PACWEST CONFERENCEA PACIFIC COAST & WESTERN BRANCHES CONFERENCE

REV

IEW

2013

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1255 meters. This is the altitude at the base of the village of Sun Peaks. It’s almost at the top of the world that attendees gathered for the 2013 edition of thegathering for this week’s edition of the 2013 PACWEST Conference.

After a night of mountainous thunderstorms, it is a sunny start to the week in this European-style village, one of British Colombia’s largest ski resort and, apparently, an excellent place for golfers and hikers in the summer. We will see that later in the week. Before this is tested at the Shotgun Golf Tournament on Saturday, the following days will be dedicated to the sharing of experience between technology developers, suppliers and industry leaders in the pulp and paper industry.

Under the title of "Improving Performance through Optimiza-tion & Reliability”, the three days conference held at the Delta Sun Peaks Hotel will address a range of topics including: bioproducts opportunities for the industry, performance improvement through optimization and reliability, kraft pulping, energy optimization, environmental improvements, mechanical pulping and bioenergy.

''MOVING UP THE HILL''

The PACWEST technical conference is not a new event for the pulp and paper industry. Since the mid 60’s, PAPTAC’s Pacific Coast & Western Branches and Waiting Room #6 of the Inter-national rotherhood of Migratory Peddlers (IBMP) contribute to the organization of the event. Throughout the years, it remains an excellent means to network with peers. The confer-ence is also an occasion to further professional development while learning about new technologies and processes. Only today, prior to the opening of conference and the trade fair, participants will converge to industry meetings while others attend short courses.

The PACWEST Conference Trade Fair is held in the pre-function area of the Delta Sun Peaks at the centre of it all. The fair was opened at 15h and will be occupying the area at the centre of the conference activities until Friday 15h. A dozen booths are displaying various services and products including specialty chemical service, electrostatic precipitators and process control applications.

Representatives of Metso Automation, one of the exhibitors, will present their work throughout the week and in particular at the “New Technologies” session (Technical Session 2C on Thursday, June 13th from 4:30 to 5:30). James Goldman will present the “Metso Metra Recovery Analyzer” and Kari Lam-pela te Metso Fiber Image Analyzer. On the team, Chris McA-narney, working from Atlanta, Georgia, explains how one of Metso’s product measures KPI to set initial performance benchmarks for an entire plant. PlantTriage is a software that provides control performance business solutions in the form of online monitoring. Chris McAnarney will also present a techni-cal paper on an associated subject at the Process Control Technical Session Friday morning (Session 3A): “Methods to Improve Control Performance in Pulp & Paper”. For Frank Varhelyi, the highlight of the Finnish company “show” is the

''NOVELTY AT THE TRADE FAIR''

PAPTAC

''MOVING UP THE HILL''

1255 meters. This is the altitude at the base of the village of Sun Peaks. It’s almost at the top of the world that attendees gathered for the 2013 edition of the PACWEST Conference.

After a night of mountainous thunderstorms, it is a sunny start to the week in this European-style village, one of British Colom-bia’s largest ski resort and, apparently, an excellent place for golfers and hikers in the summer. Before this is tested at the Shotgun Golf Tournament on Saturday, the week will be dedicated to the sharing of experience between technology developers, suppliers and industry leaders in the pulp and paper industry.

Under the title of "Improving Performance through Optimi-zation & Reliability”, the three days conference held at the Delta Sun Peaks Hotel addressed a range of topics including: bioproducts opportunities for the industry, performance improvement through optimization and reliability, kraft pulping, energy optimization, environmental improvements, mechanical pulping and bioenergy.

The PACWEST technical conference is not a new event for the pulp and paper industry. Since the mid 60’s, PAPTAC’s Pacific Coast & Western Branches and Waiting Room #6 of the International Brotherhood of Migratory Peddlers (IBMP) contribute to the organization of the event. Throughout the years, it remains an excellent means to network with peers. The conference is also an occasion to further professional development while learning about new technologies and processes. Only today, prior to the opening of conference and the trade fair, participants will converge to industry meetings while others attend short courses.

The PACWEST Conference Trade Fair was held in the pre-function area of the Delta Sun Peaks at the centre of it all. The fair was opened from the Wednesday and occupied the area at the centre of the conference activities until Friday. A dozen booths displayed various services and products includ-ing specialty chemical service, electrostatic precipitators and process control applications.

Representatives of Metso Automation, one of the exhibitors, presented their work throughout the week and in particular at the “New Technologies” session (Technical Session 2C on Thursday, June 13th from 4:30 to 5:30). James Goldman presented the “Metso Metra Recovery Analyzer” and Kari Lampela the Metso Fiber Image Analyzer. On the team, Chris McAnarney, working from Atlanta, Georgia, explained how one of Metso’s product measures KPI to set initial performance benchmarks for an entire plant. PlantTriage is a software that provides control performance business solutions in the form of online monitoring. Chris McAnarney also presented a technical paper on an associated subject at the Process Control Technical Session Friday morning (Session 3A): “Methods to Improve Control Performance in Pulp & Paper”. For Frank Varhelyi, the highlight of the Finnish company “show” is the Metso MR Moisture Analyser.

''NOVELTY AT THE TRADE FAIR''

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Using a technology known to healthcare circles, magnetic resonance, it allows creating “simple and reliable moisture analysis solution”. A demonstration device along with wood chips was part of the booth.

