UNIT 305 – OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

NEW CAIRO PAPER MILL

TOPIC NAME

LECTURER: DR.TONY JEWELS

SUBMISSION DATE: 16.10.2013

STUDENT NAME: KHALED IBRAHIM
STUDENT ID: 867438

TABLE OF CONTENT
Executive summary ……………………………………………………………………………..3 1.Introduction 4 1.1 mission and vision 4 1.2 Objective of the Study 5 2. Key process in operations 5 2.1 Procurement 5 2.2 Production 5 2.3 Distribution 7 2.4 The sales 7 3. Planning stages and control 7 3.1 Strategic 7 3.2 Tactical 8 3.3 Operative 9 4. Environmental, Health, and Safety for Pulp and Paper Mills 10 4.1 Environment 10 4.2 Occupational Health and Safety 12 4.3 Community Health 13 5. Conclusion 13 List of Figures Figure 1 9 Figure 2 15

Executive summary
Paper is a sheet of fibers with a number of added chemicals that affect the properties and quality of the sheet. Besides fibers and chemicals, manufacturing of pulp and paper requires a large amount of process water and energy in the form of steam and electric power.
Consequently, the main environmental issues associated with pulp and paper production are emissions to water, emissions to air, and energy consumption. Waste is a gradually increasing environmental issue of concern
.Paper production typically involves the following steps:
• Producing and acquiring fiber
• Chemically or mechanically processing the fiber into pulp
• Running the pulp through a paper machine to create large rolls of paper The papermaking process is complex and has far-reaching environmental impacts beyond the simple paper production process, which itself is toxic, resource intensive, and uses chemicals and pollutants that are creating major health issues and environmental degradation. Due to the environmental impacts the common vision goal for paper mills should be the elimination of paper manufactured solely of virgin fiber recognizes that recycled fiber is the foundation for environmentally sustainable paper and paper products. No matter what the source of the virgin fiber, environmental benefits are maximized when it can be reused repeatedly rather than requiring new raw resources for every production cycle. Not only does recycling reduce demand for wood fibers, it also generates many other significant environmental benefits as well.

1. Introduction
Over the centuries, paper has been made from a wide variety of materials such as cotton, wheat straw, sugar cane waste, flax, bamboo, wood, linen rags, and hemp. The earliest paper was papyrus, made from reeds by the ancient Egyptians. Paper was made by the Chinese in the second century, probably by a Chinese court official named Cai Lun. His paper was made from such things as tree bark and old fish netting. Recognized almost immediately as a valuable secret, it was 500 years before the Japanese acquired knowledge of the method. Papermaking was known in the Islamic world from the end of the eighth century A.D.
Knowledge of papermaking eventually moved westward, and the first European paper mill was built at Jativa, in the province of Valencia, Spain, in about 1150. By the end of the 15th century, paper mills existed in Italy, France, Germany, and England, and by the end of the 16th century, paper was being made throughout Europe.
Regardless of the source, you need fiber to make paper. Today fiber comes mainly from two sources wood and recycled paper products.
Paper mills differ in their processes based on the source of fiber used and the end product produced. There are three basic types of mills:
• Pulp mills
• Recycled paper processing mills
• Mills that use both recycled and virgin fiber
1.1 Mission and vision
Mission: is to be the leading source for environmentally responsible, economically paper and meeting the business needs of customers.
Vision: To excel in serving demands of paper and paper products worldwide

