Faster Product Release Meets
Demands of Global Markets
Celsis International helps CoValence Laboratories cut five days of cycle time
Introduction
leadership as a most nimble contract
manufacturer.
“We have several pieces of
equipment in R&D that help
speed up launches,” said Melinda
Wochner, CMO and Vice President
of Marketing at CoValence. “And we
tell all our new customers that we use
the Celsis rapid method to give them
faster turnaround.”
But it wasn’t always that way.
Traditional microbiological
projects a global market of USD
$19.2 billion by 2015, largely due
to new distribution channels such as
online retail.
Increasing regulatory requirements,
extended delivery times, higher
ingredient costs and quality pressures
continue to create a must for
companies to adopt more efficient
product release testing.
Traditional microbial test methods
requiring an average five-day wait
Normal, dry, oily, sensitive,
combination—there is a science
behind understanding a person’s skin
type, just as there is a science behind
personal care formulation. Thousands
of ingredients, competition for
mindshare and growing consumer
demand make this market more
complex than ever.
Custom and private-label contract
manufacturer CoValence Laboratories
navigates this complexity
with ease, capitalizing on
its ability to formulate,
produce, fill and now
test cutting-edge skincare
products much faster than
its competition.
With its OTC
formulations built from
scratch and based on
specific requirements—i.e.
natural colors, no animal
testing, active botanicals,
CoValence reduced product hold times by five days after implementing rapid detection
paraben-, phthalate-,
technology from Celsis International.
sulfate- and gluten-free—
CoValence Laboratories’ process
product testing takes about five
time for results are no longer a
involves the careful selection and
days to confirm the absence of
sensible option today.
combination of an almost endless
contamination. Add at least another
With a growing international
supply of ingredients.
day if, like CoValence once did, you
presence, CoValence needed to reduce
“We are different than other
send your product samples to an
its product turnaround time to be
companies. We love science—the
outside testing lab. That is six days
competitive overseas. It recognized
science behind skincare and the
of wait time and overhead in the
the value of faster product release to
science behind how we measure
manufacturing cycle.
meet such increased global demand.
what we do,” said Peter Vlcek, COO
“We make products to order, so if a
and Vice President of Operations
Industry Challenges
client needed a product quickly, we’d
at CoValence. “In terms of what’s
Increases in disposable income
hurry and make it,” Vlcek explained.
going to be the next big thing in skin
and new consumers in emerging
“Then we’d be on the phone to tell
care, we don’t wait to hear what new
markets are two of the factors leading
them that we could deliver it, but
ingredients our clients want us to use.
to a growth in global demand for
they couldn’t sell it yet. To lose an
We come up with our own ideas. Not
cosmetics over the next five years,
extra five-to-seven days in turnaround
many contract manufacturers patent
according to IBISWorld’s 2013
time while waiting for test results
ingredients. That really sets us apart.”
“Global Cosmetics Manufacturing
was a real pain. I looked at things in
So, too, does their investment in
Market Research” report. In addition,
terms of the Theory of Constraints,”
the right equipment to continue their
Transparency Market Research
he continued, referring to a
www.celsis.com
With the Celsis system, not only is CoValence alerted to potential contamination faster, it can
recover and replace product faster, further improving its customer service levels.
management improvement method of
finding simple solutions to complex
problems. “It’s all about identifying
the bottlenecks. In our case, we
would make the product quickly, but
then it would sit in our warehouse for
six days,” said Vlcek.
In the case of a contamination,
it was even worse. “Everyone’s been
there—when there’s an incident and
you need to tell the customer that their
product won’t be ready for another
week. We could make it, but then we
still had to hold it for testing again.
I wanted to make it on a Wednesday
and ship it on a Friday instead of
having to hold it over the weekend and
lose all that time,” he said.
“I did a lot of research and Celsis
kept coming up,” said Vlcek. “From
my perspective, the rapid method
had to be reliable and I needed to
understand how it works. Celsis
Added Operational
Benefits of Rapid Product
Release Testing:
■■ Reduces working capital
requirements
■■ Decreases stock carrying
costs
■■ Saves warehouse space
■■ Streamlines the supply
chain
■■ Improves recovery from
contamination events
■■ Increases inventory turns
made the most sense in terms of
what it offered. We knew we had to
implement it for our own business,
because we analyzed what we were
spending on outsourcing our testing.”
Process Solution
CoValence decided to adopt a
Celsis Rapid Detection system.
Compared to outsourcing, Celsis
was able to save CoValence five
days of hold time, providing the
confirmation needed to release
product in about 24 hours.
For those customers who needed
their products faster to take advantage
of a market opportunity or a slotting
space that opened up, CoValence’s
use of the Celsis rapid system was a
welcome change.
Nonetheless, the manufacturer
faced obstacles in bringing the system
in house.
For example, to bring in the Celsis
system, CoValence had to build
a micro lab from the ground up.
Fortunately the small footprint of
the Celsis instrument did not require
much space. Once that was done, two
additional staffers were hired for the
lab. Neither had any experience with
rapid methods, but the system was
easy to learn and easy to operate.
A Celsis representative was on
site for three days for installation,
system qualification (IQ/OQ) and
staff training. The Celsis rep also
worked with the lab staff to jumpstart validation, a process that, for
www.celsis.com
CoValence, took longer than expected
due to the extreme number of
customized formulations.
While products are often grouped
for validation purposes, CoValence’s
produce-on-demand manufacturing
model meant it did not necessarily
have “like” products available for
validation testing at the same time.
“We have so much customized
work that we constantly had to
change formulations and each had
to be validated,” said Vlcek. “I didn’t
comprehend how much work would
go into validation and the cost of
running both side by side. Now that’s
come way down and we’re seeing the
benefit. There is a real time savings.”
Results
CoValence reduced the quarantine
wait time on finished goods from six
days to one day without sacrificing
quality or safety. This allowed
the manufacturer to ship faster to
clients, enabling them to hit the
market faster and to invoice earlier.
Before the Celsis implementation
CoValence had a lot of product
waiting in bays to pass micro testing;
now it uses less labor to keep up
with leads times while continuing to
advance its skincare products through
innovation.
“Once CoValence started releasing
product with Celsis, they realized
the immediate benefit of freeing up
warehouse space that was previously
dedicated to quarantined inventory.
Equally important, and as a great
selling tool for them, they were
delivering faster turnaround to their
clients,” said Christine Kreitzer,
Home and Beauty Industry Director,
Celsis Inc.
In competitive industries, process
manufacturers will have to increase
efficiencies to meet growing market
demands. Rapid product release
systems such as Celsis Rapid
Detection will continue to gain
adherents, as they provide greater
product velocity through faster timeto-market release.