Real-Time Process Optimization enables International Paper to continuously adapt operating conditions as production environments change.
By keeping machines aligned with optimal operating conditions, Braincube helped International Paper convert operational stability into measurable production value.
Key outcomes
- Greater process stability across paper machines
- Reduced operational variability and material waste
- Continuous adaptation to changing production conditions
- Improved production economics at global scale
From Variability to Operational Leadership
With more than 120 years of expertise and 25,000 customers across 150 countries, International Paper is one of the world’s leading producers of fiber-based packaging and pulp products.
Yet even at this scale, one reality remains constant: paper machines never operate under identical conditions.
Fiber properties shift. Equipment behavior evolves. Environmental conditions fluctuate. Even small variations can influence sheet stability, machine efficiency, and product quality.
Maintaining consistent performance requires continuously adapting how the process operates as those conditions change.
Tackling Variability to Unlock Performance
In paper manufacturing, variability is unavoidable.
Operating limits must be respected to maintain product quality, equipment protection, and regulatory compliance. But maintaining performance within those limits requires adjusting operating conditions as the process evolves.
Historically, teams relied on experience, manual analysis, and periodic updates to operating standards.
But optimal operating conditions are not fixed. They change continuously as production conditions change.
What stabilized the machine earlier in the shift may no longer represent the best way to run the process later.
When operating conditions drift away from optimal performance, the impact quickly appears in lost throughput, higher material consumption, and reduced margin per ton.
International Paper recognized that improving performance required moving beyond reactive adjustments toward continuously adapting operations.
Enabling Continuous Adaptation with Braincube
To address this challenge, International Paper implemented Braincube’s Real-Time Process Optimization.
Braincube analyzes live and historical production behavior to identify which controllable variables influence performance under current operating conditions.
Based on those conditions, the system continuously calculates the operating prescriptions required to keep the process aligned with optimal performance.
Instead of relying on static operating standards, teams receive continuously updated guidance on how the process should run as conditions evolve.
Operators can apply those prescriptions to stabilize performance, improve consistency, and replicate successful operating conditions across production cycles.
Turning Variability Into Controlled Performance
Braincube changed how International Paper teams manage production variability.
Instead of reacting to deviations after they occur, operators can continuously steer the process as conditions evolve.
The system highlights which controllable variables actually influence performance and prescribes how to adjust them to maintain stability.
Engineers spend less time analyzing historical data and more time focusing on operational improvement.
Operators gain clearer guidance on how to run the process under changing conditions.
Variability becomes something teams can actively manage rather than simply react to.
“Before, we were constantly updating dashboards and reacting to what had already happened,” Jones said.
“Now the system continuously updates how we should run. It’s not just about improving processes. It’s about learning how to run them better.”
Results
Through Real-Time Process Optimization, International Paper achieved measurable operational improvements across its production network.
Greater process stability
Paper machines operate more consistently across shifts and changing production conditions.
Reduced operational variability and material waste
More stable operating conditions reduce material loss and improve production efficiency.
Improved production economics
By keeping machines aligned with optimal operating conditions, Braincube helped International Paper convert operational stability into measurable production value.
Operators shifted from reacting to problems to continuously steering the process as conditions evolve.
“Our teams now ask better questions,” Jones said. “Instead of asking ‘What went wrong?’ we ask ‘How should we run this next grade best?’ That shift is transformative.”
Scaling the Transformation
After seeing Braincube’s impact on operational stability and production economics, International Paper expanded the system across its global network.
Today, Braincube is deployed or being deployed in nearly 80% of the company’s facilities.
“Braincube fundamentally changed how we operate,” said Andrew Jones.
“It’s not just about optimization. It’s about rethinking what’s possible.”
