Integrate for Success

Sonoco is a company that employs more than 16,500 people with operations in 35 countries—doing business in 85 countries. The packaging solutions provider has invested in growing the consumer side of its business by moving into packaging platforms such as rigid paperboard and flexible and rigid plastics. Growing through acquisitions, the company boasts a variety of equipment that allows Rob Tiede, vice president of Global Flexibles and Packing Services, to state, "There isn't a whole lot we are not capable of doing on the converting side." What did pose a challenge to the $3.6 billion company was tying all of its facilities together and simplifying data transfer between them.