Smurfit Kappa Solid Board consists of several cardboard plants in the north of the Netherlands. At the location in Nieuweschans a VDM audit showed that steering on Asset Utilization had the most value potential and therefore it was best to steer on asset availability could be sent.

In order to improve the OEE Smurfit Kappa focused on the implementation of the Asset Utilization loop (Deming circle). The Technical Service department defined several subprojects in order to achieve the goals that were set, including tagging of production materials, designing and implementing work processes in the EAM system UItimo and the establishment of maintenance concepts.

From 2002 onwards, Kappa Triton not only demonstrated a strongly improved performance, but they was also capable to maintain this success.

Smurfit Kappa Packaging Nieuweschans has improved the machine output by 8 OEE percentage points. This is partly due to less occurring failures and defects, which also lowered the  maintenance costs by 25%.