C1
VISIT TO IMPERIAL TOBACCO CO.. MONTREAL
7 th - 9th April. 1981
These notes will cover the srpcific items for
discussion
set out in the visit brief dated 27th Februrrv,
1981 and sent to
I.T.L. on 2nd March. 1981.
1. Secondarv Automation Project
We discussed (with Cliff Warren and Yves Primeau)
the
relationship between I.T.L. and AccuRay. (See
previous
notes on meeting with AccuRpy in Columbus.)
I.T.L.have had
problems with control of their Oscar storage
systems and
asked AccuRay to investig;-te the possibility of
using spare
capacity in the 7000 Micro system to carry out
this control
activity (the sort of facility claimed in
AccuRay's publicity
literature). AccuRay agreed to do this on a
no-charge basis
but then found that I.T.Lls Oscars were, in their
opinion,
unique in that they needed new contralsystems for
the two'
motors. Because of this AccuRay said that they
would charge
approximately 030,000 for this service.
I.T.L. have discussed their problems in this
regard with other
B.A.T. companies and are of the opinion that
similar Oscar
designs with similar problems exist, at least in
Ahrensburg;
Molina agree with this view. In fact what has
happened now
is that I.T.L. have worked with Molins to modify
the design
along the lines suggested'by Philip Morris and
have achieved
a satisfactory solution. Thev will not now,
therefore, need
AccuRav.
In this same context some remarks were made about
the service
which had been provided bv Molins. Apparently.
after identificatic
of the problem and considerable persuasion,.
Molina produced CC)
a rather crudely modified circuit board for the
Oscar control --,I
4 h.
system; I.T.L. have now designed a properly
printed version
of this circuit board and have sent it to Molins
and asked
BATCO document for Province of BritiSh Columbia 9
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- 2 -
them to make future modifications on this basis.
In a broader sense I.T.L. want to try to
consolidate the
various electronic control systems associated with
secondary manufacturing unit and were hoping that
the
AccuRay 7000 Micro system could be used for this
purpose.
It was pointed out jARS-C,drawing on the ANTIC
design
exercise and fairly recent conversation with
AccuRay) that
their spare capacity in the AccuRay system is very
far from
sufficient to handle such a task. I.T.L. accepted
this view.
We outlined the latest situation with regard to
alternative
partners following AccuRay's withdrawal from thts
work. ARS-C
then presented in some detail the latest cost
benefit analysis
of the ANTIC system. This was accepted by I.T.L.
who
expressed great enthusiasm for the concept and
design as it
now stands. Unlike B & W they are now totally
committed to
installation of the 7000 Micro system on their
making machines;
33 units are already installed and a further 12
are on order.
In this situation it was agreed that it would be
unreasonable
fo-r. them to move away from the AccuRay system
and every
ARS-C effort should be made to design the ANTIC
system to be
on-going compatible with the basic 7000 Micro
units which I.T.L. will
have installed. It was agreed that this scheme
would involve
a greater capital expense than the use of a
straight-forward
AN-TIC system but I.T.L. said that they would find
this
acceptable. It was noted that the 7000 Micro
systems that are
installed and on order are the most basic form of
the system
which is available. It is to be expected that if
the ANTIC
system is successful a total of 12 units would be
required in
Quebec.and 30-35 in Guelph.
It was made clear that in its first phase of
development the
XNNTIC system will not be designed in such a way
as to be a
ready made solution to I.T.L's desire for
consolidation of
maker/packer electronics. The central processing
capacity
of the system will, however, be totally adequate
for this CO
consolidation exercise in phase II of this
development.
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3
2. Enerxv
Bill Rose is the I.T.L. man responsible kor energy
matters.
He had not vet seen a copy of the final energy
report. I
gave him a draft copy and it was agreed that we
should rely
ND/WJR on ad hoc communication to maintain
awareness of mutually
on-going useful energy conservation techniques.
A few specific items were noted:-
- that Quebec has very low energy costs and
electric heating
is actually cheaper than oi~l. Bill Ross is of the
opinion
that automatic energy management systems would not
be cost
effective.
- I.T.L*s blends are 99% Virginia; they feel it
would be very
difficult to reduce the amount of flue cured
tobacco used.
Expanded Tobacco
There is great interest in DIET in I.T.L. at
present. They
are planning to installa plant at Guelph and are
in the
process of finalising details of a building to
house it.
Unfortunately, as yet, they have not decided on
exactly what
size of plant will be required. I discussed with
them Peter
Davy's economic model of the DIET process at a
meeting Involving a large number of the relevant
staff. Their
first estimates are that a 10% add-back rate
across all their
blendswould require a plant of around 1200lbs. per
hour
capacity.
