Industry Challenges

Benefits of ProductVision
In this market, you must be able to rapidly analyze what the customer wants and translate those needs into a new product. Sometimes several times a day. ProductVision Formula Management allows formulators to access past experiences and to rapidly create new products based upon this information.  Laboratory calculation capabilities, such as solids percentage, pigment volume concentration (PVC), and volatile organic compounds (VOC)  are built-in.  Rapid prototyping of products is done in ProductVision’s powerful "What-If" function. Using this, the formulator can eliminate non-viable formulations before going to the bench to produce test batches. The Regulatory Compliance features in ProductVision allow you to automatically create required regulatory documents, such as Material Safety Data Sheets.

All of this in a user-friendly Windows environment that reduces training time.

Features for Paint & Coatings, Ink and Adhesives Companies

ProductVision's exclusive PVPaint Module accelerates the creation of new and modified coatings formulas.
 

The PVPaint screen displays detailed information about the coating formulation, including composition and property information.  This screen provides several unique features:

• The “View” drop-down allows you to vary how information is displayed and edited.
• The property list view displays key coating properties, such as solids, PVC, and VOC.
• The toolbar has dedicated buttons for setting the formula volume solids, specific gravity, pigment volume concentration, volatile organic content, and special buttons for two-part formula stoichiometry and mix ratio.
• The formula composition is displayed in the top list view.  This information contained in this list view changes depending upon the view chosen on the “View” drop-down.
• The mix ratio list view displays mix ratio information for multi-part formulas.
• PVPaint automatically expands multi-part products and shows each part’s components separately to allow manipulation of each part individually.  Property calculations are performed on a mixed basis at the entered mix ratio.  The example above shows a two-part product.

"What If" Feature Allows You to Quickly Create New Formulas
With ProductVision’s “What-If” analysis tool, you can quickly prototype new products.  You may set a target property or cost value for a formula, “float” one or more components, and have the system arrive at the correct composition to meet the target.
 

Alternately, a formula’s composition can be directly edited and ProductVision will recalculate and display the new formula properties, such as nutritional values.

Compare Recipes Side-by-Side to Determine the Best Alternative
ProductVision allows you to compare an unlimited number of formulas directly in a spread-sheet view making comparisons of similar products a snap.   The formula comparison is “tabbed” to allow you to compare formula compositions, properties, specifications, testing information, notes, alerts, and other information directly. 
 

For further study, you can quickly export some or all of the information to Excel.  You may use the raw material comparison feature to perform similar studies for your raw materials.

Control Formula Creation and Revisions with Automated Approvals
ProductVision’s integrated Workflow Module greatly simplifies the execution and tracking of workflows that are commonly encountered in product development.  This may include new product creation, reformulation projects, competitive analysis studies and new/edited product formula approvals.   ProductVision allows you to integrate and optimize your business processes, providing increased efficiency and accountability.

Security Features Control Access and Editing of Formulations
ProductVision security allows you to restrict who may view, create, edit, delete, or print formulations.   Formula access can be further restricted by formula type, location (entity) and status (“Experimental”, “Production”, etc.).   This ensures that only qualified employees are able to view and/or modify your formula information.  And, full audit tracking allows you to view what changes were made, by whom, and when.

Fully Integrated Regulatory Compliance
The ProductVision Regulatory Compliance Module greatly simplifies compliance with hazardous communication regulations.  ProductVision automatically generates raw material and formula-driven Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), product labels and other regulatory documents.  The system fully supports all current US and EU reporting requirements.  Input of required resource information is simplified by using our integration to the Ariel Insight chemical property database.  Browser-based access to finished regulatory documents is easily accomplished with the Regulatory Distribution Module.

ProductVision Includes Extensive Reporting
ProductVision has many standard reports which allow you to view your raw material, formula composition and property information, as well as allowing you to create your own custom reports using our HTML reporting tool.

Some ProductVision Users in the Paint & Coatings Industry Include:

Ace Hardware (Paint Division)
Aexcel Corporation
Akzo Nobel Aerospace Coatings
Benjamin Moore & Co.
Behr Process Corporation
Carboline Company (a division of RPM)
Corporaçăo Industrial do Norte, S.A. (CIN)
DAP, Inc.(a division of RPM)
DEFT, Inc.
Hempel Paint
ICI Decorative Coatings
ICI Packaging Coatings
International Paints
Red Spot Paint and Varnish Co, Inc.
Rust-Oleum Corporation (a division of RPM)
Sherwin-Williams Company
Sonneborn & Rieck, Ltd.
StonCor Group (a division of RPM)
Sur Química Coatings

Modules Used in the Paint & Coatings and Ink Industries Include:

Formula Management
PVPaint
Auditing
Data Transfer
Projects
Workflow
Regulatory Compliance
European Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory Distribution
Ariel Interface
Testing
Samples
Formula Design
OLE Automation/Events
Guidelines and Restrictions