Optimisation software has helped to reduce production time at a leading paper manufacturing plant from 17 hours to less than two hours through streamlining planning and production processes.

ILOG, a leading supplier of enterprise-class software components and services, today announced that Hansol Paper, one of the leading paper manufacturing companies in South Korea, has selected ILOG optimisation software to streamline its complex paper planning and production processes, including managing inventory requirements, resulting in a more efficient overall process that has reduced production time from 17 hours to less than two hours. In addition to reducing production time, ILOG optimisation software has improved strategic decision-making, shortened sales cycles and reduced waste and other costs associated with Hansol's production process. Hansol is one of Asia's leading newsprint paper manufacturers, producing 1.3 million tons of paper annually.

In addition to being well established domestically, the company sells worldwide to organisations like the Los Angeles Times Corporation.

In order to utilise the least amount of paper and achieve maximum profit, Hansol created the 'Hansol Integrated production scheduling System' based on a combination of three ILOG products - ILOG CPLEX, ILOG Solver and ILOG Scheduler.

Hansol uses the combined solution to more effectively manage the planning and production of its highly complex manufacturing process, which involves multiple constraints that control factors such as determining the correct amount of pulp to purchase, minimizing the utilisation of paper cutting machines, and reducing paper-type changes, preventing over-production or under-production during the cutting process, and decreasing the loss of paper during trimming.

'Hansol is committed to being a world-leading, environmentally-friendly paper manufacturing company.

We believe superior technology from vendors such as ILOG will help us achieve the goal,' said S.K.

Kim, senior manager of Hansol Paper Co Ltd.

'By using ILOG optimisation software, we are able to reduce paper waste yet still deliver the highest quality products to our customers.' ILOG optimisation products are used in each phase of Hansol's multi-stage production scheduling process, which includes a three month sales planning cycle, a one month production scheduling cycle, a cutting process that divides large jumbo-rolls of paper into several smaller optimally sized rolls, and finally a scheduling stage in which the smaller rolls are divided by sheet cutters in a process that considers load balance and other complex constraints.

About ILOG - for more than 10 years, ILOG's innovative enterprise-class software components and services have helped companies maximise their business agility and improve operating efficiency.

Over 1000 global corporations and more than 300 leading software vendors rely on ILOG's business rules, optimisation and visualisation technologies to achieve dramatic returns on investment, create market-defining products and services, and sharpen their competitive edge.