Title: Hardwood sawmill downtime costs

Author: Wiedenbeck, Jan; Blackwell, Kyle

Year: 2003

Publication: Southern Lumberman 27-30

Abstract: How time flies when you don't pay attention to it. With hardwood sawmill operating costs ranging from $4 to $25 per operating minute ($95/MBF to $335/MBF) and gross profit margins ranging from $0.10/BF to $0.35/BF, five extra minutes of downtime per day will cost a sawmill that produces an average of 20,000 BF per day (5 MMBF annually) between $21 and $73 per day in profit. The average is $47, which represents the opportunity cost for the lumber that could have been produced during those 5 minutes.