Paperitalo Point of View

As a beekeeper, I'm a strong supporter of cross pollination. After all, that's how people get some of their favorite fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Also in industry, "cross pollination" or the exchange of ideas from one industry to another, is how we get some of our best products and services. And one of the best, most important components of any business is quality. When truly active in a business, it permeates departments and the full range of seniority. Because Boeing is in the news so much (still!), and because they had such a stellar quality program, it seemed the perfect topic to learn from for Quality Month.

When you think of the Energizer Bunny, you most likely think of a pink bunny rabbit powered by an Energizer battery with unstoppable energy. (It keeps going and going and going...) Side note: if you're outside the US and Canada, replace the Energizer Bunny with the Duracell Bunny. It's this unstoppable energy that powered the Energizer Battery campaign, and we need such unstoppable energy to power our mills, power our cities, and power our lives.

Why is it that we can put men on the moon in 1969 but now, in 2024, we have astronauts stuck on the ISS (International Space Station)? One thing is for sure: you'd better believe multiple experts are working on that problem! And in digging into capital projects, I found multiple experts with over 30 years each in the area of capital projects. And the fascinating thing? Despite being in varying fields they all raised similar points, all salient to the paper industry.

Most people have at least some idea of when they're being deceived, but I know one person who is clueless. This individual absolutely cannot tell when people twist the truth or outright lie to them. I also know people who have been snookered by various smooth talkers, when there were "tells" ahead of time - early warning signs, showing the individual was not overwhelmingly trustworthy. So I've compiled a (very) short list of these simple "tells" which help show who is more worthy of your trust than others.

As the EUDR (European Deforestation Regulation) deadline draws (some would say perilously) closer (Dec 31, 2024), industries and countries across the world are speaking up and requesting extensions. That part isn't surprising. What is surprising is that the extension requests are for more varied reasons than usual. (We need more people, new software, etc.) The biggest issue, from the paper side of things is, the technology needed to trace the fiber flow to comply with this requirement does not currently exist.

In 1905 the largest diamond at the time, the Cullinan Diamond, was shipped from South Africa to England as a gift to King Edward VII. The diamond was escorted to England with great security, starting with a grand procession onto a steamboat that took it on the long voyage. Armed guards ensured a safe passage across the high seas. Then once on land in England, the precious gemstone was brought to the palace. In reality however, the diamond wasn't actually on the steamboat. It was wrapped up in a plain box and shipped via postal service. The stone on the steamboat was a decoy, and the Cullinan Diamond arrived safely in England via the daily mail. Clearly, someone was very good at getting their (unorthodox) ideas across. And getting your ideas across is equally important in procurement as well.

Virtual sport simulators are tremendously popular nowadays. Take golf for example: walk indoors, swing your clubs, and improve your swing. (Personally, I'd rather be outdoors any day with the sun shining and a fresh breeze in my face.) You can sit in movies with 3-D glasses, play sports (indoors) with a variety of simulators, or even wear 3-D goggles for virtual reality baseball training (you don't even need a ball, just swing the bat).

Virtual sport simulators are tremendously popular nowadays. Take golf for example: walk indoors, swing your clubs, and improve your swing. (Personally, I'd rather be outdoors any day with the sun shining and a fresh breeze in my face.) You can sit in movies with 3-D glasses, play sports (indoors) with a variety of simulators, or even wear 3-D goggles for virtual reality baseball training (you don't even need a ball, just swing the bat).

When I was little my dad would bring home comic books when I was sick. It broke up the monotony of being ill and introduced a bit of fun flipping through the pages. Now take that same idea - a bit of fun with comics - and instead apply it to livening up and strengthening a preventive maintenance (PM) culture. (When was the last time you sat in a riveting PM meeting?) Yes, entertaining author and experienced consultant Joel Levitt, President of Springfield Resources, is creating content about PM through his comic book, Stories of PM, covering PM principles.

Sometimes simple solutions are the best solutions. And a similarly simple solution to a very complex problem has recently come to light with transportation, using robotics

As the ball drops in Times Square on New Years Day, the trees in South America grow ever taller, and are much better and more productive than that dropping ball (which mainly yields a great deal of traffic). Interesting things are happening in South America, and I do suspect capital projects for 2024 will be affected, and hopefully started for the upcoming year. Why is that?

Have you ever seen those large, round, glass jars filled with marbles (or candies, or Matchbox cars, etc.) where you had to guess how many objects were in the jar - the answer being some incredibly huge number? (And did you ever win the prize?) Along that same line of thought, I was wondering this week if it were possible to count up the vast number of semiconductors on the property of the average mill (I really do think of this stuff) - not including the semiconductors in every mobile phone that the employees carry.

Switching to green energy seems all well and good until you get into the details.

Quality is the commitment to excellence that drives the relentless pursuit of perfection. But interfering with that relentless pursuit is a strong EU governmental push to go completely digital, particularly with industrial products, medical products and other consumer information. No paper. Digital only. As a result the European print and paper industry is uniting, reminding legislators that going" digital only" is not neutral but would be harmful in some cases. The proposed restriction of paper would result in wide-ranging social, educational, and economic risks, beneficial to no one.

In wood chemistry classes in college, one thing I learned was that trees are fascinating. We spent a bit of time on the root system of trees, but far more on what was above ground. After all, that's what paper makers are most interested in. Since college days, I've learned a lot more about trees. And much of what's fascinating about trees begins, actually, with what's underground.

Today we're looking at the flip side of smart procurement (June's topic): increasing safety and productivity with digital downtime. As a background, if you google the topic you'll get an amusing list of headlines, ranging from how to fight tech addiction, to articles telling you not to bother disengaging from a screen addiction since it's apparently useless. But how does this even remotely relate to the pulp and paper industry???

Right now there's a strong trend of wanting to "take down" paper companies and the government officials who allow them. - There are stories all over the news to this effect. But there is a way to have paper mills welcome in their communities. It is doable. How? It requires a multifaceted approach.

It's not a question of if smart procurement is coming to mills. It's a question of when.

Changes are coming.

Despite all the safety training, sometimes things happen that you really didn't see coming. This month for safety, we'll cover a couple extra things that aren't usually discussed in those monthly safety trainings, starting with what's in the news...

Pay now, or pay more later, or... pay dramatically more much later. Simple as that. That's the essence of mill maintenance.

You can't make sandcastles without sand, you can't make skyscrapers without steel, and you can't make paper without wood or fiber. And it's trains that are central to the transportation of products into and out of a pulp and paper mill. Back last December, we had quite the problem with the railroads, but what exactly was going on?

Surely you've completed one of those "simple" home projects that ended up requiring multiple trips to Home Depot. Once finished you likely breathed a deep sigh of relief as you quietly kicked yourself for your lack of planning. Similarly, the paper industry is a very capital intensive industry - referring to last month's article, many capital projects focus on reducing fossil fuel usage. But when your capital project ends up requiring multiple trips and delays due to forgotten items, results can be disastrous. So what are proven steps management can take to reduce these needless trips and delays?

Our mill got a call one day from Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCO), asking if we were doing anything unusual? As it so happened, we were restarting the mill after the spring shut down and maintenance. Why did they ask?

We've come a long way - from disintegrating paper straws to being on the verge of having plastic-free packaging, and a fully recyclable beer bottle with a wood fiber outer lining. Cellulose and pulp are in the forefront of the away-from-plastic movement (as it should be).