Jodi R. Murphy is from Econotech, a company specializing in various types of analyses related to the production of pulp and paper products. Ms. Murphy came to the PACWEST Conference with four colleagues. They were there to present their work but also to get a grasp of scientific, technological and managerial developments. “PACWEST is also an excellent opportunity to meet our partners and clients face to face since we often only interact over the phone or by email.” Examples in what Econotech specializes in include a range of chemical analysis services: analysis of smelt, white, green and black liquors, characterization of pulp samples: viscosity and caustic solubility to name a few. On top of laboratory testing, he forty years old company also provides scientific and technical consulting services.

Daniel Tremblay represented Horizon Testing at a booth showcasing a phased array instrument (the Phasor XS) one only feels like testing. “That’s why its here” said Daniel Trem-blay who described the device as a machine that can be used to inspect bull gears for cracks. The ultrasonic phased array technology offered by the company is a testing method that uses many other small ultrasonic elements with applications such as “gear inspection, flange inspection, corrosion mapping, weld inspection and crack sizing”.

Next to the exhibitors booths five companies were presenting posters: Andritz Automation, Autopro Automation, Horizon Testing, Smartfirst and Univar Canada.Trade Fair Exhibitors this year were Airstream Systems, Andritz, Austin & Denholm Industrial Sales, BTG Americas, Econotech Services, Fitnir Analyzers, Flux-Tech, Metso Automation, Process Equipment / Barron Industries, Soto Industries, Southern Environmental, Texo Consulting & Controls, Victualic.

Set in a typical mountain resort-like lounge, also at the centre of the Trade Fair, the welcoming reception allowed participants to mingle informally for a first time this year. In fact, many participants reached Sun Peaks throughout the course of the day. This was the case for Greg Hay, Executive Director of PAPTAC who believes attending PACWEST is not just about learning about new technologies and process improvement but also “an excellent way to discuss challenges and opportunities for the industry”. Over drinks, Mr. Hay explained the close relationship between this week’s event and the next edition of PaperWeek Canada to be held in Montreal in February 2014. “Although in a different type of setting, PACWEST is a forum that provides industry tools much like PaperWeek and, as we will be celebrating PAPTAC's Annual Meeting's 100th anniver-sary next year, we are sure to reflect upon a hundred years of innovation. “One general observation we can make from the last edition of PaperWeek is that the disruptive decade opens to one of consolidation and opportunities.”

Bill Adams, Domtar and Conference Chair believes that improving performance through optimization and reliability is a well-chosen conference title for an audience constituted largely of mill managers. For Mr. Adams, the fact that so many mill managers attend the PACWEST Conference is a great pride for the organizers. “Through the conference, industry people from various horizons can learn from the latest scientific and technological innovation and, we know from different stories heard tonight, that this has positive and constructive ripple down effects.” The relaxed atmosphere of the evening is indeed a positive first step towards an interesting week of infor-mal networking and informal exchanges among technical experts and industry leaders. Many other unceremonious reunions are planed throughout the week in-between meetings and presentations. Who will be up for jogging early tomorrow morning? Participants could still sign up tonight for a mountain jog at a booth standing just between the buffet and bar.

''ALPINE DRINKS''attendees gather for the opening reception

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“People cannot be more effective than the system they work for” says Christer Idhammar, Founder and CEO, IDCON Inc. Mr. Idhammar was invited to present his views to the PACWEST Conference attendees on a subject he wrote exten-sively about: "the essential elements of reliability and mainte-nance management". Interested? “You can find most of my publications online, he says, some on Amazon, all on our own website.”

''MECHANICAL PULPING: FINDING THE ONE STOP SHOP''

consultant. Guaranteed results will come from following the fundamentals: Prevent, inspect, prioritize right, plan correctly, schedule and execute work.

So what happens when effective people work in an ineffective environment? “We have an unreliable business with poor preventive maintenance and a lack of work preparation.” For this reason, Christer Idhammar advises operators involved in basic equipment inspection to go back to the basics. The only important change for the indus-try in the last 50 years or so relates to the arrival of high tech technologies. There is nothing like an infrared detector to estimate a machine’s tempera-ture of course but Christer Idhammar still recommends a

Shortly following the Industry Meeting Session dedicated to the Mechanical Pulping Community (MPC), Dr. Zhirun Yuan from FPInnovations and current chair of the MPC described how the work of this PAPTAC community fits in the PACWEST Confer-ence.

Dr. Zhirun Yuan explains that some ripple down effects of a “disruptive decade” for the industry includes the fact that the community has been relatively quiet in the last two years. Indeed, many pulp and paper companies that were active in the MPC are just coming out of bankruptcy protection and this brings along an ever-greater need to share knowledge. This stands out from a mill manager survey he presented this after-noon. The survey was conducted in all the mechanical pulp mills (about 50% of all pulp and paper mills in Canada) and highlighted the strong support and some of the main concerns and interests from mill managers today. According to Dr. Zhirun Yuan, the primary concern is production costs in regards to energy, raw materials, water and chemicals for instance.

For Dr. Zhirun Yuan, the PACWEST Conference is an ideal forum to hold a meeting of the community because it can be conducted along other informative sessions thus allowing participants to save on travel and time. “One could see such meetings as one stop shops” says the MPC Chairman before adding that the “fact that the community meeting was held back to back with UBC's Steering Committee meeting on Energy Reduction in Mechanical Pulping led by James Olson might explain why a group of around 25 people participated”. This could very well be the case since energy reduction is indeed intimately linked to savings in production costs.

