Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity

We developed a sawmill flow simulation model to identify production bottlenecks and determine where productivity improvements could be made. Sawmills often invest in a new machine center and then find out that the processing bottleneck just moves somewhere else. Our approach was specifically designe...

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Autores principales:	Thoews,Steven E, Maness,Thomas C, Ristea,Catalin
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Universidad del Bío-Bío 2008
Materias:	Flow simulation sawmill manufacturing production bottleneck productivity
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-221X2008000300006
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0718-221X20080003000062009-08-19Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill ProductivityThoews,Steven EManess,Thomas CRistea,Catalin Flow simulation sawmill manufacturing production bottleneck productivity We developed a sawmill flow simulation model to identify production bottlenecks and determine where productivity improvements could be made. Sawmills often invest in a new machine center and then find out that the processing bottleneck just moves somewhere else. Our approach was specifically designed to investigate the effects of such changes on the entire system. We determined that the trimmer was the system bottleneck when both the small log and large log lines were running concomitantly. Under base case conditions, the model predicted an average board output of 13,147 boards. An increase in the processing capability of the trimmer resulted in a shift of the bottleneck from the small log line to the large log line (at the edger). This bottleneck shift was further investigated and, by allowing the simulation model to manipulate machine settings for the trimmer and edger, it was able to maximize the modeled average board output to 17,996 boards per shift (when edger set up times were not considered) and 16,708 boards per shift (with edger setup times included). These findings were presented to the sawmill management and subsequently implemented as specific improvements at the trimmer machine center, which in turn resulted in an actual increase of 10% in their sawmills lumber volume output.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessUniversidad del Bío-BíoMaderas. Ciencia y tecnología v.10 n.3 20082008-01-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-221X2008000300006en10.4067/S0718-221X2008000300006
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
topic	Flow simulation sawmill manufacturing production bottleneck productivity
spellingShingle	Flow simulation sawmill manufacturing production bottleneck productivity Thoews,Steven E Maness,Thomas C Ristea,Catalin Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity
description	We developed a sawmill flow simulation model to identify production bottlenecks and determine where productivity improvements could be made. Sawmills often invest in a new machine center and then find out that the processing bottleneck just moves somewhere else. Our approach was specifically designed to investigate the effects of such changes on the entire system. We determined that the trimmer was the system bottleneck when both the small log and large log lines were running concomitantly. Under base case conditions, the model predicted an average board output of 13,147 boards. An increase in the processing capability of the trimmer resulted in a shift of the bottleneck from the small log line to the large log line (at the edger). This bottleneck shift was further investigated and, by allowing the simulation model to manipulate machine settings for the trimmer and edger, it was able to maximize the modeled average board output to 17,996 boards per shift (when edger set up times were not considered) and 16,708 boards per shift (with edger setup times included). These findings were presented to the sawmill management and subsequently implemented as specific improvements at the trimmer machine center, which in turn resulted in an actual increase of 10% in their sawmills lumber volume output.
author	Thoews,Steven E Maness,Thomas C Ristea,Catalin
author_facet	Thoews,Steven E Maness,Thomas C Ristea,Catalin
author_sort	Thoews,Steven E
title	Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity
title_short	Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity
title_full	Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity
title_fullStr	Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity
title_full_unstemmed	Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity
title_sort	using flow simulation as a decision tool for improvements in sawmill productivity
publisher	Universidad del Bío-Bío
publishDate	2008
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-221X2008000300006
work_keys_str_mv	AT thoewsstevene usingflowsimulationasadecisiontoolforimprovementsinsawmillproductivity AT manessthomasc usingflowsimulationasadecisiontoolforimprovementsinsawmillproductivity AT risteacatalin usingflowsimulationasadecisiontoolforimprovementsinsawmillproductivity
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Using Flow Simulation as a Decision Tool for Improvements in Sawmill Productivity

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