CASE STUDY / PACKAGING FACILITY PREFABRICATION

CRITICAL UPGRADES HELP DOUBLE PRODUCTION CAPACITY

A paper manufacturing company was struggling to meet growing demand and had outgrown its existing facility. A new facility with improved technology and infrastructure significantly increases the capacity and quality of its products.

PROJECT STATS

Client
Green Bay Packaging

Location
Green Bay, Wisconsin

Completion Date
February 2021

CHALLENGE

Green Bay Packaging, a paper and corrugated box manufacturing company, needed to build a new paper mill that would use 100% recycled fiber. This new facility more than doubles the capacity of its former containerboard paper mill. The process included a state-of-the-art recycled fiber plant and paper machine technology designed to apply strength-enhancing chemistry to the products that would result in performance increases.

The company’s existing production facility was built in the 1940s. It would have required significant retrofits to meet growing demand. AZCO was contracted to prefabricate and install 19,000 linear feet of stainless steel pipe for a new effluent treatment plant and 53,500 linear feet of stainless steel pipe for the new facility. This portion of the work was awarded to AZCO based on the firm’s experience executing projects of this magnitude and managing labor resources from different parts of the country, which was necessary for this project.
 

19K

LINEAR FEET OF
STAINLESS STEEL PIPE FOR
EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT
 

53.5K

LINEAR FEET OF
STAINLESS STEEL PIPE
FOR OLD CORRUGATED
CARDBOARD (OCC) FACILITY
 

2.5X

CAPACITY FOR PAPER PRODUCTION

SOLUTION

After a thorough analysis of plans for the new facility, we designed a sequential construction plan that addressed all of Green Bay Packaging’s pain points. To help keep construction on schedule, we utilized our just-in-time process in the prefabrication shop to get the piping to the project site right before it was needed for construction. This helped optimize the spacing required for the pipe laydown area and minimized the cluster of pipes in the field, waiting to be installed.

At peak staffing, roughly 130 pipefitters and six equipment operators worked day and night shifts, maintaining consistent coordination between the prefabrication and field teams to keep the project on schedule.

 

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SOLUTION

After a thorough analysis of plans for the new facility, we designed a sequential construction plan that addressed all of Green Bay Packaging’s pain points. To help keep construction on schedule, we utilized our just-in-time process in the prefabrication shop to get the piping to the project site right before it was needed for construction. This helped optimize the spacing required for the pipe laydown area and minimized the cluster of pipes in the field, waiting to be installed.

At peak staffing, roughly 130 pipefitters and six equipment operators worked day and night shifts, maintaining consistent coordination between the prefabrication and field teams to keep the project on schedule.

RESULTS

The new facility began producing paper in March 2021 and has more than doubled the production capacity of the old facility to nearly 685,000 tons per year. The old facility, just one-quarter the size of the new one, will eventually be demolished. The new plant is expected to add roughly 200 full-time jobs in Wisconsin by 2022.

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