Feasibility and Conceptual Design of a Highly Flexible Manufacturing Facility

加拿大锯木业主要是为美国住房行业生产商品木材产品。在这个市场上，加拿大生产商历来占据主导地位，但不幸的是，现在面临着前所未有的挑战。在过去十年的大部分时间里，整个行业的资本投资回报率一直落后于可接受的投资回报率。来自俄罗斯、中国、南美和大洋洲的商品木材产量增加将削弱商品市场，降低价格和利润。因此，在这个依赖低价的市场上，加拿大正迅速成为一个高成本的供应国。当考虑到省预算税收的重要贡献和许多加拿大森林依赖社区的未来时，问题的紧迫性进一步突出。该行业迫切需要一个战略来打破商品木材生产的螺旋式下降。这个问题的部分解决方案可以通过技术来解决。加拿大的锯木厂技术是专门为商品产品的体积回收而开发的，采用了成本最小化的方法。我们需要的是一种锯木厂技术，它能在允许大宗商品生产的同时，及时促进高价值产品的生产。这样的生产战略将使每一采伐量雇用更多的人，为加拿大的森林带来更高的回报，并更好地利用作为加拿大竞争优势来源的高质量木材。这项研究的战略目标是鼓励加拿大木材工业投资于灵活的制造技术，减少对商品产品的依赖。这将通过使用该地区现有的木材工厂Kalesnikoff木材公司作为研究伙伴开发一个原型灵活制造系统来完成。在与该公司合作的过程中，该项目将产生关于在木材加工设施中实施高度灵活的制造系统的影响和可行性的新知识，预计该系统将适用于广泛的加拿大木材业务。

The Canadian sawmilling industry is primarily a producer of commodity wood products for the US housing industry. In this market, Canadian producers have been historically dominant but unfortunately, are now faced with unprecedented challenges. The return on capital investment in this industry as a whole has lagged behind acceptable investment returns for most of the last decade. Increasing commodity lumber production from Russia, China, South America and Oceania will weaken commodity markets, reducing prices and profits. As a result, Canada is rapidly becoming a high cost supplier in a market that depends on low prices. The urgency of the problem is further highlighted when the significant provincial budget tax contributions and the futures of many Canadian forest dependent communities are considered. The industry desperately needs a strategy to break out of the downward spiral of commodity lumber production. Part of the solution to this problem can be addressed by technology. Sawmill technology in Canada has been developed solely for volume recovery of commodity products with a cost minimization approach. What is needed is a sawmill technology that promotes just in time manufacturing of higher value products, at the same time as allowing commodity production. Such a production strategy would employ more people per volume harvested, return a higher value to Canada's forests and take better advantage of the high quality timber that is the source of much of Canada's competitive advantage. The strategic goal of this research is to encourage the Canadian lumber industry to invest in flexible manufacturing technology and reduce their dependence on commodity products. This will be done by developing a prototype flexible manufacturing system using an existing lumber mill in the region, Kalesnikoff Lumber Company, as research partner. In working with this company, this project will generate new knowledge about the implications and feasibility of implementing a highly flexible manufacturing system in wood processing facilities that is expected to apply to a broad spectrum of Canadian lumber businesses.