Kieran Barnes

Overall management of all MDF Production operations. Optimise production to achieve targets for efficiency, quality and recovery, with a focus on improvement to processes. Manage the training and performance of production staff.

The Process Engineer is responsible for identifying and implementing cost effective improvements to production processes site wide to maximise production of premium products while improving the efficient use of resources and reducing variability. Site wide energy Champion – Continually seek opportunities to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy usage and carbon footprint

Working as the production and process engineer for No.1 Pulpmill consisting of two chipping plants, an NSSC hardwood continuous digester and a batch kraft Pulpmill. Key projects were a redesign of the isolation and shutdown planning reducing the time required to shut down, flush, purge and isolate the plant to make safe for maintenance. During my time in the role two significant brownfield projects were underway for new washing systems for both the continuous digester and batch pulpmill. I supported the design and integration of these projects from conception into installation as well as producing the operating manuals for the Operators. Safety improvements were made to our turpentine condensing and waste gas system updating the piping design, preventing blockages and eliminating air ingress. Energy optimization and the removal of redundant equipment by integrating into existing system which had spare capacity. I worked closely with the area maintenance team to achieve smooth and stable operation of the plant, minimizing unplanned downtime. During my time in this role, I was being groomed for the Area Manager role and took on additional responsibilities to learn this role around the management of 50 Operators, budgeting and planning skills.

Part of site wide technical team, covering off work in the Pulpmill and Paper Machine. Work on continuous improvement projects including washing and screening improvements, chemical use tracking and process optimization. A key project being the investigation of vacuum loss on a blow heat evaporator set. Running trials to identify the cause and arrange replacement of required equipment.

I worked alongside the management, onsite engineering and representatives form several engineering companies to research and design a new packaging system and layout for the Juice and Dairy Factory. The new equipment needed to be able to cope with the current process speeds while being more efficient in labor use. Moving from manual to semi-automatic or automatic processes. I also was apart of the design team in working on the new, semi-automatic blending system which would decrease the blending times tremendously.

Worked on the commissioning, installation and testing of a new resin dosing system to reduce the resin usage without effecting board properties. This involved running many different resin dosing trials and then comprehensive testing on the finished product board. Smaller projects also included improving the extractor fan efficiency on the sanders and reducing the water usage of the MDF lines.

Key responsibilities included food preparation each morning for service. During service plating the food and making the platters. Washing dishes and cleaning down the kitchen at the end of the day.