A powerful system to meet complex requirements
Mthembu Tissue Converting is a high-volume manufacturing environment with multi-layered packaging and multiple stock codes. The mill ships approximately 600 tons of jumbo rolls per month to the converting plant, with a further 900 tons delivered to external customers. Mthembu supplies some of South Africa’s largest retailers as well as general trade and the away from home market.
Both plants have reaped the benefits of a fully integrated system from the time of implementation. SYSPRO is used across the business from procurement to forecasting, inventory management and material requirements planning. SYSPRO’s Lot Traceability module keeps track of product at the mill, which also makes use of a scanning solution.
Mthembu operates two tissue machines: one for virgin pulp and one for recycled material.
Every jumbo roll produced at the mill has a unique number based on the tissue machine which produces it. The Lot Traceability module helps Mthembu to track all jumbo rolls coming out of production, making it easy to detect any discrepancies between the dispatch note and the weighbridge report, preventing losses and saving costs.
“With automated scanning, job posting happens directly on SYSPRO,” says Nayagar. “At day-end the recorded sheets are captured on SYSPRO and stocktake is done on the frontend. We have also developed an integrated system for one of the larger retailers which ensures orders come directly into the system.”
Enhancing productivity in real time
With one jumbo roll being produced every 20-30 minutes, productivity is critical, as each one requires labelling, printing and scanning.
“SYSPRO is fundamental to the productivity and efficiency of our business, and has dramatically increased our productivity by enabling these processes to be done in real time,” Shabane says.
“With a manual system, bottlenecks are created and there is a high risk of errors and inaccuracies. For example, labels are now printed as soon as the papermaker identifies the product that comes off the machine. That’s a huge plus, because if the thickness of the paper is not measured correctly, the product has to be brought back into the lab – the difference between 19 and 21 GSM paper cannot be seen with the naked eye.”
Additional benefits include improved procurement through the Material Requirements Planning module, which uses specific calculations to manage the Just in Time aspect of purchases. The ability to balance the tonnage of product going into the mill with what is actually produced has also substantially improved controls.
