December 11, 2023 Atlanta – Georgia-Pacific constantly seeks new business efficiencies and tools to transform itself, as well as meet the needs of its customers and ensure employee health and safety. Georgia-Pacific's Technology Group facilitates collaboration between our sites, subject matter experts and the latest technologies to help more than 100 of the company’s facilities address equipment and process reliability. A part of the Technology Group, the Collaboration and Support Center (CSC) is where the company leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to create innovative solutions. AI is used to detect anomalies and pinpoint the cause in equipment, predicting a failure days, weeks, or months in advance before it happens. The information helps avoid unplanned downtime and significant impacts on the facilities and the customers they serve.
Georgia-Pacific also enlists external partners to be a part of this transformation. Through its partnership with KCF Technologies a technology company that develops sensors that can be attached to equipment to monitor them, Georgia-Pacific's CSC can review the data collected by the sensors to ensure reliable machine and process operations. The data is analyzed in real time and allows employees at the facilities to quickly find and fix equipment failures, and share vital information across facilities, allowing for greater productivity and safer work environments.
In 2018, Georgia-Pacific began its partnership with KCF Technologies. Over the course of five years, Georgia-Pacific has scaled to more than 62,000 sensors monitoring 25,000 assets globally across its locations.
"Our collaboration with Georgia-Pacific goes beyond just sensor installations; it embodies impactful innovation at scale. Together, we have made major strides in significantly decreasing unplanned downtime, enhancing safety for the maintenance teams, and democratizing data throughout the organization. Through this partnership, Georgia-Pacific has set a new, higher standard in the global industry, showcasing the extraordinary results achievable with their vision and dedication to continuous improvement," said CEO and co-founder of KCF, Jeremy Frank.
The information collected also allows employees to build a data history, which can be shared to help make better informed business decisions. Georgia-Pacific's competitive advantage has increased significantly due to greater equipment efficiency and safer work environments for employees who do not have to approach machinery to identify problems.
“Georgia-Pacific's Collaboration and Support Center allows facilities partnering with us to identify specific asset health issues that need to be solved in real time. Instead of collecting data and manually looking for issues on a routine basis, employees can spend a greater percentage of their time solving problems. We exist to help our operating facilities and their employees be more efficient,” said David Bonfante, Asset Health – CSC, Georgia-Pacific.
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Georgia-Pacific optimized their operations, scaling from 20,000 to over 60,000 KCF Technologies sensors in just five years to meet the needs of customers and ensure employee productivity and safety.
Georgia-Pacific was recently recognized for using AI in its business operations. In October, International Data Corporation (IDC) awarded the company its IDC Future Enterprise Best in Future of Operations North America award for its “Enterprise AI for Manufacturing Operations at Georgia-Pacific" initiative. The award recognizes organizations that have successfully navigated a fundamental shift in the operations model to support increased operational agility and resiliency.