They have been doing some comparative experimelLts
between G13
and.DIET but do not yet feel that they have
completed a
sufficient1v extensive set of experiments to be
able to
decide exactly what percentage add-back they could
use in the<=)
short and longer term future.
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They have received fairly detailed proposals from
AIRCO for
plants of various sizes and configurations. I have
copies of
the essential perts of these propos,~Is- They are
very keen to
obtain all possible information nnd assistance on
experience
with the plant Pt Southampton and on the design of
the pl"ant
proposed for Mi-laysia. We agreed, however, that
it is
important to obtain this information in a planned
and
sequential manner. We agreed on the following
steps (some of
which will be carried out in parnllel):
SMC Sten Candlish will devise a factorial
experimental
'p,
design to deter-mine what percentage add-back they
could
expect to use in the short and longer term future
and
to investigate the possibility of identifying a
core
blend (or minimum. number of blends) which would
be
expanded by the DIET process and would cover all
of
ND following their brands. I will then arrange for
as many of these
receipt of samples as possible to be run at
Southampton.
detnils
Bob Gibb will lead an activity to crystallise
I.T.L' s
RMG thinking about the maximum and minimum usage
levels
and the associated risks (in terms of effect on
sales
and on the other hand possible over investment)
for the
short and long term future. EHD and PJD will then
meet
with a Canadian team, either in Ci-nada or in
England,
to go through a series of iterations to assess the
most
economic plant size and the relationship between
cost
and risk thus enabling them to make a judgement
about
what size plant they actually want. It was agreed
that
PMG/EHD this should tPke place as soon as possible
and certainly
by mid June within two months.
The I.T.L. team were verv keen to visit the
Southampton
DIET plant and meetwith the people who have actual
experience of running it. It w-as agreed that this
should
not be done un til further considerntion has been
given
to the possible size of the plant reouired by
I.T.L. c::>
CO
Cr\
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5
I.T.L. are keen to maintain contrct with the DCL
development for Mplaysia. I agreed to investigate
the
ND possibility of sending them minutes* of the
meetings of'
the Steering Group on this subject being led by
EHD.
It was to be clearlv understood that these
documents*will
be minutes and not definitive papers.
A brief examination of the AIRCO proposals
indicate that they
are coming out with much lower process costs than
the DCL
system. A study of this comparison should be made
as soon as
possible.
Some other points emerged from
Stan Candlish remarked that he
purposes of delivery control.
I.T.L. Board agreed to pay for
direct financial savings. Another
a general discussion on DIET.
originally wanted DIET for the
On this basis, apparently the
DIET without any expectation of
remark was made suggesting
that the Philip Morris expanded tobacco appears
to-have a
higher nicotine content than ours; there is
anhypothesis
that P.M. are using high nicotine scrap for their
expansion
process.
ND I agreed to ask EHD to send an outline of the
DCL/Malavsia
Asap plant building design t o I.T.L. It was noted
that Benson &
Hedges(in Toronto) have a 2wOOOlb. per hour plant
which has
been in operation for o ne month. Relating this to
their
normal leaf throughput suggests that they will be
putting a
fairly large percentage add-back into their
products. Towards
the end of our meeting a telephone call was
received from
Philip Morris in Canada suggesting a visit by two
or three
I.T.L. people to their DIET plant. Apparently
I.T.L. have
some experience of loss of expansion when DIET
tobacco is
added back to the blend before the final cooler.
The question.
was asked as to at whot temperature does this
expansion loss I
occur.
co
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4. Product Development
I.T.L. evidently has a very nctive market research
department
with good links to production and R & D areas.
They feel
that their product range covers all consumer needs
(more-
completely than the competition). (See Appendix.)
Their view is that the mAin change over the next
few years
will be a steady increase in the proportion of
ventilated
cigarettes. At the end of 1980 12% of I.T.L's
products -were
ventilated. All major brands will be ventilated by
1983,
taking the total to 50%.
The technique they propose to use is "skip
tipping" with
laser pre-perforated material. They prefer laser
perforation
to electrostatic because it is more consistent and
controllable.
They found, however, that they lost 15%
productivity on a MK9
machine with pre-perforated tipping - mainly due
to the need
to clean the skip-tip head and the changeover from
veutilated
to non-ventilated paper and vice versa on the same
machine.
They have now reduced this loss to around 9%. In
this
context Cliff Warren made a strong plea for
bonding systems
research; if a controllable, 100% efficient
bonding system
could be devised it would be worth around $9
million/year to
them.
I.T.L. feel that the Hauni laser would give them
problems
because it produces rather large - and visible -
holes; this
would be unacceptable to their customers.
