The annual State of the Industry session at TAPPI’s PEERS Conference this year featured five expert panelists discussing Collaborating to Advance Manufacturing Technology. The panel explored a decline in R&D for technology advancement and potential implications, as well as opportunities for innovation and other subjects.

  

Panelists included: Bob Feeser, president-Consumer Products, WestRock; Dirk Krouskop, president-National Council for Air & Stream Improvement Inc.; Norman Marsolan, executive director-Renewable Bioproducts Institute, Georgia Tech; Alan Rudie, assistant director-Forest Products Lab, U.S. Forest Service; and Bertil Stromberg, VP-BioRefinery, Fiber, and Chemical Division, Andritz Inc. The event occurred Monday, Nov. 6, 2017, in Norfolk, Va., USA.

APPTI Executive Director David Turpin moderated the panel and announced the name-change (from Agenda 2020 to APPTI) at PEERS on Nov. 6, 2017.

"Declines in public and private investments in technology R&D over the past two decades have put the U.S. industry in general at a disadvantage, relative to areas where investments have increased," commented WestRock’s Bob Feeser. "Fostering university research and education would drive greater growth in innovation."

Norman Marsolan of Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute agreed. He saw the decline in hiring of Masters’s and PhD graduates by pulp and paper manufacturers as triggering a loss of technical talent to other industries. He recommended that companies invest in pulp and paper schools so they can attract the best students and faculty, and sustain and build industry-related competency in their universities.

Technology has brought progress in some areas. Andritz VP Stromberg noted the significant improvements in energy efficiency, chemical recovery, process control, and yield. "Energy production in the recovery system has doubled, while consumption in the mill has decreased by 30%," said Stromberg.  "There is no shortage of ideas. We used to have a lot of one-on-one development with manufacturers and shorter timelines, but now the customers’ decision process makes it a lot slower and less likely to get the ideas into the mills."

 

Participants heard a range of perspectives on industry technology needs and research capabilities during the annual PEERS State of the Industry session.

 

 The U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Lab’s Alan Rudie urged integration of sustainability challenges and environmental improvement with manufacturing and resource efficiency. "Forest Service R&D supports cellulose nanomaterials and an effort to develop a catalyzed pulping process.  Either of these could reset the clock and that will do more to rejuvenate forest products R&D than any other initiative that I can think of," said Rudie.

Dirk Krouskop of NCASI cited the industry’s record of achievement in sustainability. "The industry has a very strong, if under-appreciated, record on sustainability," he told the audience. "Industry should be proud of what it has accomplished. Some of the progress was driven by regulation—and much of it by companies wanting to do the right thing. We are a highly sustainable industry and customers should be happy with us." 

Bob Feeser concurred. "Consumer products companies—and consumers—are pressing for improvements in light-weighting and packaging designs, and advances in barrier solutions are reducing the need for polymers and plastics," said Feeser.

"All of this creates opportunities for bio-based materials from our industry," he continued. "Consumers are looking for packaging that is more recyclable, protects their products better with less material, keeps their food fresher, and fits their lifestyles with more on-the-go consumption. With continued investment in resources and capital in technology, we can meet these challenges and chart new paths for renewal of our industry."