Aptean PLM Whitepaper: How to Accelerate Product Innovation

Aptean PLM

Lascom Edition

How to Accelerate Product Innovation

Introduction

Personal care and cosmetic industry has been growing significantly over the past decade and estimation said it will keep increasing. New technologies and innovation are key role in businesses development.

Today, the global cosmetic market represents 460 billion and is estimated to reach 675 billion by 2020. A fast evolving industry where brands, manufacturers and retailers need to differentiate themselves from competition.

Skincare is leading the global cosmetic market with 35% market share, followed by hair care with 23% and Makeup with 17%.

Dermocosmetics products have the fastest growth (+5.1%) followed by Makeup (+5%).

Concerns around pollution effects, allergies and UV damages have increased demand for safe, efficient and innovative products. Sensitive skin is a concern for 71% women in France and Russia, 57% in Germany, 52% in the USA and 34% in China.

Indeed, consumers are getting more attentive to quality performance and perceived results. New technology and sophisticated products are now part of their routine.

Every year, brands launch thousands upon thousands of new products from product renewal to product variation (colors, size, components...).

In an environment where competition is fierce regulations strengthen and selling cycles shortened brands, manufacturers and retailers must, more than ever, invest into innovation.

In order to remain competitive and satisfy fast changing customers needs, businesses have to reduce new products time to market. Making timeframe between ideation and product launch as short as possible. They need a solution designed for them and that answers each business unit challenges:

› Respond to an increasingly demand for innovative products that comply with regulations and are good for their skin.

› Quickly and easily design new product in collaboration with company’s business unit and subcontractors to ensure to meet launch deadlines without any mistakes.

› Have a global vision and adapted reports to efficiently manage product range portfolio. Information have to be collected and re-used in order to make strategic decisions.

Innovation - Key to Success

Personal care and cosmetics industry is driven by science and innovation. Each new ingredient development could take several years of research and investment. At the same time, consumers always want more sophisticated and effective products.

Research and development departments have made significant progress over the past 20 years whether it concerns consumers behavior, skin’s biology, hair, teeth or new innovative technologies.

Most large companies spend between 1.5% and 4.5% of their revenue on R&D. On average, they have about 10,000 different references in their portfolio with 25% to 30% product reformulation and 80 new ingredients introduction each year. Smaller companies introduce an average of 22 new products with 40 to 160 products added to their portfolio.

L’Oréal & Innovation

» $937M invested in Research and Innovation

» 3,870 people working in Research and Innovation

» 497 patients registered in 2015

» 52 Scientific and TechnicoRegulatory departments

As the world leader of the cosmetic industry, l’Oréal has made large investments in research and innovation whether in human or financial resources. According to them “beauty is above all a scientific adventure” they have deployed teams all over the world for a better understanding of consumers needs from different countries, regions and ethnics group.

New technologies are playing a big role in l’Oréal’s innovation. They have been using “virtual biopsy” to see inside the skin and develop products even more tailored to the consumer needs.

Innovation is a long-term and costly process: out of 64 ideas only 1 is a success. The more the innovation is advanced, the more expensive it is for businesses. They need tools enabling them to quickly filter before production stage to save time and money.

8 ideas pass the concept test

4 prototypes are developed and tested

2 prototypes pass the market tests and are launched

1 product launched is a success

What are the Challenges You Have to Face?

Anticipation

In an extremely competitive market, marketing departments have to be updated on latest trends and be ready to provide R&D briefs for a new product development.

They must ensure to anticipate customer needs and establish their brand as a pioneer of a new technology or product. Brands must constantly be attentive to trends and regulations in their domestic and international markets.

Innovation requires continuous monitoring whether they are scientific or technical.

Reactivity

R&D and Innovation departements have to quickly respond to marketing deadlines that are increasingly shorter.

Brands have to be reactive to new trends technologies and competitor’s innovation. Indeed, consumers are less loyal and can easily change product and brands if not satisfied. Reducing time to market is then essential to maintain competitiveness.

