strengthening the capacity to promote efficient wood ... 286 04/pd286-04-9 rev1(i) e.pdf · proyek...

$: Strengthening the Capacity to Promote Efficient Wood ... 286 04/pd286-04-9 rev1(I) e.pdf · Proyek PO 286 I 04 Rev. 1 \\): "Strengthening the Capacity to Promote Efficient Wood Processing$
Technical Repo~t No. 6

ITTO·ISWA Project PO 286/04 Rev.1 (I) "Strengthening the Capacity to Promote Efficient Wood Processing Technology in Indonesian

IN-HOUSE TRAINING on Pro due t Q u a lit y and Industrial Management

Technical Report No. 6

In-h«iuse Train in g on Product Quality ~ ..

,I . and Industrial Management ,<

" , ),

Executed by: The Indonesian Sawmilt and Woodworking Association (ISWA)

in collaboration with The Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia (MOFI)

W\t~ the assistance of The International Trol)ical Timber Organization (ITTO)

Proyek PO 286 I 04 Rev. 1 \\): "Strengthening the Capacity to Promote Efficient Wood Processing Technologies in Indonesia"

Jakarta, May 2009

\ \

FOREWORD

This document reports the implementation of training on product quality/industrial management at fifty selected mills situated in five provinces of Indonesia namely North Sumatra, Central and East Javas and East and South Kalimantans. The training was originally defined as Activity 3.3. Since the implementation strategy for training had been modified from class-:-Iecturing plus field practical work mode to in-house training format, the original activities on training, Activities 3.2 through 3.4, had been combined or merged as one activity only Activity 3.2, thus trainings on wood processing, product quality/industrial management and marketing were implemented simultaneously.

The total number of in-house training sessions conducted was 139 which was attended by 860 people comprising owners, executives, managers, supervisors and operators of the companies . hosting the in-house training. i .

j I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to those in~ Ived in the implementation of the in-house training and in its reporting; with their support, the trClini 19 has been sucessfully and fruitfully implemented. I am particularly thankful to the host ,. companies, International a'ld National Experts, officials of the Ministries of Forestry, Industry and \rade as well as to the Project Key Personnel. . \~:>

I do hope that this report is useful for improving competitiveness of the national wood 'Ih~l~stry in general, the companies hosting the in-house training in particular. ,

Jakarta, May 2009

Ora. Soewarni Chairperson of fSWA

ii Technical Report No. 6 ---------------------

Table of Contents

In-house Training on Product Quality and Industrial Management

FOREWORD

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The training activity

1.2 Quality, production cost and competition

1.3 Training vs product quality

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1 Selection. of participants

2.2 Essential elements of product quality and industrial management

2.3 Conduct of the training

3. OBSERVED WEAKNESSES

3.1 Weaknesses in product quality management

3.2 Weaknesses in industrial management

4. DISCUSSIONS: Follow-up actions and Impacts of the in-house training

4.1 Follow-up actions

4.1.1 Product quality management

4.1.2 Industrial management

4.2 Impact of the in-house training

5. CONCLUSIONS

00000000

ii

iii

2

2

3

4

5

6

9

9

11

15

17

_____________________ Technical Report No. 6 iii

i:

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The training activity

Activity 3.2 of project PD 286/04 Rev. 1 (I): "Strengthening the Capacity to Promote Efficient Wood Processing Technologies in Indonesia" concerns with implementation of four training courses on product quality and industrial management. Initially, the training would be conducted in the form of class lecturing followed by field practices at selected mills. Upon consultation with members, the mode of training had been modified to become an in-house training for the following reasons:

• To be effective, class lecturing requires comparable occupational and educational background amongst participants which is in reality difficult to observe;

• Mills were reluctant to host participants in practical works of the training for business confidentiality reason;

• Participants would be limited in number in case of class lecturing and field practical work mode due to the budget availability under the project while participating companies could not be expected to cover training expenses for a large number of staff;

• In-house training was considered as a pragmatic format of training as it allows direct examination of technical weaknesses on the spot, demonstration of the necessary procedures and techniques for overcoming observed weaknesses and discussions on any technical as well as managerial aspects of operation; and

• More importantly, under this mode, ample room is available to hold direct discussion between the Project Team and participants (owner, executives, managers, supervisors, operators, workers) and to carry out on the spot the technical demonstration as need arises.

