One piece of good news on the expense side these days is the cost of machining mechanical parts needed for your operations. Modern computer-controlled machining centers are reducing the cost of machine parts drastically as compared to other costs. Lasers and computers have taken the manual work out of machining, much like computer aided design (CAD) has taken the manual efforts out of preparing drawings. For this old draftsman, all of this leaves a bit of a tear in one’s eye (I loved drafting as a young engineer) but it is a vast improvement in a cost component of our primary business—making pulp and paper. In these days of rising costs in many areas, it is good to stop and celebrate savings where we can find them.