$1.2 million to be spent on Tangiwai sawmill

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 564, 29 November 1994, Page 3

$1.2 million to be spent on Tangiwai sawmill

Tangiwai Sawmill — bought by Winstone Pulp International from Carter Holt Harvey 15 months ago — is about to undergo a $1.2 million dollar upgrade. Currently 40,000 tonnes of logs are converted into green sawn timber every year at Tangiwai. Most is Pinus radiata with smaller amounts of Nigra (Corsica Pine), Pinus contorta and Douglas fir trucked in from Winstone Pulp's Karioi Forest. Next year production will increase by 20 per cent with the introduction of automation which will vastly speed up the time taken to cut the logs into timber lengths. A new multiple saw

edger will be coupled with a state of the art 'taper cutting' system. Tangiwai assistant manager Paul Trow says the best wood is found on the outside of a tree. With the new taper cutting system the log is squared up so that more of the clear outside wood can be cut into timber lengths while the knots and pith in the middle of the log are chipped ready for pulping. Currently half Tangiwai's production is framing timber trucked out of the area for treating for the housing market. However, Mr Trow says Tangiwai is looking at producing a finished product on-site within the near fu-

ture. "Within the next few months a planer and dresser will be commissioned and a treating plant and kilns are in the pipeline. T angiwai will then be able to deal direct with the retailer. Further processing will also increase our off-shore marketing options quite dramatically". 'Cuttings grade' timber accounts for 30 per cent of production. The knots are cut out of the wood which is then trucked to Auckland where the pieces are fingerjointed together and the finished product shipped to Japan, USA and Australia. Tangiwai also produces boxing for pallets and fence-

palings. The Tangiwai Mill will close down for almost four weeks over Christmas for the new machinery to be installed. MrTrow says the upgrade will also include a new more environmentally friendly anti-sap spray unit. Every piece of timber will be indi vidually sprayed as it travels through a sealed tunnel emerging touch-dry . The winds of change blowing through Tangiwai are not, however, confined to the tangible. A growing awareness of the importance of customer satisfaction has produced an even more important milestone in T angiwai' s development. ISO 9000 By overseas standards the mill may be small and remote but its commitment to excellence in every facet of its operation has earned it the internationally recognized ISO 9000 certificate, says Mr Trow. The certification is to be presented to Winstones at a ceremony at the pulp mill on 2 December. Mill manager Eric Vaughan said gaining ISO 9000 accreditation was very important to Tangiwai and Winstone Pulp for two reasons. Many customers now won't consider buying a product unless the producer is ISO 9000 accredited. This is a growing trend. Secondly, it is important to the

company and people who work at the mill to know they are working to such a high standard. Mill Quality Assurance Officer, John McQuarrie has been in charge of putting the ISO 9000 system in place. "It's taken eighteen months and a lot of blood, sweat and tears." He fingers a three-inch-thick manual. "Absolutely everything that happens on site is documented. Each activity is then matched up to a standard set down by the certificating body, Telarc New Zealand. "When a customer buys from an ISO 9000 company he is assured of getting the best possible quality. In our case he knows the timber is

cut exactly to his size requirements, that it's properly graded, it's been looked af ter and packaged correctly and the paperwork is efficient". "Internally it means we are constantly reviewing how we do things; asking ourselves whether we could do such and such better, should we be making

changes. Telarc also cooduct six-monthly surveUlance audits to check we are maintaining standards. If not, we lose our certificate." The 35-strong workforce at the Tangiwai Mill is drawn equally from the twin towns of Raetihi and Ohakune and Winstones hopes in the future more people will be taken on.