Prospector in the Pulp and Paper Industry
Bonanza Associates has over twenty five years' experience in building predictive process models for the pulp and paper industry. Our mission has consistently been to become partners and team members with our clients to enhance daily operations, accurately plan for future events, and increase plant revenue and profitability. Our software tools allow users to proactively manage and coordinate plant-wide operations and strategically plan for maintenance activities as well as unexpected events.
Prospector is the industry leader for dynamic predictive process simulation. It utilizes plant historian data systems of all types, production grade schedules, grade recipes for each paper machine and/or pulp dryer, and scheduled maintenance outage events and dates to predict and track planned operations. Predictions include in-process and raw material inventory levels, water and energy usage, environmental emissions, key performance ratios, financial results, and much more.
The model is operations-directed, and therefore is designed to be highly interactive. Users make manual entries to modify operational rates and the grade schedule to quickly test alternate responses for daily operations, and also to develop appropriate reactions to planned and unplanned events.
Productivity and profitability are increased as a result of better planning, communication, and collaboration across shifts and throughout the chain of command.
Below are some examples of how Prospector adds value for Pulp and Paper Mills:
Prospector is designed for use by engineers, managers, shift operators, and supervisors. It is user-friendly and intuitive; our clients find it easy to quickly build and edit daily and weekly Operating Plans as a guide to plant operations. Creating a new Plan takes a few seconds, and automatically brings in the Grade Schedule for each paper machine, as well as any planned downtime events. Users can employ automated features to quickly balance all the in-process inventories, or make manual edits (which gives a greater ‘feeling’ for the process change implications for each department).
Having a single Operating Plan accessible to the entire plant enhances communication and coordination across shifts and throughout the chain of command.
The automated Reports in Prospector provide daily summaries of Production quantities, Financial data, emission levels, and key indicators of plant-wide efficiency (productivity), like Energy usage per ton of production, and costs per unit of production. The Reports automatically bring in Actual data as it becomes available and allows users to compare what was planned with what actually happened.
Unplanned outages and other upset conditions can be handled more effectively with our mass and energy balance tools, helping the plant return to normal operating conditions much more quickly and with minimal loss of productivity. It is a great Training tool as well, allowing Operators to simulate upset conditions and test different responses, immediately getting feedback on how their departmental decisions impact other unit operations, and the plant-wide cost impact of alternate decisions.
All our clients use Prospector for planning and executing major maintenance outages. These events occur infrequently, and therefore by definition every operator is out of their ‘comfort zone’ regarding managing rates and inventory levels. They are also high risk and high cost events for any plant, with extra expenses due to outside services and lost production, and potential negative implications for customers and logistics/transportation providers.
Prospector allows plant personnel to plan every detail well in advance of the start of the Outage. The famous quote from Eisenhower is particularly relevant: “In battle, a Plan is useless – but Planning is essential.” Using our software to evaluate numerous scenarios (length of downtime events, sequencing the startup of equipment, etc.) well in advance results in improved performance during the Outage, when things invariably don’t go as planned.
Users can use Prospector's Compare Plans feature to optimize the Outage Plan, making data-driven decisions based on predicted costs and profitability of alternate Plans.
For plants that ‘swing’ pulping and/or bleaching equipment to make different species of pulp (hardwood, softwood, for example), Prospector is a great tool to make those process transitions more efficient and produce less ‘twilight’ product. The result can be less off-grade or less rejects on the paper machine and pulp dryers, with higher chemical savings, and lower wood costs.
Changing paper machine grade schedules to match operational constraints in other process areas of the mill can also provide significant savings for a plant, especially if the alternative is slowing down or shutting down a machine. Prospector has interactive tools that allow Sales & Operations Planning teams to maximize the overall productivity of the plant, and better coordinate with logistics providers.
Mills that are limited by Liquor processing constraints can benefit from better operational planning, using Prospector. Forecasting periods of high and low fiber demand can help departments plan necessary outage work in order to minimize the impact on paper machine production, for example. Supervisors and engineers can compare alternate plans and make data-driven decisions, and effectively communicate risks and opportunities with their peers in other departments.
Simply having one Operating Plan for the week or month enhances cooperation and collaboration across departments, across shifts, and throughout the chain of command in large plants. Improved alignment with plant-wide financial and operational goals can lead to higher profitability and greater returns on existing assets.
Prospector has a number of tools that help large plants track trends and key ratios that indicate how efficiently a plant is operating.
Managers can use the tool to identify ‘best practices’ among shifts and share the learnings through Training. Prospector is an excellent tool for tracking the longer term trends in the plant and can alert Operators when productivity and/or efficiency indicators begin to change.
Prospector allows building Plans of up to a year in length, making it an excellent tool for longer term planning as mills review their grade mix for the future. It helps highlight potential constraints in various process areas, depending on the possible mix of grades and resulting fiber demands and liquor requirements, as well as environmental emissions.
Manage your Future,
instead of simply reacting to the past.
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