Sawmill Productivity & Efficiency

Co-located with the Timber Processing & Energy Expo in Portland, Oregon, Productivity & Efficiency: A Conference By Timber Processing, will be Thursday, September 29, 2022.

About the Productivity & Efficiency Conference

Co-located with the Timber Processing & Energy Expo, the 2022 Productivity & Efficiency conference by Timber Processing, will be Thursday, September 29, 2022. It will feature two live, in-person conference sessions attendees are eligible to participate in for one flat fee.

These sessions, curated by Conference Chairwoman and Timber Processing Senior Editor Jessica Johnson, are designed for veteran lumbermen and newcomers alike. Each presenter will have time for questions at the end of their talks, encouraging even more dialogue—and learning opportunities—between presenters and attendees.

Sessions include:

  • Sawmill Of The Future: The Future Is Now
  • Project Planning & Implementation: Bring It On

Speakers

Sawmill Of The Future: The Future Is Now

Ready or not, the future is not just coming—it’s here. Whether it’s automation in the scanners, the controls or whole machine centers run by robots, sawmills across the globe are trying new technologies, blazing new trails, and thinking about what’s coming next.

Chris Brown, Vice President, Mid-South Engineering Co.

Simplicity Is the Ultimate Sophistication

Has lumber processing become too complicated? We discuss what the future may hold regarding the balance between manufacturing and maintainability.

Terry Brown, Director, Lumber Quality Institute

Keys to Effective Quality and Process Control Programs from a Leadership and Operational Perspective into the Future

Quality and Process Control programs in today’s sawmills and into the future continue to evolve but obstacles remain as programs adapt to continuing advancement in mill optimization and information technology. These obstacles will be examined and discussed based on Terry Brown’s interactions with the many quality control personnel he has worked with over his career.

Norvin Laudon, Director, Vancouver, MiCROTEC

MiCROTEC SMART Link: Gapless Traceability From Log To Board, And Back Again

Historically, each machine center in the sawmill has been more or less isolated from the next. Each piece of equipment, such as the primary breakdown, sawmill trimmer, or planer mill scanner, have operated independently from each other, without any knowledge of the intended decisions made at the equipment upstream or downstream.

Recent developments in log and lumber scanners, such as CT Log scanning, allow creation of digital fingerprints for each board sawn. This mean for every single board in the sawmill its complete history can be traced back into its parent log. This information provides incredible oversight to the sawmilling process and answers questions that in the past have only been dreamed of: Was the board dried in the kiln correctly? How accurately was the primary breakdown executed? How much did the parent log cost and who sold it to the mill?

Scanners connected in such a way provide value that is much more than the sum of their individual parts. They are analyzing the entire sawmilling process as a unit, as opposed to a connection of isolated processes.

A detailed overview of a MiCROTEC SMART Link enabled mill running this technology today will be presented.

Simon Potvin, President, Wood Processing Division, BID Group

Digital, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: The Future of Wood Processing Technology

The BID Group is a global leader in operational lifecycle excellence, transformational wood processing technologies, and integrated solutions. They are at the forefront of artificial intelligence and digital solutions in the industry, empowering their customers to achieve and sustain their best overall performance. Wondering what would be the impact of those technologies on your results? In this presentation, Simon Potvin, President of Wood Processing at BID, will present how BID’s latest innovations are becoming a catalyst to the sawmill’s future.

Justin Price, Co-CEO, Evergreen Engineering

Future Proofing Your Plant With Digital-Twin Interoperability and Advance Technology Adoption

In an unrelenting drive to operate more efficiently and sustainably, demand for projects to provide innovative solutions to economic and environmental challenges is growing. With increase pressure from shrinking margins, global competition and scrutiny for sustainability more than just incremental change in how projects are delivered is required. The industry needs an end-to-end transformation that improves performance at every stage of the value chain.

Digital twin technology provides a means for meeting these pressures by connecting people, data, processes and technology, while making the most of cloud collaboration. During this presentation, we will explore how Digital-twin interoperability and advance technology adoption can help future-proof your operations, delivering efficient, sustainable plants of the future. We will demonstrate the new research in the three steps to engineering the plant of the future and how industries are adopting advanced technology for increased revenue.

