Whether it’s for the exterior mirrors, bumpers, or engine compartment panels, automotive supplier Wörwag specializes in paint for plastic components. Based in the west of Stuttgart, Germany, the industry expert is well acquainted with the high standards that German car manufacturers demand. To harness the full potential of its knowledge accumulated over its many years in the business, the company has developed its own highly specific application as it seeks to continuously optimize its sophisticated paint formulas. In developing this application, the programmers needed a strong and reliable back office application to manage the financials and logistics of paint distribution.
Numerous factors influence the color and quality of the paint—from humidity and temperature to the operating speed of the painting robot. Wörwag simulates the conditions of its customers’ paint shops in the lab. This way, all the parameters can be incorporated into the paint formula so that the primer, layer of color, and the clear topcoat work together perfectly, meeting all the requirements not only in terms of color but also in terms of consistency. The application they developed is connected via interfaces with the color measuring devices, the painting robot in the lab, and the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP system, which is used to manage formulas, raw materials, and articles. “Now we can store formulas in a standardized way without any extra effort. This automatically creates a large database for us draw on,” the VP of IT says. “Our knowledge base is growing all the time. All colleagues have access and can now research things much faster, for example to ascertain if we have already found solutions to similar challenges for other customers in the past.
