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TECHNOLOGY 43
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permit the analysis of only one single factor. In this approach, the sawmill capacities in the example. However, these linear
the data are first rank transformed, then a factorial ANOVA relationships may not hold, as, for example, a small sawmill
is performed. most likely will pay higher prices for their logs compared to
Post-hoc pairwise comparisons were conducted using a large mill and large mills might realise technical economies

ART-C. ART-C showed the instances where the profit of scale.
differences attributable to any combination of factor changes
were significant (α = 0.05). Operating Cost
The Aligned Rank Transform (ART) statistical test in conjunction
Results with R (R Core Team 2022) showed that a 0.1 percent change in
The 1,000-log sample was processed with LORCAT using the hourly operating cost caused a statistically significant difference
specifications and settings defined in the methods (Table 5). in profit (α = 0.05) for a sawmill with 12 MMBF capacity.
For a 12 MMBF sawmill, LORCAT estimated that it would The analysis was repeated for 8 and 4 MMBF sawmill
take 3.17 hours to process the 1,000-log sample (Table 4). capacities, and the same differences that were significant

with the 12 MMBF sawmills were found to be significant (α
Table 5. Base Costs and Values for the 12 MMBF Annual
Capacity Analysis = 0.05) with the smaller capacity mills.
Table 6 shows the changes in profit and total annual
operating costs as operating costs increased or decreased
by as much as 25 percent.
For the 1,000-log sample (Table 1), LORCAT 4.0 calculates a
small profit of $0.11 for the break-even point, which translates

into an annual profit of approximately $8 for the 12 MMBF
Given an average of 2,250 annual operating hours for capacity sawmill, and $6 and $3 annual profit for the 8 MMBF
hardwood sawmills, the sample results were multiplied by and 4 MMBF capacity sawmills, respectively (Table 6).
709.8 (2,250 / 3.17) to approximate annual production costs
Table 6. Effect of Operating Cost Changes on Annual
and values based on the 1,000-log sample.
Profit and Annual Operating Cost for 12, 8, 4 MMBF
In scaling the sample costs and values to annual production, Capacity Sawmills
the base annual operating cost for the 12 MMBF sawmill in
the analysis is $4,522,928 (Table 5).
In addition, the base annual log cost and product value for

the same 12 MMBF sawmill are $4,463,814 and $8,940,437,
respectively. To simplify the discussion about changes to the
costs and price factors, they were examined from an annual
perspective as shown in Table 5. The values shown in Tables
6, 7, and 8 are based on the calculations done for the 12
MMBF sawmill analysis results from which the associated
costs, values, and profit were calculated for 8 and 4 MMBF

sawmill capacities.
This is possible because of the linear relationship among