Founded in 2007, JoutCon Oy provides a wide variety of board- and paper-based remote sheeting services for the board and paper industry. The company, which is headquartered in south-eastern Finland, produces 25 000 tons a year via a pair of production lines.
The challenge
To excel in the highly competitive global paper industry, JoutCon recognised the immediate need for state-of-the-art technology upon the founding of the company in 2007. To meet industry standards today and in the future, JoutCon sought a technology partner that was capable of meeting the requirements of a young, highly promising organisation.
“Starting from scratch, we at JoutCon Oy had many options for building our production process,” said MD, Tapani Lautamies. “We needed a partner that could immediately recognise our situation and the particular needs of smaller plants.”
JoutCon was not only interested in getting its business off to the best possible start, but also remained keenly focused on implementing a company-wide strategy that would permit seamless growth, diversification and integration with its main contractors in the paper and board industry.
The solution
JoutCon found a partner that met its needs in Honeywell. The company notes that one of Honeywell’s major strengths is the ability to adapt its offerings to customers’ specific needs. Honeywell’s OptiVision MES software met JoutCon’s needs with comprehensive standard functionality to manage the entire order-to-cash business cycle, especially sheeting operations.
“We operate qualified production with very short production time,” explains Lautamies. “This requires high-quality processes in order to meet our demands for top-notch order management, production planning and reporting.”
Honeywell’s OptiVision MES optimises production, fixed costs and variable costs by maximising manpower requirements, allocating fixed assets, managing working capital and prioritising capital spending. OptiVision provides planning and execution at the corporate level and full manufacturing execution at the mill level.
“Without an excellent manufacturing execution system like Honeywell’s OptiVision, it would be impossible for JoutCon Oy to manage and run its converting plant at peak profitability,” Lautamies adds. “Our customers join us in appreciation for what our investment in Honeywell’s best-in-class MES does for the quality of our business.”
The partners are so pleased with their relationship that JoutCon and Honeywell will take on a new challenge together. JoutCon plans to implement Papinet standard messages to communicate with its suppliers as well as with board and paper mills. Automatic order receiving and order status reporting will help the mills communicate order and production status while keeping production lines operating at proper efficiencies.
The benefits
With the use of OptiVision, the JoutCon facility was able to upgrade and improve in the following areas:
* Order processing and planning.
* Sheet production and tracking.
* Pallet labeling.
* Inter-facility communications involving production lines, warehousing and delivery.
* Process efficiency.
* Cost of tracking production results.
* Reporting.
For more information contact Debbie Rae, Honeywell Southern Africa, +27 (0)11 695 8000, [email protected], www.honeywell.co.za
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved