Ever-improving quality grading

The Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) established by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is used, for instance, in food products, organic products and forest industry products. There are altogether 12 forestry product standards, e.g. for logs, plywood and sawn timber.

JAS is a way of showing that a product meets the criteria set by Japan,” says Koskisen’s Export Manager Juha Virmiala. “In timber it is used, for instance, in dimensioning and provides guidelines for planning,” he adds.

The certification process was initiated at Koskisen in spring 2022, and in October the US inspection agency Timber Product Inspection TP granted the certification. An essential part of the process is the company’s quality manual, which describes the qualifications of the production employees, the tools used in production, and quality control, among other things. As a result, the planing mill’s measurement equipment was calibrated, and personnel took part in a full day of training organised by the inspection agency.

At the end of 2022, Koskisen’s structural timber was granted JAS 600 certification, which will enable the sale of new products in Japan. In order to retain the certification, the company has committed to continuous quality control.

“JAS is based on US strength grading rule number two. Seeing as we previously made small volumes of products for the US market, we already had some experience with it,” says Jere Kylökäs, Production Planner at Koskisen’s planing mill and head of quality control.

Virmiala was responsible for the quality manual and for preparing the certification application. JAS at its core is like visual strength grading, which sets certain requirements, e.g. for knot size, dimensional deviations and discoloration.

“Japanese buildings feature a lot of visible wood surfaces, and the visual aspect is

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