Project Planning & Implementation: Bring It On

It’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of sawmilling, it’s project implementation. Gone are the days of plugging something in, flipping the switch and saying a prayer—or are they? This session focuses on how projects of various sizes and scopes have either been successful or total flops, and what can be learned from them.

Kevin Collins, Director, Strategic Energy Group

Maximize Productivity and Operating Efficiency with O&M Best Practices

Kevin Collins spent 25 years in operations in lumber mills in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. For the past 12 years, Collins has been implementing continuous improvement initiatives with wood products businesses to reduce energy costs and downtime while improving productivity and employee engagement. This talk will discuss some of the simple O&M steps that folks can take and implement immediately for improving energy performance and savings. Examples of baselining performance and actual results achieved will be shared.

Vaughn Emmerson, Mechanical Design Engineer, Sierra-Pacific Industries

Minimizing Downtime During Shutdowns

Shutdowns take time away from production and productivity. This talk gets into ways Sierra-Pacific Industries has minimized shutdowns and utilized that precious downtime so that you can get up and running again quickly. Tactics and techniques will be shared from various sawmill projects.

Phil Johnson, Sawmill Industry Consultant

The Use of Used Equipment in Sawmill Construction & Upgrades

As in all sawmill construction, it is vital to have a firm understanding of the volume and characteristics of the raw material. This information, along with a clear plan for the product mix that maximizes both value and volume, will determine the sawmill layout and machinery selection. Then comes the interesting part—finding the proper machinery to fit your needs.

Sam Pope, Western Sales Manager North America, USNR

The Well-Planned Project: Techniques to Deliver ROI

A well planned project includes project management, thought-out manufacturing, industrial project planning and development, electrical engineering, and production process development to provide end-to-end solutions and a scope that matches up with expectations and return on investment.

Mike Zojonc, Plant Manager, Gilchrist Forest Products

35 Years of Projects and Counting

Mike is a 40-year veteran of the sawmill industry, working for various companies and leading numerous projects including two greenfield sawmills. He’ll discuss past and present projects; what makes a successful project; and why there are less successful projects.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Rooms 202-203-204

MORNING SESSION

SAWMILL OF THE FUTURE: THE FUTURE IS NOW

9:15-9:20 a.m.

Moderator Remarks

Jessica Johnson, Chairwoman, Productivity & Efficiency Conference

9:20-9:45 a.m.

Simplicity Is the Ultimate Sophistication

—Chris Brown, Vice President, Mid-South Engineering Co.

9:50-10:15 a.m.

Keys to Effective Quality and Process Control Programs from a Leadership and Operational Perspective into the Future

—Terry Brown, Director, Lumber Quality Insititue

10:20-10:45 a.m.

Future Proofing Your Plant with Digital-Twin Interoperability and Advance Technology Adoption

—Justin Price, Co-CEO, Evergreen Engineering

10:50-11:15 a.m.

MiCROTEC SMART Link: Gapless Traceability from Log to Board, and Back Again

—Norvin Laudon, Director, Vancouver, MiCROTEC

11:20-11:45 a.m.

Digital, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: The Future of Wood Processing Technology

—Simon Potvin, President, Wood Processing Division, BID Group

AFTERNOON SESSION

PROJECT PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION: BRING IT ON

1:00-1:05 p.m.

Moderator Remarks

Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Timber Processing

1:05-1:30 p.m.

Minimizing Downtime During Shutdowns

—Vaughn Emmerson, Mechanical Design Engineer, Sierra Pacific Industries

1:35-2:00 p.m.

35 Years of Projects and Counting

—Mike Zojonc, Plant Manager, Gilchrist Forest Products

2:05-2:30 p.m.

The Use of Used Equipment in Sawmill Construction & Upgrades

—Phil Johnson, Sawmill Industry Consultant

2:35-3:00 p.m.

The Well-Planned Project: Techniques to Deliver ROI

—Sam Pope, Western Sales Manager North America, USNR

3:05-3:30 p.m.

Maximize Productivity and Operating Efficiency with O&M Best Practices

—Kevin Collins, Director, Stragegic Energy Group