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Georgia-Pacific and CONNX
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Paper & Pulp
Applicable Functions
- Procurement
- Discrete Manufacturing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Georgia-Pacific, a leading manufacturer and marketer of tissue, packaging, paper, pulp, building products and related chemicals, was in the process of transitioning its technology to SAP® and Microsoft®. However, the company needed to continue meeting ongoing user needs with cost-effective products that could extract more information from older systems. A major operational challenge at the company's Port Hudson Operations was managing rental expenses for large equipment that the mill used only periodically. The legacy system did not provide the kind of information about rentals that would ensure effective management of such expenses. The company needed to improve its reporting capabilities while finding a cost-effective way to maximize the value of its RMS files and to open Champs to PCs.
About The Customer
Georgia-Pacific is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of tissue, packaging, paper, pulp, building products and related chemicals. The company has nearly 35,000 employees worldwide and is an independently managed and operated company of Koch Industries, Inc., a private company headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Part of Georgia-Pacific’s Communication Papers Division, Port Hudson Operations in Zachary, Louisiana, produces more than 500,000 tons of xerographic, bond and offset printing pages annually, most of which is sold in the continental U.S. It also produces 250,000 tons of bleached market pulp, a large percentage of which it exports worldwide.
The Solution
Systems Analyst Jerry LeBlanc at Georgia-Pacific discovered an existing field in their legacy purchasing system that could identify if an invoice or purchase order was for a rental. However, users could bypass it when they were writing a requisition. LeBlanc wanted to find a product that would give users a better way to do their own reporting and give them access to their RMS files from their PCs. He found CONNX, an ODBC driver, which he learned to use in an hour. With CONNX, LeBlanc quickly created a program that would allow users to report as much as possible about rentals, tracking account numbers, purchase order numbers and even downtime. Users use CONNX as an ODBC driver to get into Access, click on 'attach' and their data is there. Not only is reporting much easier, but also Port Hudson Operations projects annual savings of between $100,000 and $200,000 on its rentals thanks to the improved tracking CONNX makes possible.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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