Case Study

Catalyst Paper

Learn how Catalyst Paper used dataPARC to eliminate data silos, allowing them to improve efficiency and product quality by centerlining their processes and establishing “golden runs”.

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Catalyst Paper’s Story

Catalyst Paper’s Rumford Division, located in the western region of Maine, was established in 1901, and remains a major employer in the state’s region. It produces coated one and two sided paper, including paper commonly used in food and beverage packaging. Rumford employs over 640 people. The mill has used OSisoft® PI System, GE Proficy, and Honeywell OptiVision to gather, store, and present process and quality data for over 20 years.

“PARCview has given us the ability to make decisions based on events as they occur, and, in some cases, forecast into the future.”

Steve West, Senior Process Engineer

Reduced Coating Costs

dataPARC provided a 17% reduction in coating costs while improving grade-based product management.

Simplified Process Monitoring

Data integration allowed Catalyst to easily monitor production rate in the pulp mill & power and recovery.

Improved Consistency

New centerline displays allow operators to deliver consistent product runs across shifts and grades.

Catalyst’s Challenges

Catalyst was diving into more challenging product structures and operations leadership understood that the current tools were not delivering. There were many challenges including combining data from multiple databases, the lack of ability to easily connect to multiple data sources and present the data in one window, difficulty correlating and filtering data, and lack of intuitive tools for analysis.

The dataPARC Solution

dataPARC’s PARCview quickly showed its capabilities. Stability was improved in several key customer quality requirements. Internal process monitoring tasks were simplified with the aid of PARCview’s grade-based “Run Browser” and “Centerlining” tools, along with the “Golden Run” concept.