Industry Case Studies, Mill Products

Wood Products: Effectively Managing Quality and Compliance Using Proficy®

Background:
A Fortune 500 Paper and Forest Products manufacturer desired to update a newly acquired facility's quality and operating system. This Fortune 500 Corporation planned on replacing the facility's legacy system with a fully supported quality management program.

Situation:
The client acquired a new facility, which was using a legacy VAX based system. Support for the VAX hardware and operating system was no longer available. The client contracted with EnteGreat for the implementation of MES services. EnteGreat's objective was to replace the paper machine quality system with Proficy®, an integrated, off the shelf solution for driving operational excellence through real-time manufacturing performance management and execution control. The client would use Proficy® in the monitoring and management of all product specifications during production.

Solution:
Initially, EnteGreat was engaged to provide the Proficy® expertise and to work with the facility resources in performing the implementation. EnteGreat worked with the mill resources in both a training role as well as assisting in task performance. After gaining expertise in the logistics of the client's project foundation, EnteGreat quickly transferred control of quality administration from their legacy VAX system to Proficy®. Additionally, the scope of the project was expanded to include more logistical support for a number of aspects of the project. EnteGreat provided Proficy® configuration for the facility, SQL stored procedures as required by the client, reports with data retrieval, and SQL views as defined by the mill for use with Crystal Reports.

Benefits:
The client was able to discontinue the legacy VAX system. Quality data is now being collected and utilized with Proficy® for all products running on all the paper machines. Product specifications are set up on a plant level management, allowing for considerable savings in product data maintenance. Additionally, one of the scope expansions included applying an existing facility's current Product Tracking System for generating customer product certification documents.