Chances are pretty good you have bought a package of Scotties tissue or White Swan toilet paper or SpongeTowels paper towels recently. If you have, then you purchased a product made at the new Sherbrooke Tissue Plant of Kruger Products. Kruger is Canada’s leading manufacturer of tissue products, serving the Canadian market since 1904. Large companies need to take advantage of opportunities to innovate when they decide the build new facilities, like Kruger Products did with their new Sherbrooke Tissue Plant, which opened in 2021, is a state-of-the-art facility equipped with Canada’s largest and most advanced through-air-dry tissue machine.
Equipped to make agile adjustments and boost operational efficiency at every link
Kruger took advantage of the opening of this cutting-edge facility to push innovation further. The company put in place a digital twin of its supply chain, which runs from raw material procurement, to production planning, to equipment maintenance, to risk management, to logistics and delivery of finished products to stores and their customers. The digital twin project is a virtual model of the supply chain that uses real-time data and is augmented by predictive and prescriptive artificial intelligence capabilities.
The AI-powered advance—known as the Sherbrooke AI Digital Twin—enables plant managers to make agile adjustments and boost operational efficiency at every link along the facility’s supply chain. Benefits extend to reduced waste, increased energy efficiency and a smaller carbon footprint, thanks to lower greenhouse gas emissions. The digital twin also benefits Kruger’s suppliers, partners and customers by giving them products that are higher quality, more readily available and increasingly competitive in the market. Call the Sherbrooke AI Digital Twin a supply chain win-win-win.
Increase productivity, strengthen competitiveness, secure long-term growth, lead the world
The Sherbrooke AI Digital Twin is a clear product of the growing AI innovation ecosystem in Canada. Several companies and organizations joined Kruger in bringing the Sherbrooke AI Digital Twin to life. Quebec’s Ministry of Economy and Innovation invested in the project. Researchers from Polytechnique Montréal and Laval University lent their expertise. And Osedea (a software developer) and Boston Consulting Group (among the world’s largest management consultancies) supplied their considerable skills and knowledge.
The AI-powered advance is a prime example of how an increasing number of Canadian companies appreciate the power of artificial intelligence to boost productivity, strengthen competitiveness and secure long-term growth. And Kruger is not finished: this cutting-edge project will spur a future roll out of AI-powered supply chain management across Kruger’s entire manufacturing infrastructure—at home and abroad, fortifying Canada’s position as a global leader in artificial intelligence. Scale AI—one of the country’s five Innovation Superclusters—is an original investor in this project and its exciting advance in Canada’s AI innovation ecosystem.
Download Scale AI’s white paper on AI for the manufacturing sector
Sherbrooke AI Digital Twin delivers wins:
- Kruger wins greater operational efficiency.
- Suppliers, partners and customers win through products that are high quality, available and competitive.
- The environment wins through reduced waste, increased energy efficiency and smaller carbon footprint.
- AI innovation ecosystem wins another success.
- Canada wins by strengthening its position as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
