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Better Together: 2025 TAPPICon Live! - Episode 1

• Jan Bottiglieri • Episode 36

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We're excited to bring listeners this first of two special episodes recorded at TAPPICon 2025 in Minneapolis, MN, May 4 - 7.

We had a great turnout for TAPPICon 2025 and there was more than enough positive energy to go around. TAPPICon’s multi-track program is planned and executed by real working papermakers, and it shows – always a high level of learning and engagement, people meeting new friends and solving problems together.

Here is YOUR change to experience some of that energy! We've assembled three interviews recorded with attendees at the event. Our eclectic group of guests for this episode includes:

Frank Mignano—Manager, condition monitoring and Industry 4.0 solutions, Schaeffler Group:  "This kind of technology and toolsets are the things that entice and encourage the younger folks to get involved in the paper industry."

Robert Bustin—Business development manager at Radix Engineering:  "We are taking data at mills and making it more valuable, useful, and available."

Thierry LeBlanc— Software and EHS Expert at CONFORMiT:  "AI is going to continue to evolve—it's going to be much more integrated into everything we do."

If you've never been to TAPPICon, what are you waiting for? Mark your calendars for April 22 – 26, 2026, and plan to join us in Atlanta, GA, for TAPPICon 2026. We hope this podcast captured some of the excitement but to really get it, you need to be there.

Thanks to these three professionals for sharing their knowledge and stories. Be sure to check out our second TAPPICon 2025 Episode as well, where we meet three more of our TAPPICon attendees.

SPEAKER_05

Welcome to Better Together. I'm Jan Bodellari, editorial director of Paper 360, and I'm so glad you're here for the first of two special episodes recorded at Tapicon 2025 in Minneapolis. We had a great turnout for Tapicon 2025, and there was more than enough positive energy to go around. Tapicon's multi-track program is planned and executed by real working papermakers, and it shows always a high level of learning and engagement, people meeting new friends, and solving problems together. To try to capture some of that energy, I did some live interviews from my podcast table, located right off the exhibit floor, and we've assembled three of those for this podcast. Our eclectic group includes Frank Mignano, Manager, Condition Monitoring, and Industry 4 Solutions for Schaeffler Group, USA, Robert Buston, Business Development Manager at Radix Engineering, and Terry LeBlanc, Software and EHS expert at Conformant. Let's get started. And now I'm here with Frank Mignano. He's a manager of condition monitoring at Sheffler Group USA Inc. And they're here exhibiting at Tapicon. Welcome Frank to the podcast booth.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_05

So we were chatting a little before the recording, and I was asking you about your Tapicon experience so far. Tell us how it's going.

SPEAKER_03

Uh so far it's going very well. Um it's our first year actually exhibiting. Uh been with Scheffler for about six years. So uh it's the first time we've we've gotten a booth and uh it's going very well, uh making a lot of good contacts. And uh sat in on a couple nice presentations yesterday um relative to my business, which is uh in the Lifetime Solutions Group at uh Sheffler. So everything but the bearing.

SPEAKER_05

Everything but the bearing. Okay, so you help customers increase productivity?

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. So um through a series of tools and technologies um that are uh uh they're all there for in support of the long life of the bearing. So our goal is to help the bearing last as long as it can so the end user has productivity increases, uh reduce unplanned downtime, reduce the associated costs with unscheduled maintenance, um and a lot of yeah, a lot of tools to heat the bearings, pull the bearings off properly, lubricate them, and monitor the vibration of them.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, so I have a t-shirt idea for you guys. Okay, shuffler, your bearings' best friend.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, there you go. Okay, I like that. I'm writing that down.

SPEAKER_05

That's easy to remember. Um, you told me you were making some great contacts and um even your neighbors in the exhibit hall.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. We're we're uh next to a uh roll shop, precision roll shop, and and we've been chatting with those guys and uh a lot of uh interest in in the tools and and obviously uh you know um contacts and and end users in common and things, and and another group on the other side uh manufactures a uh um some technology and they use our equipment on the inside, they use our bearings, which we you know is kind of news to some of us.

