Patent ID: 8793010

Claim:
A method for reducing variability of moisture content in wood products dried in one or more drying devices, the method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining moisture content data for the wood products; (b) identifying one or more sources of variability in the moisture content data; (c) quantifying, using a processor, a contribution to overall variability from each of the one or more sources of variability, where step (c) is performed using a graphical or statistical method comprising the steps of: (i) quantifying contribution to overall variability from charge-to-charge differences by: calculating a population-average moisture content from prior moisture content data, the prior moisture content data comprising two or more charges; plotting standard deviation of each charge against average moisture content for each charge; estimating a charge trend line; estimating an ideal charge standard deviation, the ideal charge standard deviation being the standard deviation for two or more charges dried to the population-average moisture content; calculating an actual population standard deviation; and determining the contribution from charge-to-charge differences by determining a difference between the ideal charge standard deviation and the actual population standard deviation; (d) quantifying one or more opportunities to impact the overall variability based on the one or more sources, each of the one or more opportunities being associated with one or more executable steps; and (e) performing one or more of the one or more executable steps on the wood products or on the one or more drying devices.