To be the first it is crucial to master all the stages and stakeholders of the new product development process.

Optimisation

Innovation is more complex than just being creative or developing a new product.

From marketing brief to product launch, there are several stages and stakeholders involved. The initial product idea does not always match the finished product, it has to be feasible, cost effective, comply with regulations and be consumer-safe.

The better marketing teams visualise their idea, the less research and mistakes will be made to get the finished product.

Collaboration

Collaboration is key when it comes to new product and technology development.

Each business unit has a role to play in the new product development process, they have to collaborate in an efficient way to minimise mistakes and reduce time to market. Product information has to be reliable and accessible at any time by each stakeholder.

Suppliers have to be fully integrated in this process, especially when managing many subcontractors.

Compliance

Today, regulations are becoming increasingly complex and even more when it comes to product export. Product has to comply with each regulation where it is commercialised.

The United States and European Union have different and strict regulations for cosmetics.

It is crucial to take into account regulatory restrictions by geographical area to ensure regulatory compliance.

Bad Data Management

Few companies are using IT tools tailored to each of their business unit problems. But, in order to be effective, information systems have to be designed for each business unit and allow access to product information anytime by authorised users.

Today, most businesses do not have an adapted information system that centralises and manages data to efficiently develop and launch a new product. Existing solutions, mostly manual, non shared, over specialised or generic, are often inadequate to provide timely and useful information.

Businesses need a flexible and transversal tool for the development of new products that is able to meet the specific requirements of each service.

What are the Associated Risks?

› Scattered and duplicated data at different locations. Each department uses its own information without collaboration with other teams

› Lack of collaboration and involvement between consumers, project team members and suppliers

› Product launch processes which are, today, too disorganised and formalised

› Mistakes in the product design process: false document updates, information retrieval, etc.

› Inadequate data to meet regulatory requirements and properly constitute the Product Information Folder (PIF)

How to Accelerate Innovation?

Centralise Product Information

Driving innovation means developing products in a consistent and structured way. This approach begins with the establishment of a single knowledge base that centralises all the data, documents, and information concerning a product. Data is gathered and exchange between company departments facilitate with customisable workflows.

What are the Benefits?

› Secured unique information

› Better use and analysis of the knowledge base

› Facilitate product changes and specifcations

› Structure and secure internal and external information

› Optimise employees productivity

› Quality

» Challenge test

» Product stability

» Plan of control

› Formula

» Active substance

» Excipients

› Regulatory

» Safety certificate

» Safety data sheet

» Poison center declaration

» Period after opening

» Technical sheet

» IFRA certificate

› Technical characteristics

» Microbiological

» Organoleptic

» Physico-chemical

› Risks

» Allergens

» Foreign bodies

» Toxicological

» Foreseeable misuse

› Packaging

» INCI ingredient list

» Regulatory logos

» Packer code

» Good for shooting

› Production process

» Unit operations

» Technology steps

› Marketing

» Marketing target

» Advertising

» Product speech

» Communication claims

» Brief and concepts

Master New Product Development Process

Develop new products is one of the main growth strategy for businesses. They want to be innovative, attractive and become or remain market leaders while reducing costs and time to market.

Having an accurate outlook of the product development process is essential to master the entire product lifecycle and its critical steps, in addition to manage risks and regulations.

The success of a company depends on the balance between its new product development process and strategic objectives. Businesses must be able to manage all the different stages from marketing briefs to portfolio optimisation.

New product launch management depends on project, need, formula and packaging.

Facilitate Teams Collaboration

Each company department has different objectives, missions and challenges but they all have to work in an optimised and collaborative way when it comes to new product development.

