Mill-wide automation moves onward and upward
Automation suppliers are shifting their focus from mill-wide systems to company-wide solutions in light of the industry's drive toward consolidation and the increasing importance of obtaining streamlined information throughout the supply chain. Experts and papermakers applaud the move, but how long will it take to really catch on in the market?
by Caroline Jewitt
Mill-wide automation is an out-of-date buzz word that is being replaced by company-wide control." This, at least, is the opinion of Timo R Nyberg, a professor in automation at Tampere University of Technology, Finland, who is focusing his research on finding global solutions for pulp and paper automation. "Company-wide control systems of the future will integrate widely different business functions starting from quality control systems (QCS) and digital control systems (DCS) up to finance and human resources management in enterprise resource planning (ERP)," he says.
According to Nyberg, there is not much mileage left in improving existing modern mill-wide automation systems. Instead, he believes that suppliers should focus on integrating these automation and information systems on a company-wide basis. This would allow producers to optimize their performance by making all the necessary information available to employees and business partners that need it, at any location and at any time. Put simply, mill-wide automation concepts are becoming increasingly blurred with integrated company-wide control or IT solutions. While automation systems play a crucial part in increasing a plant's performance, at a higher level, company-wide information systems are helping to boost the overall efficiency of a business. Nyberg sees the need to integrate both of these concepts in order to allow the larger companies to function more efficiently.
"In Finland, for example, there are big paper companies that have several different types of mills including sawmills, pulp mills and paper mills. They [the mills] all have to be integrated," he says. Nyberg explains that as consolidation takes hold of the industry, companies are getting bigger with more widespread operations than ever before. Top management teams are having to keep a track of procurement, production, sales and logistics operations that are often scattered around the world. Nyberg says that most modern companies have taken the first step toward really creating mill-wide information integration. But in the future, he expects producers will be able to access all the information that is generated in the production process via any other application software. "No-one has the same information system in all of their mills," according to Nyberg. "There is an ABB system at one mill and a Honeywell system in another. We must pull them together. Five years is a realistic time for it all to be up and running," he predicts.
Already running with the idea
Suppliers are already working on finding solutions for papermakers in this area. Imagine an enterprise where mill-wide automation, plant information, asset optimization and decision support strategies are seamlessly linked in real time to the outside world. This is the vision put forward by ABB Automation. The supplier has already tried out its strategy on Willamette Industries. The US papermaker has put manufacturing execution systems (MES) at the top of its list of 'must haves' and hooked up with ABB to help improve the group's performance.
ABB's integrated system including Product Tracking System (PTS), Quality Management System (QMS) and Information Exchange Software (IXS), is already up and running at Willamette paper mills. The company's Johnsonburg mill, for example, uses ABB's MES solution to track reel and roll production on its four paper machines and their associated winders and wrapping lines. The system begins tracking data when an order is placed and continues through scheduling, production, finishing, warehousing and shipping. In addition to the MES integration among Willamette's plants, the solution also ties into the company's plant control and corporate systems for complete integration within and beyond each mill. Willamette may also have to push back the boundaries even further if Weyerhaeuser is successful in its proposed takeover of the company. Weyerhaeuser's mills are already fixed up with the same ABB information systems as Willamette. If the two companies do join forces, the scale of the company-wide information network would be tremendous.
As if that is not enough to keep ABB busy, Visy Industries of Australia has called on the supplier to fulfil a massive software contract valued at over $15 million. Visy is investing in information technology, including manufacturing execution and supply chain management software for its five pulp and paper mills in Australia and two mills in the US. "Visy Industries' greenfield mill in Tumut will be the world's most automated mill," according to Ned Colo, general manager and CEO of Visy Industries. Colo's plan is for every pulp and paper mill in the Visy group to use the same IT across the entire value chain from customer order, planning and manufacturing, to execution, shipping and invoicing.
Expanding beyond the confines of the mill walls is where ABB is trying to create value for its customers. "The real opportunity is expanding beyond MES (manufacturing execution systems) into supply chain management," according to Dinesh Paliwal, president, ABB Process Industries.
ABB took the first step toward offering supply chain optimization with its acquisition of a 53% stake in SKYVA International. SKYVA is geared toward offering a new generation of JAVA-based software. The tools enable Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and business-to-business (B2B) collaboration by translating physical business processes into software applications, all within existing IT infrastructures. Since the deal last year, the two companies have already put together an integrated MES and supply chain optimization system called Value Chain Convergence.
Building the necessary tools
Other automation suppliers are also working hard to bring papermakers up-to-date in terms of process and supply chain technology. As consolidation moves change the face of the industry, competition is intensifying between the top papermakers.
