Real-Time Process Optimization enables Sappi to scale continuous operational improvement across its global network.
By making performance improvements repeatable and adaptable, Braincube helped Sappi move from fragmented local initiatives to a scalable model for industrial performance.
Key outcomes
- Faster rollout across global mills
- 80% reduction in data preparation time
- Greater consistency in yield, quality, and uptime
- Improved margin through more stable and optimized operations
- A repeatable model for scaling performance across sites
From Fragmented Efforts to Scalable Performance
Sappi operates across a wide range of woodfibre-based production environments, supplying specialty papers, dissolving pulp, and biomaterials worldwide.
Yet early on, each mill had its own way of operating, making it difficult to scale what worked.
At the same time, production conditions change constantly. Raw material characteristics shift. Equipment behavior evolves. Operating context changes from shift to shift.
The challenge wasn’t identifying improvement. It was sustaining and scaling them under changing conditions.
At Sappi’s scale, even small improvements in yield, uptime, and deployment speed translate into significant economic impact across the business.
To unlock that impact, Sappi needed a way to make performance improvements repeatable, transferable, and adaptable across sites.
Building the Foundation for Continuous Adaptation
Before Braincube, scaling improvement took too much effort.
Teams spent significant time preparing data before they could act. That slowed deployment and limited how quickly improvements could spread across mills.
Expertise existed within teams—but it remained local, inconsistent, and difficult to apply under new conditions.
To scale performance across mills, Sappi needed to:
- Move from insight to continuous action faster
- Apply improvements consistently across sites
- Adapt operations continuously as conditions changed
This was the first step toward creating a repeatable model for performance improvement across the network.
Operationalizing Real-Time Process Optimization
Sappi implemented Braincube to create a more scalable model for operational improvement.
With Real-Time Process Optimization, teams receive real-time prescriptions for how to run the process based on current conditions. Braincube continuously evaluates production behavior, identifies which controllable variables influence performance, and generates prescriptions that guide how the process should be operated in that moment.
As conditions change, those setpoints are recalculated, allowing teams to continuously steer the process in real-time rather than rely on static targets or periodic adjustments.
From Local Wins to a Repeatable Operating Model
Once implemented, the impact extended beyond faster deployment.
Teams spent less time preparing data and more time improving performance.
Successful operating practices could be replicated across sites, creating a more consistent and scalable approach.
What were once isolated improvements became part of a shared, repeatable operating model. This allowed Sappi to run closer to optimal performance across its entire network, not just individual mills.
“Braincube put the right tools in the hands of those closest to the problems,” Boyd explains. “Our teams were solving issues that had lingered for years, and doing it faster than we thought possible.”
Results
Sappi transformed fragmented efforts into a scalable model for industrial performance optimization.
80% reduction in preparation time
Engineers spend significantly more time improving performance and less time preparing data.
Faster global deployment
New mills can be onboarded in as little as six weeks, reducing the time required to realize value across the network.
Greater operational consistency in yield, quality, and uptime
Reduced variability enables more predictable production and stronger margin per ton.
Stronger foundation for autonomous process optimization
Sappi established the structure needed to scale continuous industrial process optimization and future process steering across operations, creating a more durable path to sustained performance.
“Braincube didn’t just help us fix problems,” says Boyd. “They helped us see new possibilities.”
Scaling the Transformation
Braincube’s Real-Time Process Optimization helped Sappi establish a repeatable model for scaling performance across its global network. This model can be deployed across sites, teams, and partners, extending beyond individual use cases to drive system-wide improvement.
By making improvement repeatable and adaptable, Sappi moved beyond isolated projects toward a more consistent approach to performance.
“What we’ve built is more than a technical solution,” Boyd says. “Teams now have a consistent way to understand how the process should run and continuously adapt operations as conditions change.”