“The main goal of the community is to improve technical knowl-edge on mechanical pulping through a platform that supports the exchange of information.” Seeking networking opportuni-ties such as the one offered by PACWEST is another goal of the MPC. Dr. Zhirun Yuan adds that these goals can also be furthered through mill visits, technical presentations, and web based discussions – webinars for example.

''YOUR MOTHER’S FAULT'' an interview with Christer Idhammar, Founder and CEO of IDCON Inc.

“It is a management obligation to develop, document, communi-cate and reinforce better work processes.” For this, the recipe is simple: “keep it simple,” says the reliability and maintenance

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sector in 2006 culminated in 2008 with the international finan-cial crisis but that “the worse was behind us since early signs of recovery are starting to show. “We will readily admit that the industry needs to reinvent itself to address the numerous drivers calling for its transformation.” For Jean-François LaRue, the industry should become leaner and greener.

A 4-pronged strategy that integrates « innovation » at every step was described under these main lines: increasing produc-tivity and competitiveness; market diversification; growing and capitalizing on our green credentials and maximizing fibre value. Among other topics covered by Mr. LaRue, two issues of particular importance were described. Firstly, the need to over-come skilled labor shortage by recruiting at least 60,000 new hires. Secondly, the soaring defined benefit pension valuations affecting the industry's competitiveness. FPAC believes that forest companies have been forced to make unreasonable contributions to their defined benefit pension plans due to outdated pension regulatory provisions. According to FPAC, those contributions are crippling their ability to reinvest in the transformation of their business.

Peter Lovell, General Manager for Intercon, PG Pulp and Specialty Papers Mills, Canfor Pulp’s presentation was entitled “Improving The Odds When You Are Committed To Improved Results”. Peter Lovell discussed the organizational redesign of the PG Pulp and Paper Mill stemming from the desire to build a strategy for financial success to prevent the possibility of exiting the business. The organizational redesign included a 20% reduction in management headcount, the movement of personnel between mills, leadership development and the reengagement of middle management and frontline supervi-sion. It was in this context that reliability was assessed based on performance management indicators such as safety, prod-uct quality, tones produced and competitive costs.

Peter Lovell showed pictures of the damaged plant after a fire in 2008. He explained that when rebuilding was discussed, the company decided to build under budget with signifi-cant improvement to digester produc-tion. The incident turned into an opportunity for PG Pulp. “When I arrived at the company some would say that the PG Mill was going to disappear in 10 years. Today, the mill is not going anywhere. “This unfortunate incident shows that you never know when an opportunity will present itself and that, when it happens, you have to take full advantage of the situa-tion.” At PG Pulp’s mill the workforce is very flexible, “its part of the site’s culture and this probably contributed to our reliability and optimization success.”

''MEASURING PERFORMANCE'' the Opening Forum on Thursday

“look, listen, feel and smell type of inspection”.

When the consultant attends meetings such as this one he meets some of his current clients of course but also some of the clients he had twenty years ago. “For me it’s very interest-ing to discuss the evolution of their processes and its plain good fun to talk to people you were so close to at a certain point”. He also learns a lot from new developments in the industry and, if in essence, little changed in the last 50 years, if we are faced with one new problem it revolves around recruit-ing a skilled workforce. “This is mainly the fault of mothers’ and grandmothers’ who discouraged their suns and daughters to go to trade schools.” Such vocational schools teach the skills needed to perform a particular job. Millwrights, electricians, blacksmiths, etc. Fortunately, the tide is turning and there is more and more interest for such training. People see that there is money to be made in associated professions and the pulp and paper industry can only benefit from this situation.

After a short introduction on PACWEST’s 2013 theme – “Improving Performance through Optimization & Reliability” – moderator and Conference Chair Bill Adams, Domtar intro-duced the opening panel, expressed PACWEST’s gratitude to all sponsors for their generous contributions and support and acknowledged the work of the PACWEST team. A special men-tion to a “very special lady working behind the scene and without who the conference would not be such an excellent event: Ms Mary Barnes from the PACWEST / IBMP Organizing Committee”.

In a presentation entitled “Promising Future for Canada’s Forest Products I n d u s t r y ” , J e a n - F r a n ç o i s LaRue, Chief Econ-omist, Forest Prod-ucts Association of Canada's (FPAC)

made a presentation on FPAC’s Vision 2020. His presentation focused on the promising future for Canada s Forest Products Industry and explained how FPAC has put in place various initiatives to make this a reality.

He highlighted the celebration this year of the organization’s 100th anniversary and invited participants to visit the FPAC Facebook page for a timeline of what has happened in the past 100 years. He recalled that the forest industry has contributed a total of $2 trillion to Canada’s GDP over the last 100 years and $300 billions in the last ten years alone. The economist explained that the economic hardship that affected the

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remain the best ones to use”. Senior management often overlooks this yet; a prioritized focus in improvement efforts must be to take measures that improve overall reliability. Here, overall reliability includes operational, or process reliability and equipment reliability. This being said, “even with good skills, people cannot be more productive than the system they work in allows them to be”.

In a lively presentation with southern tonalities, Ian McKinnon, Principal Partner, Chief Development Officer, Reliability Solu-tions, described what reliable manufacturing meant “on the

floor”: precision improvement for real results. His time in the Canadian Navy proba-bly changed his views on machinery from an early age. I was told that on this cruel sea you are either hunted or the hunter. Considered in this light, knowledge

on the floor means survival. One reason “why we have to make sure we get skilled people in plants”. And this is an important concern since the workforce is aging and since about

50% of mills are over 50 years old.

