Let's finish up our mini-series on spares by talking about the quality excuse.

Remember, our overall objective is to reduce the installed weight of pulp and paper making facilities, which, in turn, reduces capital and operating costs.

Have you ever seen product quality used as an excuse for installed spares?  This has been done in fiber cleaning, refining and other pre-papermaking processes.  The reality is that no matter the excuse, installed spares are a bad idea.

If you think a quality condition can be continuously met because you have an installed spare ______ [fill in the blank] you are just as wrong as you would be with any other excuse for that installed spare.

Most mills can make some sort of salable slightly off grade product if a portion of operations is out of service.  And being forced to do so will be a great incentive to get the malfunctioning equipment back on line.  More importantly, it will be a great incentive to never let it get out of specifications in the first place.

No, no matter how creative you are, installed spares are not going to be a winning proposition.