SPEAKER_05

So uh I think that's terrific. I think that's something that's a little underappreciated at TapyCon. All of our vendors are looking to meet their customers, but sometimes their customers might be other vendors. Yeah, and you'll meet a lot of those too.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

So I love the idea that you guys are so devoted to productivity, right? And you know, with the pulp and paper industry, that is lesson number one, right? We're s so tight margins, you have to keep your productivity up. Can you do you have any good customer stories you want to share with us? Any way you've really helped someone do that.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. We've got uh we've got so many and at uh oops. At uh Sheflo Sheffler, we call it CSS, customer success stories. And we have just a plethora of those across many industries, including uh the pulp and paper. But uh working with a uh uh mill over in uh in South Carolina, in fact, in our home state, uh Sheffler's based in South Carolina.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

And so working with the mill, they've um I I deal with condition monitoring tools. We have a wireless vibration system and they've deployed 600 sensors in their facility. And um they haven't shared with us yet, but every time I talk to my contact, he's he talks about how it's identifying issues and they address those issues before they become problems. Um, so the system is working very well, and this is a huge facility. Um I think it was like 95 acres under roof.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

So 500 sensors is the tip of the iceberg. They could probably use 10 times that many. So um looking forward to really working with uh that uh end user, that uh that that tissue mill and and um seeing what other things that we can do. In addition to to vibration, we also have a uh smart lubricator um that we can put onto their machine so that the we can it's a tool to help them keep track of the lubrication efforts, if you will. It'll let them know is it full, is it empty? Um, is it too hot in that area or too cold for that lubricant? Uh is there a clog in the line? We actually get ingreased to the bearings, so um it's a nice fit uh monitoring vibration and and your lubrication efforts as well.

SPEAKER_05

So oh my gosh, it's like driving a Mercedes. You know, when you see the the screen at the front of the car and it tells you, oh, your tire is one pound too low. And it's so how does how does how do your sensors communicate that with the driver or the operator?

SPEAKER_03

Yes, we uh we have a uh uh a dashboard. Uh it's a lot of uh it is a dashboard. It is a dashboard. Look at that. You let me write down the paper.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, wait, I'm gonna give you another t-shirt idea. Sheffler for the Mercedes of the paper industry. I don't know. It's I'm still working on that one.

SPEAKER_02

You got good ideas. We can use our you on our marketing team.

SPEAKER_05

And this was my last podcast. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_03

The offers in the mail. Yes, that's exactly what we have. We have a dashboard and it it sifts through all the data. You've got a hundred sensors, maybe five to ten percent each month will be in distress. They rise to the top, they they wave their hand, say, come pay attention to me. Uh, we have an iPhone app or Android, and it'll push notifications. So, you know, several times a day, you'll get notified. You have a problem here. It's it's a warning. This one's a severe. You might want to pay attention to that. Go do a walk by, make sure everything is good, and maybe you know, do a deep dive and maybe take a look. So um, we have a couple different ways to to alert the end user to uh changing conditions in their field.

SPEAKER_05

So when you go to go into a mill like that and you show them what you can do for them, how do you help their operators learn how to read that dashboard?

SPEAKER_03

So it's it's kind of interesting because uh some places have a vibration analyst to interpret the data and some places don't. So, you know, with our tool set, we can we can provide the tools that the their vibration person would use to to analyze the information and and make uh good judgment calls. Uh we can also do that for them. So we've got uh vibration analysts on our team, so we can go put these systems in um and then um analyze the information for the customer, have a monthly call, let them know what we think based on our experience. Oh this machine needs to be maintained now. This one maybe can wait for your next outage uh so we can provide that valuable information.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, so it's really tailored to the customer.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05

So I have to ask, you brought some visual aids, and I have to break it to you. This is radio. But can you show me what you've got here?

SPEAKER_03

So this is uh basically our uh single point lubricator called the Concept One. And so this works by itself. You can take and put this right onto a motor, and basically it's gas powered, and you can you work with the application. We work with you, we have an app, a grease app, and uh we can uh tell you for that bearing at that speed under those loads and these conditions, you need to set the lubricator for 10, and then it'll empty that lubricator in ten months. Easy there. Yeah, and it'll empty it in ten months, and then you can refill that a couple times.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So what I'm looking at is this little capsule, and you can put different kinds of lube in the capsule depending on the the need from the machine. Right. Okay, and then that a very easy little dial here, and you just screw it right into the module. So you could change out um really easily. Like I could do that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's yeah, that's for the hard to reach places.

