USING CUSTOMER-DRIVEN INFORMATION TO ADD VALUE TO LUMBER

Southern pine dimension lumber is sold as a commodity product. Opportu nities do arise in the sawmill to move some of this commodity product into a special or proprietary grade to meet customers' special needs a nd to increase mill revenue. A microcomputer-based, lumber-grade distr ibution model was developed to allow the sawmill manager to use expect ed lumber prices and selected grading rule adjustments to assess the e conomics of producing different grade distributions. Defects in a rand om sample of lumber were mapped, measured, and entered into a lumber d atabase. The database was used in two simulations, one with Southern P ine Inspection Bureau (SPIB) grading rules only and the other with SPI B grading rules and a user-defined special grading rule. Using a conse rvative production rate, the sorting of the special grade resulted in additional revenue of $89,100 for the sawmill. In addition, a special need for a customer was met. The results of the two runs demonstrate t hat the computer model can be used with standard grading rules and a p ropietary grading rule to provide an accurate and rapid means of proje cting lumber volume and value mix between different scenarios. The com puter model would be of value to any sawmill with either a relatively stable production process and raw material distribution, or mill manag ement who could update their database of lumber characteristics.