Longview Tells Transformation Story from a Papermaker's Perspective

At TAPPI's PaperCon 2012 event, April 22 - 25, in New Orleans, La., USA, two leaders from Longview Fiber Paper and Packaging, Longview, Wash., will be sharing the story of Longview's transformation from the time it was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management in 2007 until today. The company, while maintaining its steadfast focus on the manufacture of kraft paper products, has essentially become a new company culturally, operationally, and financially.

During Monday's (April 23) PB1 track session, Paul Duncan, mill manager, will lay the groundwork for the presentation by sharing information about some of the overall improvements that were made. Among other things, he'll describe how Longview:

Shutdown four paper machines, and at the same time, managed to improve productivity by 52%
Decreased the safety incident rate by 82%
Achieved a 23% reduction in energy conservation
Continues to make significant investments in capital to grow the future.

Brian Peterson, containerboard team lead, will delve into some of the details of what the mill did to support the transformation. He will provide details in a range of areas, including:

How performance on Longview's five machines was improved
How the management of people was handled and how that affected the results
How their approach to production guided them to make appropriate decisions
How their approach to investing capital kept them focused on doing those things that were essential to achieving the results needed,

In a separate but related presentation, Bruce Warrick, operations training manager for Longview, will be sharing the role that operator training played in the transformation at Longview.

Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging produces lightweight, high-performance multiwall and complementary specialty kraft papers for an established domestic and global customer base. The company also produces containerboard and corrugated boxes. Longview operates a pulp and paper mill at Longview, Wash., and a network of seven converting plants in the western U.S.

More details about the PaperCon 2012 program, exhibition, workshops and seminars, special events, and registration are available online, along with information about travel and accommodations.

TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/