How have formulation strategies in regards to supply chain adapted to become more resilient in the face of recent disruptions (e.g., COVID-19, natural disasters, geopolitical tensions)?

Supply chain in general has become much more scrutinized. Establishing a manufacturing process that does not require ingredients born from unique or rare raw resources is increasingly important in ensuring resilience. Manufacturing processes that enable use of local and redundant raw materials are critical to creating supply chains resilient to ‘act of god’ disruptions. While raw material production created from unique resources can feel specialized in the start, they can quickly become limiting in what demand they can supply, the speed they can scale, or localizations they can manufacture in – all of which can lead to formulators having concerns about their adoption. This requires manufacturing practices that can be established with some degree of flexibility to use the local raw resources that are low cost and in abundance and then expanded near to demand, in a way that overcomes the necessity to keep manufacturing localized only to regions highly specialized. This is not always straight forward, especially for chemical synthesis, and likely why biomanufacturing is rapidly growing in interest due to its inherent flexibility in some inputs.

How do more recent trade barriers, tariffs, and import/export restrictions impact the global supply chain for personal care products? What strategies can be used to mitigate these risks? Can localizing supply chains—such as sourcing ingredients regionally—help mitigate risks, and what trade-offs does this present in formulation?

Personal care demands innovation, and as such, cannot be restricted to completely local supply chains. Our conferences within the personal care space are strong indicators for the interest formulators have for finding new and exciting solutions. Focusing on completely localized supply chains closes off new innovation opportunities. However, searching globally requires close scrutiny over ingredients to ensure they have a clear vision into expansion or to enable redundancy in light of manufacturing or supply chain limitations.

How have rising material costs affected formulation and pricing? How can formulators balance cost pressures from clients/brands with consumer expectations for quality and affordability?

It requires that formulators be more diligent and resilient in knowing solutions for their raw materials, which is not easy. There are many ingredients that are direct drop-ins, but even more that can replace with some work in reformulation. When APGs were proposed as a new novel surfactant some time ago, their value came from the ability to introduce them in a surfactant chassis as a co-surfactant in lower concentrations. They offered multiple benefits within that chassis, while lowering costs through lower concentrations.

To this degree, formulators need to work with companies willing to work alongside them to understand the fastest path to understanding how new, novel solutions can not only provide innovative performance solutions but lowered costs as well. For example, it is clear that the palm-based surfactant industry is up against complexities in supply chain as sources of palm oil struggle with mature plants and/or tariffs into some countries like the US. As a raw materials supplier, it is critical to provide guidance to formulators on how the fastest path to re-formulate at competitive performance and lower costs, given many options will not be 1:1.

What challenges do you face in sourcing sustainable raw materials for personal care formulations, and how do you ensure ethical and environmentally responsible sourcing? How does sustainability influence supply chain decisions for personal care formulations, and what innovations are emerging to address these challenges (e.g., packaging, ingredient sourcing, waste reduction)? How can brands and formulators ensure supply chain transparency to meet this growing consumer demand for ingredient traceability and ethical sourcing?

Conversation, conversation, conversation. And collaboration.

Ethical and environmental best practices are constantly evolving, and driven through a myriad new things we learn every day – whether through new scientific studies, or simplify through new consumer trends. To this end, it can be very complicated for formulators to stay ahead of these challenges, or to even be fully confident some of them are required to adapt in order to stay competitive. To this degree, it requires constant conversation and collaboration across the industry to ensure those working directly with the consumer space are clearly indicating what wins in product formulation, while raw material supplies are innovating alongside both consumer care abouts and new scientific findings.

How can brands, formulators, suppliers, procurement teams, product developers, marketing, etc. collaborate to ensure a more predictable and efficient supply chain?

Effective communication across the supply chain is essential, with regular touchpoints between all stakeholders. Brands should involve formulators and raw material suppliers early in product development to ensure ingredient availability. What formulations are trending, and what are the problems faced in those formulations? What major new innovations may require initial adoption to test the market and might see large scale adoption more quickly? Establishing shared forecasting systems helps prevent shortages, while long-term partnerships create stability.

How do supply chain disruptions influence the formulation process? Have there been any notable examples where ingredient shortages led to formulation/production concerns and/or product reformulation? Are there any examples where innovation such as alternative ingredients or novel formulation approaches emerged due to sourcing limitations?

Palm-based solutions are a current example and concern, especially within the US. Both because of availability of mature sources of palm and unclear expectations on tariffs for those products. These have somewhat ‘fast tracked’ looking into new innovations more rapidly simply because the existing solutions may lose their cost effectiveness in the near future.

What lessons from other industries (such as food, pharma, or fashion) could be applied to strengthen supply chain resilience in the personal care sector?

Redundancy is incredibly important, in both location and manufacturer. Within food, there are many innovative ingredients sourced from countries that have undergone turmoil within the EU within the last year, which are not produced in any other countries. It is never possible to predict when these sort of impacts can occur. Manufacturers should take into consideration products and manufacturing strategies that enable them to produce at multiple sites globally, or rapidly shift where manufacturing occurs.