mill. The mill belongs to a furniture company as part of an integrated operation. Therefore, the main concern is to generate as much wood from the bolts as possible into furniture parts at a minimum cost. Three comparable lots of lumber were edged differently: no-edging, light-edging, and grade-edging. In addition, two computer simulated edgings, a light and a heavy, were performed on the unedged lot. Computer simulated yields of eight theoretical cutting bills indicate that the grade- and heavy-edging practices, as opposed to both light-edgings, significantly reduced the available yield. Similar conclusions were obtained when a specific cutting bill furnished by the furniture company was fed to the computer. The three lots of lumber were actually cut up according to this bill in order to compare the results. This actual yield not only failed to show the influence of the edging practices but also fell short of generating the necessary long lengths proven available by the simulated results. The superiority of the computer study over the in-plant study is therefore obvious. As to the economics of edging, the savings in kiln utilization roughly offset the cost of edging; so long as the yield of furniture parts is not significantly reduced, edging is justifiable. Any added value assigned to edged lumber due to reduced handling cost would just enhance this conclusion.

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