Capital Argument
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A trademark of Paperitalo Publications
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Be an Active Capital Projects Engineer
Capital Projects Engineers are often considered passive in this sense: while coming up with clever solutions to problems, the problem requests themselves originate in the production departments.
It goes like this. A manager of a paper machine, powerhouse or other department has a nagging problem or becomes aware of a new development. They initiate a capital project and, after some point in time it lands on a project engineer's desk. The project engineer is expected to be competent and innovative from this point forward. Remarkably, they are not expected to move further back upstream.
An active Capital Project Engineer behaves differently and in a more valuable way for their employer. They don't wear blinders. They don't just work on the projects they are assigned. As they wander the facility, and they have more license to wander the facility than nearly anyone else, they are on the lookout for opportunities that will improve the facility, often financially, sometimes from a safety perspective, too.
It may be that company protocol only allows operating departments to initiate projects. No problem. The active Capital Project Engineer will present their ideas to the operating departments and help them move the projects through the process. Don't like seeing others get credit for your ideas? Get over it. Make your facility a vibrant, alive and relevant part of your company's fleet of facilities. You can do this, too. Get out of the traditional role.
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 jthompson@taii.com. We will seriously consider it.
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Current Patent Activity is available here.
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Capital Arguments Engineering Manager of the Year
Hall of Fame
Since its inception, Capital Arguments has believed extraordinary projects are possible. They can be done safely, responsibly and offer a great advantage to their mills with lower capital costs and saved downtime. We established this award in 2008 to recognize those people and companies that follow this philosophy. This award is given once per year somewhere in the world. We honor our inductees permanently here.
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Mac Switkowski--Engineering Manager of the Year 2015
Mac Switkowski, center, holds his Capital Arguments Engineering Manager of the Year Award that was presented by Paperitalo CEO Jim Thompson, left, as Luis Henao, right, vice president at Pratt Industries applauds. Mac brought the new mill at Valparaiso in on time and on budget despite a change of paper machine suppliers mid project.
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Not Awarded 2014
You have to be really good to get this award. We did not receive any qualifying nominations in 2014.
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Not Awarded 2013
You have to be really good to get this award. We did not receive any qualifying nominations in 2013.
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Not Awarded 2012
You have to be really good to get this award. We did not receive any qualifying nominations in 2012.
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Ed Kersey--Engineering Manager of the Year 2011
Jim p
resents Ed with the Engineering Manager of the Year for 2011.
(L - R) Matt Nilsen, Jim Thompson, Ed Kersey and Wayne South. Nilsen is Account Manager and South is Business Development Manager for Kadant Black Clawson, underwriter of this year's award. Ed Managed the construction of the Pratt Industries mill in Shreveport, Louisiana which took 13 months from piling to paper on the reel. His reward? They made him mill manager!
Kadant Black Clawson was a major sponsor of the 2011 Award. Here, on the left, Peter Flynn, President of Kadant Black Clawson, receives the company's duplicate of Ed's Award from Steve Roush, Publisher and Editor, Paperitalo Publications.
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Not Awarded 2010
You have to be really good to get this award. We did not receive any qualifying nominations in 2010.
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Dean Abrams--Engineering Manager of the Year 2009
Now retired, Dean was an engineer at Corrugated Services, Forney, Texas, USA in the summer of 2009 when he completed his award winning project. Dean managed a team that installed a secondary headbox in 11 hours, 30 minutes, paper-to-paper. The experts had said it would take at least 3 days. In April 2010, we presented the award to Dean in the presence of a number of his colleagues.
Here is the award we presented to Dean:
Mike Ahcan--Engineering Manager of the Year 2008
Mike works at the UPM Blandin Mill in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA. In 2008, the mill's sole effluent pipe, running outside a building, almost in the Mississippi River, was determined to be in a state of imminent collapse. The experts said it would take a week of total mill downtime to replace it. Additionally, there was a danger of leakage into the river. Mike and his team went to work and replaced the pipe without any downtime and with no spillage. We had a banquet in Grand Rapids for him in July 2009.
And here is Mike's award:
We normally accept nominations in the November-December time frame. They can be sent to jthompson@taii.com with "EMOY Nomination" in the subject line.
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Please write when we tickle your brain cells! Email jthompson@taii.com
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