Southern Pulp & Paper
Southern Pulp and Paper
Introduction
In this work I am going to identify the Southern Pulp and Paper’s Toccoa mill problems and issues that are available to mill’s manager Curtis Shelton.
Part 1 In considering the overall process on the pulp and bleached products industry it is always good to start with the main performance objectives and measures. One of the first important issues is the process design and layout. How the process architecture looks like and how well it is designed to fulfill all the required operations would be the most important questions to be asked. As stated in the case study the main problem of the mill appears to be the machines, number 5 and 6. They were in use since 1967 and were quite old, and although they were renovated to increase their capacity by putting some investment they are still the bottleneck of the process even if they work beyond their “rated capacity”. So the main issue would be the capacity of the machines. The key issue in machine #5 performances is running without breaks. The main problems in machine #6 which are: grade changes, which included both the scheduling and production issue. They use the minimum computer technology and the superintendents are responsible to make adjustments and maintain them. So, one of the problems is about getting the machines computerized by installing the computerized machine control system. But the problem in getting it done is in the key measurement of the mill’s success Economic Value Added, which makes it doubtful. Moreover, the computerization may cause fears to the workers. The quality issue of the process is about having different specifications on the products, which are not necessarily needed but raise the cost of the process running on #6 machine. The other issue affecting the process is scheduling. The problem is that the scheduling is being held in the main office in Birmingham by the other person. And there is always a possibility of promotion of the
Introduction
In this work I am going to identify the Southern Pulp and Paper’s Toccoa mill problems and issues that are available to mill’s manager Curtis Shelton.
Part 1 In considering the overall process on the pulp and bleached products industry it is always good to start with the main performance objectives and measures. One of the first important issues is the process design and layout. How the process architecture looks like and how well it is designed to fulfill all the required operations would be the most important questions to be asked. As stated in the case study the main problem of the mill appears to be the machines, number 5 and 6. They were in use since 1967 and were quite old, and although they were renovated to increase their capacity by putting some investment they are still the bottleneck of the process even if they work beyond their “rated capacity”. So the main issue would be the capacity of the machines. The key issue in machine #5 performances is running without breaks. The main problems in machine #6 which are: grade changes, which included both the scheduling and production issue. They use the minimum computer technology and the superintendents are responsible to make adjustments and maintain them. So, one of the problems is about getting the machines computerized by installing the computerized machine control system. But the problem in getting it done is in the key measurement of the mill’s success Economic Value Added, which makes it doubtful. Moreover, the computerization may cause fears to the workers. The quality issue of the process is about having different specifications on the products, which are not necessarily needed but raise the cost of the process running on #6 machine. The other issue affecting the process is scheduling. The problem is that the scheduling is being held in the main office in Birmingham by the other person. And there is always a possibility of promotion of the
References: Bolen, W. and Upton, D. (1996) ‘Southern Pulp and Paper’, Harvard Business School, April, pp.1-10. Harmon, P. (2007) Business Process Change, 2nd edition, San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. Priddis G. (2009) OPM42 Lecture: Operations Improvement 2: The Performance-Improvement Matrix and Ishikawa’s Improvement tools, Brighton: Brighton Business School. Priddis G. (2009) OPM42 Workshop 5: Performance Objectives and Measures, Brighton: Brighton Business School. Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R. (1998) Operations management, 2nd edition, London: Pitman Publishing. Vonderembse, M. and White, G. (1988) Operations Management: Concepts, Methods and Strategies, St.Paul, Minnesota: West.