Key takeaways
- Measure OEE the same way every shift and compare against your own trend first.
- The big losses: web breaks, grade changes, and clothing/roll changes.
- As a continuous process, availability dominates the OEE picture.
- A single web break can cost many minutes of re-threading.
Pulp and paper is a capital-intensive continuous process: a fast, wide sheet runs through forming, pressing, drying and reeling without pause. When the sheet breaks, the machine stops until it is threaded again, so availability is the dominant OEE factor and the web break is the defining loss.
What's a good OEE in paper?
We found no published OEE range for paper machines alone with a stated method. The usual reference is 85 percent world-class (traced to Nakajima, Introduction to TPM, 1988), and published plant studies found average OEE of about 55 to 65 percent (sources: Ljungberg, 1998; Hedman et al., 2016); the more useful target is your own line's trend. The biggest separators are web-break frequency and grade-change efficiency, far more than raw speed. Calculate your OEE.
The biggest losses in paper & pulp
| Loss | Why it's big in paper | OEE factor |
|---|---|---|
| Web breaks | Each break stops the machine until the sheet is re-threaded, and broke is recycled | Availability |
| Grade & basis-weight changes | Transitions create off-spec production and lost time | Availability / Quality |
| Clothing & roll changes | Felts, wires and rolls need scheduled changes | Availability |
| Drying & moisture constraints | The dryer section limits speed; moisture variation hits quality | Performance / Quality |
| Quality losses | Holes, breaks and profile variation create off-spec reels | Quality |
Translate minutes lost per break and breaks per day into an annual cost.
One paper machine shift, worked through
Illustrative numbers for a paper machine, so you can check the math against your own shift. It runs continuously, so planned production time for an 8-hour shift is 480 minutes. The shift log records two web breaks of 20 minutes each and a grade change of 20 minutes: 60 minutes of downtime. The machine is rated at 30 tonnes an hour (0.5 a minute) but runs at 27 because the dryer section limits speed on this grade. Three more breaks were re-threaded in under 4 minutes each, below the 5-minute logging threshold: 10 minutes nobody logs.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | run time 420 min (480 - 60) / 480 | 87.5% |
| Tonnes made | 410 running min (420 - 10 of short breaks) x 0.45 a minute | 184.5 |
| Performance | 184.5 / 0.5 a minute / 420 | 87.9% |
| Quality | 178.5 t good of 184.5 (6 t off-spec after the grade change and breaks) | 96.7% |
| OEE | 87.5% x 87.9% x 96.7% | 74.4% |
The log explains 60 lost minutes. The machine lost 123.0: 60 of breaks and the grade change, 10 of short breaks, 41.0 of running below rated speed and 12 of off-spec paper. The speed loss is the largest single item and it never shows as a stop.
Reason codes for a paper machine
A short list everyone uses beats a long one nobody does. A starting set:
- Web break: wet end, press section, dryer section, reel
- Grade change: basis weight, colour, furnish
- Clothing: felt or wire change, felt washing
- Rolls and reel: reel change, winder, spool handling
- Process: steam, vacuum, stock flow, chemistry
- Quality: off-spec, holes, moisture or profile out of range
Log them in the free OEE tracker and the downtime Pareto ranks them for you; the downtime log template does the same on paper.
What a camera shows on a paper machine
A break alarm tells you the sheet broke, not where the break started in the seconds before. Where cameras are fitted, Fabrico's camera-based OEE software syncs camera video with machine data, so you can replay the moment the machine stopped. Cameras also catch short stops and a machine that is switched on but not producing, the losses nobody writes down: in the shift above, that is the 10 minutes of short breaks the log never saw.
What downtime costs in paper
The asset is huge and runs around the clock, so every minute of unplanned downtime is expensive and a frequent-break machine loses serious capacity over a year. Energy in the dryer section adds to the cost of any instability. Estimate your downtime cost.
How leading paper mills improve
- Reduce web breaks by finding their true causes (furnish, tension, profile, condition).
- Streamline grade changes with standard transitions and tight control.
- Protect clothing and rolls with predictive maintenance (PdM).
The partner we recommend, Fabrico, reads stops from the machine and shows camera video of breaks and stops, where cameras are fitted, with a suggested cause, then lets a technician open the work order from the stop. It is EU-built, with data hosted in the AWS EU region and holds ISO 27001 / 20000-1 / 9001 (supports audit-readiness). Fabrico is a partner we recommend; the tools here are free regardless.
Does OEE work for a continuous process?
Yes, with availability as the dominant factor. Pair OEE with web-break frequency and grade-change time, which tell the real story on a paper machine.
Where should we start?
Usually web-break reduction, because each break is lost production and recycled broke. Finding the true cause of breaks is the key. See the six big losses.
Does this cover converting and tissue?
The continuous-web dynamic carries across machine-glazed, tissue and converting lines, though break causes and speeds differ. See also Packaging & Converting.
Common equipment to troubleshoot: Paper machines · Pulpers · Tissue converting lines · Pulp moulding machines · Corrugators · Conveyors · Gearboxes · Bearings · Vacuum pumps · Heat exchangers · full directory