SPEAKER_05

Well, I could be a lubrication. Absolutely. This is my last podcast.

SPEAKER_03

We've got several openings.

SPEAKER_05

No, that's really cool though. I it's so I mean, really, it's intuitive when I'm looking at it. Yeah. There they go, I'm gonna give that back to you.

SPEAKER_03

So that's the base unit works by itself, and then we added the smart that's the base unit, yeah, I guess. And then uh we added the SMART base to it. So that that adds the intelligence, keeps track of whether it's following.

SPEAKER_05

That's where the knowledge comes through right there.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right. Got it. The optime C1. And uh don't know if I can mention brands, but uh the other guy can cut that out.

SPEAKER_05

If not, no, that's fine.

SPEAKER_03

But uh that's uh it'll also bump the pressure actually from five bar to ten bar, so we get a little extra push. There's a little pump in here, and it connects right to our vibration sensors, to our cellular gateway, off to the cloud. When this gets slow or empty, it'll you'll get a warning on your phone. You've got two weeks left. Go out and change this particular cartridge. So again, it's a tool to help manage uh the lubrication of the critical bearings in your facility.

SPEAKER_05

Now I have to ask, because you've worked with a bunch of different mills, I'm assuming, right? In different facilities, and you sometimes work directly with the operators?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Okay, so you know, we talk a lot in our industry, and we were talking about this at the executive panel too. You know, how we attract younger workers, how we get them interested in the technology within our intro industry, right? So you're saying it's on your smartphone, we have an app. Do you find the operators respond well to that?

SPEAKER_03

I I think, you know, the younger guys are clearly more interested in tools and technologies like that. They grew up with a phone in their hands, uh, it's just easier for them. Um and and so, yeah, this is this kind of technology and tool sets, these are the things that would entice and encourage some of the younger folks to to get involved in the in the paper and different industries, you know?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

It's the type of technology that they're already confident with.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

They know how to know uh yeah, they teach us old guys uh some things, actually.

SPEAKER_05

Well, speaking of teaching us some things, is there something you've learned from a customer that you really kind of weren't expecting to learn, some feedback you've gotten, where you said, hey, that's a great idea?

SPEAKER_03

Oh boy, that's a good question. Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure there's examples that I will think of later as I'm walking back to my booth, unfortunately. Whit of the staircase, Frank. Um, I none come to mind right now, unfortunately, but uh there's there's always good feedback on the on the product. You know, if it did this, if it was a little baker, there's always good ideas about, you know, things that you're trying to do with them, and and they have a certainly obviously have a different perspective. And so, you know, there's always good feedback. Voice of the customer is is how we develop this this product line. And so what we heard is that we they want it to be easy to deploy, easy to use, but powerful, and uh have some good AI and and algorithms in there to to sift through the data and let us know where the problems are. And so, you know, in that regard, I think we did a very good job. Um, but you know, there's always another perspective. It'd really be better if it did this for me in my application. So yeah, we're always always listening to that, you know.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, before I let you go, if there's a young person who's thinking about joining the industry, we have some students in our in our listener base, you know, what would you tell them about joining the pulp and paper industry?

SPEAKER_03

Um it's it's a very exciting industry. Um when I first got involved with pulp and paper years ago, uh I've been involved with conditional monitoring tools my whole career, which it is approaching 40 years actually. Wow. Amazingly.

SPEAKER_05

Started when you were five.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. And um and uh um the thing that amazed me is that uh you you really didn't know it it's such a dynamic process because you can affect the quality of the product um while on the fly. You know, you make adjustments to the cleaning the felt or cocking the, you know, the the uh uh dirt the drive uh the drive rolls uh and things. So uh that was a very interesting thing. You take paper mache on one end and you've got a roll of paper coming off the other end. It's just a very exciting, dynamic process, I think. Very, very cool to see it happen.

