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International Paper: $16M+ in Bottom-Line Improvement at One Site
Background
International Paper is leading pulp and paper company. Established in 1898, the company manufactures corrugated packaging and pulp, paper, and envelopes among other products.
International Paper partnered with QualPro to improve quality characteristics, improve product consistency, increase yields, and increase overall production rates while simultaneously lowering costs throughout one of their major manufacturing sites.
Approach
QualPro consultants worked closely with International Paper’s site management, technical staff, and front-line operators to systematically identify problem processes and dramatically improve them. Over an 18-month time period, QualPro worked with the International Paper team to successfully complete 16 major improvement projects.
For each project, International Paper employees at all levels brainstormed improvement ideas to help solve the targeted problem. Typically, a list of 75 or more potential improvement ideas were identified for each project. Our consultants helped International Paper narrow the list of potential ideas to ones deemed practical, fast, and cost-free.
QualPro consultants designed experiments for each project team to perform. These experiments tested the impact of each idea, both individually and in combination with other ideas. International Paper executed the experiments and recorded the results. As is almost always the case, the findings were very counterintuitive.
Based on the test results, QualPro consultants created recommendations for International Paper to implement. Our consultants worked closely with supervisory, technical, and frontline employees at International Paper to ensure the helpful changes were implemented and that the improved results were realized.
Results
The 16 projects conducted over an 18-month time period produced a bottom-line improvement of over $16 million. As always, no capital dollars were needed, and operational costs went down as the processes were improved.