From equipment downtime to raw material quality and supply, the pulp and paper industry faces many operational challenges that can significantly impact efficiency and profitability.
Like other manufacturing sectors, some of these obstacles can be hard to predict, such as price fluctuations in raw materials or rising labor costs.
Meanwhile, others can be offset by properly maintaining equipment to prevent unexpected breakdowns or using technology to optimize budgets and ensure accurate, contract-compliant payments.
Let’s examine the industry and how software solutions like myTrack can help manufacturers overcome these challenges to ensure continued success and growth.
Billion Dollar Industry and Growing
When you think of paper, what comes to mind? Perhaps a notebook, a newspaper, or even the TV show 'The Office.' However, the pulp and paper industry produces far more than just paper. These diverse products include everything from paper cups to LCD screens to plywood.
The amount of paper and paperboard produced worldwide in 2022 was over 414 million metric tons and valued at $351.53 billion in 2021, Statista reports. It's expected to reach a value of nearly $373 billion by 2029.
Despite the push to become a paperless society, Statista foresees consistent growth through the decade with global demand for packaging and emerging markets fueling much of it.
Energy Efficiency and Environmental Regulations
The pulp and paper industry is very energy-intensive, with pulping and paper drying consuming large amounts of electricity and steam.
While trees are a renewable resource, the production process consumes considerable water and energy, raising environmental concerns. However, paper is a renewable resource and has a high recycling rate. Recycling and reusing paper products multiple times helps minimize their ecological impact.
Compliance with regulations is another challenge. Meeting stringent environmental regulations can impose additional operational burdens, requiring investments in pollution control equipment and practices that can affect overall productivity.
Another issue is rising costs. During pandemic-induced lockdowns, raw materials' prices fluctuated significantly. Some prices have steadied, while others continue to fluctuate or remain elevated.
Improving Operational Predictability
The pulp and paper industry relies on large capital-intensive machines. The machines “…use huge quantities of energy and water to break down forest-sourced, bark-sheathed, tightly bundled cellulose fibers. Then other large, capital-intensive machines and great amounts of energy remove that water while reassembling the fibers into paper.” These machines are energy-dependent, and energy prices have been rising.
Unplanned maintenance can be costly in terms of time and productivity. This includes frequent machinery breakdowns, such as paper machines, boilers, and pulp digesters. Another issue involves aging equipment prone to frequent failures, requiring more frequent repairs and reduced reliability.
Labor availability and the cost of labor have also been issues for the pulp and paper industry. Studies show that the manufacturing labor shortage will only worsen with many jobs going unfilled. This challenge has driven many manufacturers to rely on more contractor labor.
Another complexity involves operational predictability. Pulp and paper manufacturers must maintain their equipment to operate as intended. A well-maintained machine is more productive than one not operating at 100%. Companies typically use contractor labor to handle equipment maintenance.
How myTrack Provides Visibility and Savings
myTrack, the next-generation TRACK platform, provides real-time data visibility, allowing manufacturers to optimize budgets and ensure accurate, contract-compliant payments. This transparency empowers companies to pay contractors precisely what they have earned.
One user in the pulp and paper industry found dramatic savings after using the software. They discovered that their contractor payments were over by as much as 16.73%.
Let’s review a few ways myTrack can help pulp and paper manufacturers.
Stay in line with regulations
Proving your company is complying with regulations is often more difficult than complying. Preparing for an audit is stressful and time-consuming. Staff is pulled away from their regular duties to gather and organize the information that auditors demand.
myTrack ends this headache and simplifies compliance and audit readiness. Teams don’t have to sweat the audit and dedicate hours in preparation. Because myTrack acts as a data repository for everything related to contract labor, such as hours worked, skill level of employees, equipment, etc., all pertinent records are maintained in a single place. Comprehensive and accurate records are easily retrievable.
The data is also helpful for making business decisions. Management can pull data and make informed decisions on critical issues.
By enforcing contract compliance, myTrack can help ensure efficient use of materials and reduce waste, contributing to more sustainable practices.
Maximize labor productivity
The procurement team dedicates hours to creating a contract.
myTrack gives pulp and paper manufacturers the power to manage and pay their contractors what they have earned. With myTrack, you know costs are accurate and contract-compliant before payment. This results in improved cost control and budget performance.
Finally, pulp and paper manufacturers gain insights into the cost-effectiveness of contractors and visibility into contractor activity across their mills. With this information, they can better manage their budgets without compromising quality.
Achieve greater operational flexibility.
Pulp and paper manufacturers are becoming more reliant on automation. Therefore, maintaining the machinery to operate as designed is even more important.
With myTrack, pulp and paper manufacturers can answer the following questions:
- Do you have real-time information on your maintenance budget related to contractor spend?
- Can you accurately track how your contractor resources are allocated and if they adhere to all contract terms and conditions?
- Can you see how your vendors are performing compared to their schedule?
myTrack allows manufacturers to stay informed with daily reporting on project progress and costs, enabling timely course corrections to stay on schedule and budget.
When projects exceed their budget, manufacturers may delay future maintenance projects. Although understandable, this is a recipe for failure. By keeping maintenance projects on budget, manufacturers can follow their planned schedule and keep machinery operating as intended.
myTrack also helps keep pulp and paper production sites safe. With the software, manufacturers can leverage fatigue tracking and get alerts when a worker reaches their fatigue threshold. Leaders can automatically check to ensure contractors have appropriate safety certifications before being allowed on-site.
Ready to learn more? Find out how myTrack helped a pulp and paper manufacturer with cost control and contractor management. Have a question about how myTrack can help your company? Reach out to us.