Automation suppliers are responding to this challenge and trying to provide systems that their customers need. Erwin Van den plas, Siemens’ sales and project manager for the Pulp & Paper Division, western Europe, says, "The basic thinking behind automation these days is not only to automate the papermaking process as such, but also to realize that every component within a mill contributes to the overall result and helps fulfil the [company's] business challenge."
Along the same lines, OSI Software has developed the new PI System (plant information). This tool is a real-time platform which uses Microsoft technology to allow business and process decisions to integrate in a single window. OSI Software says the system is aimed at providing the customer with one real-time platform for allowing all people in charge and all applications involved to access consistent data.
Kvaerner Chemetics is another supplier that has recognized the industry's shift toward looking at the bigger picture of running a business. The company points out that the general speed of business is increasing due to a tremendous rise in producers' information needs, as well as the availability of e-business and ERP systems. "The traditional mill-wide information system does not have the information structure to support and provide the information required by today's information age technology," according to Kvaerner Chemetics. Customers want real-time responses with structured and controlled information when they ask for the price, delivery time and quality of the paper they are buying. "ERP, MES and CRM (customer relationship management) systems require more support from plant data in order to deliver expected information to the customer," according to Jan-Olof Stromberg, Kvaerner Chemetics’ business manager for Mill-Wide Information and Optimization Systems (MOPS).
Kvaerner Chemetics has further developed its MIWs (manufacturing information warehouses) to help consolidated and merging papermakers keep abreast of the goings-on in their larger, widespread production units.
The company says that the "e-manufacturing" trend (or the producers' push toward internet-based information tracking) calls for more advanced MIW systems that can effectively manage and integrate process, quality and equipment data, as well as making all of the information web accessible.
AssiDomän is the first in line to try out the company's PLA (production loss analyzer) on Windows 2000 and the MOPS3i portal at its Piteå kraftliner mill in Sweden. AssiDomän is installing the system as part of the company's drive toward higher information availability and lower production losses. The installation was due to start by the end of February this year.
New name, new tools
The challenge to expand on today's mill-wide information systems has also been taken up by Metso Automation, formerly Neles Automation. The company has further developed its metsoDNA (Dynamic Network of Applications) system, which networks all of a plant's automation and information activities from the field to the office. Under the original design, fixed dependencies were eliminated between various process management operations and hardware systems. Mills were able to select measurement, automation and information applications according to their needs. Metso Automation has taken this concept a step further with the metsoDNA Information Management Activity.
"The metsoDNA information management concept lays a new cornerstone for the plant's profitability by enabling continuous process and product development," according to the company. The new automation system contains a data warehousing solution for all process and product related information. The data warehouse is composed of archives for continuous, alarm and batch details. On top of that, the tool includes a database for building process knowledge. According to Metso Automation, the application networks the whole organization, including the process associated information and knowledge of the personnel.
"This network helps manage and distribute knowledge inside the organization and make it available for everyone, regardless of time and place," the company comments.
Despite the obvious effort that automation suppliers are putting into developing the optimum solution for papermakers, Gary A Baum, vice president of research and academic affairs at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Atlanta, says there is still much work to be done. "While we have come a long way in recent years, we still have a long way to go to minimize variability and control our processes," Baum says. "To be efficient and effective in the needed research, the industry (producers and suppliers) must be unified in their support," he explains. Baum is convinced that the industry's progress in mill-wide automation is slow and fragmented as there is no agreement or coordination between the interested stakeholders.
Technology reaches dizzy heights
But companies such as Honeywell are doing their best to direct their attention toward grouping functions together to promote mill-wide efficiency and cost-cutting measures. The company is looking at developing integrated process, machine and drive controls to the point where all three elements are incorporated into intelligent controls. Honeywell's research director, Hannu Nieminen, says, "Since the implementation of technologies such as fuzzy logic, neural nets, optimization and statistical control, the performance of process controls on the paper machine has improved significantly." Honeywell forecasts that further major improvements on virtually all paper quality parameters will happen as the result of placing consistency, pH, charge and other process-wide chemical parameters under a control system that truly understands the features' interdependencies. Baum agrees with Nieminen's viewpoint, but he maintains that there are still major opportunities for research into pooling mill resources together. "If we wish to control the paper machine, we need to stop trying to do so using the traditional or historical paper attributes that we commonly use," he says. "We need to measure fundamental material properties where we can in order to control our processes," Baum explains. Honeywell believes that it is moving along the right lines toward further development in this area. "One of the next steps will be to include the physical web transport parameters in the machine-wide intelligent controls on top of the newly achieved base level integration of the line drive," according to Nieminen.