Ian McKinnon went on to describe the main sources of mechanical failure. What are they? “Its not about poor design as much as its about poor assembly, incorrect installation and how its serviced. In a “mechanical failure pie” graphic he showed that most break-downs were due to: misalign-ment (30%), imbalance (30%), assembly (30%) and negligible other factors. For proven indus-try results, or “reliable manufac-turing”, four angles should be covered: 1- Production Improve-ment; 2- Asset Reliability Enhancement; 3- Maintenance costs reduction; 4- Energy consumption.

Robert Landau, Senior Principal, Pöyry Management Consult-ing described a metrics approach to maintenance manage-ment in a presentation called “Taking the Mystery out of Main-tenance”. If the use of KPI’s have become standard for most mills and for the manufacturing sector in general, indicators and measurable benchmarks for maintenance are less common. Typical approaches are rather reactive than proac-tive; they are “lagging rather than predictive”. In describing the steps in the maintenance process Robert Landau recalled the importance of managing performance.

There are always skep-tics in an organization that are not prepared to see things differently he said. In order to get buy in the consultant suggested to identify what he called “the execution gap”, described as “the differ-

ence between the capabilities of an operation and the realities of daily performance levels (with existing strategy & capital)”. As such, the best way to get buy in for a structured approach to managing maintenance is to do an assessment to quantify what can be gained by closing this execution gap. But not all metrics have the same quality; “there are 1000’s of things you could measure so you need to pick the ones that will determine success”. In supervisory positions new techniques are often considered as unessential add-ons and there is a fatigue / marathon effect for all these new management techniques and this is why Robert Landau always suggest: “start where you are”.

Christer Idhammar, Founder & CEO, IDCON described his career as a consultant that started after eight years in the Swedish Merchant marines as craftsperson, engineer and then as chief engineer. In the first consulting group he joined he was responsible for maintenance management. This is where he developed and implemented computerized maintenance system. This was as early as 1968. He started his own consul-tancy in the United-States in 1972. He heard many engineer jokes throughout his career, most of them “not funny at all”… Still, some of these jokes reflect a certain truth. “Engineers are not very good people people. This is too bad he says because its 90% about people!”

Maintenance reliability has to be a long-term goal. Unfortu-nately, he notes that there seems to be new maintenance techniques year after year. “This is very much alike weight-loss programs. There is a new one every week! But essentially, we all know how to loose weight to be healthy – we need to walk every day and eat better”. The recipe is simple and yet, “we still have to explain the difference between planning and schedul-ing in 2013. This is not the same.” On this simplicity note, Christer Idhammar stressed the importance never to use too much indicators at a same time and that “shop floor indicators

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design of a recovery boiler ESP. It was found that advanced ESP technology has the potential to realize multiple benefits for mill owners or operators.

Chris Roberts, Spartan Controls presented a paper written with Dan Laing, and Chris Roberts. “Brownstock Washing Optimi-zation Using Model Predictive Control” describes the experi-ence of implementing Model Predictive Control (MPC) based advanced control systems on each of the brownstock washing lines at Canfor Pulp’s Northwood pulp mill. MPC is a well-established technique used for handling control problems around brownstock washing. The new system was found to be superior to conventional control systems, led to higher utilization and to annual savings of about $700,000.

Jean-Noël Cloutier, Laboratoire des technologies de l'énergie (LTE) in Shawinigan, Québec presented the public utility’s work on electrochemical treatment of black liquor-second genera-tion technologies for the recovery of lignin. This is of peculiar relevance to kraft pulp mills since such recovery systems

constitute an important aspect of their financial profitability. To over-come the limitations of traditional chemical approaches, the LTE is developing a series of e l e c t r o c h e m i c a l technologies to better exploit the potential of

lignin precipitation. These require no external acidifying agents and as such do not affect a mill’s chemical balance nor its effluents. In brief, the LTE’s research has found that an electro-chemical approach can improve lignin recovery capacity potential, can secure partial mill caustic supply without disturb-ing Na/S balance, and can be an environmentally friendly add-on to chemical options thus complying with sustainable development objectives.

The following presentation brought participants closer to the region. “Implementation of an Air Quality Assess-ment and Communica-tions Program Following Major Odour Reduction Projects at Two Canfor Pulp and Paper Mills in Prince George, British Columbia” by Adam Lancaster, Canfor Pulp LP, Prince George discusses the assessment of an odour reduction project impacts on ambient

''ENERGY OPTIMIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS''

In light of this, a possible definition of reliable manufacturing could be the ability to “depend on your manufacturing system to run effectively and efficiently, in response to market demands, and without the insurance of inflated inventories.”

While Session 2A on kraft pulping was being held, Session 2B on "Energy Optimization & Environmental Improvements” was the opportunity to hear the authors of six papers on an issue of central importance to production optimization.

