AI-powered Business Process

The perfumer and her robot: fragrance creation goes digital

A fragrance manufacturer sells only about 1 of every 100 new scents it creates. So anything that speeds up scent exploration hits the top line. Olympe enabled this world-leading company to reimagine the old-fashioned process, with an AI-based 3D modeling application that connects to sample-producing robots in real time. Deployed at speeds that “surprised” and delighted the manufacturer.

The process of perfume creation used to be slow and manual. Expert perfumers ideated new formulas in isolation, did initial experiments in their office lab and maintained handwritten notes.

They sent a shortlist of formulas to the sample production site with a complex spreadsheet of important allergen, regulatory and business rule information.

They then waited days or even weeks for samples to be shipped to clients.

Once feedback came in, the whole cycle repeated until the client was satisfied.

Olympe created an application where the perfumer now developed a formula in 3D on-screen.

The application then connected to robots at both the perfumer’s site and the client’s site, automatically including key business data such as allergen and regulatory rules.

The robots instantly produced physical samples. The client could give the perfumer real time feedback to alter the formula and produce a new sample.

AI-like ingredient recommendation algorithms were built into the application.

All formulas are saved within the application for reuse in future exploration.

The company’s tech and business teams worked in parallel in Olympe’s visual programming environment.
Initial setup and achieving the MVP took 120 man-days.
New features and algorithms requested by the business were developed and put into production in as little as 2 days.
The application is now an essential part of the company’s manufacturing infrastructure.

Who would have guessed that a process as subjective and emotional as the invention of new scents could be digitized?