Jim Thompson

Email Jim at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com

By Jim Thompson

Conducting a Capital Project at the optimum pace is a serious matter. I have seen all extremes in pace or scheduling of projects. Some engineers want to make a career out of designing projects. Others want to set a speed record. There is no correct pace for a project.

If you are trying to adopt some of the ideas I had in this column last week, you may have to proceed cautiously and slowly. If you are putting in a conventional pump base, you ought to be able to design it before I get done writing this column.

All projects of any size should go through the clearly defined step process developed by the Construction Industry Institute in Austin, Texas. If you don't know those, read them.

Sometimes you have to go fast, and you are likely to waste some money. This happens because of an imminent failure that can take a process down or hurt personnel if not addressed.

Others need to be slowed down because of their complexity and unknowns.

Both examples were seen in World War II. Generals advancing were upset if their engineers couldn't throw a bridge across a major river in one day.

At the same time, the Manhattan Project took over three years to build the first atomic bomb.

Both were needed as quickly as possible. One had many previous examples to follow, the other had never been built before. Both had ample resources to accomplish their task.

If you are going to build a "cookie cutter" paper mill with experienced engineers and constructors, you should be able to go from breaking ground to paper on the real in less than three years.

If your team is a bunch of rookies, it may take five years and may never run. I know three or four mills in the US--northwest, southeast, and mid-Atlantic that never ran. Everyone always asked, "Why?" I would say exotic feedstocks, inexperienced staffing, and boards of directors without a clue.

Back on the other side, I have seen gigantic, bureaucratic, legacy companies take extraordinarily long times because they couldn't get out of their own way?

Where do you fit in this continuum? What can you do to assure your pace is correct?

Be safe and we will talk next week.

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