5. The HEE and Barclay Filters
Their view of the HEE filter was discussed. Their
experience
is that its performance tends to be inconsistent
because of
twisting during manufecture. They also feel that
any process
involving thermal deformation of plastic will lead
to
00
instability-in this product. They
are,.nevertheless, keen ___J
to apply the filter and u-ould like to see an
alternative 4!t-
production method devised.
cc
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We discussed the policy with respect to
introducing Barclay
in Canada. (They are going through the process of
obtaining
the registered name from another compan3~ and
propose to
distribute cigarettes under the Barclay name in
the legally
required quantities to maintain use of the name.)
They are
of the opinion that the Barclay filter could be
seen as
P device thatwould mislead the public - since it
is possible
for a smoker to obtain much higher than quoted
deliveries
from the cigarette by (perhaps unconciously)
modifying his
smoking style. If this were perceived to be the
case then
some antagonistic Government action could be
anticipated.
There may also, however, be an argument for the
opposite
viewpoint. Actual deliveries could surely be
increased
by "auto compensation" in smoking behaviour (in
response
to lowerperceived delivery or satisfaction) in
other highly
ventilated cigarettes - e.g. I.T.Lls "Medallion".
(it
was confirmed that this is true.) In that case, if
the
Barclay filter is really doing what it is supposed
to do in
terms of providing higher satisfaction-with lower
delivery
by delayed mixing of smoke and air, one would
expect a lower
degree of auto-compensation with Barclay than with
other
"ultra light" brands. Hence the tendency to obtain
higher
actual deliveries would be reduced and it could be
argued
that Barclay (as produced by B & W and provided
the outer
paper skin does not collapse in use) makes a
significant
contribution in this respect.
It might be said that the introduction of any
product
making claims as bold as Barclay's could
precipitate
Government intervention - but, apparently, there
is already
something of a press campaign suggesting that the
low
delivery claims of conventionally ventilated
cigarettes are
questionable, so there is a fair probnbility that
Medallion
et al will be ettacked anyway and Barclay could be
used as
a defence os outlined above.
CO
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Apparently no*tests have been done in I.T.L. to
determine
whether there is any difference between the
"auto-compensation"
in smoking behaviour that takes place with Barclay
and other
I mg products. If such tests were done (or have
already been
done elsewhere) and indicated that the "Barclay
effect" is
not strong enough to eliminate auto-compensation
then Barclay
would not provide any support against attack on
the image of
the low delivery cigarette. If there were,
however, a reduced
degree of compensetion then it could be a very
useful tool in
this respect.
6.1. Hauni Tunnel:
I.T.L. spy they have spent 2 years trying the
tunnel as part
of the W.T.S. process but have now concluded that
they can
get the results they want by other means- (They
have
0
difficulty in getting temperatures 'above 95 c in
the
tunnel - possibly because of high throughput, even
though
this rate is below the Hauni spec.) Hauni
engineers also
had problems.
CW I.T.L. staff agreed to send a report on their
alternative
15 May equivalent to the tunnel to EHD bv 15th
May.
6.2. Stems Shredding:
There was some confusion over the patent situation
on this
process. An up-to-date view would be appreciated
by I.T.L.
During my visit the second experiment with B.A.T.
tobacco
was due to run at Rothmans. Unfortunately this
trial had
to be postponed (for 4 weeks) due to a strike
there.
6.3- Continuous Conditioning:
I.T.L. have had problems (particle size
degradation at the
doffer stage) with the Dickinson equipment. A
report has
apparently been sent to EI.D. It was evident that
a system cD
along the lines recently proposed by Legg (the
"air knife") 110
CC)
would be viewed with interest by I.T.L.
_r__
CO
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9
6.4. Once-oniv drying of stem:
They have been experimenting with addin.g stem
before and after
the cooler. A report will be completed soon.
6-5. Hauni fluidised bed Cooler/Drier:
The Swedish monopoly has apparently claimed good
results
in terms of reduced loss of expansion. Rothmans
have a
Hauni vibro cooler in their Darlington plant. Does
EHD
know of their results?
6.6. W.M.S. Cost Reduction:
They felt thelt any move to eliminate the foil
would be
attractive.
6.7. Houni Steam Cutter Feed System:
EHD I.T.L. have one of these special conveyors and
would be
an-going happy to share experience of its
effectiveness.
6.8. Cost Reduction Project Control Scheme:
The I.T.L. svstem of control of cost reduction
projects is
impressive - mainly from the motivating effect it
must have
through ensuring that such a project, however
small, is
brought to the attention of management and i~
followed
through with recording of actual results.
N. DAVIS/APP
15 th April, 1981
%_O
Go
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 9
November 1999