Zeus transforms manufacturing intelligence with custom data applications
Impact
- 15% improvement in on-time delivery rate
- 92% reduction in production planning time (from 2 days to 4 hours)
- 85% reduction in development time (from 2 weeks to 2 days)
- $83,200 annual savings on data management alone
- 1,000+ weekly active users within three months
"We've transformed a nearly impossible manual process that would have taken weeks of collaboration into a streamlined solution that our sales team can easily use. What used to take a week now takes an hour for our sales team. For our customers, that's huge; they don't want to wait." — Joe DelPercio, Head of Data, Analytics, and AI at Zeus
From data silos to manufacturing intelligence in months
Zeus, a global manufacturer of advanced polymer components, was struggling with disconnected data across its manufacturing operations. Zeus’s engineering team built custom Retool apps that transformed production planning from a weeks-long spreadsheet nightmare into a streamlined process that takes hours. This new solution improved on-time delivery rates by 15% and saved Zeus tens of thousands on manual data processing—all while rapidly scaling from a small pilot to over 1,000 active users enterprise-wide.
- Size: 1,200+ global employees
- Industry: Manufacturing (advanced polymer components for medical device and industrial companies)
- Regions: Global operations with multiple manufacturing plants
- Retool products used: Retool apps and workflows
- Use cases: Production scheduling, inventory management, forecasting, equipment monitoring
- Data sources: Oracle ERP, Incorta Data Lakehouse, SQL databases, CRM
Manufacturing data trapped in spreadsheets and disconnected systems
As its global manufacturing operations scaled, Zeus was drowning in Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint lists. The data team couldn't efficiently connect information from sales, inventory, and operations to derive meaningful insights, potentially leaving millions in revenue on the table. Production teams needed to integrate notes from the factory floor with their Oracle ERP and Incorta reporting systems, but the existing processes required excessive analyst time and created bottlenecks.
"We're losing out on revenue opportunities to sell more parts if we can't identify trends in what our customers are buying," explained Joe DelPercio, Head of Data, Analytics, and AI at Zeus. The company needed a solution that would enable them to move quickly without requiring extensive development capacity.
Building a connected manufacturing intelligence system with Retool
Zeus selected Retool to create an integrated data management system that would connect their existing technology stack without disrupting operations. The engineering team started with a replacement for their SharePoint lists that could seamlessly connect to their Incorta business intelligence system and SQL databases, with security managed through Retool's native SSO↗ and access controls↗ integrated with Okta.
They created a real-time production scheduling system that integrated machine capacity data across facilities, using priority-based algorithms to calculate accurate delivery dates based on equipment availability and order urgency. Unlike other options they evaluated, Retool allowed them to leverage standard languages like JavaScript, SQL, and Python without learning proprietary systems—like Microsoft Power Apps’s Power FX proprietary scripting language.
"Developing with Retool meant that 75–80% of the app was already built," said Justin Law, corporate planning engineer at Zeus. "I went from nothing to something usable in maybe 16 hours of work."
From prototypes to enterprise necessity
Zeus transformed its manufacturing intelligence capabilities in record time, reducing its production planning time from two days to just four hours—a 92% reduction. The real-time scheduling system improved on-time delivery by 15%, while development cycles that previously took months were compressed to days. One application alone saved the team approximately $83,200 annually in data wrangling costs.
The success of Zeus’ initial applications sparked rapid adoption across the organization. “We found Retool offered more features at a better cost. This allowed us to use a 'Trojan horse' approach—starting small, getting business and IT buy-in, and then boom! We went from 5 users to 100, then over 1,000," said DelPercio. "In just a few months, Retool transformed from a small prototype to an enterprise necessity."
As Zeus continues to build more applications, it’s starting to sunset legacy tools like SharePoint apps in favor of their unified approach. "User satisfaction is through the roof," DelPercio added. "We're less reliant on other teams and manual hours, and becoming more resilient and aligned with a holistic platform approach. Retool is now a critical part of our tech stack to drive innovation."
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