THE REALEST

May 29, 2015 10:04 am Published by Eric Chang 2 Comments

The moment I found out about the Green Dream Scholarship I knew it was my time to show the world what the forest product sector is all about. Some of you will like that I almost titled this article ‘Know your f**king business’; However, it will please most of you that I did not go with that. Most wouldn’t be comfortable submitting a blog with such an honest title knowing their superiors would be reading it. BUT were already in too deep to pull out now!

THE START

My first day of work started off with a monthly general meeting that involved the supervisors, superintendents, and mill manager. Moments before the meeting, the board room was filled with an atmosphere of jokes and laughter. During this time, I was just quietly sitting next to the mill manager trying as hard as I can to not say something stupid. When the meeting started, the comical atmosphere stayed the same but a wave of seriousness swamped the room. There is no fooling around when it comes to the business side of things! From that very moment, I realized how the West Fraser culture has crafted one of the biggest forest product companies in the world. And I felt the urge to be a part of this culture.

For the first few days, I started off my day with an orientation program that showed me the importance of worker safety in West Fraser and familiarized myself with the procedures that are put in place to ensure that worker safety is maximized. For the rest of the day, I would shadow the sawmill quality control supervisor to learn the day to day routine of the quality control position. The daily routine includes, checking for any off sized products and making the necessary calibrations to the machine. On top of this, we also search for any areas of improvement to increase lumber recovery factor (LRF) and discussions with the planer quality control supervisor to see if we can accommodate any of their needs to achieve the highest quality product possible.

Now, I will be starting my return to log studies which will determine how much we could pay for a stand of trees and turn a profit. I’ve always wondered why the mill manager delegated this important project to me, as I am completely new to the industry and only in my second year of Wood Products Processing at UBC. Then I realized that this is one of the many methods of West Fraser’s growth strategy. In which it is effective in managing its young talent coming into this evolving workforce.

FAMILY

One of the key elements that the West Fraser culture breeds in its workforce is a family oriented atmosphere. Since most of the mills are often located rural areas and away from loved ones, I was expecting to feel lonely. But the people I’ve worked with made me feel at home. Despite not having a nickname yet; I can tell that they like me by the way they laugh at my bad jokes and the openness to use vulgar language around me. In addition, we are in a cyclical industry and when times get rough you will need someone to be there for you. However, in West Fraser everyone is standing there right by your side. The result of this community, where no one is secluded, is an increase in morale and breeds competitiveness between individuals which eventually leads to innovation.

The love between the sawmill superintendent and the planer superintendent in the lumber industry is overwhelming at times.