Mills Profitability & You: Some food for thought for paper mill professionals

Mills always try to improve their profit margins in a sustainable way. As an employee, you also try to contribute to improve mill’s profitability. Your colleagues are also trying their best for the same. But, have you ever analysed what makes a mill to earn more and more profits? Let us have a look-

Suppose a mill having a single paper machine is making three different grades-

1. Cream wove,
2. Maplitho, 
3. Copier

Or suppose, a mill is having three machines-

1. PM1: Liner Kraft
2. PM2: Writing & Printing
3. PM3: Duplex Board

What, according to you, is going to give more profits to the mill in each case? For the case one, you may choose any quality of the mentioned three; while for the case 2, you may mention the machine number. You are free to choose any one of the mentioned three options or answer something different, if you feel so.

For simplicity, we take the first case, and consider your option was the third- Copier. Are you sure that your choice will remain the same in future also? Are you sure that in future cream wove or maplitho cannot be more profitable than copier? No. In fact, product profitability keeps on changing with time and market conditions. So, in other words, you cannot mention any specific product that is going to be profitable for the mill for long durations- for months, years and decades!

OK. Now, have a look at the specification sheet of products your mill is making. Focus at the various properties- GSM, tensile strength, breaking length, Cobb, bulk, tearing strength, smoothness, brightness etc. Take the specification sheet of some another mill, and compare the two? Quite often you find that the specification sheets are the same. But, the prices for the similar products from different mills are different. You might have already noticed that the copier paper made by different mills by their respective brands sell at different prices- while all of copier paper being manufactured in India has to meet the relevant BIS standards.

Why so? Let me tell you the truth-

Paper mills do not earn their profit by selling paper.

Yes! Paper mills do not earn their profit by selling paper. They earn profit by selling something else, and hence everyone’s focus must be on increasing production of that particular ‘item’ only. Do you know what that is? 

Reliability, Trust

• Reliability that the quality is stable.
• Reliability that the deliveries are consistent.
• Trust that the price is justified.
• Trust that there would be no sub-quality product in any lot.
• Agree? In fact, that applies to any mill making any product –not only paper- or services. 

So, have you focussed yourself for increasing the production of “Reliability and Trust” by your mills? Not yet? Let’s begin it now. But the question is- “How to further improve Reliability, Trust?” Because, as an employee you cannot usually decide what machines from which supplier should be installed. Top management decides that based on their feedback and opinions. You may also have practically little say on further automation of existing processes. Again, such decisions are usually taken by top management; of course some feedback from your level might help top management.

Let’s come back to the basic question, “what are you doing to improve mills reliability?” 

What you can do is-

Attentiveness: Yes. You can.

• Keep an eye on operating parameters. Of course, there are log books as well as possibly other data management systems like SCADA/DCS. But believe me, there are always some parameters which often get slipped away from these.
• Timely reporting any deviation in operation parameters. In fact, some parameters deviate too slowly to be identified easily. In a particular case, the load on machine chest agitator dropped from 26-28 amperes to 15-17 amperes but the change took nearly 12 years. Slowly and slowly, the operators became habitual of load from 26-28 ampere to 25-27 ampere, (as this 1 ampere drop took more than 6 months) and so and so forth. Such changes can be detected only by an alert mind, and verified by retrieving the past data.
• Time management of duties.A shift chemist was checking tear, tensile, Gurley smoothnessand then cobb. But, the cobb testing was done in the end. One day, the AKD dosing pump got tripped, and obviously, some paper had to be rejected. Had the Cobb testing was done earlier; the detection of this problem could have been done earlier, and rejection of product could be less, even though the saving could be for a production of 10 minutes only.

Exploring Better Ways to Ensure Reliability: Yes. You should.

• Ask yourself- what can go wrong? And then explore how to prevent that. In the case mentioned above, that AKD pump tripped, ask if there could be an alarm to be activated when the pump gets tripped.  
• In a small paper mill, a smart paper machine shift in-charge noticed weak abnormal whistle sound near the pope reel. On close examination, it was observed that there was a small air leak from pipe joints. The issue was reported and the team decided to attend the problem during next shut. Had he just shrugged it off considering that reporting air leakage is the job of maintenance or instrumentation people; in future some major breakdown or other problem might have appeared.

Self Learning&Development: Yes. You must.

Before moving to this topic, think as if you are investing your money for future. Out of many options (share market, bank deposits, mutual funds, government securities, gold etc.,) you prefer the ones which give you better returns at lower risk. So, out of many options, you choose the best ones (obviously as per your opinion). Not only this, you keep on searching for a better option, having a better potential.Isn’t it?

Have you ever considered yourself as an option?How much you are investing on yourself? Think, and invest on yourself. You may initiate with a little, and later decide to increase investment. You can invest some money to join online courses, subscribe for professional journals and periodicals, and get membership of relevant professional bodies like IPPTA (Indian Pulp & Paper Technical Association).

Make a habit to learn something regularly. Keeping a diary or notebook and writing a few words about something new you learnt during past week can motivate you in doing so. If you are regular, you’d definitely feel better within a few months.

Not only at the financial side, there is also a need to focus on your body and soul. Reduce the consumption of fast food, initiate regular exercise and consider yoga an option. Share jokes with your friends and laugh often.Spend more time with your family andfriends. Agree? So, when are you going to start it?