Past opportunity
Automated Panel Manufacturing Optimisation with Stora Enso
Industry
Renewable materials
Revenue
2020
€8.6B
Employees
2020
23,000
Countries
2020
50+
About
The production process of of Cross Laminated Timber elements, one of Stora Enso’s main massive wood construction products, is defined and constrained by several parameters. Stora Enso also wants to minimise the waste generated in the process and now we are looking for an optimisation tool for the several stakeholders working with CLT production planning and implementation.
Opportunity overview
CLT is an environmentally friendly construction material made of at least three crosswise glued single layer boards using raw timber materials with different widths, surface qualities and thicknesses. The master panel consisting of single layers is then cut into elements. However, in the cutting process some of the master panel ends up as waste. This is currently minimised by a manual planning process called nesting which has to be done twice for offers and production planning. The current process begins with a customer using a computer-aided design software for the building design, which then is broken down into panel designs and manufacturing data using a computer-aided manufacturing software. Finally, the load and delivery are optimised to minimise logistics costs and environmental impact. The software optimising this process should be able to consider the various panel types and combinations in three dimensions, machinery control restrictions and load planning. The solution will still be used by knowledgeable experts, but it should allow access for several stakeholders. As the complexity of CLT production will most likely only increase in the future, the solution should also be flexible enough to include new objectives and constraints.
More about Stora Enso Wood Products
The Wood Products division is the largest sawn wood producer in Europe and a leading provider of sustainable wood-based solutions for the construction industry. Our growing Building Solutions business offers building concepts to support low-carbon construction and eco-friendly designs. We develop digital tools to simplify the designing of building projects with wood. We also offer applications for windows, doors and for packaging industries, and our pellets provide a sustainable heating solution."
Your opportunity with Stora Enso
Stora Enso is ultimately searching for a long-term service provider that strives to further improve our solution and to maintain continuous quality service. We are also open for an option and have previous experience of joint development agreements to accelerate the growth of your solution if needed. We are looking to collaborate and share our industry knowledge to provide you valuable information about our manufacturing process enabling your company further opportunities within the industry.
Focus Areas
Examples of solutions we’re interested in
3D CLT nesting optimisation
Stora Enso currently uses a 2D solution for panel nesting and now we want to find a comprehensive tool for optimising the waste, price and production planning with the efficiency of the CNC process. Industry experience from manufacturing could most likely help in solving this issue, but is not required.
Intelligent solutions for production and pricing
We understand that there might be even more intelligent solutions for CLT production automation than we can currently think of. While nesting remains the key objective, your solution could have add-on functionalities for example in the fields of pricing or that would be able to optimise the supply chain even further.
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