CENIBRA
            

Incorporated in 1973, CENIBRA (Celulose Nipo-Brasileira S.A.) is located in Belo Oriente, Brazil. The company is a major producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp which is used for manufacturing paper and cardboard products. CENIBRA has an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons and exports 98% of its pulp to markets in Asia, Europe and North America. In addition, the company owns and manages 254,000 hectares of land as eucalyptus farms and ecological reserves in the state of Minas Gerais.

Paving the way for a digital future

In the paper industry, eucalyptus pulp was once considered exotic—but since its debut in the 1970s it has gone from just 2% of the world’s market pulp to accounting for nearly 33%. Production has risen inordinately from around 400,000 tons a year to more than 16 million. For CENIBRA—one of Brazil’s major pulp producers—this is an opportunity not to be missed. But to seize it meant overhauling its systems and processes first.

CENIBRA had long used SAP ERP applications to support most of its enterprise resource planning and management—from financial and accounting to logistics. But increasing market demand coupled with IT systems in need of modernization made it clear the company wasn’t keeping pace. Upgrading to SAP S/4HANA was a necessary step towards a modern IT infrastructure. But it was an intimidating one. Key to the company’s effectiveness is operationalizing its “forest process cycle”, but there was a risk of the cycle breaking down during the upgrade. CENIBRA began its search for a tool that could unlock all the internal data associated with these processes and sync it all back up again under the control of a Business Process Analysis (BPA) tool. This tool was then intended to power an enterprise-wide single source of truth.

Setting SAP data free

After navigating a crowded marketplace, there was one BPA tool that emerged as vendor-agnostic and open enough to integrate with SAP solutions. Not only did this tool offer a process-driven migration solution, but it had all the capabilities to accelerate a successful migration to SAP S/4HANA – and beyond.

“With other tools, it was impossible to connect our various SAP systems—it was like our data was walled off. Now, with ARIS, we have access to all our tools and systems and can use that clear view to standardize and improve our process landscape.” – Ronaldo Neves Ribeiro, CIO, Celulose Nipo-Brasileira S.A. (CENIBRA)

The new tool guided CENIBRA safely through the SAP migration and efficiently aligned its processes with the new SAP S/4HANA architecture. Since then—over the course of three years—the company has mapped and managed the entire forest process cycle. Over 455 process flows in IT and corporate governance have been designed. And 140 users are involved in process design and improvement. There’s even a team of analysts dedicated to responding to demands for process improvement and infrastructure management.

Unlocking value and the power to pivot

Now, CENIBRA has simplified and integrated its main business processes. Not only are these processes transparent and documented—they’re also far more efficient, which means increased productivity. Resources can be more easily optimized, whether material, human or financial, and KPIs are simple to track. And all this transparency means that management can quickly generate reliable reports across multiple business entities—that inform on process efficiency and drive sound business decisions.

This company’s new-found operational efficiency has also given CENIBRA business resilience and the power to pivot fast. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, there was a world-wide increase in demand for hygienic paper products, life-saving medicines, hygiene products and cleaning materials. CENIBRA’s pulp is central in the production of all four. With its supply chain management system all digitalized and integrated within its new process architecture, the company was able to seize this opportunity and pivot to fill this new demand in the market.

Fertile ground for sustainable growth

And the supply chain continues to matter: For a company like CENIBRA that is dependent on raw—by definition, renewable—materials, meeting sustainability objectives is key. Because of the nature of their business, a core focus will be efficient and responsible management of their supply chain. This is where tighter processes and logistics eliminate waste of time, money and resources. Process transparency makes it possible to set guidelines for working with ethical suppliers and simplifies compliance with ESG regulations. And of course, a central process repository enables easy KPI monitoring—so that CENIBRA can make sure it’s on track with its sustainability goals.

“We wanted to invest in a tool that supports the adoption of a BPM methodology, so we could carry out structured process monitoring—and obtain an even more integrated view of the company's value chain, with all KPIs and PPIs monitored and controlled in line with the company's sustainability Index” - Ronaldo Neves Ribeiro, CIO, Celulose Nipo-Brasileira S.A. (CENIBRA)

Now that CENIBRA has integrated its main business system into its process architecture and processes have been visualized for all users to see, the next step will be rolling out a business process platform across all other systems. Work has started already to digitalize the company’s remaining manual processes. The company also has big plans to migrate part of its infrastructure to the cloud in the coming years. Not bad for an enterprise that is about to celebrate half a century on this beautiful planet.