Lean Transformation in a Paper Mill

Our customer, a paper mill with 2 paper machines and over 200 employees, head quartered in Brussels rolled out a LEAN transformation program for their paper mills, sheet and corregators manufacturing facilities. LEAN is believed to be the key enabler for better service quality, flexibility to compete more effectively.

ATS Success Story

Project duration: 1 year
Project Saves: 14% Ebitda/year

ATS:

Lean is a structured proven method for improving business performance focusing on waste elimination. ATS is a leading company supporting companies implementing the Lean methods by offering Lean Training and Consultancy.

Project briefing:

The original LEAN transformation program was adapted from Mc Kinsey and improved throughout best practices of plant transformation. For each plant transformation a LEAN-Team was created and built up with central lean champions (Lean experts from headquarters) and local lean champions (change agents from the local plant). ATS was appointed to join a LEAN transformation in a paper mill for independent lean knowledge and capacity.

The Preparation phase of the Lean transformation consisted of gathering historical plant information and sending out employee surveys. The Central Lean Champions trained the local lean champions and the management team to perform together the current state analyses. The current state analyses is a structured analyses/ quick scan of the current conditions in the plant. Tools used for these analyses:

  • Value Stream Mapping (VSM) / Capacity tunnel
  • Focus group meetings on Performance Management and Continues Improvement
  • 8 Waste analyses
  • 5S analyses
  • Quality, maintenance, safety and organization structure analyses
  • Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

These different analyses reveal the business improvement opportunities, the Future state of the paper mill. The Lean Team trained, coached and participated in the following Improvement projects:

  • SMED implementation resulted in a decrease of Changeover losses
  • Standard operation procedures (SOP) helped to sustain improvements
  • Continues improvement infrastructure to process improvement proposals
  • Leadership training was given to increase Lean thinking
  • Implementation of cascaded KPI’s, meeting structure and Visual Performance Boards to assist Performance Management.

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