Efficient raw material utilisation for Smurfit Kappa

Smurfit Kappa wanted to improve the efficiency of the production process and the raw material utilisation. With the price fluctuations in the market, they wanted to have an optimise their fibre turnover rate.

The business challenge

The customer, a major producer of kraftliner that uses fibre from wood and recycled paper, wanted to improve their production processes. They wanted to ensure the raw material handling was done efficiently and at optimal levels. They also wanted to make sure that the raw material is tracked properly and whenever required for production it was of the right quality. Further, with the constant changes in the prices of the raw material they wanted to optimise the turnover rate of the material.

The solution

Tieto provided the ROCS™ (Roaming Object Coordinating System) system makes raw material utilisation and production processes more efficient at the Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner board mill in Piteå, Sweden. ROCS has also been integrated with the TIPS Info system that has been in use at the mill for years. 

Tieto’s GPS-based system, ROCS™, a GPS-based system, improves traceability and information management in the wood yard by using mobile computers in log stackers with support for scales. When load of recovered paper or bales of pulp arrive at the warehouse it is recorded with the ROCS system and report can be generated anytime. The weighing procedure and the supplier invoice handling process is automated enabling optimised fibre turnover rate.

“We constantly work on enhancing the efficiency of our processes, and ROCS™ plays a part in how we handle incoming material. It is easy to input, search, and process data as well as make changes to it if needed. We are planning to expand the use of the ROCS™ system to wood raw material processing.” – Staffan Persson, Raw material manager, Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner board mill in Piteå

Service features provided:

• GPS based system based on Microsoft technology, uses area indication via touch screen
• Tool to optimise wood yard logistics and information management
• Helps obtain incoming material of more uniform quality for production, which facilitates later stages of the production process
• Streamlined traceability of raw material and quality control at the factory, sensor connected machinery
• Minimized stock levels
• Communication via message creating full transaction security
• Flexible assortment handling function

Summary

About the customer

The Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner Piteå mill produces kraftliner that uses fibres from both wood and recycled paper. It is the biggest manufacturer in its field in Europe, with an annual output of approximately 700,000 tonnes.

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