SPEAKER_05

Well, that's very, very cool to hear.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Frank, thank you so much for coming on and telling me about Shaffler and um have a great Tapicon.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much. I uh I definitely appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_05

Better Together is back, and I'm welcoming Bob Bustin. He's a pulp and paper industry specialist from Radix Engineering, and we were chatting a little about some things that are really exciting to you about the industry. So tell us what Radix does and tell us what gets you all excited about pulp and paper.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I I think the the simplest answer to what we do is you know, we're we're just taking data uh at mills and making it more valuable, useful, and available. Sometimes it's a combination of all three, sometimes just one or two, really depends on each individual mill. And um, you know, we're looking to take that data and address individual problems at mills and create a solution off of that. And you know, one that's uh easy to define, right? You you want results, you want to be able to measure results from it. A lot of projects around digitalization can kind of get stuck in I call purgatory. Yes. And and they're not considered failures, but really, you know, they're not really successes either because there's a lot of people asking questions on them. So really focus on the the quick wins for mills where they can uh quickly say, Yeah, here's an improvement that we made that was pretty special, and and hopefully go from there.

SPEAKER_05

Okay. Well, how do you help mills make that data more useful?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so uh what what I've always found fascinating, I've been to a I I love going to paper mills. I had never been to one before 2014, and then I started, you know, I was going to them every week essentially, and in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic, and you see just so many different types in the industry. Some are older, I mean they all are are relatively older, right? In North America for sure. But some are older than others, and some are are powered differently. But some of us are older than others, okay.

SPEAKER_05

We don't talk about it though.

SPEAKER_04

We'll just say they're they're uh aged appropriately.

SPEAKER_05

Yes, okay, I like it.

SPEAKER_04

And I I think that you know, some have issues where they they are they have tons of data available. It's there. These machines, you know, it's it's nowadays it's not that difficult to put some sensors or or other equipment on a machine and start kicking some information off it. Really the struggle is where is that going? Is it just going to some report that someone it it's another login for someone that have to log into in the morning when they get to get to the job, you know, get to the mill site, you know. It's really instead of just having a report, you know, driving analytics from that, driving decision making from that and and helping mills follow that process and go along with that process.

SPEAKER_05

Okay. Well, where do you see some real need? Um, whether in North American mills or or mills around the world, because radix is serves mills internationally, correct?

SPEAKER_04

Correct, that is correct. Uh South America, North America, Europe. Yep, we're all over here.

SPEAKER_05

So where do you see a real need in uh you know the type of data that you can help MILLs get more out of?

SPEAKER_04

So I I think that a large area is around uh OEE, overall equipment effectiveness. You know, everyone in the industry knows the term. Uh you know, you have to you it's utilized everywhere in the paper mill industry. And you know, there's different facets of it that are a little bit easier to understand and you know, whether it's downtime, unplanned downtime, or scrap rate, you know, things that are are pretty easily measurable. But there's a lot that aren't unless you really take a deep dive into the information, right? It's like why are we running at this speed for this basis weight or for this paper type, or you know, why do we speed up slowly more slowly than we should? A lot of that's the answer was always we've always done it that way. And it's always worked, so we're gonna keep, you know, we're gonna keep doing that. But it's you really uh, you know, now that we have all this information available from these machines, you can take it a deeper look and and say, hey, you know, we need to upgrade this section. This is the bottleneck, you know, and and that gives you the return on investment that everyone's always looking for to say, you know what, I know if I invest here, it's gonna translate into increased, you know, crash flow for the Yeah, yeah, because one little area like that can really drag the whole mill down.

SPEAKER_02

Correct.

SPEAKER_05

And everybody else thinks, I'm doing my best job, right? I'm my process is as controlled as it's gonna be. Why isn't our mill doing better? And it might be in another part of the mill.

SPEAKER_04

They are systems of systems of systems. And it's it's it's I mean, it's it's one of the toughest jobs I think in the world to work on some of these paper mills. So, you know, I don't envy them, but I think that uh not just us, but you know, other people in the industry too. You know, it's it's it's the options are there to make these improvements that that weren't there ten years ago. Yeah, but visualization, it the speed it's increased, uh the ease, I guess, the ease of doing it uh has really increased a lot.

