A major goal of this newsletter is to understand at a fundamental level how a production process improves, in the hope that this will make it clear how to improve construction productivity and lower construction costs. We’ve previously looked at the
I worked in a kraft pulp mill for 4 months as a chemist in the technical office back around 1980. Since then, I have kept somewhat up on the industry. The story of kraft pulp production seems to closely mimic that of rayon. Lots of minor tweaks (often related to improving energy efficiency and reducing chemical inputs and pollutant outputs while improving or at least not hurting product yield and quality) and a few major process changes...
[I am now a chemistry professor whose research and teaching includes polymers such a cellulose from wood pulp and rayon from cellulose. ]
If you haven't already, I recommend reading The Goal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel)) - similar idea of using a factory to illustrate general ideas about process improvement
I worked in a kraft pulp mill for 4 months as a chemist in the technical office back around 1980. Since then, I have kept somewhat up on the industry. The story of kraft pulp production seems to closely mimic that of rayon. Lots of minor tweaks (often related to improving energy efficiency and reducing chemical inputs and pollutant outputs while improving or at least not hurting product yield and quality) and a few major process changes...
[I am now a chemistry professor whose research and teaching includes polymers such a cellulose from wood pulp and rayon from cellulose. ]
I wonder if there's more to the "plant staff" aspect of this. Do construction crews have the same ability to impact work?
If you haven't already, I recommend reading The Goal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel)) - similar idea of using a factory to illustrate general ideas about process improvement