From Challenge to Solution
Every project comes with obstacles. Here’s how we identified the problem and built a solution that delivered lasting impact.
The Challenge
For International Paper (IP), reliability isn’t optional. It’s foundational.
“You can’t be reliable to your customers if your machines aren’t reliable.”
IP’s goal is to be the most reliable supplier to its customers. But machine reliability across a large enterprise footprint presents a familiar challenge: too often, issues are discovered only after they become failures.
Before expanding condition monitoring enterprise-wide, many sites operated like most manufacturing facilities. Reactive at times, preventive where possible, but without scalable visibility into early failure indicators.
When failures occurred, they brought:
- Unplanned downtime
- Emergency labor
- Expedited parts costs
- Production disruptions
And even what seems like a “4–6 hour repair” can quickly extend if a part isn’t in stock, stretching downtime far longer than planned.
IP recognized that catching issues early, greasing a bearing, cleaning a fan, correcting imbalance, is far less costly than replacing a failed component.
After proving value through a pilot, leadership made a clear decision. If the system worked, they would scale it.
The Solution
IP evaluated multiple vendors before selecting AssetWatch. For Jeremy and his team, hardware alone wasn’t enough.
“We needed more than hardware and software. We needed a partner that could also bring the expertise to analyze and diagnose issues.”
Coming from the mill side of the business, Jeremy understood the resource gap on the converting side.
IP needed:
- Competitive and scalable pricing
- Reliable hardware and monitoring capability
- Expert analysis and diagnostics support
- A partner capable of scaling with enterprise growth
AssetWatch stood out immediately on cost, prompting a head-to-head trial to validate value.
To stress-test the system, IP intentionally trialed AssetWatch in one of its best-performing facilities, a site with low downtime and strong maintenance performance.
If the system could find value there, it could find value anywhere.
During the trial, multiple alerts surfaced, and they were real issues. The plant’s maintenance team saw the impact firsthand and didn’t want to give up the system when the trial ended.
Between the pricing, performance, diagnostics support, and plant feedback, IP moved forward with an enterprise rollout.
Scaling from One Facility to 57+
Once the green light was given, expansion moved quickly. The enterprise rollout began in January 2025, initially at a controlled pace to validate the deployment process. Once the workflow was refined, implementation accelerated rapidly.
What began as a single-site validation became one of the fastest enterprise condition monitoring expansions in IP’s network.
Facilities Implemented
Completed across January through December 2025
Upcoming Facilities
Scheduled for implementation through June 2026
“It’s a lot better to blow out a trim fan or grease a bearing than it is to have a failure and be down for hours.”
Looking Ahead
With more than 90 facilities either implemented or scheduled, International Paper has built a scalable framework for enterprise reliability.
The focus now turns to continued refinement, aggregating performance metrics across sites, expanding monitoring coverage where it drives the most value, and strengthening alignment between maintenance strategy and business priorities.
By standardizing condition monitoring across its network, IP is reinforcing its commitment to operational excellence and its goal of being the most dependable supplier to its customers.
New Facilities
Bring predictive maintenance to your sites and prevent failures.
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Powering Predictive Insights with AWS
AssetWatch partnered with AWS to provide the scalability and reliability needed to support a serverless architecture. With a robust suite of services tailored for data ingestion, processing, and machine learning, AWS enables AssetWatch to seamlessly scale sensor data and deliver predictive insights to manufacturing companies.
AWS infrastructure reduces operational overhead and allows AssetWatch to focus on innovation to drive value to our customers. Additionally, AWS’s strong security framework and global infrastructure ensure the resilience and compliance required to support mission-critical manufacturing operations at scale. This partnership positions AssetWatch to accelerate growth while maintaining the highest levels of performance and reliability.
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Bring predictive maintenance to your sites and prevent failures.
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