Tetra Pak: Accelerating transformation with a clean core approach to ERP innovation and process standardization

Tetra Pak recently found itself at a crossroads. After years of building on a heavily customized ERP system, the company juggled more than 10 million lines of custom code, rising IT costs, and project timelines that stretched longer with each new initiative. What had once enabled agility was now holding innovation back.

Tetra Pak’s business leaders knew the world was moving faster, and the global food processing and packaging business had to keep up.

To unlock future growth and respond quickly to customer and market demands, the company set a bold vision: simplify the IT landscape, harmonize business processes, and accelerate transformation through a clean core approach. However, accomplishing those goals involved more than implementing the latest ERP technology. Processes also needed to be reimagined—from how they’re owned and designed to how they’re delivered.

“We wanted to keep our IT investment levels the same but get far more out of them,” says Jeff DeWolf, head of the global process office at Tetra Pak. “This meant reducing complexity, staying standard, and creating a foundation that would let us move fast, adopt innovations quickly, and focus investment where it truly drives competitive advantage.”

With strong governance, business alignment, and well-integrated technologies, the company could lay the foundation for sustainable growth, faster innovation cycles, and a more agile, future-ready enterprise.

To reshape its global business operations strategically, Tetra Pak decided to leverage three complementary business transformation solutions from SAP while transitioning its legacy ERP system to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Together, these solutions gave Tetra Pak the clarity to redesign and govern processes, navigate its complex IT landscape, and help ensure adoption of the cloud ERP across the enterprise.

At the center of the transformation was SAP Signavio solutions, which help Tetra Pak model, manage, and standardize processes across its three business units. Preloaded best practices and content from SAP aligned with the process classification framework developed by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) allow teams to adopt the cloud ERP quickly and stay focused on process and workflow harmonization. With process mining and governance built in, SAP Signavio is now the system of record for how the business runs—now and in the future.

SAP LeanIX solutions add another layer of architectural precision by giving leadership the necessary visibility to make decisions quickly and avoid costly missteps.“Using SAP Signavio and SAP LeanIX solutions, we can see, design, implement, and work with our most critical global business processes in a positive and constructive way throughout the entire enterprise,” DeWolf notes.

To further accelerate adoption and support ongoing transformation, Tetra Pak is exploring additional ways to help employees engage confidently with new processes and tools. The goal is to make change intuitive and more seamless—helping the workforce embrace continuous improvement and unlocking even more value from its evolving digital landscape.

Tetra Pak’s transformation is already yielding powerful outcomes. The company has surpassed its goal of standardizing 90% of its processes, reaching 95% across its global operations. That level of visibility and consistency has helped reduce complexity, accelerate decision-making, and keep its ERP transformation journey on track.

Equally game-changing is the evolution happening within Tetra Pak’s workforce. Employees now engage with process models that reflect their roles and responsibilities, accessing clear guidance on what’s expected from them and how to improve their performance.

Furthermore, governance is no longer a bottleneck—it’s an enabler. Teams have a single source of truth, tailored to their function and updated as the business evolves.Most impactful is how the transformation feels to employees. Instead of being overwhelmed, users benefit from a guided, intuitive, and purposeful ERP experience. They can quickly find the information they need without digging through clutter or relying on tribal knowledge. This is true whether they’re looking for a process diagram, training resource, or report.

“We’ve fully shifted to a cutting-edge model for process governance, and using Business Transformation Management solutions from SAP helped us bring everyone along,” Jeff DeWolf shares. “With well-governed and human-centered change, Tetra Pak is confidently moving forward.”