Wilsonart Brochure 2018

Globalizing through IT integration

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The technology below the surface WRIT TEN BY

JOHN O’HANLON PRODUCED BY

ANDY TURNER

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Wilsonart is all about surfaces, the visible face of the built environment — but below the surface sits a business whose effectiveness depends very much on technology 04

B

ack in the 1950s when Ralph Wilson Sr founded Wilsonart, he was one of the pioneers of laminate worktops and invented

processes that stimulated the creation of an entire industry. Anywhere you go nowadays, in hospitals, schools, retail, offices and of course in the home, walls, floors and working surfaces are likely to be covered by beautiful, hard-working, on-trend and high performance Wilsonart products. With more than 5,000 people and manufacturing facilities in North America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Thailand and Australia, the company sells into 100 countries worldwide.

Up until the fourth quarter of 2012, Wilsonart was the acknowledged global leader in laminates but in that year, following the sale of a controlling interest in the company by its owner Illinois Tool Works (ITW) to Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), it entered a new

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phase of its existence. Though it had

experiencing a transformation from a US

subsidiaries in the USA, France, Germa-

High Pressure Laminate company to

ny, the UK, China and Thailand, those

a leading global engineered surfaces

businesses operated largely as autono-

company. The company is focused on

mous entities. CD&R brought in a global

continuing to grow its core laminate

executive leadership team under

business, while expanding its product

CEO Tim O’Brien, who brought in Jay

portfolio and adding Epoxy, Quartz,

Krishnamurthy as CIO, to use information

Performance Veneer and “Wet Wall”

and digital technology and mold the

solutions, expanding both its global

company into a truly global engi-

reach, and elevating operational excel-

neered surfaces company.

lence and service levels.

While this wasn’t exactly an easy

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GLOBAL PRESENCE TO GLOBAL DATA

journey, there were plenty of opportuni-

Since emerging as an independent

ties and challenges globally, and not

business in 2012, Wilsonart is

a lot of time and resources to sort them

CLICK TO WATCH : THE ART OF DESIGN MIXOLOGY 07

out. Attempting an apples-to-apples comparison of its multiple business units spread across USA, UK, France, Germany, China, and Thailand, proved difficult because the systems and data were unique to a particular entity.

Putting together a global data warehouse to harmonize and model data from the disparate back end systems and make it meaningful information at the executive level for decision making became one of the early priorities.

As a forward-thinking leadership team that relied heavily on data and analytics

‘ Millions of transactions and dollars across the enterprise have been automated both in upstream and downstream processes using IBM’sDatacap and BPM tools’ w w w.wi l so nar t . com

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to make business decisions and steer the company in the right direction, this was a strategic necessity at Wilsonart.

Wilsonart chose the Oracle suite of products for data warehousing, analytics, and financial consolidations and planning.

With a plethora of systems in the global business including SAP, Epicor, MS Dynamics, MS Great Plains, Infor and Sage, the process of automating the data pull from these back-end systems, harmonizing, modelling and modernizing, consolidating, and presenting it in a simple format for consumption was a very

demanding and ambitious program.

The idea was to achieve this as fast as possible so the company could make the right business decisions based on knowing what was working well globally and what was not. The solution allowed Wilsonart to get into details of product line margins, effectively analyze and understand volume, price, mix, inflation/deflation, and other metrics at a regional and consolidated global level.

The fundamental enterprise-wide modelling of financials, sales, supply chain, operations, manufacturing and the like took a year to crack, and of course, there is an ongoing process of refinement, but the result was a far more unified global business with visibility into each reporting unit.

Previously, analysts across the business were spending more time in data gathering than on data analysis.

Once the company automated and harmonized data and processes, it increased their productivity 30-35% and allowed them to focus on other priorities. Wilsonart could focus on what was working well in one region of the world and deploy it in other regions while also being able to effectively w w w.wi l so nar t . com

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10 integrate key financials and analytics

ny’s growth plans. This platform enables

of the numerous acquisitions it has

the salesforce to look at all of its product

made in the US, UK and APAC in

offerings and offer what makes most

an effective manner.

sense to customers across the different channels, and serve them better.

HOW TO DOUBLE ONLINE SALES

Allowing its commercial teams to be able

In parallel with the above efforts, in order

to log information in real time on mobile

to fuel growth and deploy best commer-

devices while in conversation with

cial excellence practices globally,

distributors and customers made a big

Wilsonart chose to implement Oracle

difference. Sales managers were able

Sales Cloud for CRM. This was aimed

to create heat maps for regions and team

at providing strong automated pipeline

members, and provide sales perfor-

to its sales and specification team

mance analytics to the salesforce. These

members, so they could identify

capabilities empowered the sales teams

opportunities to support the compa-

to be more competitive and ‘want to win’.

