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Tetra Pak is a world-leading food processing and packaging solutions company that has recently embarked on a digital transformation journey with Hexagon to modernize and future-proof its ways of working for plant engineering. The project aimed to address multiple key challenges: How to future-proof operations, keep pace with technology innovations and move away from in-house propriety systems that were time-consuming to upkeep.

Overcoming challenges
Tetra Pak’s decision to replace an in-house system with commercial software was fueled by certain challenges:

• Maintaining an in-house propriety system is expensive, burdensome and takes resources away from other activities;
• It is difficult to keep pace with technology development in software outside of own core competence area;
• Future-proofing the company to continuously improve customer experience becomes increasingly important;
• It is vital to ensure Tetra Pak becomes a more attractive organisation to work for and with.
• In addition to this, the sheer magnitude of the digitalization project brings its own challenges; Tetra Pak is working with more than 2,000 engineers around the globe. The task of adjusting the engineers’ ways of working – from the drawing-based mode that is the case today to the future model-based way – must secure the quality and efficiency of the deliverables.

Finding the right technology partner
Tetra Pak joined forces with Hexagon’s Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division to enable that perfect balance between flexibility and customization: “We searched for a partner that could provide a software solution and support building our expertise into a new digital engineering platform, enabling us to focus on providing our clients the best customer value and experience while driving our own productivity as well,” says Helena Eliasson, Director Project and Automation Engineering Office, Tetra Pak Processing Solutions & Equipment.

The company was looking for a solution that would not need excessive customization but still provide the required functionality and productivity improvements. After careful consideration, Tetra Pak selected Hexagon as its collaboration partner for the digital transformation initiative. The Tetra Pak-Hexagon collaboration is now one and a half years into the joint project of building the new Smart Solutions Platform for plant engineering and plant life cycle management.
Realizing the Results

The collaboration started by forming a joint team for development. This core team includes both global experts and end-users, who collaborate to develop solutions to the right level and functionality. The project uses the agile developing method by deploying multiple releases to continually test and challenge the status quo to ensure that the new platform will meet the end-users’ needs.

Hexagon is providing Tetra Pak with extensive experience from digitalization initiatives from other industries, such as chemical, oil & gas and shipbuilding. Hexagon technologies are used as a backbone to digitally transform Tetra Pak’s plant engineering expertise, design and data management.

Additionally, Hexagon’s suite of solutions can support Tetra Pak from design through manufacture and into operations for their customers’ projects. By making use of the engineering data created during the design of Tetra Pak’s modular solutions and packaging this valuable information for customers, Tetra Pak extends the value of the created data from design all the way to operation. This ensures a consistent digital thread over the plant lifecycle. This means that customers receive more value and a richer experience from Tetra Pak solutions.

Next Steps

Tetra Pak’s plan for executing the digitalization program spans over three years. The first step was to develop the solution, which is currently ongoing with the support of Hexagon. During the second step, the first deployment will go live. During the final step, further functionality will be added, and the decommissioning of the legacy platform will be finalized. The creation of the Smart Solutions Platform involves not only the 2,000+ engineers, but also management at all levels in the organization, global experts and end-users.

When asked about any best practice information on how to manage such a large-scale digitalization project, Eliasson said: “Choosing the right technology partner is essential, but only one part of the puzzle. Continuous communication, preparing the receiving organizations for change, while creating buy-in and awareness across the organization is key for success. You will need to focus not only on the tools but also on competence development and facilitating the acceptance of the new way of working.”

Curious to learn more about the Hexagon-Tetra Pak collaboration? Read the complete case study here.