Creativity from school and experience

May 15, 2024

I think of engineers in two distinct categories. I first picked up on this back in school, which is a long time ago now.

There are the creative type and the cookbook type. Now, to some extent, all engineers are of the cookbook type. There has to be discipline to your engineering calculations.

However, we really advance when we let the creative types loose to a certain extent.

I have observed the construction of approximately twenty new containerboard machines in the last twenty years. It is amazing the differences in creativity employed in these projects.

One company built threes machines of the most amazing layouts I have ever seen. Not saying they were great layouts, but they were unique and creative.

Another claims over 100 improvements in each one they have built, but they look fairly conventional.

Yet another built a machine that was the modern embodiment of everything that has happened in the last fifty years (and I would guess cost about $200 million more than necessary). It was the least creative of them all.

I wish I had a formula I could give you, but, if you are leading a project team, about all I can say is let the traditional and the creative seek a balance for in that way you will build the optiimium project.

What is your opinion? Drop me a line at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com. I would like to hear from you.

And further by the way, I come to mills and talk to various departments about many subjects. To arrange my custom visit to your mill, just email me at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com or call me at 678-206-6010.

Young Engineering Manager of the Year, call for nominations

We are looking for an individual who has done an extraordinary project, one that almost defies belief. Its extraordinary features can be schedule, technology, cost or all three. There is an age limit on the manager eligible for this award: they must be under 35 years old when they completed the project.

We have often gotten nominees that go something like this, "I nominate Joe because he has done a great job of running our engineering department for the last fifteen years." Quite frankly, we are not interested in such nominees.

However, if you know someone who has led a very exceptional project in the recent past (the last two or three years) and meets our age requirement, we want to know about it. We want to honor them and hold them up as an example for Engineering Managers in every pulp and paper mill around the world.

Just send your nomination, with as much details as you can provide, to jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com. We will seriously consider it.

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