Benchmarking Your Papermachine, 2001 Papermakers Conference Proceedings

With the current trend toward acquisitions and mergers, the pulp and paper industry is under increasing pressure to evaluate its operating and financial performance relative to best industry practice in competing mills on a global basis. Benchmarking can be very valuable for improving a mill’s operating performance by identifying key performance gaps. This paper describes benchmarking as it pertains to the operation of the mill’s paper machines, including the stock preparation area which can serve as a stand alone evaluation or typically included as part of an overall mill benchmarking study. The two main objectives of a benchmarking study are: 1) Provide an overall assessment of the productivity and cost effectiveness of the operation against key competitors and best industry practice, 2) Identify major performance gaps with the greatest potential for improvement. This paper describes some of the benefits of benchmarking, the data typically gathered for the study , key performance indicators and how successful managers can use these studies to focus their improvement efforts.