ITERATING TECHNOLOGY FOR A DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
KEMET Electronics: Tackling tomorrow’s challenges today
Implementing a digital infrastructure through an aggressive digital transformation WRIT TEN BY
DA LE BENTON PRODUCED BY
ANDY TURNER
T
he role of IT in business is changing. No longer simply a support function, over the
last decade IT has taken on a much more integral role in defining the strategic direction of most business all around the world. “In today’s world, IT is the crux of every business. It is the very foundation that everything is built on,” says Chris Hall, VP Global Information Technology at KEMET Electronics
$1.2B Approximate revenue
1919 Year founded 16,000 Approximate number of employees
Corporation. 04
“If you’re not taking it seriously, you’re going to be left behind. Businesses make decisions on the fly and so IT
This is a continuously growing market,
must be able to support these deci-
with demand increasing faster than
sions with real-time data. IT has to
ever before and KEMET prides itself
be agile and be able to meet the needs
on its responsiveness to its customers.
of the business.” The notion of IT being a foundational
“It all comes back to IT,” says Hall. “It’s about making our data available.
component that the business is built
Both from a customer perspective (our
upon is key in the KEMET Electronics
distributors and our partners), as well
IT digital transformation journey. With
as, available to our internal business
customers ranging from producers of
groups. However they want to get the
small wearables, laptops, and mobile
information, it’s our job to ensure its
tablets to solar panels, 5G antennas,
available to them.
and electric vehicles, KEMET is
“Plus, there’s also a responsibility to
a leading global manufacturer and
keep the lights on. IT still has to keep
supplier of electronic components.
the network running, the PCs patched
05
“ We have a culture and security in place. I’m here to ensure of striving to be we have a very strong foundation to more innovative and carry KEMET into the future, with data management and collaboration tools not resting on our to make us more agile and ultimately heels. That’s key to more successful.” delivering success Hall tries to sum up the digitization of KEMET in one, succinct sentence; to on a wider scale on create an IT department that enables wider projects. KEMET’s data to be accessible to any and generally the proper infrastructure
employee at any time, so long as they have security access granting them privileges to that data.
— Chris Hall, VP Global Information Technology at KEMET Electronics Corporation
The challenge then becomes one of w w w. k e m e t . c o m
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE KEMET STORY’
compiling all data and hosting it in the
and a lot of different requirements to
right place and in a fast and secure way.
meet all at the same time. Creating an
It’s here that Hall is implementing 5 core
agile environment takes a lot of organi-
pillars to overcome this challenge.
sation, but it’s paramount to support
These core pillars define the digitiza-
a digital enterprise”
tion process, described as KEMET 2025.
A consistent message throughout
“First, we have to organize,” says Hall.
the digital transformation has been
“We have to have a good strong change
one surrounding data management
management process; yet maintain
and access to data, and Hall recogniz-
agility,meaning that a simple change is
es that in order to achieve this vision
a simple change.”
of accessible data, there must be
“In order to be agile, you have to very organised. Trying to be agile is difficult
infrastructure supporting it. “When talking about the infrastruc-
because you have a lot of different
ture, security goes hand-in-hand with
types of projects, different mandates,
it in today’s world,” he says. “You need
a backbone that can carry your data
digital transformations fail; when you
as fast as possible and as securely
don’t pay attention to the foundational
as possible.”
components that are required to
“We live in a very “right now” world, where users have no patience for
support it. With the first three pillars aligned, KEMET can turn its attentions to data
slowness anymore.”
Hall believes that if a company doesn’t management and collaboration; “the have an efficient and robust infrastructure, it does not matter how “slick and
fun branches” as Hall describes them. Without the foundational pillars in
cool” the data management and collab-
place, any attempts at implementing
oration tools are, if they are slow and
a company-wide culture shift is futile.
poorly managed, they will fail to be
KEMET is implementing Microsoft
adopted by the business This is how
SharePoint Online as the tool set that 07
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Chris Hall Chris has spent 18 years in the after-market services and electronics manufacturing industries. Rising through the ranks at JABIL, Chris developed a strong understanding of supply chain management, Lean manufacturing, and cross-functional leadership principles. Chris was part of the iQor acquisition of JABIL’s AfterMarket Services division and was promoted to Vice President of IT Solutions for the newly combined IT department. He spent threeyears developing new technology to support iQor’s joint ventures and general corporate strategy to become a Digital Enterprise. Most recently, Chris joined KEMET Electronics Corporation as VP of Global IT, where he oversees all aspects of IT strategy including infrastructure, systems architecture, and development.
w w w. k e m e t . c o m
08
enables real time communication
we need to be able to extract, share
between its employees. This informa-
and integrate with all our systems data,”
tion exchange enables far greater
says Hall.
