RMC-04-107 ODR Experience from Pulp & Paper Industry

Description:

Smurfit Stone’s Fernandina Beach facility continues on a long path to reaching world class reliability. In 1999, the mill embarked on a courageous effort to revitalize its reliability program. The mill had a vision of being “world class” and set out on a course to achieve this goal. At that time, the entire pulp & paper industry was going through a paradigm shift. The market now dictated that only those facilities that focused on lowering cost would remain competitive in a global market economy. More tons out the door would no longer improve the facilities profitability. Reducing cost and improving operating efficiencies was required to ensure that the Fernandina Beach facility would be a long term provider of linerboard. The mill’s management team realized that significant improvements in plant maintenance and equipment reliability were critical to driving down the overall cost of manufacturing, and thus ensuring the facility’s position in the market place. Since 1999, many of the changes in the mill’s reliability effort have primarily been in the maintenance department. However, to achieve world class results, operations must be a core component of the reliability process. Recently, the mill has begun to incorporate operators in critical reliability functions. The Fernandina Beach woodyard seemed like the perfect area to begin incorporating reliability principles. The woodyard management team was fully supportive of reliability concepts and principles, understood that operators could have a very positive impact to the maintenance process, and was willing to commit resources to implement new processes into the operators work flow.