Session Chair Ken Wiecke of AMEC introduced the presenters and their work. The session allowed participants to obtain first-hand knowledge on the implementation of strategies geared towards energy optimization and overall plant perfor-mance. Tim Harshenin, from the Domtar Kamloops Pulp Mill presented a common paper with PACWEST Conference Chair Bill Adams: “Turbine Generator Upgrades at Domtar Kamloops”. The site is a one-line, 1100-ton per day pulp mill with about 300 full-time employees. Power generation sales supplement the mill’s bottom line with a monthly generation as high as 67.9 MW. Since the existing turbine and generator were initially installed in 1971 a major overhaul was required and the process steam balances were evaluated to maximize the energy efficiency of the mill. This meant a complete upgrade of control systems and monitoring capabilities. Enhanced controls and monitoring systems enable reduced maintenance costs and longer intervals between inspections. Overall, efforts made by the plant and its partners allows for reliable power generation over the course of the decades to come.

Gary J. Grieco, Air Consulting Associates presented a paper entitled “Advanced ESP Designs for Black Liquor Recovery Boilers”. The paper prepared together with Southern Environ-mental and Canfor Pulp & Paper presents advanced designs for black liquor recovery boiler ESPs. Data

presented establish the beneficial effect of the concurrent application of two commercially proven technologies into the

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There are around 240 partici-pants this year, “approximately the same number as we had last year” but much more than there were when Bill Adams entered the Conference committee in 2009. “This is surely a sign that we accomplished a lot of work through the years but also a proof that the economic slow-down is coming to an end”. Bill Adams expect the same amount of participants for next year’s 52nd edition of PACWEST, “perhaps even more since the Jasper convention centre is a slightly bigger place”.

The theme of the Conference being “Improving Performance through Optimization and Reliability” was specifically chosen in the context of this recovering economic situation.

air quality that was completed in the year following major upgrades in two pulp mills and one integrated pulp and paper mill within the city limits of Prince George. Three factors should be considered in order to properly justify capital spending for environmental improvements: firstly, the scientific justification, secondly, support for continuing business objectives (are the expected improvements important to significant community stakeholders?) and thirdly, the manner in which the results will be communicated.

Roham Bazarjani from Autopro Automation Consultants presented a case study entitled “Using Synchrophasors and Off-the-shelf Protection and Automation Equipment for Electri-cal Load Shedding Services”. The Alberta Interconnected Elec-

tric System is at risk of firm load shedding when the electrical systems of Alberta and British Columbia are operated in connection above certain levels and trips. Load-shedding schemes (LSS) that monitor for contingen-

cies and take mitigating actions to lessen impact during high import conditions are thus necessary to preserve system stability and reliability. The engineering design and implemen-tation of an LSS system was discussed in the context of an Alberta plant utilizing off-the-shelf, industry standard protection and control.

“Most technologies and scientific findings discussed at the PACWEST Conference are ready to be applied on the ground,” says Bill Adams, Domtar and Conference Chair. This distin-guishes this industry gathering from similar ones across the country. “I like to say that this is our distinctive advantage, one that I know has resonance with many participants since we succeed in attracting an important proportion of mill managers who tell me they especially like the hands-on and practical oriented content of the presentations.”

From a personal or should we say “professional” perspective, the large number of mill representation at the Conference allows Mr. Adams to network with mill colleagues which is a relatively rare opportunity. “Together we discuss challenges, concrete approaches to problem solving and new best industry practices.”

One example of a learning he will surely bring back home? “It’s a difficult question to answer since I could not attend all sessions. Still, this afternoon’s presentation on ESP designs for black liquor recovery boilers by Gary J. Grieco was an eye opener to me and many colleagues”. The steps to achieve

''TIME TO GIVE BACK'' an interview with Bill Adams, Domtar, Conference Chair

black liquor recovery described by Gary J. Grieco as well as the science behind the paper presented is certainly something Bill Adams will carry back at the Domtar Kamloops Pulp Mill.

Often, its only when he is back home that he finds the time to have a closer look at all the papers presented here. “Parallel sessions allow us to chose amongst many topics of interest but obviously we cannot be at two places at the same time.” Each participant is given a CD containing all papers presented at the conference.

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''INSPIRING DISCUSSIONS'' with Kelly Parfitt, Canfor

“We are at a stage when we need to remove as many constraints and bottle-necks as possible in as much as produc-tion is concerned.” We need to get the most our of our assets through improvements in reliability and this is a persistent subject of discussion in the community since last year’s meet-ing in Jasper.

Among the many benefits of using a resort hotel convention center, one cannot overlook the social side to PACWEST. “Meeting in a big city, participants tend to disappear after the presentations as for in a place like Sun Peaks we stay around and mingle over lunch, dinner or various social activities.” Another obvious convenience of such settings says Mr. Adams is the fact that attendees have the option of staying close to the conference venue. No need for a Sherpa here. This saves everyone money on transportation and on time spent between your room and the venue.

Why would a mill executive choose to chair PACWEST and spend precious time throughout the year for a weeklong conference? “I believe that what unites us all in the PACWEST Committee is the desire to give back to the pulp and paper community and to make sure we provide value for all partici-pants – this means much new learning and as many new networking opportunities as possible.”

Bill Adams attended the conference when he was a young engineer and believes it was a great opportunity for him at the time. Reflecting on his four years at the Committee, and on his memories of the first meetings he attended as a younger professional he adds: “for me, it was time to give back”.

Organizers do not question the alternation between Jasper and Sun Peaks. Participants take advantage of a change of scen-ery “and its only fair that some have to travel a little more than others a year out of two”. It will be the case for Prince George based Kelly Paritt in May 2014.

