This week: ee | ec hutayl 48 Production | ‘Last week, we learned Milton Jovial’s sales manager, Syd Silver, had already found a solution to mill manager Buzz Sawyer’s pro- duction failings. But Silver wasn’t ready to tell Sawyer of his solution yet. He had concluded that if he let Sawyer suffer awhile, this sort of production disaster would never happen again. Sawyer was supposed to cut 20,000 board feet of a 310,000 board foot order of 16 to 24 foot long lumber for the overseas mar- ket. He was given two weeks to do the job, but after a week and a half, had only filled about 60 per- cent the order. , Under pressure from Silver, Sawyer finally admitted his failure, but pointed out that it wasn’t all his fault. Milton Jovial himself was the real culprit. In his haste to recover his investment as quickly saga closes as possible, he had taken more export orders for lumber before working the kinks out of the oper- ation. Now, he was paying the price. After offering this insight, the two men sat in silence in Sawyer’s office for a time. Finally, Silver concluded Sawyer was right and _ decided to let him off the hook. But before he could speak, Sawyer began offering more detail on the real cost of his defective produc-_ tion plan. "When Milton Jovial finds out the order’s short and finds out how much waste we have created in the last week-and-a-half... You know that guy who’s in court in Milwau- kee right now? Maybe I should get out now while I’m still in one piece." "Buzz..." "No. Let me finish. My plan... Crank up the speed and save valu- ‘able time by not changing blades on the head rig as often as we should. It was insane, Not enough hemlock in the yard; send through a few spruce. Somchow, I knew that it wouldn’t work, but I prayed that it would... Insane." "When you kiln dry spruce and hemlock, the dimensions of the Letters to the Editor Are double standards To the Editor; You reported in your July 24th edition that the Kiti K’Shan con- struction project is ahead of sched- we. Helmut Reinert, the project manager whose past experience is, for the most part, in unionized construction, credits the attitude of the supervisor. We agree, in part, but also credit the initial publicity generated by local unions and the fact that the vast majority of workers employed were Building Trades unionists. We algo wish to make it clear that Tri-City of Kamloops should never have been awarded this work. Had the unions not put this pro- ject under intense public scrutiny, would Tri-City have hired Mr. Reinert? Would they have employed Ron Crosby, an ex-union member and contractor (from Kitimat) as the carpenter? If United Buy and Sell is the Not a fan of To the Editor; L-have been following the furor surrounding the publication of the revealing bathing suit photo of Miss Terrace runner-up Nikki Schafhauser with great interest, and I would like to throw my humble opinion into the arena. Now I am not a fan of beauty contests. I believe that to judge any person, female or male, on looks is ridiculous. I also believe it’s a very nice idea to have an ambassador to represent our city. I wonder if it would not be possible to have a contest which does not in any way feature beauty as 8 component and which is open to both sexes. If the Miss Terrace Pageant committee really believes their contestants are judged on charm, poise and talent, why not com- pletely omit a fashion show? Any- one worth her salt can be charm- . ing, poised and talented without having to walk down a run-way (although [ do admit — and sup- example, the answer is likely no. As Reinert admits, Tri-City knew they had an "image" problem and scrambled to overcome it. As we understand, Tri-City had» little direct labour work on the project. On United Buy and Sell, their portion of the work was more substantial. Tri-City at Kiti K’Shan paid Mr. Crosby as a sub-contrac- tor at about $25 an hour — almost the union rate plus benefits, not the top rate of $14 per hour paid at United Buy and Sell. Subtrade work was all union. For the most part, the project is ahead of sched- ule due to experience in the union sector, well-paid workers and, for the most part, union contractors. Why then do we say that it was wrong to engage Tri-City? First and foremost, the company’s record, It violated provincial laws. Kiti K’Shan is the exception, thanks to the publicity. Secondly, it continued to exploit port — it is a nice venue for local merchants to show their wares). I also believe that if the pageant committee and its contestants do not want revealing pictures printed in the paper, they should a) not permit bathing suits in any public appearances; b) not submit any photos they believe would upset or offend anyone; and c) specify clearly which photos they want printed and which are off-limits. Maybe it’s also not a bad idea to © counsel the young women compet- ing — it’s pretty public out there under the footlights and there are consequences to appearance, be- haviour, etc. But the bottom fine for me is a tough one to state —I believe that acceptable? workers on the school job, Certain- ly, most of the workers were paid decently (thanks to the union agreements), but a few, labourers who worked for Tri-City, were exploited. Does $10 per hour put bread on the table? Why are a few paid such low wages while others enjoy good wages and benefits? We are sorfy to hear that, Tri- City will continue to bid on public work in the Northwest. We are concerned. that the company’s past misdeeds will be overlooked and that the province will continue to force local politicians to accept contractors who promote double standards. Where is Dave Parker in all of this? When will his government stop these abuses? Mind you, how long does his government have left? Dan Farrell, Business Agent, B.C. Northwest District Council. beauty