Therefore, ISWA decided to conduct the training in the form of in-house training i.e. selected mills were to be visited by the Training Experts composed by the Executing Agency to implement the training. This modified form of training was approved by the Project Steering Committee at its meeting on 7 October 2005.

Generally speaking, the objective of the in-house training was to improve knowledge and skills of trainees on the developing wood processing technologies in view of improving product quality through improved management of operations at mill level. More specifically, the purposes of the training were to:

• Improve skills in the operation and maintenance of machinery and equipment in use;

• Evaluate the quality control system put in place by individual mills, its strengths and weaknesses;

• Encourage making efficiency and quality as the heart of processing operation at different operational levels;

• Improve management of operations including the management of inventory, environment of work, and safety;

• Improve human resource management by building up a healthy communication between owners, executives and managers, supervisors, operators and workers in view of developing intimate relationship and concerted action for realizing planned goals and objectives of the company in a professional manner.

1.2 Quality, production cost and competition

To win international competition, Indonesian producers must be able to produce quality wood products at minimum unit cost which can only be achieved through joint efforts and concerted actions amongst those involved in different stages of value adding processes. Inability to maintain and improve quality at minimum cost is the primary reason for Indonesian exporters losing their competitiveness thus market share of their products in international markets in recent years.

Technical Report No. 6 1

The weak point in wood processing in Indonesia that widely acknowledged concerns with professional,ism of human resource at different levels of operation which can only be overcome through continuous field training on both managerial and technical skills, Experience shows that buyers frequently expressed dissatisfaction with quality of products. The problem with product quality is brought about by the lack of professionalism in carrying out processing operation, weak quality control, lack of innovation and weak commitment to efficiency and quality at the expense of unnecessarily higher unit cost: Also, many Indonesian processors become too satisfied and overly excited with their achievement. This kind of mentality has hampered continued innovation and improvement of professionalism.

To illustrate the lack of professionalism is the use of blunt planer knife by a processing mill that resulted in defected surface of laminated wood after gluing process and downgraded quality. Replacing the blunt knife with a sharp one is in fact easy and inexpensive to do. However, both responsible field supervisor and the operator seemed to have failed to doing their job in a professional manner by ignoring the small but costly problem.

The unnecessarily higher production cost is, by and large, attributable to a number of reasons, most important ones are:

a. Frequent re-do of process to fix failing processing in various forms, e.g. angled cutting, over gluing;

b. Frequent break down of machinery which implies increasing cost of operation;

c. Longer product cycle than required that increases energy consumption and lowers productivity caused by troubled machinery, in-efficient layout process and shortage of materials, among others; and

d. Too large tolerance of measurement brings about oversized sortiments requiring re-cutting in the end of process and unavoidably wasting noticeable quantity of costly, treated wood.

1.3 Training vs product quality

Training on wood processing in Indonesia has been so far neglected by the Government, wood industry associations, companies and concerned institutions. Both the Ministries of Industry and Forestry have offered no training program relating to improvement of managerial and technical skills as well as quality management. The industry associations also have lacked initiatives in this respect. Therefore, it is not surprising that the level of professionalism in wood processing is somewhat low. Many managers, supervisor and operators have no relevant formal educational background. They obtained their skills in wood processing mainly through learning by doing. Realizing this fact, continuous training on technical as well as managerial skills is imperative if competitiveness of the wood industry is to be raised through improved efficiency of processing and product quality.

Knowing that efficiency of processing and product quality are the critical determinants of cost of production and competitiveness while at the same time efficiency and quality are to a larger extent the function of managerial and technical skills, the primary concern of the in-house training were how to properly manage efficiency, quality and skills.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1 Selection of participants

ISWA member companies were intended as one of the primary beneficiaries of the Project other than the wood industry as a whole. Therefore, participants were selected ISWA members. In 2005, there were nearly 1,600 registered ISWA members comprising large, medium and smallscale companies having different features as summarized in Table 1. Scale of operation was taken into account when selecting only fifty participating mills in total. Geographic distribution of ISWA members was also considered in the selection process. Two provinces in Java, two

2 Technical Report No. 6

I I

, I

provinces in Kaliniantan and one province in Sumatra were included to reflect sources of wood material feeding the mills considering the fact that shortage in raw material supply is the most important limiting factor to many mills in their operation.

