{"id":142,"date":"2019-05-21T23:30:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T23:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.optware.com\/?page_id=142"},"modified":"2019-05-30T01:11:32","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T01:11:32","slug":"pulp-paper","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.optware.com\/industry-applications\/pulp-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulp & Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Weyerhaeuser Company was a multi-billion dollar manufacturer of paper and forest products that recently sold their brown paper business to International Paper Company. \u00a0Weyerhaeuser operated scores of corrugated box plants which were supplied with materials from their brown paper mills as well as multiple external suppliers.<\/p>

The Problem<\/strong><\/p>

Weyerhaeuser management faced a complex decision environment in the sourcing of materials for manufacturing. \u00a0Their box plants demanded substantially more paper than their manufacturing operations could supply and production planners were faced with the task of continuously balancing paper supply with box plant demand. \u00a0Planners attempted to consider profit-sensitive questions related to manufacturing efficiencies and costs, outsourcing options, and transportation costs. \u00a0Literally thousands of variables were in play within this business environment.<\/p>

The Solution<\/strong><\/p>

Once the project was initiated, Optware Solutions was able to analyze the business and deliver a working system tailored to Weyerhaeuser\u2019s needs within nine months. \u00a0The System was designed to integrate with existing information systems for much of the required modeling data.\u00a0<\/p>

The scope of the Optware System on the\u00a0supply\u00a0side included paper manufacturing production rates and costs as well as machine \u201ctrim\u201d. \u00a0The term trim refers to machine width utilization. \u00a0Paper is produced in a number of grades and roll widths. \u00a0These widths must be combined in such as way as to fit a paper machine and maximize machine utilization. \u00a0Trim must be considered in order to determine the best possible paper procurement strategy.<\/p>

The scope of the System on the\u00a0supply\u00a0side also included paper purchase options and trades with other vendors. \u00a0This type of arrangement is usually only applied to commodity markets.<\/p>

The scope of the System on the\u00a0demand\u00a0side largely involved box plant paper demand by grade and size and, to a lesser extent, potential open-market opportunities. \u00a0The box plants forecast their demand by reviewing the needs of the end-customer for boxes and backing into paper demand based on components from the bill-of-materials (BOM).<\/p>

The solution was designed to maximize financial return subject to the business constraints, process flows, revenues and costs. \u00a0The central technology that drives the system is a powerful linear-programming-based optimizer.<\/p>

Prior to installation of the Optware System it was very difficult to manage the \u201cfine points\u201d of sourcing and scheduling strategies. \u00a0Fortunately linear-programming thrives on complexity. \u00a0A fractional percentage improvement in machine efficiency or transportation cost can easily translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings.<\/p>

Keys to success in the modeling effort:<\/p>