THE PROFITABLE SAWMILL: 5 Steps to Drastically Increase Your Profits

By Niko Fabjan and Raymond Aaron

THE PROFITABLE SAWMILL is a book about how to manage wood working company in order achieve the best results from all points of view.
We believe that a manager is someone with vision, who can see the big picture over both the short- and long-term. But above all else, a manager is a decision-maker and a leader. Good decisions and good leadership are the driving forces behind the best companies.
A manager must decide: who to market to, what to market and how to market; which people to hire and how to train and keep them; which equipment to buy and how to set up the production system; how to schedule purchasing, production and distribution; and how to administer the organization as a whole.
Effective decision-making and good leadership are the keys to success.
This book has been written and edited to help every sawmill manager do a better job. Whether you run a one-man, part-time portable sawmill, or an operation with 300 employees, you'll find many useful tips and techniques. Apply them to your sawmilling operation and, before long, you'll find yourself in charge of a more successful and profitable business.
All sawmills are buying logs and selling lumber, and all are under constant and growing pressure to be run and maintained as efficient businesses. Everyone employed in a sawmill is part of a team, and each must play his part and be encouraged to do so.


In general, I divided the processes for to achieve higher profit within 5 steps:
1. GENERAL SITUATION OF A SAWMILL
2. STAFF MANAGEMENT
3. MANAGING THE SAW-MILL PROCESS
4. SALES AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT
5. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Therefore, sawmill workers, sawmill managers, technologists, directors, sawmill owners, students and others: take this book in hand to enhance your wood industry profitability to the next level

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781772774719

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

In approximate figures, the world log timber harvest amounts to some 3.5 billion m3 a year. Of this, a little less than 50% consists of industrial wood, whereas the balance is fuel wood. The major producers are North America, Asia (including China and Japan) and Western Europe. Together, they supply over 70% of world demand.

Although no significant increase in the world production of timber is foreseen in the near future, it is estimated that fast-growing plantations will play an important future role for the wood harvest.

The production of sawn wood is less than 500 million m3, with softwood accounting for 75%. The larges forests cover around 40% of Europe’s territory (190 million ha), making Europe one of the most forest-rich regions in the world.

The climate is already changing, and it will continue to change even as we reduce emissions, with devastating effects. Therefore, we need to work together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change, to:

•Protect and restore ecosystems.

•Build defenses, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.

Europe is in fact one of the few regions of the world where forest cover has increased over the last century. Forest owners and managers contribute to growth and jobs in rural areas while ensuring wood and ecological services provision. Forest activities have a turnover of almost €500 billion, employing approximately 3.5 million people. Industry has invested in technology to turn side streams and by- products into innovative bio-based products that are essential for the development of the bio-economy. As more investments are made in innovative technologies, more products from this industry will reach new market segments, providing additional benefits to society as a whole.

The forecast for demand of sawn wood products is stable and increasing very little. Globally, wood substitute products have not significantly affected the wood market, and it is likely that sawn wood will remain the first choice for wood products for some time to come.

The more developed a market, the higher the demand for advanced sawing technology. The price of logs is by far the most important factor influencing the competitiveness of the sawmill industry. This, in combination with personnel costs, makes efficient use of available resources a vital factor. It is also a fact that high production costs in general appear in those areas where log costs are the highest.

This book has been written and edited to help every sawmill manager do a better job. Whether you run a one-man, part-time portable sawmill, or an operation with 300 employees, you’ll find many useful tips and techniques in the pages that follow. Apply them to your sawmilling operation and, before long, you’ll find yourself in charge of a more successful and profitable business. All sawmills are buying logs and selling lumber, and all are under constant and growing pressure to be run and maintained as efficient businesses. Everyone employed in a sawmill is part of a team, and each must play his part and be encouraged to do so.

