Processing power upheld

One of the region's biggest seasonal workforces is in full swing at Fonterra's Clandeboye milk plant.

The South Canterbury site is invisible to most people, several kilometres seaward of State Highway 1. It is usually teeming with 825 staff, most working shifts to keep the plant operating non-stop.

But at this time of year, Clandeboye is going through its winter maintenance phase while the vast majority of dairy cows have been dried off and shift staff are on leave.

There are 500 to 700 people arriving at Clandeboye each week to carry out maintenance before the milk starts flowing again next month.

Clandeboye boasts the country's most extensive transport fleet, with 75 tankers collecting milk from much of the South Island. During the recent floods and snowfall, crews were out in the hinterland clearing accessways to ensure tankers could get through.

Milk volumes at the various Fonterra sites were managed by a team of specialists who could reroute tankers as needed.

Clandeboye carries out laboratory testing for the entire South Island and has one of the largest manufacturing teams in New Zealand. It produces milk powder in three plants at the site, while two further plants are dedicated to cheese, two to cream and two to protein products.

It has one of the biggest butter plants in the world, churning out more than 312 tonnes of unsalted butter a day.

Clandeboye lead reliability engineer Jayson Spittal, who has been at the site for 12 years, said the maintenance crews work 60 hours a week. That was found to be the best way to manage the scope of the programme and health and safety.

The latter was a priority across the site, to protect not only the people there but also the quality of the foodstuffs being handled.

Weekly meetings were held to discuss progress.

''We share learnings across the country,'' Mr Spittal said.

The maintenance programme took six to eight weeks. All machinery was pulled apart and inspected. Wearable parts were examined and replaced if necessary. Machines were then reassembled, tested for compliance and restarted.

Specific contractors were brought in to handle areas where they had developed a high level of expertise, he said. Some moved around New Zealand to work on the standardised equipment installed at several locations.

All staff spoken to by Courier Country were proud of their site and happy to work for Fonterra. The company treated them well and provided plenty of opportunities for development and advancement, they said.

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