Forintek has developed a sawmill profit improvement program for mills in western Canada. A team of Forintek specialists work in cooperation with sawmill management to identify short-term low-cost improvements that can be made to current operations, and to identify the need for additional studies required to justify changes to equipment and processes that would achieve future profit improvement. Key areas included in the evaluation are sawmill processes, saws and sawing, kiln drying and lumber protection. The mill evaluation begins with documentation of known operating characteristics such as timber resource, sawmill design and maintenance, kiln design and control, and lumber drying schedules. The Forintek team visits the sawmill to evaluate current operating practices with the mill staff responsible for each aspect of the operation. Findings are discussed and a report is provided. This paper describes the sawmill evaluation process and provides examples of observations and recommendations made following three case studies. In all three case studies, significant improvements in mill operations could be made at very little additional cost