contests... Miss Schafhauser should not have appeared in public on a run-way in an extremely revealing bathing suit with photographers present if she did not want to accept the respon- sibilities involved. I understand that Miss Schafhauser was dread- fully victimized by that photo and I respond and maintain, ""She put that bikini on and walked down that run-way. The problem belongs with her." (Now you. see why I think counselling is a good idea?) | am glad the Review printed that picture. I hope it makes us all think about what pageants ought to mean to Terrace — and to the bright and brave young contestants. Marianne Weston, Terrace. Who is the fall guy? To the Editor; The Canadian Council of the Blind’s White Cane Club is laying hard ball with a former member and president of the local group for what I consider to be petty and vindictive reasons. Felix Goyette, who assisted John A. MacDonald last winter in a cont'd pg 8 by Tod Strachan, in consultation with Ro Terrace Review — Wednesday, August 7, 1991 7. ean spruce are smaller than hemlock. No problem, I told Planque in the beginning. Just cut a quarter inch oversize and that will give you an eighth inch on all four: sides to play with. Just send the hemlock through the planer after it’s dried and all the lumber will be the same size. "But we ran into another prob- lem. You need to use a coarser blade when you cut spruce. That’s why you never mix the two spe- cies in the mill, But we didn’t do that and when a piece of spruce hit the head rig, everything slowed down and the blade was dull in minutes, "And when you dull a blade that way, you always dull one side more than the other. After that, the blade begins to wander. It tries to cut in a circle towards the duller side, -and the lumber comes out with all kinds of humps and hollows. A lot of it with hollows deep enough that they are still there after they go through the planer. the-second time. If you're lucky, you might be able to sal- vage a few 10 of 12 foot pieces out of a 24 foot piece of lumber. “After only a couple of days, Planque showed me what was happening... And another dumb decision. Cut it a half inch over- size, J told Planque. That way we'll have a quarter of an inch to play with on all four sides. The waste... It was insane. You get fewer pieces of lumber out of every precious log, and the amount of hog fuel you create...” Silver had heard enough. This mari was crumbling before his very eyes. By now, he had concluded that even though he made a couple of mistakes, his ability to admit it and learn from those mistakes was invaluable in an operation like this. "Uh... Buzz..." But Buzz was determined to finish. He had opened up all stops, and now he refused to quit until the well ran dry. Silver understood, and allowed Sawyer to continue. "Y don't have the right numbers. [don’t think I even want the right numbers. But I can tell you that there’s an awful big pile of defec- tive 16 to 24 foot pieces of lumber piled out back, Out of Jovial’s sight... hope. A fot of that will be turned into chips, That should give Jovial a great thrill. And the pile of hog fuel... It’s enormous. "You see, if you cut a 2x4 a quarter of an inch oversize and plane an eighth of an inch off all four sides you turn 19 percent of your raw material into hog fuel. I know an eighth of an inch doesn’t sound like much, but you reduce the cross-section of a 2x4 from 7.3 square inches to 5.9 square inches. "And if you cut a half-inch over- d Amold and Doug Davies size, like-I did, it’s really a major disaster. You waste a full 33 per- cent of your raw material. You cut a piece of lumber with 4 cross- section of 8.8 square inches and plane it down to 5.9 square inches. It’s insane. And I did it. I panicked..." "Buzz!" Silver shouted. He was getting ready to slap him across the face a few of times. Sawyer was turning into a raving maniac. "Buzz!" Sawyer sat upright in his chair, "[’m sorry Syd... It’s just that..." "Buzz, don’t worry about it. I’ve taken care of it. Jovial doesn’t have to know about most of this. We'll sort it out in that quarterly meeting we postponed while we tended to this series of disasters. Just relax." "You've sorted it out?” Sawyer couldn’t believe his cars. "You've sorted it out?" he repeated incredu- lously. "How? "Those other two mills have been around for awhile... have the kinks worked out,” Silver explained. "I simply phoned them on Monday and they each added a little to their daily output to make up the shortfall I expected here." "And you let me flounder around in a panic over here for three days," Sawyer’s sense of failure was turning to anger. "Sydney... You're a... jerk. You..." "Relax Buzz," Silver said calmly. "It was your job to come to me. Not mine-to come over here and hold your hand. Next time you have a production problem, call a meeting. We're supposed to work as a team here. Remember?" "You're right,” Sawyer admitted. "You're right. Let’s suffer through this thing as best we can and have that meeting as soon as we POss- ibly can. How about next Wednes- day... I’ve got & few things to bury around here first." "Sounds good to mie," Silver replied holding out his hand. The men shook hands and Silver left. A bond had been established, Silver thought, as he zig-zagged his way between puddles towards the main office. A bond that might ensure a more efficient operation at Jovial’s Cedarvale mill. A sense of cooperation that ensured for both Sawyer and himself that if either of them had a problem, there would be no harsh words. Instead, the other would do his utmost to help. And that was the kind of place Silver liked to work, He hoped the feeling would be contagious and spread throughout Jovial’s entire operation. In that kind of an at- mosphere, he could show everyone how good he really was in the sales racket.