Kelly Parfitt of Canfor Pulp is this year’s PACWEST Second Vice Chair. “This is my fourth experience as attendee to the conference but the first time as a committee member” she says. As one of the youngest participants, Ms. Parfitt believes the conference to be an excellent place to gain knowledge on new scientific and technical development in the industry. For her, PACWEST offers the perfect balance between social and business activities and this is a huge motivation behind her participation. “One cannot overlook the networking opportuni-ties here. Throughout the year I can call people I met at PACWEST to discuss issues of relevance to my work as project engineer.” The Trade Fair is also of interest to her. She was especially interested in one type of technology presented by Metso Automation and by Fitnir Analyzers.

“Being at Sun Peaks is a rare opportunity to talk to vendors and to users of their technologies – almost simultaneously”.

If World leaders meet in Davos it’s also perhaps a little bit because of mountain resorts beautiful views. Is this also the case for the seven Canfor colleagues that accompany Kelly Parfitt? Some say altitude make for stimulating discussions. It certainly inspires. “We may in fact learn more on inspiration and performance in tomorrow’s conference feature presenta-tion by Dr. Greg Wells”. Dr. Wells is a scientist and physiologist specializing in health and performance in extreme conditions. “This type of presentation is interesting for the ‘out of the box’ thinking it brings to our program”. On Friday, we will indeed learn more on the links between the optimization of athletes’ performances and industry optimization. In the corridors we heard Dr. Wells was training in the region this week. Does this mean that the committee will include high altitude running in next year’s program?

''BIOENERGY AND BIOPRODUCT OPPORTUNITIES''Energized by Friday's lunch keynote address by Dr. Greg Wells, participants gathered in two final technical sessions before the much awaited conference reception and awards dinner. Session 4B on "Bioenergy and Bioproduct Opportuni-ties" was held in parallel with session 4A on mechanical pulping and papermaking.

The panel discussion on bioenergy and bioproduct opportuni-ties gave participants an occasion to explore challenges and opportunities in the future bio-economy. It appears from the presentations – and from the lively corridor discussions – that as transformation of this sector continues, the opportunities for innovative projects and new products like these become unlim-ited. Entering the room, someone was heard saying that the

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In his view, companies with a holistic human resources vision usually have the necessary resiliency to survive. The slow-down was a good time to focus, rest and reinforce corporate values. Now it is time to apply our good resolutions. A good way to start is by focusing on “manage the manageable”. This helps avoid unnecessary and unhealthy stress.

forestry and pulp and paper sectors are becoming North Amer-ica’s new sunrise sector.

The Session Chair for this session was Sotirios Korogonas from Canfor Pulp. For him, the willingness of the panelists to

share lessons learned over the course of the recent months is a great opportuni-ty for all attendees to learn about opportunities ahead. Panelists in this session are the following: Tom Browne, FP Innovations; Wade Chute (photo above), Alberta Inno-

vates; Jon Foan, Noram Engineering (Lignin Recovery Tech-nology); Jean-François Levasseur, NRCan; Garth Russel, Metso and Gene Christiansen, Director of Business Develop-ment and Innovations, Metso Power. Each presented real-life cases, all tangible examples of the transformative momentum underway across Canada’s pulp and paper sector.

''MANAGING THE MANAGABLE'' an interview with Dr. Greg Wells

second at the finish line.

Fortunately, its now a good time for the industry to recuperate and the positive image it sends back to society, “if only in green credentials”, brings back dividends. “There should be more and more young people interested in working for a responsible industry bold enough to reinvent itself.” The challenge will be to walk the talk at a very human level. Companies should encour-age active lifestyles and good diets for their employees. “I have seen companies succeed in applying very simple measures”, says Dr. Wells who started his career as a health and nutrition consultant for the financial sector.

Toronto based scientist and physiologist Greg Wells specializ-es in health and performance in extreme conditions. The PACWEST Feature Luncheon’s keynote speaker is known for his frequent TV appearances and for the “Superbodies” segments he animated during Canada’s national Olympic broadcast at CTV during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. View-ers might also have seen him on TV as analyst for the 2012 Olympics in London or as a contributor to CBC, TSN or CTV. Dr. Wells took the opportunity of his visit to Sun Peaks to train for this summer’s 2013 Whistler Ironman (a series of long-dis-tance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corpora-tion (WTC).

“The pulp and paper industry is coming out of an important economic slowdown and must raise at the same time from a somewhat negative reputation which led to a lack of interest from a young generation of skilled workers” says Greg Wells. If the tide is turning, this brought the community to do more with less. In other words and to make an analogy with human health, the industry is waking up the morning after a very stren-uous race, a triathlon or perhaps even an Ironman. “Some may say it is exhausted due to the heavy physical toll associated with higher than usual stress levels says Greg Wells but you cannot manage a situation of such amplitude – some things are simply out of our personal control and this is why I always advise to strive at making incremental changes, tiny but result oriented and focused steps. This is how high performance athletes succeed.” Indeed, what distinguishes an Olympics winner from a competitor are often small details; one-tenth of a

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''OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE IN THE WORKPLACE'' - Friday's Feature LuncheonConference Co-Chair, Dennis Froats of ERCO Worldwide and Conference Chair Bill Adams of Domtar welcomed the partici-pants and thanked the conference sponsors after a reenact-ment of the traditional PACWEST Executive Committee procession leading to the podium. Before lunch, Bill Adams took the time to invite participants to the 100th edition of Paper-Week Canada, PAPTAC’s Annual Meeting to be held in Mon-treal from February 3rd to 6th 2014. The 2014 program should not only match last’s years but should bring even more to participants as PAPTAC intends to celebrate the 100th Anni-versary milestone: high profiles keynote speakers, technical and business tracks on the key issues and key topics for the industry and, the renowned PaperWeek trade show with occa-sions to meet exhibitors in person over a range of social and business events.