Table1. Salient features of wood processing mills by scale of operation

Aspect Scale of operation

Small Medium Large

Area of mill compound < 1 Ha 1,..5 Ha > 5 Ha

Wood supply Irregular Limited Regular and Mostly regular by

quantity irregular contract or import

Complication of process Simple limited

Semi automation Complete automation

automation some computerized

Number of employees < 100 100-500 500

Product lines Few product some Many products Numerous products

by order mostly by order mostly by order

Monthly production < 250 M3 250-750 M3 > 750 M3 capacity

Market destination Mostly domestic Domestic and

Mostly export Export

In recent years, mills in Java have been using mostly planted wood as the raw material obtained from domestic and foreign sources; the mills in Kalimantan as to date still rely heavily on natural forest as the source of wood while mills in Sumatra have processed both planted and natural wood in a more or less balanced quantity. Selected participants of the in-house training are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Participating mills in the in-house training

Industrial Scale

Province Small Medium Large

Number % Number % Number %

North Sumatra 3 6 4 8 5 10

Central Java 2 4 3 6 8 16

East Java 2 4 3 6 9 18

East Kalimantan 3 6 1 2 3 6

South Kalimantan 3 2 4 8 1 2

Total 11 22 13 26 26 52

2.2 Essential elements of product quality and industrial management

Quality products are goods and services that are reliable in the sense that they do the job they were designed for and do it well. This concept also applies to wood products. The impact of high wood product quality on competitive advantage is twofold. First, providing high-quality wood products increases the value of those products in the eyes of consumers which allows the company to charge a higher price for its products. The second impact of high-quality on competitive advantage comes from the greater efficiency and the lower unit costs it brings. Less


employee time is wasted making defective products and less time has to be spent fixing mistakes, which translates into higher employee productivity and lower unit costs.

The main determinants of a wood product quality are the wood raw material, processing technology, human resource and supporting such inputs as glue and paint as well as tools and facilities. The manner in which these determinants are handled is what quality and industrial management meant in this report. Consequently, the major elements covered by the in-house training on product quality and industrial management were:

• The handling of wood raw material and wood products;

• Capacity Utilization Rate (CUR);

• Process layout and sequencing of processing;

• Recruitment and human resource development;

• Availability and maintenance of tools and facilities;

• Quality control system applied;

• Waste utilization; and

• Working environment.

2.3 Conduct of the training

The training on product quality and industrial management targeted fifty mills of different scales of operation located in the provinces of North Sumatra, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. Schedule of the training sessions is as summarized in Table 3. The first two sessions covered fifty mills in all provinces whilst the third session excluded 11(eleven) mills in East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan for technical reasons including unavailability of International Expert, closed down and merged of participating mills and the sanctioned time for implementing the project. The third visit to the latter eleven mills was initially scheduled for early 2009. It was unfortunate that the International Expert was not available for the scheduled time while the project was scheduled to be completed by end of July 2009.

Table 3. The actual visit made to target mills

Province 1st Visit 2nd Visit 3th Visit

16 - 29 March 2006 20 February - 3 March 2007 17 - 28 April 2008 North Sumatra

13 mills 13 mills 13 mills

Central Java 8 -19 May 2006 9 - 18 April 2007 12 - 29 February 2008

12 mills 12 mills 12 mills

10 - 11 August 2006

1 -14 February 2006 3 mills 3 - 13 December 2007 East Java

11 mills 18 - 29 January 2007 14 mills

14 mills

22 - 29 August 2007 9 -14 June 2008 East Kalimantan

7 mills 7 mills

31 August - 4 Sept. 2007 16 - 18 June 2008 South Kalimantan

4 mills 4 mills

TOTAL 47 mills 53 mills 39 mills


During the first visit, a quick technical audit was carried out. The audit covered the aspects and elements as described in the previous section. Technical auditing was performed as follows:

