How Manufacturers and Builders Are Using Data to Strengthen Every Operation

You know the scale. Plants on multiple continents. Thousands of SKUs moving through global supply chains. Razor-thin margins where a single disruption can ripple across an entire operation. Manufacturing and building materials companies operate at a level of complexity that most industries never touch, often running multiple ERP systems just to keep everything connected.

And yet, for all that operational sophistication, too many teams are still stuck stitching together Excel reports and waiting days for data that was already stale when it arrived. Departments operate in silos. Subsidiaries run on different systems. Geographies report on different timelines. The result? Executives walk into meetings armed with conflicting numbers and spend more time arguing about the data than acting on it.

That is starting to change. Companies like Dal-Tile, Emerson, National Tiles, Secil, Steuler Group, and Swagelok are building unified data foundations with Domo, replacing fragmented reports with real-time visibility that reaches every corner of the business. Here's how six leaders are doing it.

Dal-Tile: Turning 20-hour reports into real-time decisions

Dal-Tile is America's leader in ceramic tile and natural stone. One in three floor tiles sold in the U.S. comes from this $2.5 billion business, which employs more than 10,000 people across manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and retail locations.

Challenge: The business ran largely on Excel. Analysts spent 20 to 40 hours building routine reports through Microsoft Access, and even after a major SAP migration, the company still lacked the reporting tools to keep pace with the operation.

Solution: Dal-Tile evaluated 15 BI tools and chose Domo. Two finance professionals implemented it enterprise-wide with minimal IT involvement, connecting three ERP systems (SAP, JD Edwards, and Oracle) into a single platform.

Impact: Those 20-to-40-hour reports now happen in real time. The platform grew to more than 1,100 users supported by just one full-time employee, with 50 percent of usage happening on mobile. Store managers gained instant visibility into maintenance spend and operational performance. As Josh Stan, director of corporate development and reporting, put it, "We have 300 stores, and every day I hear from store managers and sales reps saying, ‘What did I do without Domo?’"

Read the full Dal-Tile story.

Emerson: Sharing data to become a true business partner

Emerson is a global technology and engineering company with 83,000 employees. Its Cold Chain business plays a critical role in keeping perishable products (such as dairy, food, and vaccines) at the correct temperatures throughout the supply chain.

Challenge: The Cold Chain team needed to improve how it captured and shared IoT data. The engineering-oriented data didn't answer customer questions without deep domain expertise, limiting the team's ability to deliver actionable insights externally.

Solution: Domo captures IoT sensor performance data across the supply chain and uses Domo Everywhere (also called Domo Embed) to share that data directly with customers. Internally, teams gained self-serve analytics, and marketing connected spend to revenue for the first time.

Impact: The shift redefined Emerson's relationship with customers, moving from product provider to business partner. One healthcare partner called it "the most exciting work he's seen us do in the last 10 years." Marketing proved its value as a revenue-generating function. Paul Hepperla, VP of solution strategy for the cold chain business, said it simply: "Getting us closer to our customers has been one of our biggest transformations."

Read the full Emerson story.

National Tiles: Scaling from 60 to 500+ users with a unified data architecture

National Tiles is one of Australia's leading tile and stone retailers, serving customers across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide with a team of 500 employees.

Challenge: The BI team at National Tiles was facing a few challenges as the company grew: new systems, larger data sets, and more users. And, they were having to prepare and manage data for use in two separate BI tools. As their data and business grew, these duplicated efforts (understandably) began slowing down reporting and limiting scale.

Solution: National Tiles built a unified architecture with Domo and Snowflake. Snowflake serves as the central data warehouse while Domo acts as the engagement layer on top, powering more than 50 custom apps built through App Studio.

Impact: Usage expanded from 60 to more than 500 Domo users. Those 50-plus apps include forklift safety checks across more than 150 forklifts and automated dangerous goods compliance documentation. The company is now building an AI-ready data foundation for the future. Brian Smith, general manager of transformation, summed up the partnership: "Our relationship with Domo goes back five years, and the depth of knowledge they have about how we run our business has certainly helped us take the business forward quite dramatically."

Read the full National Tiles story.

Secil: Building a rock-solid data foundation across four continents

Founded in 1906 in Portugal, Secil produces cement, concrete, mortar, and aggregates. The company operates plants across Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia, employing 2,400 people.

Challenge: Data was fragmented across silos, making it difficult for teams to collaborate or trust each other's numbers. Without a shared foundation, cross-functional alignment felt like an uphill climb.

Solution: Domo built a unified, real-time data foundation that connects corporate systems with factory operations, giving every team access to the same trusted numbers.

Impact: That shared data foundation enables cross-functional collaboration at a scale Secil hadn't achieved before. Teams across geographies and departments now work from the same source of truth, and the company is positioning itself for AI-driven automation as the next step in its data journey.

Read the full Secil story.

Steuler Group: Replacing conflicting spreadsheets with one source of truth

Steuler Group was founded in 1908 by the inventor of the world's first acid-resistant cement. Today it is a leading specialist for industrial linings and one of the largest tile producers "Made in Germany," with more than 25 subsidiaries worldwide, over 2,800 employees, and $447 million in revenue.

Challenge: Steuler Group struggled to have a 360-degree-view of its business, which spanned many subsidiaries each with their own data sources and systems. Consolidating them took enormous time, and because of that, there was no single point of truth. Departments produced separate manual reports, and executives spent meetings debating conflicting Excel data instead of making decisions.

Solution: Domo connectors unified data across business units into curated dashboards with automated reporting. The platform is now used across the C-suite, sales, production, supply chain, and finance.

Impact: The company gained a holistic, real-time view of the entire business. Sales tracks stock versus profit in near real time, and the manufacturing team uncovers efficiency opportunities. During the COVID pandemic, leadership used the data to quickly shift focus toward stronger divisions. "Before Domo there was no single point of truth," explained Andreas Adams, head of IT. "But now everybody from subsidiary managers through to our CEO has access to the data needed to prepare and make decisions."

Read the full Steuler Group story.

Swagelok: turning old data into a competitive speed advantage

Swagelok is the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality fluid system components, serving industries from oil and gas to semiconductors and clean energy. (Its products have even traveled to Mars aboard Viking 1!) Swagelok's network of independent sales and service centers operates across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Challenge: Data was spread across multiple systems, and it took hours to collect and process. Sales teams received end-of-day email snapshots at best. There was no way to track inventory or marketing intent in real time, leaving decisions based on old information.

Solution: With Domo, Swagelok unified inventory, orders, and web traffic onto a single dashboard. They set up alerts in Domo to notify sales of issues proactively, and they automated open order reports to go directly to customers. Mobile access means the data travels with the team.

Impact: Proactive bulk ordering improved margins and mitigated supply chain disruptions. Sales could arrive at customer meetings fully prepared, with current data instead of yesterday's numbers. Kevin Moriarty, distributor principal at Swagelok Texas Mid-Coast, summarized the impact, saying, "Domo allows us to be more successful than competitors who can't move as fast as we can."

Read the full Swagelok story.

Unifying data across manufacturing

These six companies had different products and challenges, and they operated in different geographies. But the pattern was the same: Fragmented data was holding them back, and a unified platform changed what was possible. Whether it is replacing 40-hour manual reports, sharing IoT data directly with customers, or giving 25 subsidiaries a single source of truth, these manufacturers and builders proved that the right data foundation turns operational complexity into a competitive advantage.

See what connected and unified data can do, and learn how Domo supports manufacturing companies.