Doug Poole, former BA/Solution Architect for Axalta, spoke at Zerion’s 2015 Power User Summit. He was excited to share the way Zerion’s iFormBuilder had transformed Axalta’s processes, eliminating the reliance on paper processes, increasing productivity, cutting costs and more.
Axalta is a leading global coatings provider dedicated to the development, manufacturing, delivery, and service of liquid and powder coatings. The organization manufacturers and provides paint to a variety of industries and applications including boats, cars, aircraft, windmills and more.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the organization does business in 130 countries, has nearly 13,000 employees and serves over 100,000 customers.
This Global Firm Was Relying on Paper-Based Data Collection and Reporting Processes
Axalta approached Zerion Software with a difficulty commonly encountered in today’s organization: the firm was relying on paper-based data collection and reporting processes, which limited overall productivity and created a potential limit for future growth.
Data that was collected at multiple points in the process, from initial paint intake to mixing, application, and even inspections — was gathered manually. From there, it was entered into an internal spreadsheet and often entered a second time into a spreadsheet for specific clients (like Ford or GM). While the information “existed,” it was flat, tedious to modify and difficult to report on. The process was limiting and the data itself remained, largely, useless.
Setting Objectives and Deliverables
As the Zerion and Axalta teams worked together to identify potential areas for improvement, we created three main objectives:
- Get rid of paper.
- Create mobile forms.
- Collect data regularly with reports to show real-time information and insights to identify areas of improvement while tracking processes and inspections.
Deliverables that needed to be met to fulfill these objectives included:
- Establishing offline data collection. Service in the plants was often limited or non-existent. iFormBuilder needed to function in this environment for paper to be eliminated.
- Flexibility. Various team members needed access to all points of the process to prevent hold-ups in the process and make the most of the tool.
- A full set of forms. Axalta needed a baseline set of standard forms to manage processes, device requests, support requests and more.
- Real-time dashboards that required no duplicate manual processes to produce.
Time for Implementation
After identifying objectives and setting deliverables, it was time to proceed.
It was determined that iFormBuilder would fall under Axalta’s new “AMP” or Axalta Mobile Platform, which would include iFormBuilder, KPI tools, Salesforce, and more: integration was necessary for success.
The team worked together with strong internal Axalta support to provide the access that would be necessary for long-term success. This included Help Desk access, Community participation, Zerion support and more. There was a heavy emphasis on providing team training and documentation to all end-users, which helped facilitate enthusiastic user adoption. This is necessary for success, and something the Zerion team believes in wholeheartedly.
Post Implementation Results
The results Doug Poole shared included:
Increased Productivity: iFormBuilder took users out of manual data entry and calculations, allowing them to focus on enhancing processes and focusing on growth-forward initiatives.
Increased Process Insight: Through enhanced data visibility, the Axalta team was able to identify process problem-points, and identify responsible parties. Costs that could have traditionally fallen on Axalta were eliminated.
Enhanced Inspections: Using annotated photo tools within iFormBuilder, inspectors could take photos and annotate them with inspection notes for enhanced results.
Increased Accountability: Because of metadata collection, increased inspections, barcode tracking and other tools, identifying process failures and issues was easier than ever before.
Improved Team Ownership: Thanks to wide access to training and tools, all team members were empowered to create forms, access the data needed for success and more. Team ownership in processes increased.
When manufacturers, like Axalta, adopt iFormBuilder and the full suite of Zerion products, cost-control, real-time reporting and process improvement become more accessible than ever before.
According to Doug Poole: “There’s so much we can do with it!”
Interested in learning what Zerion’s iFormBuilder could do for your team? Let’s talk, today!
