I'm curious why you think that. It's all these mills do all day, for thousands of years. Reducing waste by more efficient cuts is literally free profit, which is why they've had automatic scanners and optimized for years[1, 2000].

I've done a little woodworking, but it's enough to realize that wood is complicated and tricky and there are definitely pros & cons to the various cuts. I'm sure if they could get more high quality cuts from a given log they would - it is more valuable down stream.

[1] https://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-5/issue...

I think the article was geared more towards giving outsiders a rough idea of how boards are made. Not an in depth guide to someone wanting to start a mill. Given the volume of material the industry produces, saving even 1/16" on a cut would likely translate into billions of dollars. I would find it highly unlikely that any outsider, regardless of their mathematics abilities, would be able to walk in and make an improvement. More likely only very incremental improvements come from people who've worked in the industry for years and have an in depth understanding of everything involved from how the wood is used, transported, cut, what's done with the waste, and things like how saw blades are made.