Supply Chain Management in the Pulp and Paper Industry

The pulp and paper industry depends on a long and integrated supply chain. It starts in forest harvest areas as trees and ends as multiple products used in all persons daily usage. The lead time from the first step to the last is long and it involves many steps operated by several companies and organizations. In this overview paper we describe the overall supply chain, its participants and the planning problems arising along the chain. We divide the planning problems into strategic, tactical and operative in a supply chain matrix and describe their characteristic and provide applications as illustrations. We discuss the need for information and decision support for planners in each of these areas. This relates to planning within a single company as well as integrated planning across several. A number of tailor-made systems has been developed and published in the literature and we describe these tools/systems together with their characteristics and results. To conclude with a discussion around current issues and outline future research areas.