1.2 Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to analyze the operational management in the paper mill and how the process might be improved to reduce its environmental impacts.
2. Key process in operations The paper mill divides the operations to four main stages or processes. 2.1 Procurement:
Involves the operations directed towards providing for the raw material and resources necessary for the production. In the case of pulp and paper the most important raw material is wood and recycled paper.
2.2 Production In this process the raw materials are converted to intermediary and/or finished products.
2.2.1 Making pulp Several processes are commonly used to convert logs to wood pulp. In the mechanical process, logs are first tumbled in drums to remove the bark. The logs are then sent to grinders, which break the wood down into pulp by pressing it between huge revolving slabs. The pulp is filtered to remove foreign objects. In the chemical process, wood chips from de-barked logs are cooked in a chemical solution. This is done in huge vats called digesters. The chips are fed into the digester, and then boiled at high pressure in a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. The chips dissolve into pulp in the solution. Next the pulp is sent through filters. Bleach may be added at this stage, or colorings. The pulp is sent to the paper plant.
2.2.2 Beating The pulp is next put through a pounding and squeezing process called beating. Inside a large tub, the pulp is subjected to the effect of machine beaters. At this point, various filler materials can be added such as chalks, clays, or chemicals such as titanium oxide. These additives will influence the opacity and other qualities of the final product. Sizing is also added at this point. Sizing affects the way the paper will react with various inks. Without any sizing at all, a paper will be too absorbent for most uses except as a desk blotter. A sizing such as starch makes the paper resistant to water-based ink (inks actually sit on top of a sheet of paper, rather than sinking in). A variety of sizings, generally rosins and gums, is available depending on the eventual use of the paper. Paper that will receive a printed design, such as gift wrapping, requires a particular formula of sizing that will make the paper accept the printing properly.
2.2.3 Pulp to paper In order to finally turn the pulp into paper, the pulp is fed or pumped into giant, automated machines. One common type is called the Fourdrinier machine, which was invented in England in 1807. Pulp is fed into the Fourdrinier machine on a moving belt of fine mesh screening. The pulp is squeezed through a series of rollers, while suction devices below the belt drain off water. If the paper is to receive a water-mark, a device called a dandy moves across the sheet of pulp and presses a design into it.
The paper then moves onto the press section of the machine, where it is pressed between rollers of wool felt. The paper then passes over a series of steam-heated cylinders to remove the remaining water. A large machine may have from 40 to 70 drying cylinders.
2.2.4 Finishing Finally, the dried paper is wound onto large reels, where it will be further processed depending on its ultimate use. Paper is smoothed and compacted further by passing through metal rollers called calendars. A particular finish, whether soft and dull or hard and shiny, can be imparted by the calendars.
The paper may be further finished by passing through a vat of sizing material. It may also receive a coating, which is either brushed on or rolled on. Coating adds chemicals or pigments to the paper's surface, supplementing the sizings and fillers from earlier in the process. Fine clay is often used as a coating. The paper may next be super calendared, that is, run through extremely smooth calendar rollers, for a final time. Then the paper is cut to the desired size.

2.3 Distribution
Includes the logistics taking place to move the products either to companies processing the product further or to distribution centers, and finally to retailers.
2.4 The sales
Process deals with all demand planning issues including customer or market selection, pricing strategy, forecasting and order promising policies.

3. Planning stages and control
In pulp and paper mill industry the planning stages can be divided into three stages. The first stage is long- term planning “ Strategic “ , mid –term planning “Tactical” and short –term planning “Operative”.
3.1 Strategic
Long-term planning in the pulp and paper industry is indeed very long-term. An investment in a new pulp or paper mill is normally intended to last for more than 30 years. Strategic decisions would relate to opening and closing of mills, location of new or to be acquired mills, products and markets development, financial and operational exposure, planning strategy (e.g. decoupling point) and inventory location. Defining the planning approach has a major impact on all the investment decisions. It will fix important parameters in terms of needed technology and capacity as well as inventory levels and maximum distance to customers. Such decisions involve naturally an evaluation of how the investment will fit into the whole supply chain. Which markets are available for the products based on anticipated market trends? How will the distribution of the products be carried out and at what cost? And finally how should the production be supplied with the necessary wood fibers (wood or pulp)? Other supplies such as energy might also be a crucial factor.