• The Training Experts, accompanied by concerned production manager, examined features of each of the products produced by the company;

• Level of quality was assessed visually mainly as regards precision of measurement, smoothness of surface, presence of defects, angle of cutting, gluing technique, etc.;

• The visual assessment would allow tracing back the process chain responsible for any defect found;

• The Training Experts, concerned managers, supervisors and operators paid visit to the individual processing chains to see how the process was actually performed using what machine and equipment;

• Any deviating procedures and techniques were then identified;

• The appropriate procedures and techniques were then explained and demonstrated as necessary on the spot and relevant technical advice provided; and

• Operational control procedures applied at each chain process was also examined and their weaknesses pinpointed.

During the subsequent visits, as appropriate, quick technical audit was repeated as in the first visit to see if the technical advices given at the preceding session were practiced and resulted in improvement of quality. Any remaining weaknesses or process irregularities were discussed and technical advice again provided for lessening or removing the weaknesses.

During the quick technical audit the Training Experts also looked into how industrial management has been performed. Any relevant information was gathered and examined by the Training Experts. Any weaknesses observed were then discussed with concerned managers, supervisors and operators. As appropriate, the project would provide technical advice verbally and as necessary undertook demonstration on ground. This quick plant audit regarding industrial management was carried out at every visit to the mill. The elements considered included:

• Handling of wood raw material;

• Handling of processed products;

• Capacity Utilization Rate (CUR);

• Process layout and sequencing of processing;

• Human resource management;

• Availability and maintenance of tools and facilities;

• Quality control system applied;

• Waste utilization; and

• Working environment.

3. OBSERVED WEAKNESSES

3.1 Weaknesses in product quality management

Generally speaking, participating mills were weak in quality management. Many claims made by importers were due mainly to inconsistency of product quality. The quality specifications set by importers were not consistently met by producers. The main causes observed were:

• Lack of understanding by production managers, supervisors and operators on the critical role quality plays in determining productivity, efficiency, production unit costs and thus competitiveness;

• Flawed process in many value adding chains brought about by old machinery and equipment, improper setting of machinery and equipment, neglectful production managers, supervisors and unskilled operators;


• Insufficient tools and facilities to perform proper saw-doctoring;

• Poor construction of kiln-drying chambers and lack of understanding on the technical aspect of kiln-drying process;

• Poor gluing knowledge in assembly and lamination processes; and

• Absence of quality control system at every value adding chain.

3.2 Weaknesses in industrial management

a. Handling of wood raw material

• Log yard is the first place to handle logs at a mill. While quality of the logs entering a log yard was mostly determined by treatments outside the log yard, their handling at the log yard does matter to log quality. At many mills regardless of scale of operation, logs were not handled properly (Figures 1-4) :

,/ Logs were organized in a messy manner stacked on sandy or muddy soils that they were dirty;

,/ Logs were not washed with water before moved for sawing;

,/ S-hook or anti crack chemicals was not applied on cracked logs;

,/ No treatment was applied to prevent fungi and insects from attacking; and

,/ Logs were improperly transported for break down sawing by using inadequate log carriage.

Figures 1-4. Log stacking directly on earth and end splits.

b. Handling of products

• Many mills held large quantity of products which resulted in considerable financial burden and involved high risk in case of fire .

• Stacking of products by many mills was inappropriate with inadequate labeling and protection and resulted in unnecessary damages to the products.

• Application of JIT Uust in time) inventory system seemed to be poor at most mills.


Figures 5-6. In apropriate handling of wood products.

• Figures 5-6, Ilustrate the weaknesses in wood material handling.

c. Capacity Utilization Rate (CUR)

• On average, it was found that CUR was only 70 percent, some mills operated at CUR as low as 50 percent. The main causes were shortage in logs supply, weak market and/or breakdown of machineries.

• Breakdown of machineries were mostly due to unavailability of parts, lack of routine maintenance or dying out of particular machine.

d. Process layout and sequencing of processing

• Many mills did not have efficient process layout and resulted in in-efficient flow of process. The main causes observed included poor design which did not take into account efficiency aspect of processing and possibility for expansion.

