Production Scheduling for Paper Converting

This guide helps production planners and operations managers at tissue and paper converters build a structured schedule for multi-line converting, log sawing, and packaging operations. You will learn how to model your converting lines, divergent product routings, and sequence-dependent changeovers in Schantt so your schedule reflects the real constraints of your floor.

This guide follows a fictional composite company built from industry research on paper converting; all names, parameters, and figures are illustrative.

Industry context

Tissue and towel converting transforms jumbo parent rolls — each weighing 1,500–3,000 kg and measuring 2.4–3.6 m wide — into finished consumer and away-from-home (AFH) products. The process begins on parallel converting lines that unwind, emboss, perforate, and rewind the tissue into finished rolls or folded napkins. Each converting line runs at 350–450 m/min and produces either bath tissue rolls, napkins, or AFH jumbo rolls depending on its embossing configuration. The rewound logs then move through log saws that cut them into individual rolls at approximately 60 cuts per minute, after which wrappers apply packaging film and case packers assemble the wrapped units into shipping cases.

The facility operates 16 hours per day across two shifts, Monday through Saturday. A planning team of three people manages approximately 200 active SKUs across three product classes — bath tissue, napkins, and AFH tissue — distributed roughly 60 percent bath tissue, 20 percent napkins, and 20 percent AFH by annual volume. Each product class follows a different route through the plant: bath tissue passes through all four stages (Converting → Log Saw → Wrapping → Case Packing), napkins skip the Log Saw and Wrapping stages entirely, and AFH jumbo rolls skip only Wrapping. Between stages, material moves by conveyor, with transfer times of 3 to 5 minutes between consecutive stages and 8 to 10 minutes for skip-route bridges.

Evergreen Tissue Converters runs approximately 150 people at a 12,000 m² facility, making 3 product classes across 4 production stages, scheduled by a 3-person planning team.

Process overview

flowchart LR
    CONV["Converting<br/>4 lines (FLOW)"]
    SAW["Log Saw<br/>4 saws (BATCH)"]
    WRAP["Wrapping<br/>5 wrappers (FLOW)"]
    CASE["Case Packing<br/>4 packers (FLOW)"]

    CONV --> SAW
    SAW --> WRAP
    WRAP --> CASE
    CONV -.->|NAP skip route| CASE
    SAW -.->|AFH skip route| CASE

The production flow for converting parent rolls into finished tissue products: bath tissue (BT) follows the full Converting → Log Saw → Wrapping → Case Packing route; napkins (NAP) skip the Log Saw and Wrapping stages via a direct bridge from Converting to Case Packing; AFH jumbo rolls (AFH) skip Wrapping via a bridge from Log Saw to Case Packing.

Skip routing: Napkins bypass the Log Saw and Wrapping stages entirely — they move directly from Converting to Case Packing. AFH jumbo rolls skip Wrapping and go directly from Log Saw to Case Packing. Each skip route has its own bridge transfer time.

Scheduling challenges and how Schantt handles them

This guide assumes that demand arrives as a daily list of jobs (25–40 per day) from the ERP, each specifying product, quantity, and target completion. If your operation runs from a weekly or shift-level plan instead, the same model applies — just adjust the job horizon. Schantt schedules forward from a start date and optimizes total production time, working within a practical horizon of several days to two weeks. In Auto mode, Schantt optimizes both job sequence and machine assignment across all stages simultaneously. In Semi-Auto mode, you set the sequence and Schantt assigns machines to each stage.