3.2 Tactical
The next step in the hierarchical planning structure is mid-term or tactical planning. Tactical planning addresses allocation rules which defines which resource or group of resources should be responsible for realizing the different supply chain activities. It also addresses the definition of the usage rules defining production, distribution delays, lot sizing and inventory policies. An important contribution of the tactical planning is to define those rules through a global analysis of the supply chain. This planning serves as a bridge from the long-term strategic level to the detailed operative planning which has a direct influence on the actual operations in the chain (e.g. routing of trucks, definition of when to change from one product to another in the production process etc.). The tactical planning should ensure that the subsequent operative planning is not sub—optimized due to a shorter planning horizon, but rather that the direction which has been set out in the strategic planning is followed. Typical decisions here are allocation of customers to mills and definition of necessary distribution capacity. The requirement of advance planning of the distribution depends on the transportation mode. Typically vessel, and rail transportation needs to be planned further in advance than trucks.
Example of a tactical planning task is production scheduling of pulp mills with regards to pulp availability, and vessel distribution. The time horizon may vary in this planning between 6 to 12 months. Crucial is to account for the period during the year when wood availability is scarce to ensure not to run out of certain assortments. In a chemical pulp mill the cost of changing from one product to another is relatively high; therefore the number of product transitions is not that large (somewhere in the range of 6 to 24 per year). This makes it important to account for the scheduling of the production already at the tactical level. When it comes to paper, production transition costs are normally considerably smaller. This is why the scheduling sometimes is not explicitly accounted for at the tactical level. The purpose of this plan is to define guidelines on monthly levels for the subsequent short-term planning.
3.3 Operative
The third level of planning is the short-term or operative planning, which is the planning that precedes and decides real-world operative actions. Because of that, there are very high demands on this planning to adequately reflect in detail the reality in which the operations take place. The precise timing of operations is crucial. It is normally not adequate to know which week or month a certain action should be taken, it has to be defined in terms of days or hours. The operative planning is normally distributed to the different facilities or cells of the facilities because of the enormous quantity of data that needs to be manipulated at that level.
One operative problem is the roll cutting problem in paper mills. Once the reel (or tambour) has been produced in the paper machine it must be cut into the rolls demanded by internal and external customers. The reel may be 5-10 meters wide and 30 km long. The customer orders are for products that may be 0.5-1.0 meter wide and 5 km long. The problem is to decide cutting patterns, and the number of each, in order to satisfy the customer order while minimizing the number of reels required during a given period of time.

Within the production process, scheduling of the different products on the pulp and paper manufacturing lines are also typical operational planning tasks. Finally, the process control of pulp and paper manufacturing involves real time operative planning decisions.

(Figure1) modules covering the SCP-Matrix
(From Fleischmann et al. 2002)
4. Environmental, Health, and Safety for Pulp and Paper Mills
The pulp and paper industry’s impacts on the environment are notable not only for their magnitude but also for their breadth, ranging from pollution of air and water, creation of solid waste and emissions of greenhouse gases. These impacts occur at all phases of the paper lifecycle, from fiber acquisition to manufacturing to disposal
4.1 Environment
The more significant environmental aspects of pulp and paper mills during the operational phase relate to:
•Wastewater
•Air emissions
•Waste
•Noise
4.1.1 Wastewater
Pulp and paper manufacturing activities may generate wastewater discharges at a rate of 10-250 cubic meters per metric ton (m3/t) of product. Product is measured as air dry pulp (ADP2) in pulp mills, and as weight of paper sold in paper and board mills. Prior to treatment pulp mill effluents are high in total suspended solids (TSS; mainly from cooking and pulping process screening, washing, and bleaching stages as well as from debarking residue, chemical recovery inorganics and fillers; biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) chemical oxygen demand (COD) and dissolved organic compounds mainly arising from wet debarking cooking/pulping, screening, washing, bleaching, and chemical recovery plant liquor spills). Bleach plant effluents may include PCDD (poly chlorinated dibenzodioxins) and PCDF (poly chlorinated dibenzofurans), commonly referred to as chlorinated dioxins and furans. When Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) or Total Chlorine Free (TCF) bleaching technologies are used, the concentrations of dioxins and furans in the effluents are below the detection limits. .Among the sources of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds released into wastewaters, and potentially contributing to eutrophication of receiving waters, is the wood raw material which is also a source of resin acids. Resin acids, especially those based on coniferous wood pulp, can be toxic to fish and benthic invertebrates.
Chlorinated phenols can be produced by elemental chlorine based bleaching of pulp. Other issues related to wastewater discharges may include fish tainting, color related to COD content and discharges of black liquor, pulp spills from overflowing tanks, and runoff from log yards. This last source may contain toxic chemicals (such as tannins, phenols, resins, and fatty acids) leached from the timber, and soil and other materials washed out of the bark.
4.1.2 Air Emissions
The principal air emissions in pulp and paper production consist of process gases which vary by type of pulping process and which may include sulfur compounds (with associated odor issues), particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, chlorine, carbon dioxide, and methane. Other common sources of emissions include flue gases from incineration plants and from auxiliary steam and power generating units emitting particulate matter, sulfur compounds and nitrogen oxides. 4.1.3 Residues and Waste
Pulp and paper mills typically generate significant quantities of non-hazardous solid wastes but very little hazardous wastes. Industry specific wastes include bark from debarking of wood, residual pith from bagasse pulping, inorganic sludge (e.g. green liquor sludge, lime sludge) from chemical recovery, trash (e.g. Plastics) separated from paper/card in RCF plants, and fiber (i.e., primary clarifier) sludge and biological sludge from wastewater treatment. A small amount of hazardous waste is generated in all mills, and includes oil and grease residues, scrap electrical equipment, and chemical residues which normally amount to about 0.5-1kg/ton of product.
4.1.4 Noise
Pulp and paper mills are inherently noisy due to the large amount of mechanical equipment, transport vehicles, physical activities, and energy usage, notably vacuum pumps, liquid pumps and steam generation systems.
4.2 Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational health and safety issues for consideration in pulp and paper mills include:
· Chemical hazards
· Physical hazards
· Biological agents
· Heat 4.2.1 Chemical hazards
Numerous chemicals are used and manufactured in the pulp and paper industry that can have adverse impacts on worker health and safety
4.2.2 Physical hazards
The most severe injuries in this sector are often attributable to the failure of lockout and tag out systems.
4.2.3 Biological agents
Biological agents include microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses, some of which may be pathogenic. Microorganisms develop particularly in paper machines’ closed loop systems, biological treatment plants for mill wastewaters, and water cooling towers.
4.2.4 Heat
Many pulping operations, including pulp cooking, pulping chemical recovery, lime production, and paper drying involve high temperatures and, in some cases, high pressures.
4.3 Community Health
Community health and safety impacts primarily occur during the operation phase of pulp and paper facilities and include:
· Chemical storage, use, and transport
· Odors

