Like in any other industry, companies in the tissue and nonwovens business strive to cut costs and increase profits while producing the highest quality material.
In this industry there are data that have traditionally been easy to acquire, such as the cost of raw materials, transportation, the one related to the daily production and perhaps even the cost of the daily energy usage.
While these data are all incredibly important when determining the cost per meter of paper produced, they are limited in terms of how accurate this cost identification can be.
Fortunately, nowadays, we can use Artificial Intelligence in the form of machine learning to analyze Big Data in order to determine the operational efficiency of every machine on the production line.
The ultimate goal of this process is to allocate the costs and profits per each meter of paper produced with unparalleled accuracy.
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence
Research into Artificial Intelligence has been ongoing since the 1950s. It has taken six decades to truly begin to realize and implement the benefits this technology can deliver. McKinsey estimates tech giants spent between $20 and $30 billion on Artificial Intelligence in 2016, with 90% of that money going toward research and development.
In terms of adoption, as of 2017 this technology was still relatively little diffused, and tissue and nonwovens industry still need to invest in this direction. The artificial intelligence industry will start to explode in the next few years, with estimated revenues of nearly $119 billion by 2025.
Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing
The added benefit of the Artificial Intelligence in manufacturing, and particularly in the tissue and nonwovens industry, is of crucial importance.
This Industry 4.0 technology can be used in various ways to improve every aspect of company operations, including:
- predictive maintenance scheduling;
- real time cost and profit allocation;
- quality control;
- reduction of environmental impact;
- product traceability;
- communication along the supply chain;
- design process;
- waste reduction;
- customer service and post-production support;
- data collection and integration.
This last point in particular is key when it comes to allocating costs and profits per meter of paper produced. Artificial intelligence can in fact take thousands, even millions of data points, analyze them, and automatically make adjustments on the production line to optimize its throughput.
Using Artificial Intelligence for a detailed view of machine operation
A.Celli's Digital Solution harnesses the immense power of Artificial Intelligence to help tissue and nonwovens companies dramatically improve operations and accurately allocate the cost and profit per meter of paper produced.
Each machine on the production line is equipped with sensors capable of detecting every aspect of its operation. The data coming from each machine will be sent over a cloud-based network to a platform where, thanks to an Artificial Intelligence software, they will be integrated and analyzed to give a global overview of the production line functioning.
The data coming from the single machine can be analyzed in isolation so that the machine performance, utilities and raw materials consumption, assets depreciation, the needed maintenance etc... can be accurately determined in real-time for each phase of the production process. Not only do all of these different data points inform companies about their daily production level and the overall production cost, but they also translate into costs the informations regarding each aspect of the operation of the machine.
Thanks to these informations, tissue and nonwovens companies can also determine consumption, machine performance etc... and indentify best and worst practices behind the collected data, replication the former and solving the latter to obtain a top quality product. Each and every data point can be analyzed in relation to one another to provide a complete picture of the machinery operating costs, thus identifying the weak points in the production line where costs can be cut.
Read more: How to measure tissue and nonwovens mill machinery performance with real time analytics
Artificial Intelligence has the ability to recognize data patterns over time, on the basis of which it can make automatic adjustments to individual machine settings, such as speed and tension, and to environmental conditions, such as temperature and pressure, to ensure that each machine is operating at optimal levels. AI has also the ability to recognize and analyze fluctuations in machine performance, and it can drill down and assess in realt-time the cost of production of each individual meter of paper as it is produced. This enables companies to find that sweet spot that let them reach the maximum production and quality for minimum cost and waste.
A.Celli Digital Solution: boosting tissue and nonwovens production through AI
In conclusion, tissue and nonwovens companies need to adopt Artificial Intelligence in order to remain competitive. Approximate data on operational efficiency and cost per meter is no longer good enough. The ability of artificial intelligence to so specifically identify production costs down to each meter of paper is crucial in today’s competitive global business environment.
For more information about how Artificial Intelligence can provide real-time information and analyses on your tissue and nonwovens production line, please download our eBook "A.Celli Digital Solution: Your Fellow Traveller on Your Journey Through Industry 4.0"!
