Paper Technology International 2020 - Journal - Page 13

PAPERTECHNOLOGYINTERNATIONAL
“Cross-border collaboration with ecosystem
partners enables new innovations, efficiency
and faster value creation for our customers and
industry”,
says Jarmo Ropponen, Head of Sales &
Marketing, Pulp, Paper and Fibre, TietoEVRY, and
Alan Cheesbrough, Founder and CEO, I-Plan.
There is no single correct answer. Every company needs to
figure out what the best solution is for their strategy and operational
efficiency.
“As business processes will be more and more automated,
we are moving towards ‘continuous planning’ instead of the present
‘plan and execute’ model. Continuous and automated planning
enable production in future to accept new orders in the middle of a
production run or automatically re-optimize the run with the latest
orders”, says Henke.
This is important for architecture since continuous planning
requires complex interfaces in an area where no integration
standards exist. The optimization potential can be realized by
combining information from several systems and integrating this into
active production control.
Local Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) relying on
Edge computing enable automation to optimize production with
full visibility into incoming materials and optimized settings to meet
business targets. It then transfers the production outcome to the
next production step with re-optimized targets.
Automating the supply chain resolves bottlenecks
Mill businesses are complex, with multi-site manufacturing,
large numbers of products, global markets and complex distribution
networks. These businesses have many choices in terms of which
markets to serve, where to produce the products, where to hold
inventory and how to move products through the network to their
customers. Getting the answers right at the enterprise level, in
terms of cost and sustainability, whilst maximizing profitability is as
important as driving efficiencies at the factory floor level, through
every process step. There’s no point in producing the wrong product
at maximum efficiency in the mill, when the valuable resources of
energy, raw material and people could have been directed at making
the right product in the right place and getting it to the market in the
least cost, most sustainable way.
Optimizing mill operations at the enterprise level is complex,
and it can be very time-consuming to create even a single feasible
plan. In reality, there are many conflicting choices with both hard
and soft constraints driving decision making. The business needs to
be able to evaluate multiple operating plans in order to commit to a
sales and operations plan for the coming weeks and months. Being
able to create feasible plans very quickly is becoming increasingly
important as supply chains become more volatile and markets more
uncertain.
The ability to re-evaluate quickly and automatically
implement revised optimal plans across the enterprise is the key to
maintaining profitability and sustainability.
Supply chain automation, with smart algorithms and machine
learning, is the answer to the problem. Starting from the demand
forecast, automated processes and learning techniques can create
high-quality forecasts automatically and quickly move the business
to a consensus forecast, including market intelligence with low levels
of sales team intervention.
Solving the supply optimization problem of balancing supply
with demand can take several days with a conventional approach.
Using an automated process and sophisticated algorithms the
planner can get answers that maximize efficiency at every process
step at every site, whilst maximizing profitability for the enterprise in
minutes. Multiple scenarios can be created in a very short time and
can be re-generated when conditions change. These automated
processes allow the business to make informed decisions, affecting
the whole enterprise, quickly and in synchronization with the
changing market.
From demand prediction to real-time production plan
An enterprise-level balanced plan is only the starting point.
The plan was generated to ensure we make the right products in
the right plant, at the right time, and ship it to the customer in the
most efficient way. What is needed in each factory and on each
production line are detailed minute-to-minute production plans.
Automating the creation of detailed production plans that follow
Sales and Operational Planning (S&OP) and passing them to the
plant operators via the shop floor execution systems is critical to
achieving a rapid-response, autonomous supply chain. The aim is to
react quickly to supply chain volatility whilst maintaining maximum
efficiency, making best use of energy and raw materials using wellplanned sustainable distribution options.
Automating the process from demand input through to
minute-by-minute production plans, along with detailed distribution
and inventory plans, requires interconnected systems at every
planning level with direct inputs from the sensors in the production
process, and updated minute-by-minute as sales orders arrive.
Smart interconnected systems at every level and the correct use of
artificial intelligence to assist decision making are today’s reality.
The future will be even brighter as our business leaders and
engineers continuously push the boundaries of what is possible with
the emerging possibilities that artificial intelligence brings.
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