Energy efficiency drives maintenance trends.

Mill maintenance is developing rapidly with new technology and management techniques, but energy efficiency is proving to be this year's fixation.

Maintenance is traditionally one of those under-appreciated areas of the business that everyone knows is important, but only gets real attention when something goes wrong. At that point, the issue is addressed and the immediate problem is fixed, but the company again faces the challenge of how to balance the ongoing demands of looking after the plant and machinery with the need to squeeze the maximum value from each asset.

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Fortunately, there are signs that this traditional view is evolving, especially in the mature markets of the West. At a time when there is little appetite for massive new capacity investments in either Europe or North America, the spotlight is shifting more toward extracting the maximum gains from assets already in place. Among other things, that means that there is a renewed emphasis in many mills on making sure that maintenance is given the attention it deserves.

Indeed, according to Metso Senior Vice President Petri Lakka, some companies are even identifying maintenance as a source of competitive advantage in an increasingly cut-throat market. "It's an interesting situation at the moment and I think the market could move in different ways," Lekka says. "We need to see exactly what value we can offer to companies and continue to build up references, but there is great potential in this area. We can operate an open-book relationship as a partnership [between supplier and pulp and paper company], but this requires a lot of trust, so for some it will be a question of corporate culture. Certain companies see maintenance as a core business and want to keep it in their own hands, but others are definitely interested in the potential of outsourcing. Either way, we can help, but I think we are going to be much stronger in this area."

As Lakka points out, maintenance issues are being developed via a number of external and internal drivers, including competitiveness, risk management, technological advances, manpower reductions, etc. However, the combination essentially boils down to two elements--boosting productivity and cutting costs. "In pulp and paper, there are a lot of trends affected by many issues, but one of the main things is that costs overall are too high compared to revenue," he says.

The Voith Paper team takes a similar view in that they seek to work with clients to generate gains across a range of parameters. As the company notes, "As one of the most capital intensive industries worldwide, the paper industry demands concentrated efforts to maximize productivity and profitability. On the one hand, this requires continuous advances in high performance technology. One the other, the commercial viability of existing plants must be assured by quality and productivity enhancement measures, efficient maintenance and compliance with environmental protection regulations. All these aspects are equally important."

MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Generally speaking, there are some excellent maintenance management tools on the market that can help pulp and paper companies operate more efficiently. Indeed, automation is proving especially useful across a whole host of areas and it is probably no exaggeration to say that advanced process analytic are transforming the discipline.

Computers are now routinely used to track process quality trends or warn of impending failures throughout the pulp and papermaking process. Not only that, but they allow operators to understand the interactions between any number of online and offline system elements and provide a sound basis for risk management when addressing maintenance issues.

To take just one example from thousands, automated systems can now examine data from on-machine sensors to determine the optimal moment to replace a felt before quality is compromised, but not before the economic usefulness of the felt has expired. However, it also clear that maintenance management is developing far beyond the scope offered by advances in technology.

POWER PLAY

Of course, maintenance is intimately tied up with corporate investment levels and decisions made in this crucial area have far-reaching implications for everyone in the company--whether they are in the boardroom or on the machine floor. Over the long term, they can even determine a company's profitability and ability to survive.

Some experts believe that the benefits of low profile, small-scale projects are not always appreciated. As one consultant notes, "I think maintenance and lots of smaller investments get overlooked and while it may be getting a bit better, the situation hasn't improved that much. The people at mill level usually have a pretty good idea of what they need to boost productivity and lots of these projects require small investments and offer good results with short payback periods.

"These 'quick wins' or 'low hanging fruit,' or however you want to describe them, are the projects that many mills really should be tackling," he continues. "Unfortunately, mill managers and engineers don't make careers out of these types of projects, so you tend to get people supporting big, high profile projects that involve a lot more risk."

That is only one person's viewpoint, though. Several mill personnel argue that maintenance and smaller projects are, in fact, being taken more seriously in an era of tightening purse strings and greater attention to productivity. For example, Joukim Marklund at Holmen Paper's Braviken mill points out that while the board has just announced a SEK 110 million ($14.2 million) investment to rebuild PM 51, the company is also spending a significant amount of management time targeting gains through an energy efficiency initiative that will impact almost all aspects of mill investment.

"[With the increase in prices] we're thinking a lot more about energy today than we were. There's a trend now where we look at energy aspects every time we take on anything from maintenance or a small project to a major rebuild."

In fact, Holmen is looking much further than that as Marklund's colleague, Martem Jarl, explained. Jarl is an energy engineer at Holmen and as he points out, there are now a number of interesting incentives for targeting efficiency in this area, whether the projects are large or small.