‘ Millions of transactions and dollars across the enterprise have been ‘Wilsonart has deployed SAP in Eastern Europe to expand its business and serve its customers in those regions, and has recently finished a finance and supply chain implementation of Oracle R12 in the USA’

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Early in 2017, Wilsonart introduced a new business-to-business (B2B) platform, and online eCommerce sales have doubled not only compared to preceding year, but also since the launch.

Feedback has shown that customers enjoy the ability to find product, pricing, and inventory availability information online, and transact with Wilsonart 24/7.

The company deals with many installers and fabricators who appreciate the opportunity to do business with Wilsonart online when they get back to their homes or offices after a day 12

on site. This has proven successful across the Americas and Wilsonart is now launching this in the UK shortly.

Another example is the company’s efforts on branding. Wilsonart is #1 or

company has also launched a proprietary

#2 in key HPL markets globally, and

‘Visualizer’ tool, and a ‘Digital Wallboard’

continues to focus on gaining market

mobile app for interior designers,

share in products such as Quartz, Solid

renovation enthusiasts, architects,

Surface, TFL, etc. A lot of effort has

and distributors. It has seen an increase

gone into offering best-in-class user

of over 125% in organic web traffic

experience and making information

globally, and over 20 million renderings

readily available for customers online,

using its Visualizer. The ‘Digital Wallboard’

including placing products front and

app is a game changer and Wilsonart is

center, displaying designs in various

leading the industry in this area. These

BIM formats, pushing key performance

technologies are designed to add brand

and technical product information, and

value, increase service levels, and make

‘where to buy’ information. The

it easier for customers to do business.

1956

Year Founded

5,000 Number of Employees $1.4B Revenue

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The CRM and web solutions have

Perhaps the most innovative move,

clearly helped Wilsonart grow from the

however, has been the successful

low single digits to approaching double

introduction of hyperspectral technology

digit rates this year, and these are critical

at the North American plants. This

as it continues to expand as a global

technology has been used in agriculture,

leader in engineered surfaces.

food processing and environmental controls, but identifying its strengths and

INNOVATIVE HYPERSPECTRAL SERVING SURFACES

applying it in the context of laminates to deliver results is quite amazing.

All of Wilsonart’s global manufacturing

Wilsonart uses proprietary hyperspec-

facilities are well run, efficient and with

tral technology solution to recognize and

patented processes, but like anything

identify design-pattern-texture combina-

else, offer improvement opportunities.

tions as they are manufactured - the w w w.wi l so nar t . com

number of different variations is almost unimaginable. Before introducing this technology Wilsonart was achieving accuracy in the low to mid 80’s, but is now above 95% in terms of identifying exactly what design-pattern-texture it is manufacturing. This helps with shipping the right products to the customer, which resulted in an increase in customer satisfaction.

Digitizing business processes remains a priority, and good progress has already been achieved by barcoding all products as they come off the line, so distributors can use the same to receive in their systems. Millions of transactions and dollars across the enter14

prise have been automated both in upstream and downstream processes using IBM’s Datacap and BPM tools. Implementing these tools is about maximizing automation and realizing its benefits internally, and sharing/ extending the solutions to customers as well. Wilsonart works with customers to help minimize manual touches as transactions flow through the supply and demand data chains, providing universal benefits.

Five years of technology development and execution for Wilsonart’s IT team has added significant value to the company. But the hard work is far from over. The IT function is constantly looking to gain a competitive edge, meet the changing customer needs, invest in global expansion programs, and help the

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wider company business units become more productive and efficient. Wilsonart has deployed SAP in Eastern Europe to expand its business and serve its customers in those regions, and has recently finished a finance and supply chain implementation of Oracle R12 in the USA to establish better controls, enable e-procurement, and enhance transactional productivity and accuracy.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of more routine matters that mustn’t be forgotten.

Cybersecurity has received a lot of focus and investment as well and in Europe, w w w.wi l so nar t . com

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‘ A lot of effort has gone into offering best-in-class user experience and making information readily available for customers online’

the GDPR privacy legislation has global

between borders, and keeping relevant

ramifications. Being able to identify

parties updated.

where sensitive personal data is stored,

While Wilsonart is a leader in

protect and secure it is half the GDPR

Laminates and continues to lead and

battle. The rest is about putting the

invest in this category, its new products

appropriate policies and practices,

and offerings provide its customers

documenting business processes,

even more choices, allowing customers

providing training, securing data flow

to select design, texture and perfor-

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mance they want within their budget.

does it continue to provide its global

The question now for Wilsonart is how

business a reliable, secure and high

does it enable growth and increase

performing infrastructure?

customer service levels, what can it do to automate and increase productivity, what are the next steps to remain competitive online and apply innovative but relevant technologies to its business, and how w w w.wi l so nar t . com

Wilsonart Americas 2501 Wilsonart Drive P.O. Box 6110 Temple, Texas 76503-6110 T +(800) 433-3222 www.wilsonartengineeredsurfaces.com