The Optimix software optimizes(*) the production processes where many components are mixed together to yield a large number of end-products. A typical example of such a process is the production of perfumes and flavors.

    Optimix illustrates well Optimal Design's capacity to design highly sophisticated optimization solutions which work in the real world. Firmenich, one of world's five largest producers of perfumes and flavors, ended a several years' search for a better solution to their optimization problem by acquiring an exclusive license to Optimix.

    Optimix allows Firmenich to produce their high-quality products with substantial economies in the effort necessary to achieve it, by minimizing the number of mixings. At the same time, Optimix allows for a better reactivity of their production process.

    Decades of experience at the top of perfume & flavor business taught Firmenich that one aspect of their production process was amenable to optimization: economies could be made by a better organization of the process. Firmenich's
experts have tackled the problem with common-sense and heuristic approach and, indeed, achieved substantial economies. Nevertheless, it was clear that there was still room for improvement.

    However, the volume of data involved and the complexity of the problem were just too much for a heuristic solution. Firmenich therefore undertook a search for a sophisticated algorithm, in collaboration with some of the brightest european
scientists. Several years of that search have however confirmed that Firmenich's solution was excellent, improving on it being dismissed as too difficult.

    Firmenich then submitted their problem to Optimal Design, which provided a solution meeting their requirements, the Optimix software. Firmenich agreed to acquire an exclusive licence to Optimix in Summer 1999.

    Thanks to the flexibility of the Optimix approach, Optimal Design continues to refine the product to suit Firmenich's requirements ever more closely, leading to a product which will allow our client to spare the last dollar that can be spared on that aspect of their production process.

(*) Confidential technical details withdrawn.