The financial viability of any sawmilling enterprise is largely dependent on the performance of its mechanical equipment, which in turn is dependent on the knowledge and skill of the personnel responsible for its operation and maintenance. Guidelines and suggestions are put forward covering statutory requirements and code of practice, housekeeping and data recording. Any increasing operational costs make it imperative for any sawmill to operate at maximum efficiency if it is to remain a profitable enterprise.

The most modern equipment, with a constant adequate supply of top-quality logs, is no guarantee of a successful sawmilling enterprise if the management and personnel involved lack the necessary skill and cooperation to use and maintain it in the proper way. Sawmill owners and management must therefore always endeavor to assist and encourage their employees in obtaining these necessary skills and experience, which together with the team spirit will achieve success.

Step 1

Situation of a Sawmill

Situation of a Sawmill

Housekeeping

Lost production time is costly and must therefore be kept to a minimum. Therefore, maintenance of sawmill machinery must also be coordinated with good housekeeping. The cost of planned machine maintenance and good housekeeping will prove to be a lot less in financial terms when savings in lost production time are taken into account.

A factor that is rarely taken into consideration is the effect of good housekeeping on the morale of all sawmill staff. Men or machines cannot work to their maximum efficiency if they are hampered by sawdust, waste and off-cuts from the logs or lumber being sawn. Apart from the lost production time, which such conditions create, the possibility of accidents or machine breakdowns is greatly increased.

Working in a sawmill that is maintained in a clean and tidy condition is much more pleasant than having to work on machines surrounded by waste, off-cuts and lumber waiting to be moved. Wood waste can be utilized in various ways, and some of these are dealt with under the heading Waste Disposal, which in many cases can make this operation self-financing.

Waste Disposal

The disposal of waste is a major factor to be considered and dealt with if hold-ups to the production of sawn timber are to be avoided. At many sawmills, the volume of wood waste created can often be as much as 50 percent of the log volume being processed through the sawmill. Therefore, the layout of equipment and machinery must be organized in such a way that handling costs of sawdust and waste are minimized, and their handling effectiveness optimized.

Many sawmills have their own kilns for drying some of the sawn timber produced. The fuel for the boilers, in these cases, take some of the wood waste materials.

The larger pieces of wood waste arising do not often present a disposal problem as the need for solid fuel is always present. Local firewood contractors in such cases are usually willing to purchase all that is available from the small sawmills.

The main objective, however, regarding waste disposal, must always be to keep the volume of wood waste produced as small as possible. Sawmill management must always be aware of the daily production figures relating log volume sawn to sawn timber produced. The possible utilization of wood waste as a commercial product, which will create a financial return, must therefore always be given very serious consideration. There are various possibilities that may be feasible and viable, but they are dependent on the type and volume of the waste material and the location of the sawmill. Some suggestions for possible outlets for sawdust, shavings, chippings and other small particles are as follows:

•Consider the possible utilization of wood waste as a commercial mulch for use in agriculture or horticulture.

•Advertise the type and volume of material that is constantly produced for the attention and consideration of other wood waste processing industries or potential users.

•Consider the feasibility of a wood waste briquetting system whereby the materials are processed into high density fuel briquettes.

•Prepare a study on compacting sawdust into plastic bags to reduce the volume and subsequent transport costs, which may attract a wider range of customers using small amounts.

•Contact local builders regarding the use of sawdust as a shield layer over concrete floors or roads, to allow the concrete to change and obtain maximum strength.

An Economy-Focused Sawmill

A number of factors influence the sawing operation. The cost structure in a sawmill is therefore of vital importance in deciding how to reach maximum production output. Raw material, manpower, fixed assets and other costs make up the bulk of these expenses. The cost of the tool—in this case, the sawblade—including maintenance, is indeed a minor investment, making up only about one percent of the total cost.

We would like to show you how you can get a lot more out of your operation by utilizing a quality tool.

General Sawmill Costs

The top bar in the figure below depicts the traditional spread of costs in a normal sawmill. The diagram shows that raw material (logs) amounts to 62%, manpower to 11%, fixed assets to 22% and other costs to 4%. You will also note that the tool cost