Paper Partner
by Frank Balentine
In 1994, executives at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and Avenor Inc.'s paper mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario, began discussing an employee-exchange program. The idea was to bring together the people who make newsprint with those who use it, in hopes of improving performance.
Teams of six employees began visiting each other's facilities that fall. Paper-machine and press operators set an annual goal of 2.2 total breaks per 100 rolls of newsprint.
Star Tribune VP of Manufacturing Tom Hardie celebrates reaching 2.04 total breaks per 100 rolls. |
The Star Tribune's pressroom has five 10-unit Goss Headliner presses with six half-decks and three-high formers. With two dedicated four-color leads, the presses have a maximum straight-run capacity of 64 pages with six sections, or 128 pages with 12 sections collect.
During a trip to the Star Tribune that fall, Thunder Bay papermakers discussed the runability of 3/4 rolls, then causing more breaks than other sizes. Following the meeting, the papermakers decided to trim the 3/4 rolls out of center cuts instead of end cuts. The results were dramatic: Year-to-year breaks on 3/4 rolls fell from 6.08 per 100 rolls in 1996 to 3.12 in 1997.
Still committed to reaching the goal of 2.2 total breaks per 100 rolls, staffers faced new challenges in 1997. Along with running more pages, the paper continued its practice of offering advertising customers preferred placements. Presses ran at between 80 and 90 percent capacity for the year, occasionally pushing-and exceeding-capacity. Despite those challenges, the Star Tribune ended the year with 2.04 total breaks per 100 rolls.
Executives found two things rewarding about meeting the goal. It demonstrated the power of giving knowledgeable workers the ability to share their knowledge, and it also showed that managers can learn to put aside their egos for long enough trust their employees.
Frank Balentine is NAA's press manager. E-mail, balef@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1849; fax, (703) 902-1842.