ANDRITZ has been permanently located in Brazil for over 30 years with its main headquarters situated in Curitiba, Paraná state in the south of the country. From here the company supplies a raft of services to the rapidly growing pulp and paper industry across Latin America, which boasts some of the largest and most efficient projects in the world when it comes to capacity and production output.
ANDRITZ also has a Service Center just outside Curitiba which is of growing importance when it comes to keeping ANDRITZ customers supplied with spare parts, rebuilds, and all maintenance requirements, including in the field. Opened as a warehouse in 2018, the Araucária site became a recognized ANDRITZ manufacturing site in 2021 and is currently under expansion which will see an additional 2,000 m2 of space to enable further dedicated services to the pulp and paper industries in the region.
“We are able to manufacture, rebuild and service virtually everything needed for the pulp and paper industries here in Araucária,” says David Alexandre, Senior VP, Regional Manager Latin America, ANDRITZ Brazil. “Furthermore, the new expansion will be ready by the end of January 2024 with an additional new building to be added in 2025 which will result in a huge facility here.”
The Service Center in Araucária can handle anything for service and maintenance in the Latin American region, from chip to pulp, and then onto paper industry services, with a special focus on lean manufacturing. In 2022, the management at the site instituted an Operational Excellence program which is based on the ANDRITZ Production System (APS). The pillars of the system revolve around Efficiency, Quality, Costs, On-Time-In-Full (OTIF), and Health & Safety which the 92 permanent skilled staff follow closely to ensure maximum optimization and continuous improvement.
“At Araucária we have a four-in-one facility; a logistics warehouse, workshop, field services, and an industrial and product engineering team,” adds Alexandre. “The operational excellence program started around 18 months ago and focusses on increasing competitiveness by optimizing processes and improving quality, allowing us to provide products and services faster, more efficiently and with greater value.
“We are very proud as the site at Araucária has become something of a showcase and reference for manufacturing in the industry, and we often have visitors here from European countries such as Finland, Sweden, Austria and Latin American customers to see our operational excellence program in operation.”
To go along with the lean manufacturing and operational excellence program, there is a huge emphasis on sustainability at Araucária. What really stands out is that the site is completely self-sufficient in energy production by way of solar panels which cover the roof. This means that with over 2,000 m2 of solar panels and an installed power of 400 kWp the site reduces its CO2 footprint by 272.000 kg per year.
“Once again, we are very proud of this site when it comes to sustainably, an area we know our customers treat with paramount importance.” says Alexandre. “We now generate all of our own electricity, making us completely self-sufficient in energy and as we expand, we will add an additional 2,000 m2 of roof space for solar panels to increase our energy production further.”
Along with self-sufficiency in energy, the site also operates a closed loop system when it comes to reusing water in the washing cabins on site. Alexandre adds, “We have an effluent treatment system on site which means we reclaim 100% of the water used and then treat and reuse. This means there is zero discharge of effluent from our processes at the site.”
The operational excellence program adds to the sustainability factor as the center makes sure that there is minimum waste in production and manufacture. What waste there is, especially when it comes to metal chips and shavings, is sent back to the supplier for credits against further orders.
As the pulp and paper industry Latin American rapidly grows, so does the manufacturing and maintenance services at ANDRITZ to make sure that its customers continue to operate successfully. At the same time, the emphasis remains on efficient and sustainable operations across the board.
As well as onsite efficiency and sustainability, transportation carbon footprint and costs have dramatically reduced as spare parts manufacture, rebuilds and maintenance can all be carried out under one roof at Araucária, instead of being shipped abroad.
“ANDRITZ has grown and is still growing so fast in this region,” concludes Alexandre. “With our manufacturing facility now close to our customers it means that not only can we be competitive and deliver faster, we can also add to our mission on sustainability. Araucária is a prime example and a showcase of efficiency and sustainability for the global industry.”
ANDRITZ and the push into solar power for manufacturing operations
More and more ANDRITZ manufacturing and service centers are turning to solar power for their power and energy needs. With the first installation taking place at the Suello site in Italy in 2005, now eighteen sites are already covering at least a portion of their electricity needs with the use of photovoltaic (PV) systems. The sites located in Araucária, Brazil and Gettnau in Switzerland are producing enough electricity for all demands.
ANDRITZ continues to have an ongoing strategy of installing PV systems, and has a dedicated budget allocated by the executive board under the group-wide We Care sustainability program. The manufacturing sites now combined generate over 11 GWh of green electricity a year representing around 4% of the group’s electricity needs, and also result in significant savings in CO2 emissions.
