IMPROVING OPERATIONS TO REMAIN COMPETITIVE AND PROFITABLE

March 11 – 13, 2014 - Princeton, WV

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 — Day 1, WERC Classroom

Process Improvement in Wood Products Manufacturing I – Leavengood and Buehlmann

9:00 - 9:15 Workshop introduction (Buehlmann)

9:15 - 10:30 Wood technology (Leavengood)

Wood anatomy & structure (emphasis on hardwoods)

Within-species variability (heart/sap, juvenile wood, reaction wood)

Between-species variability (maple vs. oak vs. cherry, etc.)

Wood and water relations (shrink/swell, kiln drying, warp) 

10:30 - 11:00 Break

11:00 - 12:00 Mill layout – lecture followed by hands-on exercise (Buehlmann)

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 2:30 QC tools (Leavengood)

Pareto analysis & checksheets

Flowcharts – lecture/hands-on exercise

Cause-and-effect diagrams – lecture/ hands-on exercise

Statistical process control – intro

2:30 - 3:00 Break

3:00 - 4:00 Statistical process control (continued) and lumber size control (Leavengood)

4:00 - 5:00 Plant optimization (Buehlmann)

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 — Day 2, Hands-on exercises

Process Improvement in Wood Products Manufacturing II – Leavengood and Buehlmann

9:00 - 9:30 Review of last day, break into 2 groups (A & B)

9:30 - 12:30 Group A: Activity related to mill layout & optimization (Buehlmann)

Group B: Hands-on QC & lumber size control (Leavengood)

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch

2:00 - 5:00 Group A: Hands-on QC & lumber size control (Leavengood)

Group B: Activity related to mill layout & optimization (Buehlmann)

Thursday, March 13, 2014 — Day 3, WERC Classroom

Process Improvement in Wood Products Manufacturing III – Leavengood and Buehlmann

9:00 - 9:15 Introduction

9:15 - 10:30 Theory of Constraints (Buehlmann)

10:30 - 11:00 Break

11:00 - 12:00 Intro to Design of Experiments (Leavengood)

12:00 - 1:30 Lunch

1:30 - 3:00 Review lessons-learned in mill re: mill layout & optimization (Buehlmann)

3:30 - 4:30 Review lessons-learned in mill re: QC/size control (Leavengood)

4:30 - 5:00 Workshop review and feedback

For more information on Wood Industry Week @ WERC '14, click here. 

See presentations from Wood Industry Week 2012