Blog 4 – Matthew daSilva
August 7, 2018 10:17 am Leave your thoughts
For you avid readers out there, you may have noticed that I still haven’t covered the last remaining stage in production: the sawmill. I’m sorry to say that this is not the blog you are looking for. I have greatly underestimated the time it would take to give a comprehensive summary of how a sawmill works, especially since the sawmill I’m working at is the largest in North America. Not to worry, I am still chipping away at it (pun intended).
Smoke is the word of the week, and the Cariboo region has a quite a bit of it. Although it is a lot better than the fires in BC last year, many of my friends in the woodlands side have been busy with the slew of fires that popped from the heat wave and lightning.
What does that leave for someone like me cooped up in the mill for most of my day? Well the biggest thing going on right now is the kiln efficiency study that I am working on. While the study is confidential, I can comment on the process of organizing a study with a sample size of over 120000 pieces.
With efficiency studies, the most challenging thing is effectively managing the waiting periods. Once a study is set up and a sample is determined, I need to properly estimate how much time I have and what can be done in that time. Since these studies are done without any downtime, underestimating this period means that I will be sitting around doing nothing. On the other side, overestimating this period means that my sample can be contaminated with pieces that are not in my predetermined sample. While my knowledge of statistics has definitely come in handy in the creation of this study, the most important skill I had to adapt to was organizing people. Running a real time study involves the cooperation of many human operators. Planning contingencies and insuring everyone understands how the test will run is crucial to the validity of the study.
When I am not coordinating the efficiency study, I have another ongoing project: documenting everything I have created in my internship. While this isn’t the most glamourous task someone can do, it is the best way to insure your work can be used and modified after you leave. This process helps me develop another skill I need to work on, explaining the thought process in the most basic terms. This will likely take me to the end of my term here.
Outside of work, I have mostly been doing indoor activities like practicing my culinary abilities and going to the nicely air-conditioned gym. (Did I mention we are in a heatwave?) Apart from these activities I have been checking out the local scene here. After going from coffee shops, to restaurants, to breweries, to bars, my next blog will cover them all. I was surprised to see what Quesnel has to offer given the population it services. Only a few blogs left, and I feel like there is too much left to cover! I might have to start posting more often.
Until next time,
-Matthew da Silva