In mid-2016 I retired after 45 years in the coatings industry. During this period, I held various technical and managerial positions at PPG Industries, The Sherwin-Williams Company, AkzoNobel, Bondo Corporation, and most recently, Covestro LLC. I have witnessed significant changes in the industry - from a pre-internet period in which large main-frame computers were installed to handle production, sales and accounting functions, to the current time of instantaneous communication and profound changes in the product development process via the rapid advances in computer hardware and software. In this article I will discuss what I consider to be major changes in the product development process - many of which have been enabled by the computer revolution.
The amazing developments in computers and software have enabled the very rapid preparation of formulations of paint batches of any size for lab testing, pilot plant batches and production-scale batches. The product development timeframe, starting with experimental lab batches and proceeding to full-scale production of commercial paint batches, has been significantly reduced. This reduction in time has enabled marketing and sales functions to speed up their activities for new product introductions. The time reduction has also been realized in increased rates of inventory turnover and improvements in inventory control.