Norske Skog Golbey needed a way to eliminate a persistent source of instability — not just reduce it temporarily, but run the process in a way that holds under changing conditions.
By changing how the process is run during production, they turned chronic disruption into stable, predictable performance — unlocking both production and financial gains.
Key outcomes:
- Sheet breaks reduced from 7 per day to 0.5
- $4M saved within months, scaling to $54M annually
- 12% increase in production speed
- Reduced chemical use and energy consumption
- More stable and predictable production cycles
A Problem That Wouldn’t Go Away
At Norske Skog Golbey, one of France’s largest newsprint producers, performance was constrained by a persistent issue.
Frequent sheet breaks disrupted production multiple times per day — each break stopping the line, creating waste, and costing hours of downtime.
For years, teams worked to reduce the problem.
Adjustments were made across the process. Equipment was upgraded. Operating practices were refined.
But the results didn’t hold.
The same issue kept returning under slightly different conditions.
The process wasn’t running consistently — it was being constantly corrected.
Fixing the Symptoms, Not the Cause
To manage the issue, teams focused on reacting to visible signs of instability.
Changes were made around specific events — adjusting chemical dosing, modifying machine speed, responding to what had already happened.
These actions helped in the moment. But as conditions shifted, the same issues returned.
Despite years of effort, there was no reliable way to run the process without disruption.
Running the Process Under Current Conditions
To address this, Norske Skog Golbey introduced a new way of running the process — one that stays aligned with current conditions as production runs.
Instead of reacting to symptoms, the process began running in a way that reflected how conditions were evolving.
This made it possible to isolate what consistently influenced break frequency — and how those factors behaved under different conditions.
Among thousands of parameters, a small number proved critical.
One of them challenged long-standing assumptions.
Pulp stored for extended periods was contributing to instability.
By changing how pulp was managed, the process could run more consistently — reducing the conditions that led to breaks in the first place.
When the Breaks Stopped
The shift was implemented carefully. Then the results came immediately.
The first day passed without a break.
Then the second.
Then the third.
What had been a daily disruption for years disappeared. Breaks dropped from seven per day to nearly zero.
Freed from constant interruptions, teams could finally run the machine under stable conditions. And once stability held, performance improvements followed.
Results
By keeping the process aligned with current conditions using Real-Time Process Optimization, Norske Skog Golbey translated stability into measurable production and financial impact:
Daily sheet breaks reduced from 7 to 0.5
Fewer interruptions increased available production time and reduced material waste, improving overall line efficiency
$4M saved within months, scaling to $54M annually
Stabilizing the process unlocked immediate cost savings and sustained financial impact across operations
12% increase in production speed
More consistent operating conditions allowed the machine to run faster without increasing risk, driving higher output
Reduced chemical use and energy consumption
More precise operating conditions lowered input costs while maintaining product quality
A New Way of Operating
What began as an effort to reduce a persistent issue became a new way of operating.
This approach is now embedded across Norske Skog Golbey’s operations, providing a consistent way to run the process as conditions change.
Instead of constantly correcting the process after it drifts, teams run it in alignment with current conditions from the start.
