Dryden Mill Conducts Safe Maintenance Outage During Pandemic
A scheduled maintenance outage is a critical part of any mill’s operation. The downtime gives employees an opportunity to complete necessary maintenance that isn’t possible during normal operations, and it ensures the mill continues to run safely and efficiently. It’s also important to the community. Vendors and contractors who travel to the site to assist with the outage support the local economy by staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and shopping at local businesses. Then the COVID-19 pandemic started, and Dryden Mill Manager Marie Cyr and her team had some tough decisions to make. With support from Domtar’s corporate leadership, the team decided to proceed with the maintenance outage, but it designed a reduced work scope that focused only on tasks deemed essential for the mill’s safe and efficient operation. More work would be performed by mill employees, reducing the need for outside service providers by 80 percent. In addition, the majority of the 100 outside providers who were required would come from within Northwestern Ontario, eliminating the need for travel from outside the region. The change in scope also meant the outage would take 21 days instead of 9 days.