Case Study

    Surventis standardizes global coatings label
    management with Loftware

    Transforming fragmented systems and manual processes to one centralized, scalable labeling environment connected to SAP S/4HANA

    概要


    Surventis (formerly BASF Coatings), produces chemical and coating products across industries for preparing, protecting, and sealing metals and plastics. Across 30 sites, the company serves over 42,000 customers in 140 plus countries, supporting both highly specific original equipment manufacturer requirements and body shop distribution. This global reach places significant demands on labeling and product identification, where data, compliance, safety, logistics, manufacturing, legal requirements, and customer experience must come together accurately.


    For Surventis, a label is therefore much more than a printed output, it is a connected digital asset. Fundamentally, the underlying label data helps move governed information from enterprise systems into production, and onto the product. 

    The challenge


    Before beginning its transformation, Surventis operated a fragmented labeling landscape spanning multiple software systems, regional processes, and external providers. This complex environment encompassed more than 6,000 material and generation-variant combinations, over 400 OEM customers, nine external vendors, and 10 printers. As a result, teams managed labeling differently across the business, making global standardization difficult.


    Legacy label creation was also technically complex. Maintaining templates required specialists with knowledge of older coding technologies, limiting the number of people able to configure labels and increased dependencies on technical expertise.

     

    The original on-premise architecture added another layer of complication. Multiple infrastructure components required significant administration and restricted the flexibility needed for global deployment and scaling. 

     

    The operational impact of this fragmentation was illustrated through third-party labeling in China. Labels designed outside the enterprise environment were not directly connected to SAP. Updates had to be coordinated manually, while pre-printed inventory could become obsolete following content or design changes. This contributed to overstock, label waste, rework, and potential compliance issues.

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