Following lunch, PACWEST Feature Luncheon’s keynote speaker Dr. Greg Wells made a presentation entitled “Be Excellent: Optimal Performance in the Workplace”. Dr. Wells describes himself as a human physiologist. Director of Sport Science for the Canadian Sport Centre, he was invited by CTV to comment on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and started to discern what made the athletes so great. He began to notice something extremely interesting about them: those that succeeded and achieved high performance under intense pressure consistently followed a relatively simple recipe.

His observations on why some succeed while others don’t led him to understand what we could all do in our personal lives to become “Olympians”. What is their ability to perform under pressure? “With their coaches, they manage to create an atmosphere of excellence in a challenging environment.”

This relates to business in many ways. Sportspersons and companies are much more alike than we think. First, they face a challenge. Many. Industry restructuring, among others, was described by Dr. Wells as an important challenge for the pulp and paper sector: The industry has just gone through a

massive reorganization and many changes from processes to brand new product lines. Just like stressful events in a person’s life like moving homes, this comes with “high stress”. This context comes with a pressure to perform – to get higher performance out of people, the necessity of doing more with less and shorter business cycles (6 months instead of the good old days when we talked of a 3 years cycle). “High stress happens when one is scrambling from challenge to challenge” he says.

Dr. Greg Wells went on to show the audience how some of the science behind world-class athletes improves their perfor-mance and health and how this applies equally to people and to the business world. Under eight stages of an “excellence pathway”, he described how the tools and techniques used by Olympians could be applied by anyone to ensure success. One of these stages is “focus”. Focus can lead to success in situa-tions of stress. It also allows companies to concentrate on one business strategy with as less distraction as possible. This is what CISCO did when it decided to choose growth through talent development instead of mergers and acquisitions.

Another condition to achieve optimal performance in the work-place relates to the power of positivity. “Along with the visual-ization of a success strategy (“dream setting” or what high performance sports experts call “the zone”), this positivism is something athletes learn at the Olympics and it’s a mindset that could also allow your industry to face challenges in a world where things don’t always go as expected.”

''WISDOM, POWER AND CONSIDERATION FOR MAN''Che-Man Lee works at Kemira as Area Manager for the Prince George region. Mr. Lee is this year’s IBMP 1st Vice-President and PACWEST/IBMP Co-Chair. In such capacities, he was very much involved in the organization of the meeting and will be active on the committee preparing next year’s PACWEST Conference in Jasper. He confirms that the next conference of the community will be held in Jasper, Alberta from 28 to 31 May 2014. “I am very much looking forward to working hand in hand with the next PACWEST organization committee” he says. What makes this especially interesting for him is the rapid change in culture he observes in the industry. “In the past, mills were very secretive about what they did. Today, mills from Alberta to Quebec cooperate in the face of market volatility and aggressive international competition – especially coming from emerging countries in South-America or East Asia. For Che-Man Lee, the industry will need to keep on investing in research and development. “It will rely on innovation more than ever before and at the centre of all this are the mill operators so well represented at PACWEST.”

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Canada’s Forest Products Indus-try”, Jean-François LaRue, Forest Products Association of Canada's stressed the need to overcome skilled labour shortage by recruit-ing at least 60,000 new hires while and this means investing in people. Ian McKinnon, Reliability Solutions, would agree. On the floor, reliable manufacturing implies making “sure we get skilled people in plants”.

and reliability, kraft pulping, energy optimization, environmen-tal improvements and mechanical pulping. Informative and thought provoking presentations also gave attendees food for though. “The PACWEST meetings are always useful to get a better view at the industry’s evolution at a macro and micro level” explains Kelly Parfitt from Canfor Pulp.

If technology still drives the industry, what (or who) drives technology? Again and again we heard speakers explain the importance on invest-ing on human resources, on empowering skilled workers by involving them in management and planning, through training or, very bluntly, by making sure they feel ownership in a paper mill’s future. “People perform, machines execute” could have been a conclusion to Christer Idhammar, IDCON’s presentation on the essential processes required to manage reliability and mainte-nance. People working on the floor “must participate actively in improving equipment reliability”. As such, he stressed the importance for management to “develop, document, communi-cate and reinforce better work processes”. High results are achieved when work is planed and scheduled. In the words of the consultant, “excellent work process revolves largely on craft skills''.

But skills have to be developed and they only come if we invest in them. In his presentation entitled “Promising Future for

The theme for next year’s conference will be discussed in the fall and from then on committee members will meet once a month to prepare the event and to gather and review submitted papers. Very soon after the first meeting of the committee, work will start for the International Brotherhood of Migratory Peddlers (IBMP). Since years, IBMP is responsible for the logistics of the event.

Highlights of this year’s edition were the well-attended short-courses. Mr. Lee was especially interested in the half-day oxygen delignification course presented by Dr. Paul F. Earl. Designed to provide participants with a broad understanding of the fundamentals behind oxygen delignification, and their relevance in mill operation, he believed the course was of particular interest to the engineers. A very popular short course was the full-day course titled “Improving Machinery Reliability”. The course featured live dynamic machine sets to demonstrate how to achieve “best-in-class” running performance utilizing precision techniques.