• Smooth material flow between chains was in many instances hampered by disorganized placing of materials.

(Photos Resource: Kim)

Figures 7-9. Inefficient layout results in long queue of logs for sawing.

e. Recruitment and human resource development

• Most of the employees deployed by many mills did not have forestry or wood-technology educational background. Instead, they have acquired their skills through learning by doing without knowing the actual norms of performing individual processes.

• Most of the managers, supervisors and operators lacked of understanding on the crucial role of efficiency and quality in competitiveness of the companies they are serving thus lacked of discipline in performing jobs.

• Employee training program was absent in most of the mills for simple reason that skills can be acquired by doing practically without direct cost while training is costly.


• Meetings between executives and lower levels employees were rarely organized, at some mills only monthly, that executives and employees lacked of communication and thus understanding on one another.

f. Availability and maintenance of tools and facilities

• It was found at many mills that essential tools for conducting proper saw doctoring were not available, e.g. grinder and honing stone of different types, or available tools were out of order.

• Construction of many kiln-drying chambers was poor, did not facilitate proper drying process while mastery of technical aspect of drying process was weak.

• Most managers could not show kiln-drying schedules and did not have statistics on lumber defect and process defect.

(Photos by ISWAlMr. Kim)

Figures 10-12. Poor chamber design and improper stacking in kiln drying.

• Technicians tasked for saw doctoring did not acquire the required skills and experience.

• Most mills did not have a quality control system that shows how quality management was conducted.


Figures 13-15. Poor design and facilities of saw-doctoring room.

• Schedules for quality inspection at individual value-adding chains were not available on site.

• White most mill executives and managers talked about the importance of quality management system, they actually lacked capacity to manage quality as evidenced by the absence of quality inspection cards and quality data on the ground.

g. Waste Utilization

• While the amount of wood waste at many mills was appreciable, very few mills had the initiatives in waste utilization. Larger portion of the wood waste has been used simply to feed boilers or sold to local markets.

• Large volume of useble wood is wasted (see Figures 16-19).


Figures 16-19. Wood wastes of various forms.

4. DISCUSSIONS: Follow-up actions and Impacts of the in-house training

4.1 Follow-up actions

The weaknesses observed at individual mills regarding product quality and industrial management were thoroughly discussed, as appropriate, with concerned owners, executives, managers, supervisors and operators on the spot. As appropriate, technical demonstration and guides were provided by the Training Experts and are highlighted below.

4.1 .1 Product quality management

Generally speaking, product quality management was weak in most mills for reasons as described in the previous section . Only a few mills exercised adequate management practices. It was fortunate, however, that owners and executives paid great attention to quality issue and were interested to take the necessary measures and action in view of improving conduct of quality management operations.

The participants of the in-house training indicated their interest in implementing TQM (Total Quality Management). TO facilitate understanding of TQM, the basic concepts were highlighted by the Project Experts as follows:

• The philosophy underlying TQM is "improved quality decreases costs, improves productivity, leads to higher market share, increase profitabil ity and creates more jobs"

• Implementing TQM requires close cooperation among all functions; it is a process that cuts across function are as presented in Table 4.


Table 4. The role played by different function in implementing TOM 1

Value Creation Function Primary Roles

1. Provide leadership and commitment to quality

Infrastructure (Leadership) 2. Find ways to measure incentives

3. Solicit input from employees

4. Encourage cooperation among functions

1. Shorten production runs Production

2. Trace defects back to source

1. Focus on the customer Marketing

2. Provide customers' feedback on quality

1. Rationalize suppliers

Material Management 2. Help suppliers implement TOM

3. Trace defects back to suppliers

R&D 1. Design products that are easy to manufacture

1. Institute TOM training programs Human Resources

2. Organize employees into quality teams

It was noted during the final training session that increasing number of mills had enhanced quality control as indicated by the presence of inspection card at appropriate place (see Figures 20-23)

!Wax o~ mm / :?40 m"l sonl ~J'~ t .n1., / tOOO mm MAClI'lIlI I\la x I. tnm / lOOO mm

PArv~JAI\lG .. 30 mm - ~Kh'1".-=:; 8"JOOOm1n ' '''40 .. m

I.EUlt"R T I20nun - - 0 • -+- :2: .mJn

- ~~ mm - -0 ."'''' m .1n, 240 mm-=: - 0 -:--... 2: iitua 380 JJ;l.m. - - 0 ~ "':3 rn~

.590 mm - -=-0 ...... 3 oD"1Jn.

