Are these questions asked in daily operations?

•  At what rate should each department run for maximum monthly production with minimum costs?
•  How should each department's production rate vary to take advantage of real-time electrical prices?
•  When is the best time to schedule a 6-hour mill department shutdown, and how should the other departments run in preparation and response?
•  A maintenance shutdown is planned. What should the shutdown inventories be?
•  When should chips come off the digester? When should liquor be taken off the gun?

The wrong answers to these questions could cost your mill millions of dollars a year!

Typically, these, and other operational decisions are made daily in production planning meetings by mill personnel based on their collective experience. Now there is a scientific tool, PARIS™, that can revolutionize the process, and save the mill millions of dollars a year.

Using PARIS™ mill personnel can:

•  Take the best decision for today's and tomorrow's departmental production rates.
•  Schedule the production for the next week.
•  Optimize departmental production rates between shutdowns.
•  Optimize inventory and tank levels.
•  Provide the best response to unscheduled shutdowns.
•  Select the optimum period for scheduled shutdowns.
•  Increase production without capital expenditures.
•  Schedule events in annual shutdown.
•  Sequence grade changes.
•  Run “what-if” scenarios.

PARIS™ consists of a mill-wide model that includes all the major departments and equipment, the storage capacities and a mathematical formulation of the Power and Energy contracts. Optimization techniques are then applied so as to minimize the production cost taking into consideration all the applicable constraints and objectives.

PARIS™ outputs the optimal production rate for each of the defined time periods, as well as the recommended tank levels at the end of each period. A set of comprehensive report tools allows results overview, including production rates, tank levels and operating summaries.