Last Updated on August 1, 2022 by Ithos Global Regulatory Team
With COVID upending the global supply chain, we continue to advise clients who are scrambling to keep up production. Many innovative ideas and new processes have emerged from these challenges. And some solutions are here to stay – affording companies greater efficiency and protection from future disruptions.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
- Sourcing ingredients: With continued high prices for raw materials, shrinking margins are forcing companies to seek alternative ingredients – that still deliver the same efficacy and appearance. Learning from this experience, many brands established a process with their manufacturer to quickly assess raw materials for compliance and efficacy, avoiding major disruptions.
- Hiring an R&D chemist consultant: Forced to switch gears quickly, many companies tapped R&D chemist consultants for replacement advice. Their understanding of formulation at the chemical level can provide faster solutions. Many smaller brands, without this in-house expertise, are retaining consultants, recognizing their value in navigating future challenges.
- Having a back-up plan: The pandemic revealed how quickly disruption can occur. Forced to be more flexible, companies are using valuable lessons to strengthen their operations. This includes more options for the sourcing team and more agility in moving manufacturing to new jurisdictions.
- Packaging: As sales of cosmetics and other products plummeted during the pandemic, countries and companies committed to doing the right thing couldn’t source enough post-consumer recycled material to meet requirements. While no permanent changes have been made, there is active discussion among trade groups about new legislation pertaining to packaging rules.
The bottom line: Cosmetic companies need a change-management process.
Hard time hiring? Ithos can help.
We all learned it takes just one ingredient or production facility shutdown to create a devastating domino effect. Steps taken out of necessity during COVID have become a permanent part of operations.
At Ithos, many customers turned to our team of regulatory experts to troubleshoot challenges during the pandemic. Now, they are using the Ithos Information Network to capture what they learned. By creating institutional history, they can go back and see what worked – the next time they face a challenge.
To learn more about how Ithos can strengthen and streamline your compliance process contact us today.
