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A successful mill requires all to be engaged.  If the person at the top is not engaged, there is no hope that anyone else is.  Sooner or later, the facility will fail, if headquarters does not replace that person first.

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The trend towards fewer employees in our pulp and paper mills started many years ago. It was originally driven by cost and quality. Employees obviously cost money.When computers came along that could adjust various attributes in real time, as opposed to employees monitoring conditions, pulling levers and turning valves, the replacement was inevitable.

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When a paper mill in a small, remote, town is facing shutdown,  governments are often quite helpful to new industrial developments, which should make replacing a dying mill with a data center all the more attractive to a developer.

Bad habits from an old culture are almost impossible to eradicate, even over time. The problem is those bad habits, once inculcated into the culture, are almost impossible to erase, even over many, many years. However, I have seen strong leaders break cultures for the better.  It usually takes two steps, enacted simultaneously...

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With a low cost and its capabilities, Baxter, an industrial robot recently introduced by Rethink Robotics of Boston, Massachusetts, is nothing short of a revolution on the order of the PC and the Internet.

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