"BLISS has directly contributed to making our product extremely stable and we have basically no out-of-spec product at the end-of-line. That is a huge cost for most companies and we don’t have that cost.”
- Kelly Keers, Application Programmer
Louisiana Pigment, a world class manufacturer of titanium dioxide, has used Baytek International’s™ BLISS since their facility was brought online in 1991. When they examined BLISS, they saw a process and data handling system that truly fit their plant process. They also saw a dynamic product capable of growing with them as their hardware and systems changed.
Louisiana Pigment’s primary challenge was getting real-time data to the decision makers in the plant. This involved exporting data out and making it available not just to people in the labs, but also to operators, engineers, and other key people in the plant. BLISS effectively solved this problem by enabling Louisiana Pigment to evaluate their data on a constant basis and adjust the process accordingly. When a lab analyst enters a result, it is available in real time to the engineer who is either responsible for that area or working on that system. It is also available immediately to the operator who is sitting at the control board controlling the process. The LIMS then feeds the owners the economic models along with the lab data so that they can have their product ready for pre-shipment.
Additionally, Louisiana Pigment believes that streamlining processes through BLISS has helped shorten product stock time in the warehouse. In fact, they’ve actually reduced stock time by two full days. This increased ability to ship and sell reduces lag time and “money sitting on the floor.”
One of the characteristics Louisiana Pigment appreciates most about Baytek International is its commitment to the customer, the industry, and its own product. It is very common in the software industry for a company to sell off one or more of its software titles to a larger company only five to eight years after product introduction. When this occurs, developers, support technicians, and other personnel often don’t transfer to the new company, which compromises the people expertise behind the product. Louisiana Pigment is pleased that in its fifteen-year relationship with Baytek, none of Baytek’s products have been sold, despite this practice among other LIMS companies. For Louisiana Pigment, this is a stabilizing factor and an important consideration when selecting a software vendor.