Travelers along 8th St.

Wednesday, August 04, 1999

Travelers along 8th St. NE may have noticed a banner that reads like a head-scratching riddle.

It hangs on the outside of the Weyerhaeuser Company building, begging passersby to get to the bottom of it all.

"Less than 1, greater than 19," reads the sign.

But it’s no puzzle. It’s a company philosophy, one that Ron Wise is simply trying to reinforce to the plant’s employees every time they walk in the front door.

"It’s no specific plan or program," said Wise, the site manager. "It’s our main goal. It gets talked about all the time."

The "Less than 1" phrase refers to the recordable incident rate, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) number resulting from a equation that takes into account factors like the number of man-hours and the number of injury incidents.

In 1998, Weyerhaeuser earned a front-page headline in the Austin Daily Herald for going a million man-hours without a lost-time injury.

The "Greater than 19" phrase refers to the percent of return on net assets, or RONA. For example, if a company’s assets are worth $10 million, then a $1.19 million profit for one year would be a return of 19 percent.

"Nineteen percent is a good number," Wise said. "All of us are in business to make money and 19 percent is an achievable and fair number for us.

"Being in a capital-intensive industry, it is a number that must be achieved to keep shareholders satisfied."

Equipment in the paper industry is "very expensive," said Wise, who added a typical piece of machinery costs $2 million to $3 million.

Wise said the front office is getting a number of inquiries about the banner.

"It has really piqued some interest," he said.

The philosophy is being touted throughout Weyerhaeuser, a worldwide supplier of paper products.

But as far as Wise knows, the Austin plant is the lone plant wearing a banner for the whole world to see. A regional vice president visited the Austin plant recently and like the idea so much he told Wise he’d pass it along to other plants.

"It’s very visible," Wise said.

And, up until now, downright unsolvable.