4.3.1 Chemical Storage Use and Transport
Major accidents can result in releases, fires, and explosions in pulping or bleaching operations or during product handling and transport outside the processing facility
4.3.2 Odors
Chemical pulping, and Kraft pulping in particular, generates malodorous reduced sulfur compounds that can create a nuisance for nearby residents

5. Conclusion and recommendation
Solving the environmental problems paper creates is fraught with challenges. People and communities have relied on paper for centuries. Paper consumption is predicted to increase in the foreseeable future. The ecological damage created by papermaking is alarming. The production of paper products requires too many toxic chemicals, is energy intensive, and impacts water supplies. The waste created by papermaking creates massive amounts of toxins that are released into the air, water, and land, which makes the paper industry a leading polluter in the US. Greenhouse gas emissions.
In most businesses, there are companies that are considered more socially and environmentally friendly than others. The papermaking industry is no different. While some corporations have changed to keep regulators away, others are changing because they see change as a necessary function of sustainable business practices.
In general, the papermaking industry has improved its overall environmental performance.
Yet as in most industries that have a poor environmental track record, there is still much to be done in order for them to maintain environmentally sustainable operations.
Making paper from 100 percent recycled content results in very significant environmental benefits when compared to paper made from 100 percent virgin forest fibers (figure 2 ). The recycled paper reduces: * total energy consumption by 44 percent * net greenhouse gas emissions by 38 percent * particulate emissions by 41 percent * wastewater by 50 percent * solid waste by 49 percent * wood use by 100 percent. Solid waste volumes should be reduced to the extent feasible through in- situ reuse and recycling of materials, example of which include: * Recycling of fiber sludge; * Reintroducing knots and screenings into the digestion process; * Improving sludge dewatering to facilitate burning of sludge (often in auxiliary boilers, using a support fuel) . * Reducing the generation of organic wastes such as bark by debarking in the forest (leaving the bark behind as soil conditioner);

(Figure 2) Paper lifecycle impacts comparison: virgin vs. 100% recycled
Source: Environmental Defense’s Paper Calculator

References
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Natioonal Finance Corporation, I. 2013. Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines. WORLD BANK GROUP.
Smith, R. 2011. The Environmental Sustainability of Paper. Graduate Studies Journal of Organizational Dynamics, 1 [Accessed: 16 Oct 2013].