Challenges faced by each business unit:

Marketing

› Reduce time to market

› Optimise offers’ production

› Control product portfolio

R&D

› Streamline product development

› Simplify formulation

› Centralise product data

Procurement

› Facilitate suppliers’ collaboration

› RFP Management

› Reduce administrative tasks

Compliance

› Ensure regulatory compliance

› Optimise quality tracking: products testing, cosmetovigilance, claims

What are the Benefits?

› Data accuracy for a better consistency

› Reuse data during the whole product life cycle

› Facilitate data and documents flows throughout the project

Facilitate Collaboration with Partners

Cosmetic brands are working with many different service providers. To develop a new products, brands create a marketing brief to specify requirements shape, dimension, materials, tolerances, packaging etc. Once those requirements are defined, the company sends it to several subcontractors each of whom send different proposals for each product’s component formula, packaging, etc.

Therefore, without dedicated tools to optimise collaboration it can be extremely complex to manage the different partners and new product development projects.

What are the Benefits?

› Optimise innovation cycles and product launch

› Automate processes and enforce information reliability

› Accelerate data exchange between project’s stakeholders

› Real time alerts for any changes, RFP’s responses etc.

› Set up relevant dashboards with ongoing reporting

Packing Management

Sometimes innovation only concerns product packaging. It has become a strategic sales tool for businesses, and can, by itself, make a product successful or not. Packaging is now, one of the key factor in the consumer decision making process when buying a product.

Packaging needs to not only be attractive but also comply with different country specific regulations. It is a concentrate of know how that involves several intermediaries during the product development stages, from design to printing.

Why Optimising Packaging Design?

Approve last minute changes compare initial and final versions check colors are complex tasks to achieve without an adapted solution.

Definition and validation of artworks require internal and external actions in particular from design agencies. Therefore, it is essential to define a workflow to manage the different stages of the process and notify each stakeholder. Centralise and streamline exchanges allow teams to focus on their core business which, in turn, save time on researching and retrieving information.

Manage Your Product Portfolio

Project management involves having a precise overview of the different aspects such as planning teams comments and updates shared documents and deliverables. It helps businesses to reduce risks and effectively launch new products.

The main challenge is to offer managers and decision makers an easy way to manage product portfolio by centralising data and making available analysis and decision making tools.

What Do Businesses Need?

› Supervise product development process and launch

› Master planning and deadlines

› Prioritise projects (scorecarding)

› Manage product portfolio

› Analyse product non-conformities and consmetovigiliance events

Analyse Product Performance

Ongoing Product Optimisation

Innovation cycle does not end with the product launch Business must also ensure the right use of its product and quickly react in case of misuse. It has to analyse product performance and be able to improve it, if necessary.

Analyse Product Performance

Product cost is as important during the launch phase ( marketing, advertising etc.) as during the design phase. The overall ROI of innovation must therefore take all costs into account in order to analyse product performance.

Consumer feedback and sales analysis help to better predict new product potential. By capitalising on documentation, data and information, businesses optimise future product innovation and save money.

Why it is Important

» Track customers complaints and potential threats

» Discover new product use product after launch

» Improved and correct the product - Loop optimisation

» Secure information and use successes and failures for new product development

Conclusion

Today, in order to boost innovation, businesses must establish rigorous management practices that will allow them to consistently improve and develop products. Cosmetic brands need efficient tools that meet their needs and thus improve their responsiveness to consumer demands.

Accelerate Innovation

› Manage your projects and products

› Optimise collaboration and exchange

› Automatically generate documents

Reduce Time-To-Market

› Prioritise innovations

› Track and follow-up innovations

› Centralise and share key information

About Aptean

Ensure Regulatory Compliance

› Master product formulas

› Maintain an up to date information folder

› Efficiently collaborate with your partners

Aptean is one of the world’s leading providers of industry-specific software. Our enterprise resource planning and supply chain solutions are uniquely designed to meet the needs of specialized manufacturers and distributors, while our compliance solutions serve specific markets such as finance and life sciences. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Aptean’s products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes, across many industries, to scale and succeed.

For more information, visit www.aptean.com.