Getting colorimetric statistics by API
Since 1936, Unikalo has been developing, manufacturing and marketing paints for building professionals.
The company has always been able to offer quality technical products, the result of craftsmanship, developed today on a large scale using industrial tools.
Since 1977, the activity has been entirely focused on the production of paints for buildings, marketed exclusively by a network of paint wholesalers.
Thanks to its research and development department, UNIKALO continues to offer innovative products in accordance with its global policy of respect for the environment.
The company generates more than €150M in sales in nearly 300 points of sale.
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Customer request
Unikalo is a major producer of industrial paints for buildings in France. The company has automatic machines at its distribution points that allow paint to be tinted on demand. These machines, spread over several hundred points of sale in France, Switzerland and Belgium generate essential performance data: number of mixtures made, consumption of dyes, order dates, volume, etc.
The problem? This data remained siloed in the machine supplier's systems, with no actionable overview. Although an API existed at the machine manufacturer, the customer did not use it and did not have a consolidated vision. It is impossible to monitor the performance of the installed fleet in real time, to anticipate customer needs for the most requested colors or to optimize the replenishment of dyes. The commercial and technical teams worked blindly, with partial manual feedback that was staggered in time.
Result
We exploited the machine supplier's existing API to create a system for centralizing and automatically analyzing data.
Concretely, we have:
- Establish secure API connections with machine supplier systems
- Automated the daily collection of usage statistics (volume of mixtures, types of dyes used, technical alerts)
- Created a centralized database containing all machine park information
- Designed Power BI dashboards allowing real-time monitoring by store, by region and at the national level
- Integrated automatic alerts in case of malfunction or abnormal consumption
Observed gains
- Instant vision of the activity of the entire installed machine park
- Anticipation of market trends
- Better allocation of dye stocks according to real consumption by geographical area
- Reliable data to support commercial discussions with retail chains
- Removing manual entries and Excel files
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