Business South October 2020

30 | DAIRY INDUSTRY Oceania Dairy Helping “essential service” keep running Richard Loader W hile balancing her time between working from home and the plant during Covid-19 Lockdown measures worked very well for Sarah Owens, Quality Officer in Oceania Dairy’s Canning and Blend- ing team, missing her best friend’s wedding in Ireland was devastating. “Just before lockdown went into place I was meant to be flying to Ireland to my best friend’s wedding who also worked at Oceania. “I was meant to fly out on the 19th of March and on the 15th the Prime Minister an- nounced that non-essential travel should be cancelled.” While upset that she, along with 10 others from New Zealand, was unable to attend the wedding, Sarah is also mindful that if she had left a few days earlier she may have been stuck overseas for a lengthy period of time— unable to return home. As Quality Officer, Sarah is focused on audits and making sure the Canning and Blending plant operates as it should be and her team’s Process Operators are adhering to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Sarah says Oceania had developed strong contingency plans as far back as late Janu- ary for dealing with a pandemic and trialled people working from home a week prior to Lockdown being announced, checking the capability and equipment needed. “Then on the 25th of March we went into a full lockdown and by then personnel that didn’t need to be on site or could work for home were already working from home. “We were considered an essential service and given letters in case we were pulled over by the Police. We had additional PPE gear including face shields, temperature checks, Sarah Owens: I tried to balance my work so that I prioritised the tasks that had to be carried out on site.” www.integratedpackaging.co.nz Food and Beverage Agricultural Industrial 09 274 4499 5 Sir William Avenue, East Tamaki, Auckland + Crop Packaging Products + Plain Films + Industrial Stretch Films + Pallet Shrink Film + PVC Food Films + Stretch Hoods + Bundle Shrink + Plain & Printed Bags Proud to help Oceania take NZ Dairy to the World P: 03 434 1232 | E: oamaru@laserplumbing.co.nz | W: www.oamaru.laserplumbing.co.nz Onsite Wastewater Solutions Service & Maintenance New Homes Home Heating Solutions 24 hours, 7 days Laser Plumbing Oamaru - Your complete plumbing professionals signing in and out of site and social distancing. There were a lot less people around but work just continued as normal.” Sarah’s plant operates a four days on/four days off roster so she aligned her time on site with the days the team were there so that she was on hand if any issues arose. “My manager was also really flexible and would come to site if needed as well. I tried to balance my work so that I prioritised the tasks that had to be carried out on site, like audits, so they were done during those four days. “On the days that I was on site I picked up quite a few extra tasks from those who were working solely from home—somehow it just worked. On the days that I did work from home it was more the administration side of things like report writing. I found that routine worked extremely well.” Living in the country, Sarah enjoyed the experience of working from home one day a week—even though the internet connection was not the best. “Other than not taking regular breaks, I did feel I could get through a lot more work from home especially when it came to the adminis- tration side of my role. “There weren’t the normal interruptions you get from working in a multi-person office,” says Sarah. “There was just me and my partner at home and I was very strict with what I was doing,” she says. “During this time there were lots of projects under way and it was quite good to get that work done at that time.” While Sarah’s ‘home days’ went very quickly, she also enjoyed the normality of going into the plant four days a week. Crediting Oceania’s management team for the smooth running of the plant during lockdown, Sarah says while the controls were very strict, they were there for a reason and everyone across the site had a good under- standing of that. “Full credit to Oceania—I couldn’t fault anything that happened and always felt very safe at work.” “On the days that I was on site I picked up quite a few extra tasks from those who were working solely from home - somehow it just worked.”