Södra Cell maintenance: Shared processes and digital support

Södra Cell operates three of Sweden’s most advanced pulp mills. Their operations run around the clock, all year round — which demands robust technology, well-defined processes, and a culture in which safety and collaboration are paramount. The company is now making a major investment in data-driven maintenance, where digital ways of working and shared routines will strengthen the organisation’s competitiveness.

The pace of industrial digitalisation, rising raw-material costs, and global competition are putting strong pressure on companies to keep their facilities running safely and cost-effectively. For Södra Cell, this means rethinking both its ways of working and its technical systems.

Södra Cell’s sites in Värö, Mörrum and Mönsterås previously used partly different processes. These are now being brought together, with working methods, support systems and routines aligned into a single maintenance workflow for the entire operation.

– We’ve taken the best from each mill, as well as external best practice, and woven them together into a shared way of working for all of Södra, says Thomas Håkansson, Head of the Technology Development.

The maintenance flow covers everything from work orders and risk assessment to planning, execution and follow-up. Safety measures, such as shutdowns, work environment preparation and checks, are no longer separate steps, but integrated parts of the process.

– The goal is to make it easy to do the right thing. When everyone works within the same process, we get better follow-up, better exchange of experience and a stronger foundation for improvements, he says.

At the same time, the company’s own maintenance system is being modernised, with mobility and digital security at its core. Two mills and several sawmills are already using the new version.

Digital tools for daily work – and data that transforms operations

Digitalisation is immediately noticeable in the everyday lives of technicians, who use their mobile phones or tablets for rounds, work orders, materials and checklists.

– It sounds simple, but having everything in your pocket makes a big difference. It makes it easier to work systematically and safely, says Jenny Gotthardsson, site manager at Södra Cell Värö.

An even greater change comes from the extensive data collection. More than 4,000 sensors for vibration monitoring are now installed on rotating equipment. This means a transition from spot checks to continuous monitoring.

– Previously, manual measurements could only be taken at intervals of several weeks. Now we receive continuous data and can detect deviations at an early stage. We already have several cases where we identified faults in good time and avoided breakdowns, says Thomas Håkansson.

One of the mills also uses AI from Viking Analytics to interpret large amounts of data and flag deviations.

– This helps our data engineers focus on what really needs attention. Vibration data can tell us a lot, even what type of bearing damage and what fault development time we are dealing with, he says.

Safety as a guiding principle – in both behaviour and technology

Safety is not a separate area but part of the entire maintenance process. The ambition here is clear.

– At Södra, we say that we work safely or not at all. There’s always time to do things right, says Jenny Gotthardsson.

When technicians are working on site in the plant, all safety steps are carried out digitally. This reduces the risk of errors and creates traceability at every stage. In parallel, Södra is advancing behaviour-based safety, where teams identify risks together and agree on priority behaviours

– This has been very well received. It strengthens both safety and dialogue within the teams, she says.

At Värö, alcohol testing has also been introduced at the gates for everyone entering the area, including contractors during major maintenance shutdowns.

– It’s unique in the industry. And it works. We discover cases that would otherwise never have come to light, and that creates a sense of security for everyone who works here, she says.

Cooperation between mills is a competitive advantage

Although pulp mills often operate as separate entities, Södra has established a working method whereby the mills support each other during major maintenance shutdowns. Staff travel between the facilities to provide relief where the need is greatest.

– This is incredibly valuable. You get extra resources with high levels of expertise when the workload is at its peak, but you also get learning in both directions, says Thomas Håkansson.

He believes that few in the industry succeed in doing this in practice.

– Many try to establish such collaborations, but few succeed in practice. Here, we have the advantage: our facilities are located close to each other and that we share a common culture and working methods, he says.

Global competition makes maintenance business-critical

The paper and pulp industry is directly affected by global price changes and currency fluctuations. According to Jenny Gotthardsson, competitiveness is one of the biggest challenges.

– We export in dollars and we’re directly affected by the global economy. This makes high availability and stable operation business-critical. Maintenance is key to keeping costs down and productivity up, she says.

Skills provision is another key issue, where Södra combines training initiatives, partnerships and its own technology development.

Looking ahead: more analysis and less downtime

As Södra Cell looks ahead, its ambition is clear: to move towards even more predictable and data-driven maintenance.

– We will have more sensors, more analysis and more AI in our everyday lives. We need to be able to predict faults further in advance and perform fewer emergency repairs. This is better for safety, better for costs and better for availability, says Thomas Håkansson.

The vision is far-reaching:

– In an ideal world, production would never need to log a report. We would know before anything happens. We will never achieve that completely, but it is the direction we are moving in, concludes Thomas Håkansson.

Underhållsmässan 2026

The Swedish Maintenance Fair will take place at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg on 10-13 March 2026. The event will bring the maintenance profession together around four central themes: sustainable maintenance, industrial safety, future production and skills supply.

Södra Cell will participate in the fair and share its experiences of how standardised working methods, digitalisation and data-driven analysis can strengthen both safety and competitiveness throughout the organisation.

Get free admission ticket