SPEAKER_05

So you find do you find with a mill, especially like an older mill, there there's maybe there's not the the capital available or the time available or you know the the scheduling available to rebuild a whole mill or to you know start fresh. Do you find you can sort of get them part of the way there?

SPEAKER_04

It is a great point in that there are not many paper machines being built in the US, right? There's yeah, that's the truth, Matt. I can I can think of a few off the top of my head in the past decade, depending on how you define a paper machine or or a tissue machine, you know, something like that. And I so I think you are are correct that the goal for a lot of mills is optimization. And the older mills in particular, you know, they I I've been to a lot where they they say, you know, we we are steady, we're we're profitable, we're we're happy, but it's all these little events that they can't control. They don't think they can control that they they should, you know, at the unplanned downtime events or um, you know, maybe maybe they're drive limited in some way that they don't realize.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, right. You know, so that's what's really interesting to me. Have you ever had a customer that like didn't know how much better they could do?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. And I I mean, like like you said, sometimes it's an investment issue, right? Like they have an idea that, yeah, sure, if I sink a million dollars into this, I can have this improvement. But a lot of times you can make incremental improvements just by focusing on on certain areas, certain like with digitalization, you don't necessarily need the machine to be down. That's what I've always found to be the biggest issue is hey, we can get the capital for this, but it's gonna take a week and a half. Exactly. And they're gonna say, no, no.

SPEAKER_05

We can't schedule that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you get four days a year, we get four days a year plus our maintenance outages, and so it's taking advantage of those maintenance outages, those eight-hour downs, or you can get in and manipulate the data and pull it out if needed, or or do it while the machine is running, you know, so you get around the down the downtime issue, I think, is a bigger problem than the budgeting issue, which is still a problem.

SPEAKER_02

Well, sure.

SPEAKER_04

But but I think you know, mills will make investments, it's just finding the time to do it.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, absolutely. Would you have an example of a mill that you can think of? A mill customer that Radix has really helped um make that kind of improvement.

SPEAKER_04

So I I I can think of one off the top of my head, uh, where we had done an uh APC and advanced process control in their bleach plant. Okay. So uh they were willing to invest in it, but there was a little bit of hesitancy. Sure. And so when you have the situations, I think it's important to deliver quick wins in a way that you can say, uh, here's a measurable result that was delivered within six months, less than a year for sure, but even maybe less than six months, you know. Some something that we can say, wow, what's this is people's attention switches quickly in the industry. It does. They're always putting out fires and they're always doing different uh activities because these mills, you know, they don't have as many people as they used to that are running them.

SPEAKER_05

It's a challenge.

SPEAKER_04

So being able to quickly say, hey, we we took this a we did this APC in this bleach plant and it saved them five percent in pulp cost. Wow. Which is a lot.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, absolutely. And you that's a real customer, right?

SPEAKER_04

That is a real customer, real story. Um and that was a craft mill, you also paid for that pulp. Right. It wasn't for free.

SPEAKER_05

Well, congratulations on that. What like what have you heard back from what kind of feedback have you ever gotten for a customer where you you hear it and you think, yes, that is exactly what we wanted to do for them.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I I think it's when they were able to so the results are always important, but the aha moment is realizing what was causing the problem.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

It's not the you know, uh of course they need results to continue working with us or any other company. You know, if it's a failure, they're not going to continue doing it. But it was really saying, wow, we didn't know that was what was causing the problem. We assumed it was something else, or you know, again, that's that old this is the way we've always done things type of mentality. So I think that was always my favorite part was solving the problem, not really the the financial result, which was important for our company, but maybe not for me personally.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. I love that though, the aha moment. Yeah, I love that. So you you say you visited tons of mills, correct?

SPEAKER_04

Yes, uh all across the US, but especially on the East Coast, uh, you know, it's it's a pretty fun experience. They're you really unique places.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Well, that I'm gonna have to ask you, what have you seen? Like some of the best or the worst, or like you must have seen some, you know, some really interesting different mills, different stories, different solutions.

