Manufacturing Case Study: Reliability at Abitibi

Like many U.S.-based manufacturing sectors, the pulp and paper industry is facing an unprecedented and challenging business climate resulting from significant increases in energy and raw material costs, heightened global competition and the strengthening of the Canadian dollar. To combat these trends, newsprint, commercial printing papers and wood product company AbitibiBowater knew that adopting asset reliability, within its corporate continuous improvement program, was a key business strategy to address these industry challenges and become the low-cost producer of quality paper products within the marketplace.

Working with USCCG, a leading management consulting firm, the company chose a solution from Ivara that will be deployed throughout AbitibiBowater's 29 paper mills to deliver its pulp and paper mill reliability objectives.

According to the company, Ivara's EXP Enterprise software provides a cohesive and integrated platform to develop, implement and manage a living equipment reliability program. EXP consolidates, analyzes and manages all asset health data online and in real-time. As proactive maintenance tasks are performed, EXP identifies potential failures and recommends the right maintenance task to be executed at the right time.

According to the company, Ivara EXP Enterprise software will allow AbitibiBowater to implement a consistent, proactive maintenance business process across its operating assets, focusing on maintaining asset health rather than reactive asset repair. AbitibiBowater plans to use the template capability of EXP, which enables the rapid deployment of proactive reliability programs across operating assets and mills. This capability should dramatically compress the implementation timeline and result in quick ROI. Of equal importance, EXP will capture and leverage the vast knowledge of AbitibiBowater's experienced maintenance and operations staff to ensure their valuable knowledge is preserved for future generations.