DS Smith has launched a collaboration with global industrial technology company Trimble to advance digitalisation at its paper mills in Europe.
Following a successful trial, DS Smith has adopted Trimble’s powerful data mining platform, Wedge, at its paper mill in Kemsley in Kent,UK. The online system has helped the Kemsley mill deliver a more consistent and higher-performing production process and ultimately an improved product through its advanced data visualisation and manipulation tools.
Wedge has also gone live at DS Smith’s Viana mill in Portugal and will be rolled out at the Witzenhausen and Aschaffenburg mills in Germany in the coming months – creating a network of connected mills across Europe all using the same software.
Thousands of data-points are collected, analysed and stored every second at DS Smith’s paper mills and so accuracy of information and speed of access are integral to the business’s technicians and engineers to make informed operational decisions.
With the company’s paper mills running continuously for days at high output rates, maintaining stability while detecting and solving potential problems quickly is critical to ensuring production runs efficiently and uninterrupted. Wedge will support the mills by helping to drive fast and accurate decision-making, increased connectivity and improved efficiency.
Guy Lacey, Next Generation Technology Director at DS Smith, said, “Digitalisation can be applied to almost all aspects of our work at DS Smith. We’re seeing it play a role in every side of our business and we’re keen to play an influential, leading role in our industry in this space. Through the Wedge platform, our mills can quickly resolve problems as they occur with fast and focused problem-solving tools. Ultimately, the benefits are seen in operational efficiencies, product quality and output and also in the employee experience. We are now building a network of connected mills across Europe, all using the same platform, that are able to communicate and problem solve together – we can bring expertise from right across the business, while reducing the burden of travel.”