SPEAKER_04

I I would say, first off, some of these mills, especially that I went to in the northeast, are in the most beautiful locations. Yes. You're especially drug. You're on rivers. Even winter, like yeah, I mean there are rivers there, they have usually waterfalls because it's dammed right with hydroelectric. And if it's you know spring even, it's just this I've tons of turkeys and deer I've driven by, and then you go into the mill and it looks so old and mechanical compared to outside it's this huge, uh yeah, it just go from one end to the other end of the spectrum as far as what things look like. And and I liked how mills look by the way. I like that mechanical aspect. But it's just funny the comparison walking through a door and seeing them from you know being out in the mountains and in streams and then all of a sudden where they're located. Um there are some really interesting ones out there. I know there's one I go to where they it paper is used in a lot of applications that people don't realize. Like they think printing paper, you know, Amazon boxes, things like that. Sure. And there's a lot of specialty paper out there. I think that's what I've always found the most interest in going to, you know, where they make filters for battery products or one company. It this is so silly stupid, but you didn't you never think of it. They make the cardboard for board games.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, like there's a special cardboard for the cards, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

If you think about like Monopoly or or or shoots and ladders or anything like that, you know, it has a special type of paper that they make where it's layered on top of another, and you know, during the pandemic they were doing great because everyone was at home, you know, buying board games.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

I would say my the most interesting I've been to is they make the paper for the hundred dollar bills.

SPEAKER_05

Wow.

SPEAKER_04

It is the only mill where the security guards have assault rifles and you have to have a clear bag, you know. Oh my god. And you go to the machine and it's like I mean, it's not the actual bills, right? That would be crazy. No. That goes to the US mint to get printed, but it's the paper for it. But you can see the finished product. Yeah, it's it's wild.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, that is a really specialized paper. It has certain fibers, and that is so cool.

SPEAKER_04

For all of that, and there are some specialty equipment on the machine, it still looks like a paper machine, you know.

SPEAKER_05

That is really cool.

SPEAKER_04

Not much has changed in since the 1800s since we started doing it that way.

SPEAKER_05

I love it. Well, before I let you go, what do you see ahead for radix and and what you can do for the industry?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I mean, it is there's a lot of talk around AI agents. Uh, we know I I think the workforce problem is a little bit overstated. Uh uh, it depends on where your mill is, right? Some mills that are in certain areas where they don't have a large population, they're gonna struggle with the labor a little bit. Other areas maybe not so much. So it's very regionalized. Yeah. But the question is, how do we incorporate some of these AI agents that are coming out? You know, Radix has we have our own. And how do you incorporate it to these newer mill employees coming in, making sure that they're able to still uh operate this equipment when the older workers have retired and they took that tribal knowledge with them that it's never captured anywhere, right? So it's taking advantage of these large amounts of data that the mills already have, layering the large language model AI agent on top of it, and that way you know it improves over time. And if you have a a good data governance, uh the model's gonna be that much better. And then the workers can interact with the model, you know, say, Hey, uh, this bearing is running 10 degrees hotter. And uh he'll say, Well, historically this is why it's because of misalignment, and you need to replace it by your second maintenance outage or it might fail. You know, the the issue is to get to that point, I think and I've heard it here, you know, they talk about it. There's other steps the industry needs to take to make sure the the um uh layer, the the the you know, the the the basement, right? The foundation, the foundation, excuse me, the foundation is good. Uh in other words, uh to make sure that that data's uh the the AI agent's gonna be accurate and valuable to them.

SPEAKER_05

Sure. So you see a lot ahead, actually, don't you?

SPEAKER_04

A lot ahead, probably not in the next year. It depends on uh, you know, the the the industry leader. If it's usually the the bigger ones take the lead first and the other ones can come along and costs are gonna keep coming down for cloud services and things like that. So I I think that I see a lot ahead, uh, but it's gonna be probably more incremental steps than maybe other industries like oil and gas or something like that.

SPEAKER_05

Sure, but we'll get there.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05

Well, thanks for coming on the podcast today, Bob. I really enjoyed talking to you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you so much. It's been a great pleasure.

SPEAKER_05

Well, welcome back to our Better Together podcast table. I'm here now with Terry LeBlanc. He's with Conformit, and he just finished doing a presentation here at his first TapyCon. Is that correct, Terry?

