ORDER-PROMISING AND PRODUCTION-PLANNING METHODS FOR SAWMILLS

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the development of order-promising and production-planning methodologies for sawmills. Two types of demands are considered: contract and spot demands. Contract demands are those known commitments to be filled over a period of time, whereas spot demands are collected from the market for the current week, two, and three weeks prior to the delivery date. Campaigns are developed that describe how the various classes of logs will be processed under a given price list. The campaign produces lumber outputs that represent the proportions the sawmill optimizers would produce given this price list. An MIP model, which includes order promising and campaign production planning, is formulated to maximize revenue over a planning horizon. A new solution technique is introduced to simulate the effectiveness of the rolling planning horizon over the full year. The effectiveness of the solution techniques is studied using different scenarios.