Panther goes live at WestRock Longview Mill in Washington
Longview, WA – Global paper and packaging manufacturer WestRock Company began the production day on Panther Systems’ MillTools at the company’s newly acquired paper mill in Longview, Washington on July 1, 2019. The new manufacturing execution system (MES) replaced a competitive system by Honeywell. Panther’s MES handles production scheduling, paper quality, manufacturing and shipping for five paper machines, three automated roll lines and multiple warehouses at WestRock’s integrated containerboard mill on the banks of the Columbia River. A Panther Systems Go Live Team joined WestRock mill process and IT professionals to assist the mill’s core team and users across the paper mill’s facilities to make the successful transition.
“One of the largest mill implementations in Panther’s history was also among our smoothest,” said Panther Vice President Rich Gillespie. “I credit the collaborative relationship, which WestRock and Panther have developed. Talented experts from our companies displayed a genuine unity of purpose.”
This implementation is of of four projects planned for WestRock, after acquiring KapStone Paper & Packaging in late 2018. WestRock’s plan includes replacing Honeywell OptiVision and Majiq Elixir with Panther at its four newly-acquired paper mills in Longview, Washington; Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina; North Charleston, South Carolina; and Cowpens, South Carolina.
Panther’s advanced interfaces allow WestRock to execute production from the company’s central order management system and exchange data with machine control systems, transportation management systems and a number of third-party technologies. Panther established paper machine and laboratory interfaces, allowing the mill to record and analyze quality data as paper accumulates rapidly on jumbo reels. Quality data in Panther’s TestCentral allow papermakers to make critical decisions during the manufacturing process. Shop floor personnel produce, track and ship finished goods inside the MillTools software suite.
Roll lines automated by Panther execute special handling and finishing instructions. Panther leverages quality, production and shipping data to generate core tags, shipping unit labels, manifests and certificates of analysis.
Panther provides WestRock with dashboards, reports and export plugins. Quality and production data from all WestRock mills operating with Panther roll up into a powerful Panther data warehouse, used by WestRock to conduct apples-to-apples reporting and analysis of production across their organization.
About Panther Systems
Established in 1993, Panther Systems is heralded by pulp and paper experts as the leading provider of manufacturing execution, quality control, process analysis and other manufacturing intelligence systems. Visit panthersys.com for information or call 360-750-9783.