collaboration and “starts moving people away from email.” KEMET also utilizes Yammer and
“These collaboration tools are very important in making that a reality.” Data management in itself is a key
other tools from the Microsoft O365
topic among many modern businesses,
suite to access and share information
not just IT at KEMET. For some, it is
in real time, enabling an increasingly
a difficult nut to crack as businesses
agile culture.
all want better access and better
“When you start discussing data management and making all of our data available, our engineers at all the sites have a wealth of knowledge that
learnings from data, but there is no silver bullet. Hall understands this, noting that the true key to success in data manage-
ment is approaching it one project at a time with an eye towards the bigger, long-term goal. “We should enter data once and should be available wherever we need it.” “To achieve this, it’s not a one size fits all technology map,” he says. “You cannot build the perfect big data mousetrap, instead you integrate new tools progressively into your data management architecture and achieve iterative success through greater agility. Overtime, the full data ecosystem will begin to take shape.” An iterative approach is crucial in transforming an organization and establishing an IT function that is responsive and proactive. Hall points to this approach and its iterative success, as a means of building belief in the process and supporting a cultural shift throughout the company. “To me, doing the work is actually the easy part. We have a culture of striving to be more innovative and not resting on our heels. That’s key to
High-quality audio equipment needs high-end components. Film and C0G capacitors are standard in audio designs. They offer excellent DC block and no piezoelectric noise (or microphonics) High quality audio equipment such as BOSE’s stunning SoundLink Mini, depend on high quality components.
delivering success on a wider scale on larger projects.” Another key to the successful delivery of a digitization process and w w w. k e m e t . c o m
09
“WE LIVE IN A VERY “RIGHT NOW” WORLD, WHERE USERS HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR SLOWNESS ANYMORE”
11
w w w. k e m e t . c o m
KEMET Electronics Corporation’s headquarters in Simpsonville technology transformation is external
digitization projects, KEMET is also
partners and technology vendors.
partnering with Nutanix to better manage
To this end, Hall feels that selecting the right partner(s) is actually more a case of cultural fit as much as it
and provide the onsite compute for future projects like IoT. These are but three examples of how
is a simple technological capabil-
KEMET is working collaboratively with
ities analysis.
vendors to serve as coaches providing
KEMET relies on a number of business partners. Sirius, a leading integrator of technology-based
core intelligence and best practices to the company. We are partnering with people who
business solutions, Halls notes, has
are good at what we are not, and by
been instrumental in assisting with
doing so, bringing information and
the “reinvention of our infrastructure.
knowledge into KEMET that will serve
“IBM is a critical partner in assisting
us well for years to come.”
with our implementation of SharePoint and other development projects. To achieve the necessary hybridcloud model necessary for future
No transformation defined by technology can ever truly end, with technology and innovation continuously evolving and redefining industry w w w. k e m e t . c o m
13
KEMET LEADERSHIP TEAM GROUP PHOTO Top row, from left to right: Robin R. Blackwell, J.D., Fernando Spada, Jamie Assaf, Dr. Phil Lessner, Stefano Vetralla, Tim Herring, Andreas Meier, Chuck Meeks, Masayuki (Max) Nakamura, Claudio Lollini, Fumihiro (Hiro) Katakura, Michael Raynor, Brian Burch, Bob Willoughby, Andreas Hammer, Dr. Johnny Boan, Yang Zhang, Bottom row, from left to right: Shigenori (Sean) Oyama, William Lowe, Monica Highfill, Per-Olof Loof, Susan Barkal, Dr. Daniel F. Persico, Yang Zhang.
and businesses. KEMET is working towards its 2025 vision and Hall has his eyes firmly set on achieving those goals first and foremost as a way for preparing KEMET for the future and beyond. He feels that delivering success with 2025 will define the success of the future. “To define success, we have to look at how we deliver against those core pillars,� he says.
14
“By establishing the best infrastructure securely creating a more collabo-
effective, and more agile to a rapidly changing market.
rative company through communica-
“The challenges of 2025 will be very
tion and having all the useful information
different from the challenges of 2018,”
and data at the fingertips of our business
says Hall.
users, we will be successful.” When broken down, KEMET’s journey
“But if we get it right, if we are better organised and more agile, then we will be
can be defined by one real business
able to tackle those future challenges
need and that is to be more agile. All of
more effectively and successfully.”
the pillars of transformation and the technology implementation is designed to make KEMET more efficient, more
15
w w w. k e m e t . c o m
KEMET Electronics Corporation 1 E. Broward Boulevard Fort Lauderdale Florida 33301 USA www.kemet.com