How a global printing ink manufacturer built a Design Thinking-led Fiori app in 9 weeks and hit 350% ROI

In chemical manufacturing, getting production forecasting wrong is expensive. Incorrect forecasts ripple out as unexpected supply issues, last-minute changes to production schedules, and avoidable transportation costs as orders get rushed or poorly consolidated.

the ink manufacturer, one of the world's largest producers of printing inks, coatings, and pigments, needed an application that would improve production forecasting and help consolidate orders to reduce transportation spend. The problem was real and urgent, but the solution space was not obvious. They needed a team that could get in, understand the work, and ship something fast.

the ink manufacturer had a choice of approaches. One option was a conventional waterfall project. The other was an agile, Design Thinking-first model that would front-load user understanding, generate and discard ideas quickly, and deliver working software in shorter cycles.

Mindset ran the engagement as a full Design Thinking process paired with agile delivery. The Explore stage produced user personas that grounded every decision in the actual work of the planners using the app. Discover assessed existing technical capabilities and expanded the solution space before narrowing to feasible approaches. In the Design stage the team ran rapid prototyping cycles: build an idea, test it, throw out what did not work, and improve what did.

The result was a SAP Fiori-based application for production forecasting and order consolidation. The rapid prototyping approach meant the final design reflected real user needs, not assumptions. The whole process, from kickoff to a working app, took 9 weeks.

After go-live Mindset provided ongoing technical support as the rollout expanded. The engagement itself started with a smaller Design Thinking workshop in 2017 before growing into the full InPlant Planning build.

the ink manufacturer went live and then scaled. Within 6 quarters the app was running at more than 100 locations with more than 120 users. That kind of rollout spread does not happen unless the tool actually works for the people using it.

On the business side, the numbers came in. the ink manufacturer measured the payback period at around one year. The ROI at the one-year mark hit 350%. Transportation cost reduction came in at an expected 50%, driven by the improved ability to plan ahead and consolidate orders.

The broader impact showed up in how the the ink manufacturer team talks about what happened. Years later, the design thinking approach Mindset introduced had become part of how the ink manufacturer approaches process improvement across the board.