Expert Systems Increase Paper Industry Competitiveness, 1991 Papermakers Conference Proceedings

An Expert System (ES) is a new artificial intelligence (AI) application area that could bring many benefits to the paper industry. Everyone today has the same goals. How can ES’s be applied to "real" problems? Bow can they enhance human expertise and allow it to be used more efficiently? How can ES be started and developed for a paper machine, a sheeter or a coater? What are the commitments and financial implications? How to integrate the ES with other systems of the plant, i.e. condition/engineering monitoring? How to use Expert Systems technology as the integrating vehicle of islands of automation such as Optimized Production Technology (OPT), Bill of Materials (BOM), Computer Aided Production Management (CAPM), Maintenance Management Information Systems (MMIS), etc. of a company?

The presentation will discuss the application of Expert Systems to the paper industry and present a case study, the expert system Coatrex developed for coaters. Coherent strategies for developing Expert Systems in the paper industry are proposed. The reasons for using ES’s to solve production, quality and maintenance problems of a paper company are explained.

The financial and quality benefits from implementing an Expert System in a paper company’s processes are emphasized.