"There is an EU program to promote efficiency that places a tax on every MW used by energy intensive companies in Sweden," says Jarl. "There are tax exemptions for energy efficient equipment and so on, which affects what we will buy in terms of pumps or motors etc. In the past, we might have had so much money for a project and gone for a slightly cheaper piece of equipment, but the PFE (program for energy efficiency) means that we have to measure all the energy effects and the tax exemptions mean that more energy efficient equipment becomes profitable, even if it is slightly more expensive or has a longer payback period."

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POWER PLAY

In fact, the vast price increases seen across the world's power grids in recent months mean that maintenance improvements are touching on energy efficiency more than ever as companies seek to squeeze the best value out of every dollar.

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Bjorn Lyngfelt, vice president of communications for SCA's forest products division, points out that spending on small-scale items and maintenance projects will almost always prove attractive these days if there is an energy dimension to the scheme.

"SCA is obviously a very large user of energy anyway since we produce mechanical papers and there is no way to do that without using a lot of power," he says. "Even without the increase in prices, many of these small investments and maintenance projects that help improve energy efficiency would be up on the list of 'good things to do' regardless of the conditions. But we're still one of the biggest users of electricity in Sweden, so even projects such as the new recovery boiler at the Obbola mill in Sweden won't make a huge difference even if you could actually describe it as an electricity project with a pulp mill scheme attached."

The technical director at one major German papermaker also noted, "Everybody I know within this company and others are crying about high energy prices. At the moment, investments in production increases are totally out, so that means that lots of work is being focused on cutting costs and that definitely includes energy. Personally, I always split maintenance and investment. Maintenance is what I have to spend simply to keep the machines and the mill running, such as bearings, press rolls, grinding etc. Investment is what I spend to make improvements. But I think it's reasonable to say that these days if I spend money on maintenance I'm always looking at ways I can help cut costs on the energy side at the same time."

The technical director illustrated the point by noting that the company's turbines needed a major maintenance overhaul every five years or so, but with energy prices playing such a major part in the business these days, such decisions are now slightly more complicated. "As part of the maintenance project, we might now be looking at alternative fuels for the boiler from biomass or waste incineration, for example, so it makes things much more interesting," he explains. "In fact, if I get 100 projects coming over my desk every year, it is clear that a much greater percentage of those going ahead will be energy related projects because the ROI (return on investment) is greater."

GOOD BUSINESS

Certainly, suppliers to the pulp and paper sector appear to be seeing a trend here. As Michael Buchbauer, head of investor relations at Andritz, explained, "I think it's evolved in the last few years. Companies are seeing that investments in things like recovery boilers are becoming much more important and in North America several companies have announced that they will increase their spending in areas related to energy savings."

At Kvaerner, Kari Remes, general manager for sales, also seems relatively happy with the way industry trends are developing. "In pulp and paper and especially in Scandinavia, there are really no major new investments coming through, so the focus is on upgrading the service and maintenance side of the business. For pulp and paper, that is especially the energy side, partly because of things like the emissions trading directive and an interest in green energy. We're quite really busy with enquiries in this area."

Meanwhile at BE&K, Don Beebe, vice president of power, engineering group, says, "The cost of power means that lots of clients are looking at energy projects. In terms of maintenance or small projects, a lot of them would have made sense over a year ago, but as prices have increased we have certainly seen interest in mediumsized projects. Now we're even seeing clients about much larger projects and hopefully this is part of a long term trend."

In maintenance as in other aspects of the business, then, it looks as though energy prices are set to play a major role in every aspect of the pulp and paper industry for some time to come.

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RELATED ARTICLE

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

* How suppliers are looking to develop closer relationships with clients

* How mills are focusing more of their maintenance effort on energy efficiency

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

* "Planning and Scheduling: How Well Are You Doing?" (Maintenance), by Tor Idhammar, Solutions!, April 2005. To access this article, type the following product code in the search field on www.tappi.org: 05APRSO28. Or call TAPPI Member Connection at 1 800 332-8686 (US); 1 800 446-9431 (Canada); [phone] (International).

* "Can two plus two equal eight?" (Maintenance), by Tor Idhammar and Michael Lippig, Solutions!, July 2003. Product Code: 03JULSO09

JIM KENNY, INTERNATIONAL EDITOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Kenny is international editor for Solutions! magazine, and is based in Brussels, Belgium. He is the former vice president of editorial for Paperloop and today heads his own company, DSI. Contact him by phone at [phone], or by email at [e-mail].