Valmet has secured a contract to provide Mercer Rosenthal, a kraft pulp mill in Germany, with a Mill-Wide Optimization solution. This comprehensive solution involves a mill-wide production planning application, as well as change management services, designed to streamline decision-making and enhance production optimization across the fiber line, recovery line, and pulp dryer. Notably, the package includes a two-year performance agreement for ongoing remote support via the Valmet Performance Center, ensuring sustained results over the long term.
The order was integrated into Valmet's second-quarter 2023 orders received, and the optimization solution is slated for delivery in the autumn of the same year. While the order's exact value remains undisclosed, it marks a pivotal step towards refining Mercer Rosenthal's operational efficiency.
This advanced solution facilitates centralized real-time decision-making, driven by a holistic view of total mill production, inventory balance, forecasts, and coordinated process area decisions. This cohesive approach maximizes profitability while stabilizing the overall production process.
Christian Sörgel, Managing Director at Mercer Rosenthal, highlights the strategic significance of implementing Valmet Mill-Wide Optimization in advancing their pulp and energy production efficiency.
Markus Foigtmannsberger, Service Manager for the Automation Systems business line at Valmet, underscores the positive, longstanding relationship with Mercer, expressing confidence that the Mill-Wide Optimization solution will effectively empower their operators and bolster production targets. Foigtmannsberger also underscores Mercer's existing automation system, analyzers, and measurements as a solid foundation for this optimization endeavor.
The journey towards implementing Mill-Wide Optimization has included meticulous steps, such as a comprehensive mill audit and a detailed "re-optimize the past" analysis. These measures were undertaken to minimize risks, assess potential benefits, and ascertain the production planning solution's ability to align with the mill's goals.
Valmet's Mill-Wide Optimization solution operates by monitoring the entire mill's production and inventory balance in real-time, considering both present and future states of operations. This dynamic approach mitigates the risk of suboptimal individual process decisions that may not align with broader mill objectives. Furthermore, the optimization framework enables the strategic balancing of environmental sustainability with production, quality, and cost considerations.
The Valmet Mill-Wide Optimization Audit plays a crucial role in revealing the true potential for production enhancement and the corresponding return on investment. Through historical data analysis, this audit aids in evaluating the extent of production increase possibilities, identifying constraints, and highlighting practical use cases for the Mill-Wide Optimization solution.