Revolutionizing Roll to Roll Production with Digital Supply Chain Twins and Optimization

Presented by Joe Gotshall, Greycon

Width efficiency & slitting-cutting optimization is a longstanding production & converting planning problem proven to be a key factor for the efficiency and the profitability of roll-based and flat-sheet production or converting plants (such as paper & board, plastic film & flexible packaging, nonwovens, metals, and all related converting operations).

The problem exhibits a great deal of combinatorial aspects, in that multiple solutions are possibly favoring one aspect over the other (e.g. slitting waste vs. number of setups vs. stock vs. machines efficiency vs. quality vs. time & customer service). An industrially-relevant aspect is to find solutions that achieve a minimum waste, the fewest number of patterns (setups) as possible, the optimum stock sizes to keep, and the maximum width & time utilization of the machine while aiming to deliver the orders on-site and achieve a high level of customer service without compromising on quality.

The combinatorial aspects or optimization opportunities are even bigger in light of new technology for example Digital Supply Chains, Big Data, or Machine Learning, as well as growing industry or market constraints (e.g. quality, traceability, environment) or new machine & process capabilities (e.g. Bi-winding, Skiving, Quality substitution).