Fiber to Performance: What We Learned at MIAC 2026

A week in Lucca with Valmet, and the conversations that stayed with us.

MIAC 2026 brought together the global tissue industry, and it was a week full of great conversations. We spoke with tissue producers and converters from Europe, the Americas, and beyond, including senior leaders from some of the industry’s largest groups.

The discussions covered the entire value chain, from tissue machines to converting lines, and from newly commissioned equipment to assets that have been running for decades. What stood out was the strong interest in practical applications of AI and digitalization, focused on solving real operational challenges and helping mills take the next step in performance improvement.

We didn’t just talk about it. We demoed the full FactoryPal stack live: PCM, MRQ, MSM, Maintenance Management and our AI-powered layer. Seeing the platform in action, on real scenarios, gave visitors a much clearer picture than any slide could.

Working side by side with Valmet’s digital team, we also showed how FactoryPal fits into Valmet’s wider digital portfolio for tissue mills. For visitors, that meant one coherent story instead of separate pieces: the machine expertise on one side, the data and AI on the other, working as one.

One point came up repeatedly: the value of combining deep tissue process knowledge with data. Generic AI tools can’t replicate that, and the people we spoke to know it. Tissue making has its own physics, its own quirks and its own language, and software that doesn’t speak only gets you so far.

What surprised us most was how concrete the conversations were. Visitors weren’t just curious about AI in general. They arrived with practical use cases and a clear goal: improving operational efficiency through digitalization. The questions kept coming back to three things: how these tools can support operators, how they can optimize processes, and how they can help standardize best practices across production lines. Interest was especially strong around Mother Roll Quality and Centerline, our AI recommendation solution.

One more thing stuck with us. Even high-performing mills with strong OEE told us they’ve hit a ceiling on what they can improve on their own. They see FactoryPal as the next step, the way to find the gains that are hard to spot from inside the day-to-day.

We’re leaving Lucca with new partnerships to explore, and follow-ups already planned across Europe and North America. A big thank you to the Valmet team for hosting us, and to everyone who took the time to visit. See you at the next stop on the tissue calendar!