Paper Technology International 2024 - Journal - Page 126
PAPERTECHNOLOGYINTERNATIONAL
One thing that I would not be in favour is these immensely
long spreadsheets with lots of detailed questions where the supplier
can furnish an answer, which is then somehow marked by the team,
with a synthetic score emerging. They take a very long time to
create, but are only apparently objective. I would not be surprised if
nowadays ChatGPT is not used to respond to them!
But in addition to these general principles, there are several
smaller pitfalls to avoid and here, unfortunately, the argument
ceases to be nicely structured and becomes a checklist of speci昀椀c
topics. Order entry: industry-speci昀椀c order entry system or
customised generic?
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen companies that chose
a generic ERP system spend a fortune and waste time trying to
con昀椀gure it for our business. To us an order for an item is quite an
obvious concept – yet the 25-year-old, fresh-out-of-business-school
management consultant struggles to make the mental leap from
the unique-product-code ID of widgets that he/she is familiar with.
Ditto for understanding the implications of substituting a lighter
grammage, or why the difference between the inner and outer core
diameter of a reel is quite important to the end user.
Time scheduling
Our primary processes (paper machines, corrugators, nondigital printers) are not only expensive but cannot switch products
instantly. This drives us into ‘blocking’ orders together, hence block
scheduling. We still need 昀椀nite scheduling for subsequent (昀椀nishing)
operations), if any. Given that we cannot change our primary
processes, I 昀椀nd it hard to comprehend how some suppliers provide
scheduling software that, e.g., fails to move the constituent orders
when a block is moved.
This is the 21st century, so I would not go without a system
that can promise accurate delivery dates to our customers, ideally
with the capability to handle multi-site and multi-stage operations
sourcing from future production/semi-昀椀nished inventory/昀椀nished
inventory (or a mixture).
Geometric / trim optimisation
This topic is close to my heart, having architected the system
through which more than ¾ of North American paper production
昀氀ows. Suf昀椀ce it to say that there are fewer companies than the
昀椀ngers of two hands authoring solutions in this area and less than
half of them are credible global players.
Who issues the invoices?
The invoice is an interesting but deceptively simple
document. It must re昀氀ect many of the business practices, such as
commissions, discounts, agents, quotas, credit limits etc. Where
does all this information come from, and which module generates
the invoice?
Units of Measure
I would also probe about units of measure, as sometimes
we sell by weight, sometimes by surface area, sometimes by reel /
sheet count. For paper we talk about grammage, but in plastic 昀椀lm
we use caliper instead. In North America widths are in inches, but
sometimes these are fractions, sometimes they are in decimals. In
a few cases we might even get the client to pay for some or all the
waste, so the relation between the input size and the output sizes
becomes quite complex. In all cases we are critically dependent on
the (trade) tolerance on the quantity, without which our waste would
be much higher (this does not stop us from having orders, placed
by weight, with a ±5% tolerance that nevertheless translate to 10.6
reels).
Does the MES understand geometry?
At its simplest, does the MES support geometric traceability?
In our plants, logical entities (orders) and physical ones (jumbo
reels…) have a many-to-many relationship. We need to be able to
display the schedules that will permit the operator to set the slitting
knives; once the reels have been produced, we need to know which
part of the parent reel they came from. This is fundamental and
non-negotiable.
An advanced industry-speci昀椀c MES would be able to do a lot
more, e.g. understand quality characteristics of the different parts of
the sheet and intelligently re-assign logical orders to maximise the
utilisation of material, or dynamically replan truck loading based on
actual weights, to mention just a couple of examples.
At this point it would be standard practice to end with an
inspirational statement about the golden future that awaits those
that are wise. Instead, I will conclude by saying, in my experience,
choosing an ERP is dif昀椀cult and risky; those that get it wrong will be
punished by the market. Good luck!
The author:
Dr. Constantine Goulimis is responsible for Packaging within Tietoevry Pulp,
Paper & Fibre. He has been involved with the paper industry since 1982, writing
one of the 昀椀rst exact algorithms for trim optimisation, which formed the basis of his
Ph.D. from Imperial College. The company he co-founded, Greycon, then became
involved in packaging, speci昀椀cally scheduling for the paper, plastic 昀椀lm, printing
and corrugated industries. He has worked in projects with some of the smallest
and some of the largest companies in this sector, in more than 40 countries and
has seen both successes and some embarrassing failures. He can be contacted at
constantine.goulimis@tietoevry.com.
The Tietoevry contact persons in industries other than Packaging are:
Jyri Jokinurmi, jyri.jokinurmi@tietoevry.com
Pulp, Paper, Board & Nonwoven Industries, www.tietoevry.com/tips
Jarmo Ropponen, jarmo.ropponen@tietoevry.com
Tissue Industry, www.tietoevry.com/tipstissue
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