Always going above and beyond in his work, Olivier Galle serves as our global account engineering expert for Automotive Coatings. Olivier played a key role in refining the development process of Color+, one of the modules in the AiM Smart Paintline™. This innovation automated and accelerated the paint shop process, enabling painters to easily collect and analyze data about their paints, troubleshoot issues, and save both time and money. Let's hear Olivier share how he got to paint his story and what’s in store for the AiM Smart Paintline!
A Customer Oriented Product Owner
Olivier Galle became our colleague three years ago when Wörwag, the company where he worked, was acquired by PPG. Olivier had been with Wörwag since 2011, starting in the lab before transitioning to a more customer-oriented role as a technical customer manager in the automotive sector. In 2021, Olivier was offered the position of product owner for the development of the Color+ module.
"Initially, it was challenging to explain each step of the Color+ process to our customers. Receiving negative feedback was frustrating to me at first, but I now see that it was the best lesson, because we ended up finding a way to progress."
His daily interactions with customers, applying paint, and evaluating color parts have helped Olivier learn to define needs and seek solutions to their problems.
The Recipe for Saving Time, Money and the Environment
Olivier's pro-customer approach has accompanied him throughout his journey to his current role as global account engineering expert, Automotive Coatings. This mindset has been crucial, as it allowed him to identify a gap in the market and bring to life a revolutionary tool that optimizes and digitalizes paint shop processes.
We saw the opportunity to create new software that had no match in the market at that time and that would provide many solutions to our customers' queries.
He excitedly shares that digitizing and automating the paint process reduces the number of trials customers need to conduct, while also speeding up the development of new colors and making the process more energy efficient.
How AiM Smart Paintline Came to Life
The Smart Paintline software is composed of several modules that communicate seamlessly: Color+, Defect, Electrocoat, and Mix Room Management. All modules are housed in the Cloud, enabling maximum flexibility, security, insight, and collaboration for the teams managing them.
In his previous role as product owner, Olivier focused specifically on the development of the Color+ module. According to Olivier, Color+ helps customers measure the quality of the paints they apply.
It easily connects with popular measurement devices to combine color, wave, gloss, and thickness measurements in one place. All these parameters are linked to the parts being painted. Everything might be stored in different areas or on different computers, but with Color+, everything is connected together.
The Smart Paintline platform allows users to import and export data, generate detailed reports, and utilize built-in dashboards for advanced analysis and troubleshooting.
The tools of Smart Paintline are also used by high-end automotive customers, all of whom are delighted with and responding positively to the automation. Olivier gladly forwards their feedback to improve and advance the platform's features.
Coloring the Future of Paint Shops
Olivier's exceptional efforts in working with stakeholders to develop the Color+ software and testing its functionality have not gone unnoticed, as he was recently honored with the prestigious Rainmaker award. Despite the recognition, Olivier remains humble, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the achievement.
"I am truly #PPGProud to have been part of this. I contributed a lot and invested a great deal of energy, but there’s a whole development team behind this."
At this point, Olivier’s journey is far from over—in fact, it’s just beginning. He shares that the entire team regularly gathers to plan and discuss the latest developments, new features for the software, and what’s on the horizon. Olivier is fully engaged in all of it, excited about AI, innovations, and anything that will enable them to deliver quicker and better results for our customers.