What Schantt handles well

• Sequential multi-stage production — bath tissue moves through four stages (Converting → Log Saw → Wrapping → Case Packing) with transfer times for conveyor-based material handoff. Each downstream stage begins only after the upstream stage completes and the material arrives.
• Multi-machine stages with parallel lines — four converting lines with different speeds and embossing capabilities, four log saws, five wrappers, and four case packers. Schantt assigns jobs to machines in Auto or Semi-Auto mode, respecting each machine's per-class capability.
• Multi-product routing with stage skipping — bath tissue follows the full route, napkins skip Log Saw and Wrapping, and AFH jumbo rolls skip Wrapping. Schantt models each class routing with bridge transfer times across skipped spans.
• Mixed batch-and-flow pipelines — converting is a flow stage, log saw is a batch stage, and wrapping and case packing are flow stages. The schedule chains supply-driven starts and pauses for material waits across the different stage types.
• Sequence-dependent changeovers — embossing pattern swaps (30–90 minutes), roll width changes (5–15 minutes), and pack format changes (15 minutes) are modelled as directional per-machine, per-class-pair entries. Schantt considers these durations when sequencing jobs, so the schedule favours lower-changeover sequences that shorten total production time.
• Partial transfers for intermediate buffering — the accumulation conveyor between the converting line and the log saw is modelled as a partial transfer with a 500-roll threshold, so the log saw can start cutting the accumulated material while the converting line continues producing.

How Schantt handles each challenge

1. Assigning jobs to the right converting line.

• The four converting lines have different speeds (350–450 m/min) and different embossing capabilities. Line 1 and Line 2 use steel-to-steel embossing for bath tissue and AFH only; Line 3 runs nested embossing with a folder for napkins plus bath tissue and AFH; Line 4 runs nested embossing for bath tissue and AFH. Manually assigning 25–40 daily jobs across these four lines — while accounting for their different capabilities — is time-consuming and often suboptimal.
• Each converting line is modelled as a machine with per-class throughput entries that define which product classes it can run and at what rate. Machines without a throughput entry for a given class are not candidates for that class. In Auto mode, Schantt explores line assignments alongside job sequence to find the combination that minimizes total production time. In Semi-Auto mode, you set the job order and Schantt assigns each job to the best available line.

2. Managing divergent product routings with stage skipping.

• Bath tissue traverses all four stages, napkins skip directly from Converting to Case Packing, and AFH jumbo rolls skip Wrapping. Each routing has different total duration and different capacity requirements on downstream stages. Without a system that understands these divergent paths, jobs from different classes can block each other or arrive at unexpected points in the line.
• Each product class gets its own per-class routing, defined as a sequence of stages. When a class skips stages, you configure bridge transfer times — 10 minutes from Converting to Case Packing for napkins, and 8 minutes from Log Saw to Case Packing for AFH — so material handoff across the skipped span is accounted for. The schedule chains each job through only the stages its class requires, eliminating artificial waits at skipped steps.

3. Coordinating a batch log saw stage within a flow-dominant pipeline.

• The log saw operates in batches — each cut produces 72 bath tissue rolls at a one-minute cycle — while the converting lines ahead run continuously and the wrappers and case packers downstream run at steady flow rates. The six-to-one speed ratio between the converting line output (~2,250 rolls per minute at full speed) and the log saw capacity (~360 rolls per minute) creates a natural bottleneck. The log saw also needs recurring 30-minute blade changes approximately every six hours of runtime.
• The log saw is modelled as a batch stage with per-machine batch size and cycle duration — 72 rolls per cycle at one minute per cycle for bath tissue, and 540 rolls per cycle for AFH. The saw's slower rate is captured naturally through these parameters, so the schedule accumulates work ahead of this stage and reflects the waiting time. Recurring blade-change windows are entered as machine downtimes with fixed start time and duration.

4. Handling sequence-dependent changeovers across multiple stages.

• Embossing roll changes on a converting line range from 25 to 90 minutes depending on the specific transition (BT→AFH at 25–35 minutes, BT→NAP at 75 minutes on Line 3). A poorly sequenced day can lose several hours to avoidable changeover time across the four lines. Similarly, log saw transitions between product classes take 10 minutes per saw, and case packer format changes take 15 minutes per packer across all product transitions.
• Each machine in the Converting, Log Saw, and Case Packing stages has directional changeover times between the product classes it serves. Schantt reads these per-machine, per-pair values and incorporates them when computing job sequences in Auto mode. The schedule naturally favours sequences that batch same-class jobs together, reducing the number of changeovers a line performs each day.

