OPTIMAL MULTIPERIOD PRODUCTION PLANNING IN A SAWMILL

BROZ, D.; VANZETTI, N.; MONTAGNA, M.; CORSANO, G.

San Diego, California

Simposio; 13th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering - PSE 2018; 2018

PSE community

Forest industry plays an important role in the national economic and social context, due to the region where it is located (northeastern of the country) and the production volume. The equipment used in the local facilities is not efficiently employed and, therefore, the process performance can be improved in order to reach higher productivity. Sawmill production planning involves determining which logs to process taking into account its diameter and length, with the aim of satisfying finished products demand. Logs are converted into lumber when they are cut according to a set of available cutting patterns (CP). One of the keys to improve sawmills efficiency is to develop a good production planning, and mathematical modeling is a good technique to attain it. Also, an efficient log procurement policy can be developed from the production planning, and therefore, raw material purchases and distribution can be anticipated. In this work, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for the optimal planning in sawmills is proposed. A multiperiod formulation is presented, which involves a set of CPs for each type of log. As a result of this optimization, appropriate log procurement and distribution policy can be also defined which impact on the sawmill performance and profitability.