Process Improvement Review

A PIR (Process Improvement Review) provides two members of the Mid-South Engineering team at your facility spending a minimum of two days to review all phases of your operation with the goal of identifying opportunities to improve your mill’s performance through subtle changes in your equipment setup, operating techniques, etc.

The opportunities a PIR will investigate may involve training, alignment, heavy maintenance, preventative maintenance, technique changes, or capital operating expenditures less than $100,000 (e.g. a new knife grinder or saw leveler, training, wear part replacement, etc.).

The concept of a process review is not to create new major capital projects. We will identify any obvious major capital projects that you need to consider in your long-range planning, but we will not try to examine any of these as part of the process improvement review unless you specifically request us to do so. A process review is intended to identify the potential to reduce kerf, improve sawing accuracy, improve product quality and value, improve efficiency, decrease downtime, and eliminate waste and minimize downgrade.

This is an approximate list of the areas that will be investigated in a PIR:

1. Logs and log bucking
2. Materials handling and cleanup issues
3. Manufacturing machine center effectiveness
4. Quality control procedures and techniques
5. Product mix
6. Product Opportunities
7. Sawmill waste
8. Resonant boards
9. Materials handling damage and breakage
10. Kiln drying improvement opportunities
11. Quality monitoring procedures
12. Maintenance and lubrication
13. Organization effectiveness

We will document the results of the PIR in a report. This report will provide a shopping list of opportunities, quantify the benefits, and will help you prioritize them. The PIR Report will also make recommendations of how to implement the changes needed to take advantage of the identified opportunities.

All cost, production, or other operating data that you share will be held in the strictest of confidence.

The price of a PIR will vary, depending on the location of your facility relative to our centrally located Hot Springs, Arkansas office. As a benchmark, the price of a PIR at a facility that is 400 miles away will be $6,000 dollars. Naturally, the price will be different for every location, but we will promptly provide you a free proposal at your request.