5. Balancing downstream packaging capacity with converting output.

• The five wrappers each run at 48,000 bath tissue rolls per hour, and the four case packers run at 36,000 rolls per hour for bath tissue. When a high-speed converting line (Line 4 at 135,000 rolls per hour) feeds batches of bath tissue through the system, downstream packaging can become the effective constraint if all lines convert tissue simultaneously. The planner needs a schedule that spaces converting output so wrapping and case packing can keep pace.
• Because the schedule models each stage's machines with their throughput rates, order-level Gantt interactions are visible across the full pipeline. If a converting line runs too fast for the downstream packaging to clear, the simulation extends the schedule in the constrained stage. In Auto mode, the optimizer can slow-feed a line by scheduling it in gaps that keep the downstream stages balanced, without the planner having to calculate the pacing manually.

What to model in Schantt

The table below lists the first-class entities you create to model this paper converting scenario. Each entity is created on its own page in Schantt.

Step-by-step setup

1. Create the stages and set transfer times. Create four stages in production order — Converting, Log Saw, Wrapping, Case Packing — and set Converting and Wrapping and Case Packing to flow type, and Log Saw to batch type. On the Converting stage detail page, add the following transfer times for material handoff between consecutive stages and bridge routes:

Converting to Log Saw: 5 minutes
Log Saw to Wrapping: 3 minutes
Wrapping to Case Packing: 3 minutes
Converting to Case Packing (napkin skip route): 10 minutes
Log Saw to Case Packing (AFH skip route): 8 minutes

2. Add the machines to each stage. On the Converting stage, add four machines: Line 1 and Line 2 (steel-to-steel embossing), Line 3 (nested embossing with folder), Line 4 (nested embossing). On the Log Saw stage, add four log saws (Log Saw 1 through Log Saw 4). On the Wrapping stage, add five wrappers (Wrapper 1 through Wrapper 5). On the Case Packing stage, add four case packers (Case Packer 1 through Case Packer 4).

3. Create the product classes and define their routings. Create three product classes: Bath Tissue, Napkins, and AFH Tissue. For each class, define the per-class routing:

Bath Tissue: Converting → Log Saw → Wrapping → Case Packing. On the Converting → Log Saw leg, enable partial transfer with a quantity of 500 rolls — this models the in-line accumulation conveyor that lets the log saw start cutting the first 500 rolls while the converting line continues producing.
Napkins: Converting → Case Packing (direct skip route; no Log Saw or Wrapping entries).
AFH Tissue: Converting → Log Saw → Case Packing (skip Wrapping). Enable partial transfer on the Converting → Log Saw leg with a quantity of 500 rolls.

4. Add the products. Add one product per class: EverSoft 2-ply Bath Tissue (Bath Tissue class), EverDine 1-ply Luncheon Napkins (Napkins class), and EverPro 2-ply AFH Jumbo Roll (AFH Tissue class). Assign each a display colour for the Gantt chart.

5. Set machine capacity parameters and changeovers. On each machine's detail page, configure throughput rates for flow stages and batch parameters for the batch stage, then add directional changeover times.

Converting lines — throughput (units per hour):
- Line 1: Bath Tissue 114,000, AFH Tissue 38,000
- Line 2: Bath Tissue 126,000, AFH Tissue 42,000
- Line 3: Bath Tissue 105,000, Napkins 360,000, AFH Tissue 35,000
- Line 4: Bath Tissue 135,000, AFH Tissue 45,000

Converting lines — directional changeovers (minutes):
- Line 1 and Line 2: Bath Tissue → AFH 35 min, AFH → Bath Tissue 25 min
- Line 3: Bath Tissue → Napkins 75 min, Bath Tissue → AFH 35 min, Napkins → Bath Tissue 75 min, Napkins → AFH 75 min, AFH → Bath Tissue 25 min, AFH → Napkins 75 min
- Line 4: Bath Tissue → AFH 35 min, AFH → Bath Tissue 25 min

Log saws — batch parameters and changeovers:
- All four log saws: Bath Tissue — 72 rolls per cycle, 1-minute cycle duration; AFH Tissue — 540 rolls per cycle, 1-minute cycle duration
- All four log saws: Bath Tissue ↔ AFH Tissue, 10 minutes each direction

Wrappers — throughput:
- All five wrappers (Wrapper 1 through Wrapper 5): Bath Tissue 48,000 rolls per hour