SPEAKER_00

That is correct.

SPEAKER_05

How did it go for you?

SPEAKER_00

It went well, a lot of good engagement and uh it was not a monologue, more like a conversation, which was really great.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's I mean, that's the optimal, isn't it? Where you know you're hearing from them and they're getting the expertise from you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, facts.

SPEAKER_05

Great. Well, tell us a little about what your presentation was about.

SPEAKER_00

So I talked uh a lot about how we can optimize downtime uh looking at our lockout tagout process. So we can really see a lot of uh wasted time in the lockout tagout process. So kind of went through that, where are the low-hanging fruits, the opportunities to improve that whole lockout tag out process and uh save a lot of money at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_05

Well, every minute of wasted time is costing a mill money, right?

SPEAKER_00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So tell us a little you can't give away all your secrets, I'm sure, but tell us one that, you know, your uh the attendees at your session really seem to respond to.

SPEAKER_00

Oh well, the the people really connected with um the like what are the different opportunities that they can look into and you know what what should they work on first? What are the common trends that we're seeing in the in the industry really? Um and you know, what what they can tackle right away.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, what is some of that low-hanging fruit where they can really get some results quickly?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, sure. It's it's really about the the waiting times, right? The communication between the different stakeholders uh in the process. So we have operations, we have maintenance, we have subject matter experts in lockout tag out. So all these different stakeholders have their part to play. And sometimes they really have multi-tasks, uh multiple tasks to perform at the same time, a day of a shutdown. So it's really important to look at all that process and see how we can make sure people are available and communicate clearly and in due time when it is time to go to the next phase and put the machine back in in operation or just do the lockout, unlock. So there are a lot of different moving pieces in uh a knottage or a shutdown, and just optimizing that communication is is really the key.

SPEAKER_05

Wow. So yeah, it's really about that communication. When so I would imagine that the best time to establish some of those communication processes is before you start.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course. It's it's all about planning. And uh oftentimes people don't really think about that process the same way they would think about any other issue in the mill. Like usually mills have a good continuous improvement process in place, but they don't really apply it to safety processes and and lockout tagouts more specifically.

SPEAKER_05

Wow, that's interesting. So tell us a little more about what Conformit does. And now I know it might be your first Tapicon, but it is not the first Tapicon for Conformit. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00

That is correct. Yeah. We've been here for a couple of years now.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Yeah. How's the show been going?

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's it's been going good. It's uh, you know, it's nice to meet new people and uh some people that we already knew as well. So to connect back with a lot of our good partners too. So always always nice to uh network and and talk with the people and yeah and find new opportunities for partnerships.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Can you tell us um about any interactions that you've had here at TapyCon that just really made you think this is why we come?

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, of course. Like some people that I already knew that connected back and saying, hey, you know, it's because we were here that we were able to connect back and find new opportunities, like people that are in new positions and new roles that we kind of lost touch over time and now we're connecting back and saying, hey, I'm gonna reach out to you because I might have a need for what you're offering. So uh that's really great.

SPEAKER_05

That's great. It's so hard to capture if you're not at the event, you know, because a lot of folks who might be listening to our podcast haven't been to a TapyCon. It's this is what I always try to do is capture some of that energy. Um because you never know what'll happen. You never know who you might come across, someone you already know, someone new, someone bringing someone you already know bringing over someone new, right?

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Exactly. Full of surprises.

SPEAKER_05

It is full of surprises. So um, what else do you do for your customers in the pulp and paper industry?

SPEAKER_00

Well, with Conformit, we are really there to help them with local tag up management. But we also have other products, other modules in our software that are there to really address everything related to operational risk management. So risk analysis, event reporting, inspections, audits, uh name it, confined space pyramids. So we have really a lot of different modules and aspects that are all interconnected in the software. So that's really the power of our software, to be able to manage everything together in one system and have the corrective measures linked to all these components. So that's really great.