7 30 rn.rn - -0 • ~ 4 m't'l') . J..-JOOO; tun - -0--: ... eJ ,";in

·l·I&Ol\.L 1 :t: O. 3 ..... n ""oi;)...-nn !';ogrno-n t ldak bolch CON.'I 'RI\S Butlj Joinl Uc:1a'l\; boteh s ocu gart&


TARGITI4AM :1:17 Pes

TARG 1 ~1'cs

OPE , SW9ENG

Figures 20-23. Inspection board at veneering process.

1 Charles W.L. Hill & Gareth R. Jones, 1998. Strategic Management Theory, an integrated approach. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, USA.


4.1.2 Industrial management

a. Handling of logs at log yard

• It was well understood that inappropriate handling of logs at log yards could result in loss due to damaged equipment and downgraded logs quality. Dirty logs could damage saw blades and made knives easily get dull and shorten lifetime of operation. Downgraded logs would reduce recovery while improover transport of logs for sawing could result in imprecise sawing and saw marks. Therefore, to take the following steps were necessary in order to minimize potential loss:

../' To neatly pile logs on tiles or concrete; direct contact with sandy and muddy soils must be avoided to the extent possible .

../' To wash dirty logs with clean water before putting them on log carriage .

../' To provide shading in order to prevent cracking due to direct exposure of logs to radiation .

../' To apply plastic or iron S-hook to cracked logs to avoid the crack from expanding .

../' To apply fumigation to protect logs from pests and diseases.


Figures 24-26. Improved handling of logs at logyard.

b. Handling of processed products

• Wood products must be stacked neatly and stacking must use supporting tiles, placed at certain distance, depending on the length of the product in question

• The products must be labeled appropriately showing name and dimension of individual products, date of production, origin of raw material and market destination

• The products must be protected from any damages by applying cover or fumigation as necessary and or control the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of the stored room.

Figures 27-32. Improved handling of wood products in storage room.


• On packaging, any product must be handled with care using strong but inexpensive pallet, covered with plastic sheet, top and bottom edges tied tightly with heavy duty plastic ribbon (see Figures 33-36)

Figures 33-36. Improved packaging of wood products for export.

c. Capacity Utilization Rate

Main causes of the low CUR, averaging 50-70 percent, are shortage of log supply, lack of order by buyers and/or breakdown of machineries. As regards the log supply problem, it was understood that processing mills have to take several strategic actions, namely:

• To increase wood recovery by employing appropriate processing technologies and deploying professional management and operators in order to avoid wasting of the ever scarcer resource;

• To employ appropriate technologies through investment for re-engineering;

• To improve professionalism of human resource through continued training at all operational levels;

• To diversify products in order to maximally utilize wood raw material;

• To diversify raw material by utilizing lesser-wood and planted species;

• To continuously improve competitiveness by making efficiency and quality as the heart of business operation; and

• To develop and implement realistic, aggressive but workable marketing strategy

d. Process layout and sequencing of processes

Weakness in process layout was experienced by many mills and should be overcome through various measures including:

• Replacement or improvement of weak value-adding chain in view of balancing the capacity between chains and removing existing bottle-neck;

• Re-locate any value chains that are located far away from other chains to avoid unnecessary transfer costs; and


• To the extent possible, re-position of value-adding chains in order to improve flow of

transferred parts and products.

e. Human resource management

• It is not always possible to recruit personnel having strong educational background in

wood technology or wood industry considering the fact that existing educational

institutions, particularly the universities, did not design their curricula to meet such

demand. Moreover, vocational schools on forest industry are simply non-existent in

Indonesia compared to those in Malaysia and Thailand for instance.

