Customers

Hunter Douglas

"We could not tolerate anything that would interrupt or cause a slow down in our production environment, which depends totally upon SAP maintaining its high levels of performance. Fortunately, we discovered Data Integrator. It was clear that Data Integrator offered us the perfect link between the Web and the SAP system. It also proved that it could provide us with the speed we desired – without impacting the performance of the ERP system."

Aart Van Leeuwen, Manager ICT Business Applications, Hunter Douglas Europe

Hunter Douglas manufactures and assembles to customer demand, making its supply chain extremely complex. Data Integrator provides an ideal solution to automating their order and fulfilment processes.

Hunter Douglas is the world market leader in window coverings and a major manufacturer of architectural products. Hunter Douglas has its Head Office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a Management Office in Lucerne, Switzerland. The Group is comprised of 166 companies with 65 manufacturing and 101 assembly operations and marketing organizations in more than 100 countries. Hunter Douglas employs about 20,000 people and had sales in 2006 of USD 2.630 billion. Traditionally, Hunter Douglas has conducted business with their supply chain by phone, fax and email – inefficient communication methods that created long delays due to numerous time zones and the vast amounts of information to accurately share.

Hunter Douglas operates its own trading exchange where it buys and sells aluminum alloys and bauxite, from whichall aluminum products originate. Its global operations range from sites that work with raw materials to distribution centres of finished window fashions. Hunter Douglas manufactures and assembles against customer demand, making its supply chain extremely complex and far reaching.

Challenge

A need for greater integration throughout the supply chain

Hunter Douglas deployed SAP R/3 to run the main production process; planning and managing
order intake, purchasing, supply and of course, their financials. To deliver a complete business solution, Hunter Douglas needs to provide rapid and easy access to critical information located in its enterprise wide SAP R/3 and other back-office systems.

Additionally, SAP is critical to Hunter Douglas’ strategy for greater integration throughout its supply chain. Hunter Douglas’ European headquarters is currently the only site outside of the USA that relies upon SAP, other distributors, manufacturing and assembly sites use a variety of ERP and back-office systems. Aart Van Leeuwen, Manager of Information Systems Service at Hunter Douglas Europe is responsible for the European headquarters’ eBusiness strategy and implementation. “Our supply chain is immense and highly complex in its structure and interaction. Our eBusiness strategy initially needed to benefit both Hunter Douglas’ internal and external customers on a global scale,” stated Mr. Van Leeuwen. Order placement, confirmation and supply between manufacturing and assembly plants was still a manual process. As orders arrived they were re-keyed into the order processing system. “We were looking to cut administration time from hours to minutes,” said Leeuwen. “We could do this only by integrating requests coming across the Web with our live ERP environment.” This is where Hunter Douglas perceived a rapid return on investment. The complexity of their heterogeneous global IT infrastructure also needed to be integrated. “Each company in our group takes an independent and entrepreneurial approach to their IT infrastructure,” commented Van Leeuwen.

Approach

Data Integrator: the perfect link between the Web and SAP R/3

Data Integrator offers one of the few ways to rapidly and intelligently catch information, provides rapid deployment for a fast return on investment. Its enables the extraction of information from any combination of ERP, supply chain management, or other enterprise application. Data from these applications are critical to an enterprise as they generate constantly changing data, affecting inventory levels, account details, delivery dates and financial reporting. Assembly sites were provided with a direct-connect Web site where they can build and validate custom configurations, check prices, receive accurate promise dates for delivery, and check the precise status of outstanding orders in real-time. By automating this stage of the supply chain, assembly plants gain faster access to order information.

Results

Improvements in both service speed and efficiency

“This has been a resounding success, since our customers have realized improvements in both service speed and efficiency,” stated Van Leeuwen.
At Hunter Douglas, the deployment of Data Integrator has revolutionized how the company accepts, processes and confirms orders. “Our customers can now submit orders straight into our system and receive order confirmation. Behind the scenes Data Integrator obtains the data, translates it into XML, validates it and confirms delivery timelines.” “We have been marketing this capability to our larger customers, those that place bulk orders, and this has been a resounding success, since they have realized improvements in both service speed and efficiency,” stated Van Leeuwen.

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