Hardwood sawmill downtime costs

Jan K. Wiedenbeck; Kyle Blackwell

Treesearch

Hardwood sawmill downtime costs

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Jan K. Wiedenbeck, Kyle Blackwell

Year:

2003

Type:

Scientific Journal

Station:

Northern Research Station

Source:

Southern Lumberman 27-30

Download (PDF 1.01 MB)

Download (PDF 1.01 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/14619.pdf

Abstract

How time flies when you don't pay attention to it. With hardwood sawmill operating costs ranging from $4 to $25 per operating minute ($95/MBF to $335/MBF) and gross profit margins ranging from $0.10/BF to $0.35/BF, five extra minutes of downtime per day will cost a sawmill that produces an average of 20,000 BF per day (5 MMBF annually) between $21 and $73 per day in profit. The average is $47, which represents the opportunity cost for the lumber that could have been produced during those 5 minutes.

Citation

Wiedenbeck, Jan; Blackwell, Kyle. 2003. Hardwood sawmill downtime costs. Southern Lumberman 27-30