SPEAKER_05

Well, how would a mill know that they might be able to do a better job? How what what are some of the signs we are like, mmm, we could use some help improving our process here?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course. Well, usually what we see is a lot of the industry is still doing manual work like Word documents, Excel files, all that manual um labor that is required to maintain these type of data points. So what we are bringing is really hey, we have an automated digital solution to help you manage all of that. And you can save time because reduce the risk of mistakes, because everything is centralized and automated. So that's really, I think, the the benefit that the customers are seeing. Uh not all the mills are are you know back in in that age of of manual work and word documents and all of that, but a lot of them still are. So that's really what we like to see how we can help them get to that new digital era.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, the new digital era. Oh, I love that. You know, we talked a little in the executive panel as well about digital processes and um, you know, AI, new technology. And one of our speakers, um Wendy Sorelli from Irving, um, she said that it's a it's a non-started. You have to be able to have that digital information. You you absolutely need it in a modern paper mail.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, totally agree. And that's what we stand by as well. And and we are investing a lot in developing new technologies as well, uh, like new AI chatbot assistance, multi-agents, uh, to integrate them in conformant as well. So we're really looking in that direction and doing a lot of development for AI because we've been seeing that value for a while now. Like back, uh I think I would say five to ten years ago, we started to invest in in developing that AI component. And it's really gonna help the companies um getting more insights or suggestions for these uh different corrective measures that they might not think about or different things that you you you need to uh look for.

SPEAKER_05

So, okay, that's really interesting to me. So you've had this perspective where you know you've started kind of seeing the future. Ten years ago you started to see where it might take you. And now here we are, and you're finding that it's true, you know, it's really happening. So what are you looking at ten years from now? What do you see might be happening then? And how can Mills make that happen?

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's a great question. It's interesting because you know it's gonna con AI is gonna continue to evolve, right? So we're gonna still develop that side of the the business as well. And and the way we think about AI today is probably gonna change as well and be way more integrated in everything that we do on a daily basis, right? So it's I think it's gonna just evolve and we're gonna continue to work on the same same products to to help and support the industry, but there are a lot of things going on in that field. So we know that you know agentic AI is coming, we will have like safety specialists at the tip of our uh you know it's gonna be readily available for us, and we're already working on that. We have a a chadbot that is actually called Johnny uh in memory of one of our DC's colleagues, and he is a specialized Chadbot for health and safety.

SPEAKER_05

Really?

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_05

That's really interesting. And I I kind of love that you named it after your colleague. You don't tried did did you try to capture some of his knowledge?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yes, of course. That's how it all started.

SPEAKER_05

That's a terrific yeah. I mean, that's a terrific way to keep that knowledge in our industry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

That's something that you know we talk about so much, the knowledge drain as people leave the industry, and AI might provide a way to capture some of that.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. That's that was kind of the idea when we started that project. So that that Johnny guy said, Hey, um, I'm not gonna be there forever. Yeah. And I would like to capture my knowledge somewhere. So that's exactly how it started.

SPEAKER_05

That's really inspiring, I think, Terry.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Before I let you go, tell me one thing you really love about your job.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I like I I really love making a difference in everybody's lives on a daily basis and being able to help people and support people and make a difference.

SPEAKER_05

I could that answer came quickly, and I could see it in your eyes as soon as I asked, you're like, I know what I love.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_05

Well, that's awesome. Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

SPEAKER_00

Of course. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

It's great to hear that everyone is excited for the future of our industry. The tech we talked about today is all about making smart decisions to keep things running smoothly and safely. Big thanks to Frank, Robert, and Terry for taking time to speak with me at TapyCon 2025. I hope we were able to capture some of the excitement of a live event. But to really get it, you need to be there in person. So if you were not able to make it to Minneapolis this year, we hope to see you in Atlanta for Tapicon 2026. Please mark your calendars. It's April 22nd through 26th in 2026. Tapicon is always feature focused. If you come to Atlanta, you will meet a lot of people and gain a lot of knowledge. And who knows, maybe you can even be a guest on Better Together. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_01

Hello everyone. This is Larry Montague, president and CEO of Tappy, the pulp, paper, packaging, tissue, and converter industry's go to resource for news, industry trends, and technical and management information. We hope you enjoyed today's Better Together podcast. And remember, there are two types of people in our industry Tappy members and those who should be. Have a great day.