Relationship building is one of his highest motivations in attending the PACWEST Conference. This is of interest for his work since it gives him a first hand understanding of how the mills evolve.

''OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE IN THE WORKPLACE'' - A look back at the week's highlightsWhile some participants may have been practicing some visualisations techniques described by keynote speaker Dr. Greg Wells to perform at golf tomorrow, others are either danc-ing, packing or reflecting upon a week of professional develop-ment and learning. PaperAdvance is of course in the latter category.

Under the title of "Improving Performance through Optimiza-tion & Reliability”, PACWEST 2013 offered content for every-one’s interest in each of the Delta’s meeting rooms: bioprod-ucts and bioenergy opportunities, performance improvement through optimization

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Overall, this year’s annual industry gathering in Canada’s West welcomed a total of around 240 delegates: industry suppliers, researchers as well as operations and management person-nel. “This is reason enough for calling it a success,” said Bill Adams, Conference Chair, but organizers were also happy with participation at the Trade Fair. “Participation was at capac-ity,” said Mary Barnes, of the organizing team. About twenty exhibit booths and poster stands were dismantled this after-noon.

A little more than twenty technical papers were presented at the conference. Together they can be considered as the back-bone of PACWEST. Attendees discuss them in hotel corridors and on the streets of Sun Peaks. Tim Harshenin, Process Control Lead & Electrical Project Engineer at Domtar’s Kam-loops Pulp Mill earned the conference's highest honour for a paper titled “Turbine Generator Upgrades at Domtar Kam-loops”. It was co-authored with Bill Adams, Manager Engineer-ing and Strategic Planning at the same mill. “Birdie”, has some participants call the H.R. MacMillan Trophy, will not have to travel far from the conference venue. The “Eagle” trophy is awarded for best paper.

Other award-winning papers were:

•First Runner-up: Irene Coyle from FPInnovations. “Improving Smelt Dissolving Tank TTA Control at Zellstoff-Celgar”. •Best Supplier Paper: Geoff Clarkson from UTComp. “Predic-tive Maintenance for Fiberglass Reinforced Equipment”.•Best Novice Paper: Yu Sun from the Lignocellulosic Material Research Centre of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR).

Reflecting on his experience at the conference, attendee and paper presenter Jean-Noël Cloutier of Hydro-Québec explains that year after year he finds the quality of the papers to be of outmost interest. He especially enjoys following the work of young paper presenters like Yu Sun with whom he collaborated on the winning best novice paper. Like many, Mr. Cloutier also travels to PACWEST to network with peers and to meet poten-tial project partners for technology development. With a suitcase full of technological innovation when he arrived three days ago, he heads back to Shawinigan, Quebec where the Laboratoire des technologies de l'énergie (LTE) (Energy technology laboratory) is located. Tomorrow morning he will be travelling with heavier luggage; business cards, papers, inter-esting collaboration possibilities and plenty of new ideas. We are likely to see Mr. Cloutier again at PaperWeek in February 2014 and at PACWEST, which will be held May 28-31, 2014 in Jasper, Alberta.

''WISDOM, POWER AND CONSIDERATION FOR MAN''

Awards DinnerThe conference reception and Awards Dinner and Dance were held tonight on the final night of the PACWEST Conference. Just before presenting PACWEST Paper Awards, the organiz-ing committee expressed a very special recognition to Ms Mary Barnes the lady behind much of the organization and logistics of the weeklong confer-ence. Mary Barnes was handed a certificate recognizing her as Honor-ary Peddler under the loud applause of the large audience gathered in the reception room. In the words of the organizers, it is partly thanks to her that the 2013 edition of the PACWEST Conference was such a success. 66 mill representatives, 147 suppliers were present this year for a total attendance of around 240 delegates.

Tim Harshenin, Process Control Lead & Electrical Project Engi-neer at Domtar’s Kamloops Pulp Mill earned the conference's highest honor, the H.R. MacMillan "Eagle" Trophy for best paper. Tim Harshenin’s paper is titled “Turbine Generator

Upgrades at Domtar Kamloops”. The paper was co-authored with Bill Adams, Manager Engineering and Strategic Planning at the same plant.

The PACWEST Techni-cal Conference has a

long history of awards for the “Best” technical papers. In 1976 a decision was made to establish a trophy that would carry the names of winners and be on display at their operations during the following year. The trophy takes the form of a wooden carving by Marvin Baker, Squamish, a British-Colombia artist. Shaped in the form of an Eagle with outstretched wings, it is a symbol of wisdom, power and consideration for man in the Western folklore. The H.R. MacMillan, annual Memorial Award was initiated by the Western and Pacific Coast Branches and is always awarded to a “mill paper”.

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The First Runner-up Award was Irene Coyle from FPInnova-tions for her paper: “Improving Smelt Dissolving Tank TTA

Control at Zellst-off-Celgar”. The runner up paper award is given to any full-length paper presented.

The Best Supplier Paper Award was presented by Geoff

Clarkson from UTComp for: “Predictive Maintenance for Fiber-glass Reinforced Equipment”.

The Best Novice Paper Award went to Yu Sun from the Ligno-cellulosic Material Research Centre of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). Yu Sun worked along Robert Lanouette. Her paper is titled: “Impact of pH during an interstage ozone treatment of thermomechan ica l pulp”. All judges were thanked for their continued support, time and effort involved in judging all papers presented at PACWEST and for maintaining their anonymity year after year. Participants were reminded that all papers presented this week are available on CD.