Simulation means simplification
Raising automation intelligence is also the name of the game at Foxboro. The company is forging ahead with new developments in the arena of mill-wide process optimization. The company has introduced what it describes as "high realism simulation" that is aimed at helping pulp and paper producers to optimize operations, as well as empowering operators with an advanced level of know-how. Foxboro says that, mainly due to costs, the pulp and paper sector is one of the last industries to catch on to the idea of process and process control simulation that is geared toward improving operator performance, reducing accident rates and increasing profitability.
"In order to realize the goal of increased economic efficiency in pulp and paper mills, computer automation is required and our dependence on it will increase," according to Fraser Forbes, associate professor at the University of Alberta, Canada.
He explains that detailed analysis of different processes' effects on other mill functions can only be accomplished by high quality process modeling and simulation. "This has driven a significant interest in pulp and paper mill specific modeling and simulation systems on both the user and vendor sides in the last decade," he says. This revolution in modeling and simulation should, in time, provide the basis for making sound business decisions with respect to the design and operation of mills, as well as the development of new products.
Foxboro is already propelling producers into the 21st century with its high fidelity simulators for training and decision support. Producers may worry over the cost of such new age technology, but Foxboro says that these tools should be looked at as an outstanding investment rather than a high cost purchase. "Operator training for the startup of an entire new pulp and paper mill often comprises classroom training with primarily OJT (on-the-job training) to learn standard operating procedures and gain control experience," says Tom Brown, Foxboro's Pulp & Paper Industry director. "The reality is that there is evident proof that costs can be staggering unless one invests in simulation," he adds.
Aracruz has put its faith in the US company's ability to deliver automation solutions. The producer is installing a third pulp line at its Espirito Santo mill in Brazil, which is expected to churn out some 700,000 tonnes/yr of eucalyptus pulp. The pulp magnate picked Foxboro to provide field instrumentation, I/A Series control systems and associated services for the expansion project. Under the contract, Foxboro will supply its advanced process control solutions for continuous pulping, washing, oxygen delignification, bleach plant, evaporators and causticizing units.
Smart tools are also the name of the game at Cadmatic. According to the developmental manager, Teuvo Hokuni, the company's new product, Cadmatic 4.2, customers can save time and money on plant modernization projects. "In this version [4.2], all diagram component data such as position numbers and nominal sizes is available for 3D modeling," according to Hokuni. Cadmatic says that the new software allows a more cost effective and efficient upgrade of existing processing plants.
The company's view is that the entire life cycle approach of process plant investment will be emphasized in future software development. The company is also looking ahead to managing geographically widespread design projects. In fact, Cadmatic is working on the GEN (Global Engineering Network) project that is aimed at developing more effective tools for decentralized 3D plant design projects.
Putting theory into practice
Stora Enso's magazine paper division is already putting such intelligent ideas into practice. The company started up a TietoEnator TIPS (Tieto Paper Solution) manufacturing execution system at its Wolfsheck mill, Germany, in mid-January just after the Maxau mill was treated to the same upgrade in December last year. Also in Germany, Haindl has signed a letter of intent with TietoEnator for the installation of integrated manufacturing execution systems at all six of its production sites, corporate level sales and controlling systems. The first Haindl mill is scheduled to go live with the new technology in January 2002. The TIPS system for Haindl covers production planning and control, quality management logistics and reporting modules, as well as integration with sales, controlling and process automation.
TietoEnator describes TIPS as a "comprehensive production management solution designed to improve the efficiency and profitability of paper and board mills with the help of the most modern information technology".
According to the financial manager at Stora Enso’s Maxau mill, Michael Kolhaas, the main reason that the company invested in TIPS was to collect all of the sites' production information for analysis and quality management. "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," Kolhaas says.
Kai Rockstroh, mill manager at Maxau, comments, "There is a clear customer-driven need to develop the product quality and the data we get now from the system will help us to do that more efficiently." The connections between the MES and SAP solutions at two important points in the manufacturing process - from order management to production and from the finished product to sales - have been made easier with TIPS, according to the mill's IT manager, Bruno Hatz.
The new system covers production planning, trim optimization, production tracking, quality management, reporting and process inventory. In total, there are nearly 60 connections between the MES, SAP and automation devices using Windows NT as the platform. Sakari Ruotsalainen, manager of TietoEnator Pulp and Paper Mill Solutions explains, "During the last 10 years, manufacturing execution systems have moved away from completely customized systems to modular products, which make up around 80% of the system, but they still leave enough variation possibilities for each mill."
Forbes at the University of Alberta shares this view, saying, "Mill-wide automation has come a long way since 1970 and the last 30 years have seen incredible progress in our ability to operate our mills efficiently. I believe this is just the beginning and the next 30 years will see changes that are currently beyond our dreams," he concludes. How those changes will impact the day to day running of pulp and paper mills remains to be seen, but papermakers will need to keep a sharp eye on the latest developments if they want to stay ahead in the automation race.
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