Case packers — throughput and changeovers:
- All four case packers (Case Packer 1 through Case Packer 4): Bath Tissue 36,000 rolls per hour, Napkins 180,000 napkins per hour, AFH Tissue 18,000 rolls per hour
- All four case packers: 15 minutes for every product class transition, each direction

6. Configure the calendar, exceptions, and downtimes. Create the Standard calendar with two shifts, Monday to Saturday, 06:00–22:00. Add calendar exceptions for New Year's Day (1 January, non-working), International Workers' Day (1 May, non-working), and the year-end factory shutdown (24 December and 31 December, both non-working). Configure machine downtimes for the monthly embossing roll replacement (factory-wide, 4 hours on the first Saturday of each month) and 30-minute log saw blade changes on each saw.

For step-by-step instructions on configuring each of these in Schantt, see the Schantt documentation.

Common mistakes

1. Using a single blanket changeover for all converting lines. Each converting line has different embossing capabilities, and the changeover time varies by the product pair and the specific line — BT→NAP on Line 3 takes 75 minutes, while BT→AFH on the same line takes only 35 minutes. A single changeover value across all lines ignores these differences and produces an unrealistic schedule. Fix: Add directional changeover times per machine for each product-class pair that the line actually handles, using the values from the machine's changeover matrix.

2. Modelling all products under a single routing class. Divergent routing is the defining scheduling characteristic of this scenario — napkins skip two stages entirely, and AFH skips one. If you create a single product class for all products, every job follows the same route, and the schedule forces napkins and AFH through stages they never visit on the real floor. Fix: Create three product classes — Bath Tissue, Napkins, AFH Tissue — each with its own stage sequence and bridge transfer times for the skipped stages.

3. Setting the Log Saw as a flow stage. The log saw cuts logs into individual rolls in discrete batches — 72 rolls per minute for bath tissue — not at a continuous rate. Modelling it as a flow stage misrepresents its capacity profile and the queuing behaviour that builds ahead of the saw. Fix: Set the Log Saw stage type to Batch and enter the batch cycle duration and batch size for each product class on each log saw.

4. Omitting bridge transfer times for skip routes. Napkins skip the Log Saw and Wrapping stages and move directly from Converting to Case Packing via an overhead conveyor. Without a bridge transfer time on this route, the schedule has no material-handling delay between these two stages and may show napkins arriving at case packing unrealistically early. Fix: Add the Converting → Case Packing transfer time (10 minutes) on the Converting stage detail page, and the Log Saw → Case Packing transfer time (8 minutes) for the AFH skip route.

5. Overlooking partial transfers between Converting and Log Saw. The accumulation conveyor between the converting line and the log saw stores up to 500 rolls, allowing the saw to start cutting while the line continues producing. Without this partial transfer configured, the log saw waits for the entire converting batch to finish before starting, which extends the schedule unnecessarily. Fix: On the Bath Tissue and AFH Tissue per-class routings, enable the partial transfer option on the Converting → Log Saw leg and set the quantity to 500 rolls.

What a good schedule looks like

When the model is configured correctly, the schedule reflects the real production constraints of the converting floor rather than a planner's best guess.

Before (spreadsheet and whiteboard): The planning team assigns jobs to lines based on experience and visible queues, with limited visibility into downstream bottlenecks and changeover accumulation.
- Jobs from different product classes alternate unpredictably on a converting line, incurring 75-minute embossing changes multiple times per shift
- Converting overruns the log saw capacity, creating long queues at the saw while downstream wrappers sit idle
- Napkin jobs are planned through all four stages, wasting conveyance and occupying log saw and wrapper capacity unnecessarily
- The 25–40 daily jobs fill the entire planning session, with schedule updates consuming hours each time a job priority changes

After (Schantt Auto mode): Schantt sequences jobs and assigns machines across all stages to minimize total production time.
- Jobs are batched by product class on each converting line, reducing embossing changeovers to the transitions that actually move between classes
- Converting output is paced to the log saw bottleneck and downstream packaging clearance, so work-in-progress stays manageable and no stage starves downstream
- Napkin and AFH jobs follow their correct skip routes, freeing log saw and wrapper capacity for bath tissue
- The planning team adjusts job priorities or adds rush orders in minutes instead of hours — the solver redistributes the updated workload across the available capacity