The Rhinelander Daily News - Online news and information for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin region

On Friday, Aug. 15, Gov. Jim Doyle came to Wausau Paper’s Rhinelander paper mill to announce the creation of a new $14 million rural loan fund that will be administered through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

The governor’s program is designed to provide low-interest loans to rural businesses willing to make significant capital investments to remain competitive in their respective industries. The governor chose the Rhinelander mill because Wausau Paper is examining the possibility of using the program to update its No. 4 coater, the large-scale coating machine that produces many of the high-end specialty papers that have kept the mill competitive in the international marketplace.

The capital investment that would go into the re-build of the No. 4 coater is just one of the on-going strategies that Wausau Paper has employed to make the Rhinelander mill more efficient.

According to company officials, efficiency has become the mantra at a mill that has been in business over 100 years and today competes at the high-end of the international paper market with paper machines that are over 50 years old.

To understand how the mill has stayed competitive, it helps to know a little bit more about how the business operates.

The Rhinelander mill of Wausau Paper actually consists of three distinct production units – paper, coated products, and Lake States Yeast. The paper and coated products units work in conjunction with one another with the paper unit supplying some of the paper that the coated products unit runs through its two silicone coaters to make finished products.

The coated products unit creates coated paper used for food applications and laminated paper backings used for industrial applications. Pan liner, one of the food-grade products, is a paper used in bakeries.

The pan liner paper produced at the Rhinelander mill is high food grade paper that meets Kosher standards.

The coated paper produced at the Rhinelander mill for industrial applications goes into the production process of high-end fiber composites that are used in Boeing aircraft and in electricity-generating windmills.

Lake States Yeast is a holdover side business that still operates at a profit.

The business produces food-grade yeast products. Initially developed as a way to use the leftover sugar by-products created by used paper pulp, these days the Rhinelander mill purchases the sugar that goes into its yeast production process.

The Rhinelander mill stopped producing pulp paper in the mid-1980s as the industry moved most of its pulp operations to southern states like Georgia and Mississippi. These days the growth regions in the pulp production industry are Brazil, Russia, and China.

Since leaving the pulp paper business, the mill has stayed competitive by producing value-added specialty papers.

The vertical integration of Wausau Paper allows the mill to control many of its production inputs while also making the company responsive to the needs of its customers.

The communication between product managers in the paper unit and their counterparts on the coated products side allows the company to receive instantaneous feedback throughout the process of making a specialty paper.

Improving efficiency is another aspect of the business that depends on close communication between product technicians and supervisors. The paper machines that are the backbone of the Rhinelander mill’s operation are over 50 years old. Mill engineers and operators participate in a feedback process called the “Delta Process,” which mill management credits with honing the efficiency of its machines and maintaining its competitiveness without using state-of-the-art equipment. Engineers, product technicians, and supervisors are constantly adjusting the machines to ensure they are running at maximum levels of efficiency.

The biggest challenges the mill faces today are the rising costs of its major inputs – paper pulp and energy.

In addition to constantly honing its energy consumption levels, the mill also employs multiple strategies to maximize the recovery of pulp by-products throughout the productions process.

The mill also employs alternate boiler systems that have allowed it to switch between coal and natural gas depending on which fuel source offers are more attractive price point.

Tell us what you think...

Comments »

John wrote on Sep 1, 2008 10:42 PM:

" God Bless Jim Doyle! Here's a few jobs that won't go to China. "

The comments above are from readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Rhinelander Daily News.