A major construction project currently under way at the Kimberly-Clark Australia Millicent Mill is set to further automate the 61-year-old plant.

The dormant employee car park facing the Princes Highway is being converted into a truck parking bay.

Demand for employee parking has lessened since the mill’s workforce peaked at 1000 around four decades ago.

The current number of mill employees and contractors is 400.

Although the company has declined to state the cost of the car park conversion, it has provided a statement to The SE Voice.

“The truck parking bay and security automation are part of a series of Millicent Mill investments targeted at improving our Distribution Centre Operations,” stated a KCA spokesperson.

“The truck parking bay will give incoming and outgoing transport a place to rest, off the highway and Glens Lane, ensuring these trucks do not cause a hazard by being parked along the road verges.

“Gambier Earth Movers are completing the works on the truck parking bay and the work is projected to be completed by year end.

“We have an average of 35 B doubles leaving site each day and it can sometimes peak to 50 B doubles in busy periods in a 24-hour period.

“These upgrades are an important part in ensuring transport drivers have a parking facility to enable them to safely manage their driving hours.”

A fully automated distribution centre was established at the Millicent Mill in 2009 and it featured an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) and Warehouse Management System (WMS) which is interfaced with an SAP software system.

The KCA Millicent Mill has relied 100% on road transport for almost 30 years.

Until the early 1990s, coal was railed to the mill to fire its boilers.

Coal was then superseded by piped gas from Katnook.