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The title of this column is playing out right now in the packaging segment. Lightweight recyclable packaging is winning out over traditional packaging--and this is being accepted in the markets as an improvement in quality. This column is something of a continuation from last week with a slightly different slant.
Or, in other words, would significantly improved quality make for higher profit margins in the pulp and paper industry? Can we make a paper company into the equivalent of Christian Dior or Estee Lauder through quality improvements?
When many think of quality, their mind immediately goes to specifications. Is the moisture correct? How about smoothness? Coating quality? Pin holes? These matters are all important, but even more important is the integrity of the deal.
Sometimes quality can be better than necessary.
Every manufacturing facility I have ever known has energy in the tare. What is tare? Pallets, drums, totes, tires, empty trucks and so forth. Pallets, drums, totes, and (used) tires (P,D,T &T) are considered a nuisance. Empty trucks may be another matter.
I predict our grandchildren will be thriving on nuclear energy and using our then obsolete windmills as amusement park rides.
When I look back on what has happened in my lifetime, both at work and at home, I see ever increasing energy uses, some of which may not be smart. Computers and the Internet, and all the ancillary issues that go with these (cloud computing, server farms and so forth), are the big hidden users that did not exist when I started working in 1970. When I started working in 1970, there was not a desktop calculator, let alone a computer, in the entire company. There was one pitiful copying machine that could copy one page at a time. Faxes had not been invented or at least were not widespread. This was a company that fabricated steel products--the biggest user of electricity was arc welders. OSHA was a new idea and had not promulgated any regulations.
I think the answer to the title question would have been "certainly" a couple of years ago. It does not seem to be so solid now. And, of course, it depends on what types of electric vehicles we are talking about. Electric fork or clamp trucks seem to be a certainty. Over the road vehicles (automobiles, trucks) may need a qualifier based on use.
The last phase in our capital project is ramp up. We already covered this for tissue last week. Ramp up is never over. Don't put an end date on it.
Last week, we talked about planning. I am just moving on down the schedule this week to "Check Out and Commissioning." The potential for screwups here is as great as in planning. Bring in a fresh OCD person to manage these functions.
It helps to have OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) in order to plan a capital project, even a small one. Or as the joke says, OCD should be CDO, so the words are in the correct alphabetical order. I can tell you this--if you don't have a touch of OCD, you will never be a successful capital project manager.
This week, I want to talk about buying equipment and services. The first thing I want to talk about is keeping your relationship with the sellers at arm's length.
The answer likely lies with a definition of your role in the company. If you are a typical project engineer within a mill, it likely starts when you are given a request from an operating department. Listen carefully to them, they are your customer. Yet bring your own professionalism to the party, too. This means don't listen to them wide eyed and gap jawed as if they have all the answers.
By Fos, the Rat: Well, I can't believe it, but another month of Pulp Rats is almost over. It has seemed extra short this year, perhaps because there are only four columns, not five as there are some years. I would like to wrap up talking about Force Majeure.
By Fos, the Rat: Jim was telling me a story I could hardly believe. Let's have him tell it this week. Take it away, Jim.
By Fos, the Rat: I thought this week I would walk out on the Annual Pulp Rat Convention floor and talk to some who are not being heard by the Great Council.
By Fos, the Rat: Once again, I am interviewing Mr. Jim at the Pulp Rats' Convention. This year the convention is being held in the deep south.
It starts when you get out of bed in the morning. Do you make your bed or not? Depends on your personal standards. Likewise, how you keep your work area, how you keep your automobile, whether you steal from others or lie, whether you put tools back where you found them or in a better place, these are your standards. So don't say there are no standards--you started having standards before you went to school.
We've talked about policy and regulations for three weeks, let's finish out the month with two columns on standards. Standards are so ubiquitous; we don't even notice them.
There are many regulations we encounter in our work life that are good. There are others that seem to be a power kick for the regulators. Here is one I would have us adopt a papermakers if I were King.
The last week of June this year may be the most important week in regulations and general policy in the last century.
If you have not heard of EUDR by now, surely others in your company have. This is the European Commission Regulation on Deforestation-free products. Subtitle: EU rules to guarantee that the products EU citizens consume do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation worldwide. The operative word here is "worldwide." Thus, no matter where you make your forest products, if you want to sell it in the EU, you must comply.
Quick--what is your image of your purchasing team? I'll bet it is them sitting in their offices with their nose stuck in a computer or a document. Or perhaps on the phone. Back in the days when I worked in a mill, I spent a good deal of time wandering around the mill. It didn't make any difference what my job was, I wandered around the mill in order to understand it from a detailed and overarching perspective. This made me better at my job, whether it be engineering, maintenance, technical, power house manager, whatever.
Forty years ago, I was up to my eyeballs in a major rebuild of the paper machine where I worked. One day, a couple of months before the actual commencement of the shutdown for the rebuild, I got a call in my office. It was a truck driver that was in the administration building. He had walked there from where he left his truck, about two miles down the road (no cell phones in those days). I went out to see what I could do for him. He took me to his truck. It was barely off the two-lane highway. One set of the trailer's rear axle tires were gone, and the wheel hubs were worn down to the axle. We are talking about two axles.
These days it often takes a deep dive to understand honest and ethical, the first two attributes I mentioned last week. When it comes to honesty, you can't be selective. You are either honest or you are not--throughout all aspects of your life. Hence, purchasing managers, especially, need to be honest throughout all aspects of their life.
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