Paper Supply Chain

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The IDEAlliance Paper Supply Chain Committee builds synergies across all partners in the paper supply chain by focusing on establishing and optimizing best practices and applying technology and specifications to reduce costs, enhance efficiencies, and improve print predictability.   Objectives of this committee include staying informed on new and evolving trends that impact current and future business, working with partners upstream and downstream to gain operational efficiencies and data integration and workflow through the development and utilization of industry specifications.
One important resource provided by this Committee is the IDEAlliance Paper Inventory Database.  The impetus for the initiative is an ever-repeating paper cycle in which lack of visibility for paper inventories contributes to unnecessary buying that leads to a tight paper market and price increases. The price increases then lead to budget reductions in print volume by publishers, which then lead to utilization problems for printers. The resulting consumption decrease and corresponding inventory de-stocking creates utilization problems for paper companies and price declines. The IDEAlliance Paper Inventory report provides, on a consistent basis, the paper being held in printers' warehouses, whether owned by printers or publishers. Since the manufacturing capacity within the group of reporting companies is dynamic, consumption data is also reported, enabling translation into days of inventory.

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