Doug Sweet, Doug Sweet & Associates
Doug Sweet qualified with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977 and began his career in the paper industry with P&G’s tissue mill in Albany, GA. In 1979 he joined The Nash Engineering Co. with design and sales of paper machine vacuum systems. Sweet was elevated to North American sales director in 1995. He departed Nash in 2001 and he and his wife, Jacqui, founded Doug Sweet & Associates to consult, troubleshoot, and enhance paper machine vacuum-dewatering systems. His career has taken him to almost 350 mills in 11 countries.
Sweet gives Tissue360o his frank opinion on the current mindset and the challenges and opportunities the tissue industry offers.
One of the major challenges the industry has is acquiring and retaining good personnel.
I don’t see any difference between tissue and all other grades of pulp, paper, or board as related to people—folks doing the work. People are the most important asset, followed by training, development, and positive safety management. What I see is that every mill has a culture. This culture defines attitudes about everything from managing production, maintenance, equipment reliability, and safety practices. In my experience, those personnel who begin with tissue will stay working in tissue mills.
Every mill is competing within their company for capital to improve/enhance paper mill operations.
Often this money is spent on new equipment to improve operations, but modifications of existing equipment may have had the same results. I have seen fads come and go over my 45+ year career and money is spent because of feeling the need to be current with the latest equipment or processes, but sometimes the results are marginal.
Every tissue product (towel, bath tissue, facial tissue) is unique to each company.
This can make it difficult for a mill to make modifications to the process where existing equipment or processes may have had bad designs and/or are being operated incorrectly. High profitability of many tissue grades promotes reluctance in examining opportunities to reduce operating costs. For example: a TAD machine producing bath tissue sometimes does not require the full vacuum system when producing toweling, where shutting off one or two vacuum pumps can save several hundred horsepower. Often, this recommendation gets ignored.
In my opinion TAD machines are one the greatest innovations in the industry when it comes to technology advancement.
These machines have enabled the creation of new tissue grades over the last 50 years. However, the tradeoff comes with higher energy costs, including electricity, steam, and gas. TAD now receives most of the industry’s attention where older, conventional tissue machines tend to be ignored.
Digital technology is beginning to make an impact in the industry; however, most engineers and operators don’t question a control room screen.
In my hands-on experience, I find bad data everywhere I look: pressures, vacuum levels, flows, and temperatures. You can’t sit back and assume every transmitter is correct; they aren’t. Few paper machines can be operated well from within a room. Daily observations, touching, feeling, and even smelling is necessary by trained personnel. Often, I point to a valve or pump on a control room screen and ask the operator, “Where is that, physically?” and I’m disappointed to hear that they don’t know.
Over the next 10 years paper and tissue companies must invest in their personnel.
They should be encouraged to visit other mills within the company to observe mill operation and practices, build relationships, and collaborate with others facing the same problems. Mill personnel need to be attending national or international technical conferences. Don’t be concerned so much about protecting process secrets at the expense of not being exposed to others trying to solve the same problems. I see too many 30-year veterans of the paper industry at conferences and a lack of the young engineers who can benefit the most.
