KEY timber processing representatives from across Australia gathered in the Blue Lake city last week to investigate statistical analysis and raw data collection for the sector.
As a prominent timber producing region, Mount Gambier hosted the inaugural Australian Softwood Timber Industry Process Control interactive course with over 20 industry leaders attending.
Held at the University of South Australia Mount Gambier campus, the week-long course was initiated by Forest and Woods Products Australia Limited.
Design Life director Professor Jeff Morrell, one of the presenters during the week, said many industries across Australia successfully collected large amounts of data but were less efficient in analysing it.
“The idea behind the course is to show data can be used to improve recovery, quality, efficiency and help keep a competitive environment,” he said.
“We want to inform industry workers and show them how they can optimise what they are doing.
“Everybody knows about timber but now is a great time as there has been a real interest in its research due to wood-based biomass fuels considered ‘carbon neutral’.”
TimberED Services director Geoff Boughton said the workshop involved a wide range of skill sets and diverse roles in the industry.
“Over the days main topics we focused on included, analysing collected data and making sure the data is clean and not misleading, how to use statistical tools which can turn the data into valuable information and have helped steer them into producing fit-for-purpose products cost-effectively,” he said.
Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries graduate director Professor Tim Young said statistical process control was a valuable tool in many industries including automotive, hospitality, manufacturing and wood.
“The bottom line is I do not think you will be competitive if you do not use statistical tools and analytics nowadays.”
OneFortyOne Plantations quality manager Michael Lucente said the course was a rare opportunity.
“A lot of workshops are usually centred around production and people but this course was more so based around technical strategies,” Mr Lucente said.
“It has given me a more robust technical knowledge on statistics.
“It has also given Mount Gambier a networking opportunity with other like-minded companies as we can be considered isolated here.”
TimberLink Australia optimisation technician Nathan Kitto said the opportunity drove collaboration and helped develop industrial relationships.
Another course is foreshadowed for the near future, with the venue likely to be interstate.