• Therefore, conduct of training on managerial and technical skills is inevitable if the wood

industry would ever be operating efficiently. There must be concerted action between the

authorities in charge of the operation and survival of the wood industry namely the

Ministries of Industry, Forestry and Trade, the industry associations and educational

institutions especially the universities.

• A realistic mid-term training program needs to be developed by concerned authorities

and parties and implemented consistently. At the same time curricula of the universities

have to be reviewed and designed with a view to producing ready-for-use alumni.

Designing of curricula is best accomplished in cooperation with the wood industry.

• It was observed during the in-house training that communication between employees,

executives and owners of mills was quite weak. Regular meeting was rarely held thus

opportunity for directly discussing any idea, initiatives or problems was lacking. This

condition is indeed not desirable and inconsistent with the necessary condition to

achieving common goals of any companies particularly in the adoption of a TOM system.

f. Maintenance of tools and facilities

As regards conduct of processing, weaknesses that occurred at different stages of

proceSSing were acknowledged. The necessary measures that need to be undertaken have

been discussed with and demonstrated to the participants and are highlighted below. Consult

with Technical Report No. 2 for technical details of proper processing

i) SawmiIling

• Position log to be sawn properly and steadily

• Ensure that measurement scale, log stopper and paper back are in properly

positioned

• Clean log carriage knee, skid log bed and wheels out of saw dust from time to time

• Make sure that saw blade tension, angle, gullet size, sharpeners and distant

between teeth are properly set up.

ii) Saw-doctoring

• Make sure that all the tools and equipment required for saw doctoring including

grinder honing stone off all types, balanced plate of circular saw, diamond wheel and

sanding as well as chemical coolant are available and suitable for use

• Assign experienced professionals to handle saw doctoring work

• Create a comfortable environment for saw doctoring in terms of space, temperature,

cleanliness and light intensity;

• Store saw blades, plates, knives and other tools in the right position


Figures 37-39. Proper design and facilities of saw-doctoring room.

iii) . Kiln-drying

• Make sure that the wood dried in the same chamber are of the same species and thickness or different species yet known as having similar drying characteristics;

• On stacking of lumber in a chamber, it is best to start at 20 cm above the floor and use wooden sticks of the right size and distance depending on thickness of the lumber in process;

• Ensure that construction of the chamber is suitable for proper drying of lumber and facilitate a steady air speed and distribution of humidity and heat;

• Prepare a drying time schedule showing volume, wood species, thickness, level of temperature, drying time estimate and defective lumber before and after the process.

Figures 40-43. Proper design of chamber and lumber stacking.

iv) Conditioning room

• The function of this area is to ensure that the intended moisture content (MC) of lumber is reached (see Figures 44-46),

• MC of lumber is manipulated through continuous flow of air humidity in the room which at one point in time would reach an EMC (equilibrium moisture content),

• Regular control of MC is required in order to reach intended EMC of lumber.


Figures 44-46. Proper functioning of a conditioning room.

g. Waste utilization

It was noted doing the last visit to a number of mills that initiative for waste ulitization is

improving. Some mills have utilized log parts in finger jointing, laminating board and

packaging.

Figures 47-49. Waste is utilized for finger jointing, packaging and laminating board .

4.2 Impact of the in-house training

Field observation made during the final session at individual mills indicated that improvement in

quality/industrial management is taking place in various forms at varying degrees. Some mills

have documented substantial improvement in sawmilling while others in packaging; while some

mills have made progress in saw doctoring, yet another mills are doing well in kiln-drying. In

general , the improvements made can be summarized as follows:

i) Wood raw material and products handling

• Greater number of mills pay more attention to log handling at logyards by placing logs on

cleaned sites, on top of concrete or poles,

• Logs put on carriage are now cleaned of sands and dirts,

• S-hooks are applied to avoid cracking propagation,

• Wood products have been neatly stacked and individual bunches clearly marked showing

type of product, volume, number of pieces, date of production and planned destination.

ii) Capacity Utilization Rate

• Many mills are utilizing greater volume of wood from plantation and LUS in order to

increase productivity.


iii) Layout process

• One of the participants reported shortened product flow time up to 40-50 % of the pretraining situation through layout restructuring.

iv) Human resource management

• Many mills have improved communication between owners, executives and employees of different levels through regular meetings, open discussions, etc. as well as through development and implementation of training program on the application of the technical recipes given by the Training Experts during the in-house training sessions.

