Paper Industry – Details 1
In the 1990s I conducted an assessment of a large international paper manufacturer and learned a great deal about how not to run a business. I started with a containerboard plant near Philadelphia, PA. There I learned how paper is made. A mix of wood fibers and water is sprayed on the first forty feet of a conveyer belt that is about 300 to 500 feet long. The belt has to dip and rise in a complicated gymnastic routine so that the paper can dry. It was a marvelous thing to see. Great attention had been paid to the pathway so that gravity helped to wring moisture out of the product without causing some other part of the long paper roll to take on moisture.
In that environment, the roof leaked. That’s right, the frigging roof leaked. Because there was no money to repair it. Why was there no money? Because the company had taken its eye off the ball. Its core business was making paper; it was focused instead on improving its balance sheet to support a merger or acquisition. I found other issues as well, but none so gob-smacking ridiculous as a plant that existed to remove water from the product, that had a roof that leaked.
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