Client: DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) Challenge: DPC had three separate operations that each used its own processes to develop formulas. Each of the three also maintained its own repository of color and formula data; the incompatibilities between these three legacy applications and business processes made it difficult for DPC employees to share information. Solution: CSC solution architects defined the needs common to all three operations and designed and developed a single database solution called Möbius. Results: Because DPC was able to replace three databases with one, the company enjoyed significantly reduced IT costs. The ultimate benefit of Möbius is DPC was able to eliminate redundancy and deliver formulas faster, making them more competitive. Related Information Read more about CSC's Chemical & Energy business. Contact us and let our experience help you produce results.

As the world's number one paint supplier to the automotive repair industry, DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) develops paint in more than 450,000 different colors using 1.6 million precise formulas for the variations within those colors. DPC now has the ability to conveniently and cost-effectively manage its formulas thanks to CSC’s implementation of a global, intranet-based database called Möbius.

Merging Three Databases into One

In 1998, after purchasing Herberts GmbH, the coatings subsidiary of Hoeschst AG, DPC had three separate entities with paint-matching operations in 22 countries around the world. These included DuPont - U.S., DuPont Refinish Europe and Herberts.

But there was a challenge: Each of the three separate DPC operations used its own processes to develop formulas. Each of the three also maintained its own repository of color and formula data; the incompatibilities between these three legacy applications and business processes made it difficult for DPC employees to share information.

Chemical Industry Experience and Knowledge Keys to Solution

DuPont turned to a team of CSC solution architects to blend the business processes of each of the three operations and create a common, intranet-based repository of color and formula information.

Due to the complicated nature of the paint-formulation business, a key aspect of the solution was detailed experience and understanding of the unique intricacies of the business processes involved in creating, testing and developing new formulas. The solution required CSC to successfully map each IT process to a unique business process.

CSC solution architects, each of whom have significant experience working within the chemical industry, combined their chemical industry knowledge with the use of CSC processes and methodologies to define the needs common to all three operations and to design and develop the new database solution around them. Such experience was essential for CSC’s architects to understand the uniqueness of each of the three systems and how to merge them into one application.

Throughout the process, the DPC/CSC team required the various DPC organizations to work together to carefully examine their business processes, and to determine where the processes could be streamlined and integrated. This effort resulted in new standardized and integrated business processes.

The end result was development of a centralized system and mechanism, the global intranet-based Möbius paint-formula database, that applies uniform business processes to the development of color formulas across all of DPC.

Centralized Color Control and Other Benefits

Whereas formulas had been developed on a regional basis in the past, Möbius now serves as a central clearinghouse for all formulas. As precise color recipes are formulated in DPC labs, the information is captured and stored in the Möbius repository, where it is made widely available to all other areas of DPC.

Möbius enables a global work management process that allows DPC lab technicians to eliminate redundant efforts as they develop new formulas. In the past, for instance, a paint formula might have a different code for each of the three separate systems. Such redundancies have been eliminated.

Möbius also gives all DPC employees visibility into the same data. In the past, each of the operations may have been duplicating efforts by attempting to create the same paint formulas. By having access to detailed and accurate formula information, such duplication of effort is prevented and collaboration is improved.

A primary benefit of the Möbius solution includes significant cost savings. Now that DPC replaced three databases with one, the company enjoyed significantly reduced IT costs.

The ultimate benefit of Möbius is that in the highly competitive paint-formula industry, DPC was able to eliminate redundancy and deliver formulas faster, which ultimately is helping the company be more competitive on the global playing field.