• Many mills have successfully created appreciation by employees of the critical role efficiency and quality play in determining production cost thus competitiveness.

• Some participants reported improved work-discipline of employees that they strictly' adhering to established standard operating procedures in performing jobs.

v) Maintenance of tools and facilities

• Most notably, many mills have made progress in kiln-drying process through improved design of chambers and better scheduling. One of the participants reported up to 60 % of reduction in lumber defects by applying the technical recommendations of the project.

• Many mills have made investment in saw-doctoring for re-tooling and re-equipping, hiring of professional saw doctors and re-designing of saw-doctoring room.

• Many mills were also found doing calibration of tools and equipment, regular control of safety facilities such as fire extinguisher, water hose, etc.

• Conditioning room has received due attention by many mills in their attempt to achieve the intended moisture content of lumber.

vi) Wood waste utilization

• It was observed during the final session of in-house training that larger number of mills utilizing wood waste for laminating board, frames, etc. Volume of sales of wood waste to local market has been significantly reduced.

• Some participants have experienced increased wood recovery in finger joint and S4S production up to 3 % and reduced waste in sawmilling up to 25 % in volume, compared to pre-training situation, through intensified control of operations.

vii) Working environment

• Improved cleanliness of floor at many mills was also observed which surely has positively affected the comfortness of work and health condition of employees

• Many mills have also improved the lightning system in the operational area

viii) TQM (Total Quality Management)

• Many mills have initiated the practice of TQM in their operations, though it is only at initial stage. Many mills have used appropriate control card as a tool for controlling performance of operators. For example a control card is placed at a breakdown sawing indicating time of replacements of the blade use time length, and name of operator in charge .

• More importantly, many mills have come to understand the importance of quality control in determining production cost, productivity, price of products and profitability and have convinced their employees that all functions must be involved in quality control if it at all to be successful.


5. CONCLUSIONS

a. Handling of logs at logyard

Handling of logs at logyard was poorly performed by many mills and resulted in downgrading of log quality dtJring the time the logs were stockpiled at logyard. At the end of the training, hoWever, treatment of logs by many mills have improved by better placing and stacking, using S-hook, cleaning of logs with water; etc. <

b. Handling of wood products

Many mills did not treat wood products properly at storage which looked bizarre considering all the costly resources that have been devoted to producing them. It was encouraging to observe the improvements made at the end of the training in treating the products through proper stacking and labeling as well as use of cover or fumigation.

c. Capacity Utilization Rate (CUR)

• CUR of many mills had been averaging only 50 to 70 % in recent years due mainly to shortage of wood raw material supply. In their struggle to increase CUR, many mills are utilizing wood from plantation and LUS in larger volume:

• Dissemination of information on wood properties of LUS and results of experimental use is expected to further increase interest in using LUS.

d. Process layout

A number of mills have carried out layout restructuring in order to increase productivity of operation for instance by repositioning formerly dispersed two or three interrelated processes to one site.

e. Human resource management

. Many mills have improved their human resource management through various ways including more frequent meetings, dialogues and discussions between owners, executives, and employees, development and implementation of training program and application of tightened criteria for recruitment.

f. Maintenance of tools and facilities

• Saw doctoring has received due attention it deserves by many mills. In general, improvements have been made through re-tooling, re-designing of space and investment in equipment and facilities.

• Kiln-drying also has improved significantly at many mills through re-designing and reconstruction of chambers as well as application of proper drying schedule based on species.

g. Wood waste utilization

Many mills have developed and implemented wood waste utilization plan; volume of wood waste is decreasing as wastes are used in the production of finger joint, laminating board, packaging material, etc.

00000000

strengthening the capacity to promote efficient wood ... 286 04/pd286-04-9 rev1(i) e.pdf · proyek...

Documents