Optimization of a Pressure - Treating Process

by Josean Velez

Submitted : Fall 2011

In industrial engineering it is essential to be capable of solving problems that involve optimizing complex processes or systems. A company that pressure-treats wood wants to minimize its annual cost without using more than 250 days of operation per year. In addition, they want to find the corresponding value of time, batches and cost for each category.

The first step towards minimizing the annual cost was to develop an expression that included every cost that the company experienced. Secondly, the expression was built in terms of (x) (boards/batches) to be able to find the number of batched needed to minimize the annual cost. The main step was to take the derivative of this expression and use Newton's method to find the root of (x). Moreover, the second derivative test was also used to prove that this value was a minimum and not a maximum. The results showed that the company took 247 days of operation, out of the 250 maximum days of operation available. In conclusion, the company met its goal of minimizing its cost in the time lapse desired.

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