Application of Mathematical Programming to the Plywood Design and Manufacturing Problem

Article Abstract:

Plywood manufacture includes two fundamental stages. The first is to peel or separate logs into veneer sheets of different thicknesses. The second is to assemble veneer sheets into finished plywood products. At the first stage a decision must be made as to the number of different veneer thicknesses to be peeled and what these thicknesses should be. At the second stage, choices must be made as to how these veneers will be assembled into final products to meet certain constraints while minimizing wood loss. These decisions present a fundamental management dilemma. Costs of peeling, drying, storage, handling, etc., can be reduced by decreasing the number of veneer thicknesses peeled. However, a reduced set of thickness options may make it unfeasible to produce the variety of products demanded by the market or increase wood loss by requiring less efficient selection of thicknesses for assembly. In this paper the joint problem of veneer choice and plywood construction is formulated as a nonlinear integer programming problem. A relatively simple optimal solution procedure is developed that exploits special problem structure. This procedure is examined on data from a British Columbia plywood mill. Restricted to the existing set of veneer thicknesses and plywood designs used by that mill, the procedure generated a solution that reduced wood loss by 79 percent, thereby increasing net revenue by 6.86 percent. Additional experiments were performed that examined the consequences of changing the number of veneer thicknesses used. Extensions are discussed that permit the consideration of more than one wood species. (Reprinted by Permission of Publisher).

Mathematical models, Manufacturing, Forest products, Strategic Planning, Optimization, Mathematical Programming

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Application of mathematical programming to the plywood design and manufacturing problem

Article Abstract:

There are two basic stages in the production of plywood. The first stage involves the removal or separation of logs into veneer sheets of varying thickness. The other stage involves the assembly of veneer sheets into finished plywood products. Consequently, management decisions that must be made when producing plywood are: the number of veneers to produce and the thicknesses of each veneer, and the assembly of these veneers into final products according to market demand. Mathematical models are developed to facilitate cost-effective decision-making in these areas, using data supplied by a British Columbian plywood mill. The model developed is claimed to be capable of reducing wood loss by 79 percent, and of increasing revenues by 6.86 percent.

Analysis, Production control, Mathematical optimization, Optimization theory, Plywood, Veneers and veneering, Veneer

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Periodic versus 'can-order' policies for coordinated multi-item inventory systems

Article Abstract:

Research is conducted on coordinated multi-item inventory problems and their solutions. Coordinated multi-item inventory problems consist of problems with an item-by-item fixed cost for each item and a joint fixed cost for replenishing items. Attention is directed to 'can-order' policies because of the inherent complexity of the optimal solution. A lower bound for the optimal policy cost is proposed, and a simple periodic policy is developed which is an improvement over 'can-order' policies for some applications.

Stochastic analysis, Scheduling (Management), Inventory control

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