One on One — Ulrik Nygaard on Finishing

What’s the minimal operator necessity?

The use of finishing equipment involves moving paper, folding it, cutting it, stitching it, putting glue on it, or drilling holes in it, etc. You have more opportunities for jams in the machine, and an operator has to be there to make sure that doesn’t happen. The machine has jam detectors, so it will stop it if you have a jam, but then somebody has to be there to get started again. You also have the inherent problems with paper, in that it behaves differently from day to day. There are a lot of factors, such as humidity, temperature or just sitting an extra day. So often, we have heard an operator say, “I ran that job perfectly last night, turned the machine off, then came back this morning and it won’t run, and I have to tweak the machine again.” The challenge from our side is to make the machine more forgiving.