Wingman Enterprises

My initial client was the Berlin mill. Shortly after I left Crown, the Berlin mill was purchased by American Tissue and renamed Pulp & Paper of America (PPA). My first consultant project was a Y2K remediation of the home grown roll tracking system then ran on an AS400. Working with mill IT resources, we successfully upgraded the AS400 machine and operating systems to be Y2K compliant, tested the system and uneventfully rolled through the new year.

The next year, PPA undertook a project to replace the roll tracking system with a package called Optivision from Honeywell / Measurex. At $4.2 Million dollars, this is my largest IT project to date. (Much more can be seen about this project under the Optivision Project link on the left.)

Before the Optivision system was brought live, PPA went into bankruptcy and the mill was shut down. A problem for me, a tragedy for the communities of Berlin-Gorham and my many friends at the mill.

At that time, I had done some work for my friends at the Wausau Paper mill in Groveton. I contacted them and slowly we began what was to become a most amazing six year ride of custom development and outstanding learning experiences. (Much more can be seen about these projects under Access Apps.)

James River (Later - Crown Vantage)

I hired on to James River into their Corporate Engineering group in Green Bay, WI. I was tasked to create a corporate service organization focused on replacing vendor service programs in JR mills. Thus JR Digital Field Service (DFS) was born. I led DFS for three years. I was responsible for closing agreements with JR mills, for hiring and training service personnel and setting up cross coverage to allow service personnel time off call and vacations. I continued to supply custom software applications in the Measurex systems under our agreements.

In 1990 I left DFS and took a newly created position of Manager of Computed Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) at the Berlin, NH mill. This marked my move from process control systems to Information Systems. I have focused on Information Systems ever since.

I assumed management responsibilities for the people supplying support to the networks, servers and phone systems at the mill. I was involved in major projects to extend the Ethernet network at the mill and the beginning of the migration from DEC VAX computers to Windows Servers and networks.

In the later years at Crown Vantage, I was tasked as team leader for the Manufacturing Team portion of the IRIS project. A corporate wide system envisioned to integrate Order Management, Scheduling & Planning, Manufacturing Execution, Converting, Warehouse and Distribution. An ambitious scope to be sure. We partnered with PowerServ, a Power Builder over Sybase development company. The overall scope was cut to just the Order Management and Invoicing functions after we discovered how poorly the PowerMan application fit our needs and CV management was unwilling to undertake a development effort from scratch.

This was my working introduction to custom application development, logical database design concepts and graphical user interface design. Things that I use regularly today.

Measurex

I began my years with Measurex as a Tech Rep assigned to a system at a GP Mill in Lyons Falls, NY.

Measurex moved me to Berlin, NH in 1974 to service two systems at Brown Co. I have lived in the Berlin-Gorham area ever since.

In 1975 I was promoted to Technical Specialist as part of the Initial Services team in the Northeast Region. My primary responsibility was to coordinate and lead new system installation services.

Over time, my territory and responsibilities grew until I was installing systems from Luke, Maryland to Millinocket, Maine. I installed 52 systems for Measurex and had major projects in 15 additional mills. Major customers included mills owned by:

My primary focus was paper machine controls, however, I also worked in plastics, pulping and boiler controls.

This was the start of my project management responsibilities. It was a great teacher in the necessity of teamwork. Developing the skills of others and the differences between managing and leading.

My experiences with Measurex taught me many things. It taught me to work with others. I may have had a leadership role, but we got the work done.

I learned that I love teaching. I also learned that once others knew how to do something, they usually stepped up to do what was needed.