More transparency for the development processes

Industry: paint industry
Company size: 470 employees
Requirements: Development of a web-based software solution for the maintenance of a database for product, application, system paint and corrosion protection solutions.
User: 25 users
Project category: Software solution standard delivery programme and corrosion protection

FreiLacke has been offering its customers high-quality, environmentally friendly and economical solutions to all common coating systems such as industrial coatings, powder coatings, electrodeposition coatings and Durelastic - surface solutions for composites since 1926. As a modern, third-generation family business, FreiLacke attaches just as much importance to safeguarding its headquarters in Döggingen in the Black Forest as it does to its global sales operations and its subsidiaries and partners abroad. Customers include companies from a wide range of industries such as wheels, vehicle construction, mechanical and apparatus engineering, contract coating, functional furniture construction, storage technology, construction and sanitation.

FreiLacke's marketing department was interested in a software solution that encompasses product maintenance and product management for the system paint and corrosion protection systems. The goal was to present an overview of the system solutions from the four different product areas (powder coatings, industrial coatings, electrocoatings and Durelastic). In the course of this, it was recognised that the transfer of knowledge between the development process and sales consulting needed optimisation.

As a long-standing customer who already uses standard solutions such as the antares analyzer analysis software and the antares planner planning software, FreiLacke once again trusted the expertise of the antares consultants for this challenge. Aligned with FreiLacke's goals, a process- and user-oriented application was developed and implemented. The standard delivery programme was successfully implemented in September 2013 and the corrosion protection system in August 2015 in a very short time. The technical solution began with the creation of a data model. With the help of maintenance masks, products and solutions are written into this database. In this case, vertical and horizontal system coatings as well as corrosion protection systems are differentiated from each other. Furthermore, care was taken to standardise the user interface as much as possible without, however, neglecting the special features of the product areas as well as the solution itself. Finally, the database contents are transferred to FreiLacke's website via a nightly export. At this point, support is provided by another FreiLacke partner (Verlag für Neue Medien Data Communications GmbH).

With the help of the new software solution, first and foremost a central knowledge platform in the form of an "online product catalogue" is created for the product developers and sales staff. This optimises the transfer of knowledge between the development process and sales consulting.

By using this software solution, FreiLacke can make sales consulting clearer and easier, such as by quickly determining the paint combination solution or corrosion protection measure for specific surfaces. This reduces the variety of special solutions. The increasing speed with which sales staff respond to customer enquiries represents added value that is relevant to decision-making.

Another important decision criterion is the newly created transparency in the production processes, which is offered by diverse filter options in the overviews. Due to this, product development and sales staff can quickly and easily train new colleagues on the one hand, and on the other hand, enquiries from sales to product development decrease. Overall, the use of the "online product catalogue" bundles interfaces, optimises communication channels and shortens process cycle times.