the problem of having more than 200 shades, each available in more than 5 container sizes, making more than 1000 stock keeping units. The cost of keeping so many final products was almost killing the business.

Paint companies changed their process to make white paint and the dyes of three basic colours. The final mixing was done by a machine at the retail end. This minimised the inventory kept by the retailer whilst improving customer service by giving the customer a choice of millions of shades