Painting a Faster Future: Automating Order Management for a Global Coatings Leader
A global powerhouse in the paints and coatings industry, the company has built its legacy on innovation, performance, and durability. With a diverse product portfolio spanning protective coatings, decorative finishes, and industrial applications, it serves customers across construction, automotive, marine, and manufacturing sectors. Decades of expertise have positioned it as a trusted brand synonymous with reliability and excellence. Its commitment to sustainability and technology-driven solutions continues to push the boundaries of product quality and environmental responsibility — ensuring that every coat of paint delivers protection, beauty, and long-term value. Operating across multiple geographies, the company combines its strong R&D capabilities with a customer-first approach, empowering industries and individuals to transform surfaces with confidence.
Yet, behind this global success story, the company faced an increasingly complex operational challenge. As its business expanded and order volumes grew exponentially, managing sales orders manually became a major bottleneck. Inefficiencies, delays, and errors began to slow processes that once ran seamlessly. Recognizing that operational agility was essential to maintaining its market leadership, the organization partnered with Cherrywork Suite of Digital Solutions, from Incture to move designed to bring speed, accuracy, and intelligence to its global order management process.
As the company’s business scaled across global markets, managing sales orders became an increasingly important focus for operational efficiency. Each Purchase Order (PO) had to be carefully converted into a Sales Order (SO) through manual processes, involving meticulous review and accurate data entry. While this approach ensured precision in individual cases, handling large volumes of orders across diverse regions and formats demanded significant effort and extended processing times. Seasonal peaks, high-demand periods, and varying customer requirements highlighted an opportunity to enhance operational speed and consistency, while maintaining the accuracy and reliability the organization was known for.
Maintaining the integrity of customer and product data required continuous attention. Details such as pricing, quantities, and order specifications needed verification to ensure smooth fulfillment and prevent downstream errors. Rush orders, though carefully managed, sometimes required additional time due to sequential workflows and manual checks. Teams were highly committed to delivering timely and dependable service, yet repetitive tasks and exception handling consumed valuable capacity that could otherwise be devoted to strategic initiatives and proactive customer engagement. This growing scale of operations highlighted the opportunity to implement a modern, intelligent solution that could streamline order processing, strengthen data reliability, and support the company’s ability to deliver consistently and confidently across global markets.
To modernize its sales order process, the company implemented Cherrywork Sales Order Management, a GenAI-powered automation solution built on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). The objective was to streamline the entire Purchase Order (PO) to Sales Order (SO) journey — from data capture and validation to posting and fulfillment — while maintaining accuracy, compliance, and operational agility. The solution automated the end-to-end processing of incoming Purchase Orders from various formats such as PDFs, Excel sheets, and email attachments. Through AI- and OCR-based data extraction, it intelligently captured customer and product details, validated them against SAP ECC master data, and ensured seamless integration into the existing workflows. This eliminated repetitive manual efforts and significantly enhanced speed and consistency across transactions.
Additionally, the solution intelligently prioritized rush orders through a rule-based orchestration engine, ensuring urgent requests were processed first without delays. An exception-handling workbench empowered teams to manage discrepancies through a unified view — suggesting corrective actions and learning from recurring exceptions to improve continuously. Real-time notifications and alerts kept both internal teams and customers informed at every step, while built-in compliance ensured accuracy and adherence to business rules. With interactive dashboards and analytics providing real-time visibility into cycle times, throughput, and exception trends, the company successfully transformed its manual order management operations into a digitally intelligent, self-learning ecosystem — achieving faster processing, improved accuracy, and greater operational efficiency.
The transformation brought measurable and lasting improvements across the company’s order management process. With automation driving accuracy and speed, order processing became 85% faster than before, drastically reducing manual intervention and freeing teams to focus on higher-value tasks. The streamlined, AI-powered workflows shortened the order cycle time by 32%, allowing the company to respond to customer needs with unprecedented agility. Enhanced data validation and automated error detection contributed to a 25% improvement in order accuracy, ensuring that customer and product details were captured flawlessly from the very first step.
Beyond numbers, the solution instilled a culture of operational excellence — where efficiency, compliance, and customer satisfaction work hand in hand. The intelligent system’s ability to handle rush orders and exceptions proactively meant faster deliveries, fewer escalations, and more predictable outcomes. With greater visibility through analytics and dashboards, decision-makers could now monitor performance in real time, optimize processes continuously, and scale confidently as demand grew. The company not only redefined its order management capabilities but also painted a brighter, more efficient future for its global operations.
