In this study, hot-pressing behavior of 5-ply Douglas-fir and spruce plywood was evaluated. Visual sorted Douglas-fir and spruce veneer (select) sheets were acquired from a Forintek member's mill. All veneer sheets were conditioned to a moisture level of 3%. Platen pressure and target core temperature were chosen as two control variables. Using a JMP statistical software program, their effect and sensitivity on plywood productivity, material recovery and panel bond quality were studied in terms of hot-pressing time, panel compression ratio and wood failure percentage. Second-order response surface models (RSM) were further established for these three criteria. The results showed that 1) the material variation within the same visual grade (select) for each species resulted in the variation of hot-pressing time, compression ratio and wood failure percentage. Therefore, the applied pressing schedules should be a bit conservative for thin-type 5-ply plywood products; 2) generally, the rate of temperature rise in 5-ply Douglas-fir plywood was faster than that in 5-ply spruce plywood. The difference in heat transfer speed for these two species was more pronounced when the target core temperature is higher than 1100C; 3) the hot-pressing time, compression ratio and wood failure percentage was not very sensitive to the platen pressure within the range of 155 psi to 190 psi for 5-ply spruce plywood; In contrast, in order to achieve the target wood failure percentage (80%) for 5-ply Douglas-fir plywood, the target core temperature had to be set at least 1100C along with a platen pressure higher than 200 psi; 4) the hot-pressing optimization was the balance of the hot-pressing time (productivity), panel compression ratio (material recovery) and wood failure percentage (panel quality). Overall, the optimum pressing conditions were veneer moisture dependent. At a 3% veneer moisture content level, the optimum platen pressure was 175 psi for 5-ply spruce plywood whereas the optimum platen pressure was 225 psi for 5-ply Douglas-fir plywood. For both species, the optimum target core temperature for the 5-ply panels was 1100C at a platen temperature of 1550C.