Case study · Manufacturing
Pulp and paper maker cuts bleach chemical costs $2M a year at one mill
Bleach chemical costs at a pulp and paper maker had climbed more than $14 million a year with no change in customer demand. USC traced the cause to variability in bleaching and helped operators control it.
Results
$2M
in annual bleach chemical savings at one mill
$450K
a year from higher wood fiber yield
Savings are annual, at one mill: $7.64 a ton in bleach costs.
The situation
In its fine paper operations, the company's bleach chemical costs had risen by more than $14 million a year, though customer demand hadn't changed.
What the assessment found
- Wide variance in how operators applied bleach
- Brightness and Kappa variability driving extra chemical use
- Overuse built into day-to-day operating routines
How the work was done
Operators: log every change
Introduced change logs and 15-minute shift review meetings, with Pareto charts of the reasons for process changes and action items to fix them.
Variability: control the process
A Six Sigma Master Black Belt trained plant engineers in problem solving and control charting to cut brightness and Kappa variability.
$450K
gain from higher wood fiber yield
Rollout: make it repeatable
Deployed the control tools in a four-phase rollout and trained the workforce, leaving a process other mills can reuse.
$2M
in annual bleach savings
Lasting impact
Variability in the bleaching operation fell while final product quality held. The company gained a trained workforce and a repeatable process to take to its other mills for further savings.
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